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  • Korea Secures $9 Billion in Cloud and AI Investments from Global Tech Giants at APEC Summit

    Korea Secures $9 Billion in Cloud and AI Investments from Global Tech Giants at APEC Summit

    During the APEC Global Investment Partnership event, which was held in conjunction with the APEC CEO Summit in Gyeongju, an announcement was made that underscores the determination of Seoul to lure high-value investment into the areas of digital infrastructure and advanced manufacturing. This is part of Seoul’s drive to expedite its aspirations in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).

    Investments in South Korean Digital Infrastructure

    Matt Garman, the CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), disclosed a plan to invest $5 billion by 2031 in order to expand the company’s cloud data centers and enhance its AI competencies in South Korea. He pointed out that South Korea is swiftly becoming a hub of AI innovation in Asia, and the continuous investments by AWS reveal their faith in South Korea’s technological ecosystem. He also believes that these investments will bolster South Korea’s place in the global AI economy.

    President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea, who met with Garman during the event, expressed his approval of AWS’s investment, deeming it a crucial aspect of Seoul’s AI strategy. His endorsement comes on the heels of AWS’s announcement of their $4 billion AI data center project in Ulsan earlier this year. President Lee is confident that this collaboration with AWS will stimulate Korea’s AI ecosystem and solidify their mutual path to prosperity.

    Investments from Other Multinational Corporations

    Additionally, six other multinational companies, namely Renault, Amkor Technology, Corning, Air Liquide, Siemens Healthineers, and Umicore, also communicated their new investment commitments. Renault Korea is set to transform existing production lines for the manufacture of electric vehicles, designating Korea as one of its five global strategic hubs. Siemens Healthineers has plans to construct a new 9,917-square-meter facility in Pohang for the production of components for cardiovascular ultrasound systems. Amkor Technology is preparing to extend its semiconductor packaging operations, while Umicore has intentions to build a cathode materials plant to cater to Korea’s rapidly expanding battery supply chain.

    As per the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy of Korea, approximately $660 million of the declared amount is to be immediately registered as foreign direct investment.

    Korea’s Leadership in AI Development

    President Lee, during his keynote speech at the APEC CEO Summit, expressed Korea’s intention to propose an AI Initiative at the upcoming APEC leaders’ meeting, advocating for inclusive and cooperative AI development in the Asia-Pacific region. He envisions a future where AI is accessible to all, hopeful that this vision will become the new standard for APEC. This places Korea in a leadership position in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of digital transformation and ethical AI governance.

    The APEC CEO Summit, organized by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), saw a record turnout of 1,700 business and political leaders, the largest in the summit’s 30-year history. The summit boasted the attendance of top executives and heads of state, including U.S. President Donald Trump, NVIDIA CEO, Jensen Huang, and several Asia-Pacific leaders.

    The summit was represented by the chairmen of Korea’s biggest conglomerates, including Samsung, Hyundai, LG, SK Group, and POSCO, reinforcing the country’s pivotal role in shaping the region’s technological future. The summit’s sessions over the three days centered around AI, digital currencies, supply chain resilience, green transition, and economic cooperation.

    Questions & Answers

    What was the primary focus of the APEC Global Investment Partnership event?
    The event was centered around Seoul’s efforts to attract high-value investments in digital infrastructure and advanced manufacturing to accelerate its AI ambitions.

    What is AWS’s planned investment in South Korea?
    AWS announced a plan to invest $5 billion by 2031 to expand its cloud data centers and boost its AI capabilities in South Korea.

    How are other multinational corporations contributing to South Korea’s AI strategy?
    Six multinational corporations have committed to new investments in South Korea. These include Renault’s conversion of production lines to electric vehicle manufacturing, Siemens Healthineers’ construction of a new facility for cardiovascular ultrasound systems, and Amkor Technology’s expansion of semiconductor packaging operations.

  • Global Internet Disruption: Amazon’s AWS Resumes After Massive Outage

    Global Internet Disruption: Amazon’s AWS Resumes After Massive Outage

    Amazon’s cloud service, Amazon Web Services (AWS), resumed regular operations on Monday afternoon after an internet outage disrupted thousands of sites worldwide, affecting popular applications like Snapchat and Reddit. AWS, which provides application hosting and computing processes for businesses globally, suffered an interruption that impacted workers and halted regular activities such as online payments and ticket changes. Complaints of persistent difficulties with services like digital wallet Venmo and video-calling platform Zoom were reported on Monday afternoon.

    Backlog of Messages and Previous Disruptions

    Despite the resumption of services, Amazon noted that some AWS services had a backlog of messages that would require additional time to process. This isn’t the first time AWS has been implicated in a significant internet collapse. The northern Virginia cluster of AWS, known as US-EAST-1, has contributed to major internet meltdowns at least three times in the past five years.

