Page 22 - SAMENA Trends - August 2020

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AT&T and Big Blue Team Up on Transforming Post-Covid Business
Operations by using 5G, MEC and AI

to provide a more agile environment. At
Yorktown Heights, IBM and AT&T will be
deploying Watson Works, which is a set of
return-to-work solutions for businesses.
Watson Works, which also includes
Workday's consulting service, embeds AI
models to help businesses decide when
it's safe for their employees to return to
work. It also uses AI to manage facilities
while adhering to new protocols such as
social distancing in the workplace. Watson
Works could also be used to stagger entry
and exit times of employees, and trace
potential exposures if there's a Covid-19
infection. "The low latency of 5G allows for
The Covid-19 pandemic has evolved Canepa said in the blog. "From that crisis remote operations in industrial settings,
into a fluid situation for businesses, but has come an opportunity: to accelerate the helping to keep workers from harmful
IBM and AT&T have a few ideas on how business world’s digital transformation. situations," according to the blog. "And if
they can adapt going forward. AT&T That’s why AT&T and IBM, building on any dangerous situations do arise, edge
and Big Blue will leverage the telco's our long-standing collaboration, are computing is designed to let businesses
5G and multi-access edge computing now focused on the use of 5G wireless capture and analyze data quickly without
(MEC) technologies and IBM's artificial networking and edge computing as key extra storage or processing on a central
intelligence and cloud capabilities to help ways to help enterprises emerge smarter, cloud. "That same processing ability can
businesses transition into new, post- more efficient and more resilient as they get help employees look after their health
Covid-19 work environments. AT&T and fully back to business." Combining the low with devices to monitor their temperature,
IBM announced a cloud partnership last latency of 5G, security and MEC with IBM's oxygen levels, blood pressure with
year that included the co-development Watson AI at the Watson research center instantaneous feedback. Hospitals can
of business solutions. In a bog post on will lead to new use cases for businesses even take advantage of similar advances
Tuesday, Mo Katibeh, chief product and as employees start to return to their work to make their current infrastructures more
platform officer at AT&T Business, and locations One of the scenarios the two reliable, while implementing advances like
Steve Canepa, general manager of the companies are exploring at Yorktown wireless surgery, robotics, virtual reality
global communications sector at IBM, Heights includes enabling a researcher to simulations." Some of the same 5G and
fleshed out how both companies are remotely adjust locations of IoT network edge solutions could also be used to
working together to help businesses devices in a laboratory. Another includes analyze supply chain data, detect spills
adapt to their new work environments. enabling a systems administrator to or spoilage, or monitor metrics such as
The collaboration will take place at IBM’s remotely rewire machines in a data center crowd density.
Watson research lab in Yorktown Heights,
N.Y. and include AT&T 5G+ (mmWave)
and MEC technologies. MEC, which is
a private cellular, low latency solution,
can process data on a business premise
instead of routing traffic over public
networks. AT&T and IBM plan to apply
these technologies, along with artificial
intelligence, to showcase the possibilities
across industries such as manufacturing,
healthcare, energy and utilities. "In coping
with the coronavirus crisis, organizations
around the world have been using digital
technology to continue operating their
businesses remotely while they wait for
the world to return to normal—or at least
to settle into the next normal," Katibeh and

22 AUGUST 2020