    Amazon did not provide a detailed explanation as to why this specific data centre continues to be affected. The recent problems were traced back to the Domain Name System (DNS), which averted applications from locating the correct address for AWS’s DynamoDB API, a cloud database essential for storing user information and other crucial data.

    Root Cause and Effects

    Earlier, AWS attributed the root cause of the outage to an underlying subsystem responsible for monitoring the health of its network load balancers, which help distribute traffic across multiple servers. The issue, according to AWS, originated within the EC2 internal network, Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud service, which offers on-demand cloud capacity within AWS. The issue was resolved around 3 pm PT (2200 GMT), although some services continued to have a backlog of messages to process.

    Ken Birman, a computer science professor at Cornell University, emphasized the need for software developers to enhance fault tolerance, suggesting that AWS provides tools that developers can utilize to safeguard themselves in the event of an issue at one of its data centres.

    AWS and Previous Outages

    As the world’s largest cloud provider, AWS offers computing power, data storage, and other digital services to companies, governments, and individuals. Disruptions to its servers can result in outages across websites and platforms that depend on its cloud infrastructure. According to AWS, Monday’s outage started at its US-EAST-1 location, AWS’s oldest and largest site for web services, which previously suffered outages in 2021 and 2020.

    Interconnected and Fragile Infrastructures

    The problem underscores the interconnectivity of digital services and their reliance on a small number of global cloud providers. A single glitch can significantly disrupt businesses and everyday life.

    The outage affected a vast range of companies across sectors. Apps like Reddit, Roblox, Snapchat, and Duolingo were all impacted. Other services such as Perplexity, a startup specializing in artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and trading app Robinhood also experienced disruptions attributed to AWS. Amazon’s own services, including its shopping website, Prime Video, and Alexa, were likewise affected.

    Questions & Answers

    What caused the AWS outage?
    The outage was linked to an underlying subsystem that monitors the health of AWS’s network load balancers. It originated from within the EC2 internal network, Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud service.

    What were the effects of the AWS outage?
    The outage disrupted thousands of sites and applications globally, including popular apps like Snapchat and Reddit. It also halted regular activities such as online payments and ticket changes.

    How often has the AWS northern Virginia cluster experienced major internet disruptions?
    The northern Virginia cluster of AWS, known as US-EAST-1, has contributed to major internet meltdowns at least three times in the past five years.

  • Global Amazon Web Services Outage Disrupts Thousands Of Websites, Reveals Vulnerability In Online Infrastructure

    Global Amazon Web Services Outage Disrupts Thousands Of Websites, Reveals Vulnerability In Online Infrastructure

    Amazon’s cloud computing division AWS resumed regular operations on Monday after an extensive internet outage that disrupted thousands of websites globally, including popular apps such as Snapchat and Reddit. However, Amazon acknowledged that certain AWS services were dealing with a backlog of messages that needed several hours to process.

    AWS provides application hosting and processing power for corporations across the globe. This disruption caused employees from London to Tokyo to be cut off from their work and hindered others from carrying out routine tasks, such as processing digital payments or modifying airline tickets. Users reported persistent difficulties using services like the digital wallet app Venmo and the video conferencing platform Zoom on Monday afternoon.

    This incident represents the most significant internet disruption since last year’s CrowdStrike failure, which crippled technology systems in hospitals, banks, and airports, emphasizing the susceptibility of globally interconnected technologies. Intriguingly, this is at least the third time in five years that AWS’s northern Virginia cluster, known as US-EAST-1, has been implicated in a major internet meltdown.

    Amazon did not provide a detailed explanation as to why this specific data center is consistently affected. The problem originated from the Domain Name System (DNS), which prevents applications from locating the correct address for AWS’s DynamoDB API, a cloud database utilized for storing user information and other vital data.

    Root Cause: Network Health Monitor

    AWS attributed the outage to a subsystem that oversees the health of its network load balancers, which distribute traffic across various servers. According to AWS, the issue originated within the “EC2 internal network,” also known as Amazon’s “Elastic Compute Cloud” service, which offers on-demand cloud capacity within AWS.

    All AWS services were back to normal operations around 3 pm PT (2200 GMT) on Monday, according to Amazon. However, services such as AWS Config, Redshift, and Connect continue to handle a backlog of messages that will take several more hours to process.

    Ken Birman, a computer science professor at Cornell University, emphasized the need for software developers to improve fault tolerance. AWS provides tools for developers to safeguard themselves against problems at any of its data centers, and developers can also establish backups with other cloud providers.

    Previous Outages at the Same AWS Location

    AWS is the world’s largest cloud provider, offering computing power, data storage, and other digital services to companies, governments, and individuals. It is followed by Microsoft’s Azure and Alphabet’s Google Cloud. Any disruption to its servers can lead to outages across websites and platforms—from food delivery apps to gaming platforms and airline systems—that rely on its cloud structure.

    The outage on Monday originated from AWS’s US-EAST-1 location, its oldest and largest for web services, which had experienced outages in 2021 and 2020.

    According to the AWS website, the US-EAST-1 site is often the default region for many AWS services.

    “Fragile Infrastructures”

    This issue underlines how interconnected everyday digital services have become and how dependent they are on a small number of global cloud providers. One failure can considerably disrupt business operations and daily life, experts say.

    In the United Kingdom, Lloyd Bank, Bank of Scotland, and telecom service providers Vodafone and BT were all affected, as was the UK tax, payments, and customs authority HMRC’s website.

    Ookla, owner of Downdetector, reported that over 4 million users experienced issues due to the incident.

    “h2>Impact on Apps

    At least a thousand companies were affected by the outage, according to Ookla. Apps such as Reddit, Roblox, Snapchat, and Duolingo were all disrupted.

    Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and trading app Robinhood all experienced platform disruptions and attributed them to AWS.

    Amazon’s own services, including its shopping website, Prime Video, and Alexa, were also affected. Gaming platforms such as Fortnite, owned by Epic Games, Clash Royale, and Clash of Clans were among those affected. Uber competitor Lyft was also disrupted in the United States.

    Questions & Answers

    What was the cause of the AWS outage?
    The problem originated from the Domain Name System (DNS), which prevents applications from finding the correct address for AWS’s DynamoDB API, a cloud database utilized for storing user information and other vital data.

    How did the outage affect global businesses?
    The outage disrupted services for companies worldwide, causing employees to be cut off from their work and hindering others from carrying out routine tasks. This incident impacted a broad range of services—from food delivery apps to gaming platforms and airline systems—that rely on AWS’s cloud infrastructure.

    Which AWS location experienced the outage?
    The outage originated from AWS’s US-EAST-1 location, its oldest and largest for web services.

  • NTT DATA Partners with AWS to Launch Innovative AI-Powered Contact Center Solutions

    NTT DATA Partners with AWS to Launch Innovative AI-Powered Contact Center Solutions

    In a significant move aimed at transforming customer service, NTT DATA has inked a strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to deploy AI-driven contact center solutions via Amazon Connect, AWS’s innovative cloud-based platform.

    Launching a New Era of Customer Experience

    As part of this partnership, NTT DATA will unveil the Managed Customer Experience (MCX) for Connect, a dynamic modular platform set to fast-track customer experience (CX) enhancements across various industries. This platform blends NTT DATA’s extensive experience in contact centers and managed services with the agile capabilities of Amazon Connect, enabling quicker deployment, tailored interactions, and insightful data-driven engagement.

    Enhancing Engagement Across Channels

    MCX for Connect aims to offer a comprehensive suite of solutions that includes voice and digital interaction channels, in-depth reporting and analytics, AI-enabled services, and seamless integrations with key business applications like CRM and IT service management tools. With the integration of conversational AI agents, real-time sentiment analysis, intelligent call routing, and predictive service capabilities, this platform is designed to elevate critical metrics such as average handle time, first-call resolution rate, and overall customer satisfaction. After all, who wouldn’t want to have a chatbot that can not only chat but charm?

    A Tailored Approach for Diverse Industries

    This collaboration draws heavily on NTT DATA’s proprietary customer experience technologies, including advanced speech analytics and the Smart AI Agent Ecosystem. The upcoming solutions will particularly focus on sectors with complex customer interactions, including financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, and retail.

    Sashen Naidu, Global VP of Customer Experience at NTT DATA, emphasized the strategic advantage this collaboration brings, stating, “By combining NTT DATA’s contact center heritage, digital transformation expertise, and client experience innovation with Amazon Connect’s powerful cloud-native capabilities, we are helping customers reimagine how they engage with their customers and stay ahead in an increasingly competitive landscape.”

    Looking Ahead with Innovative Solutions

    NTT DATA will be responsible for the global delivery, implementation, hosting, security, and managed services of these solutions, which are set to roll out to clients in the coming months. This partnership could redefine how businesses interact with consumers, ushering in a new era of customer service powered by technology.

    Questions & Answers

    What is the main goal of NTT DATA’s collaboration with AWS?
    The primary aim is to deliver advanced AI-powered contact center solutions using Amazon Connect, enhancing customer experience across various industries.

    What features does the Managed Customer Experience for Connect offer?
    The platform offers a range of solutions including voice and digital channels, AI-enabled services, real-time sentiment analysis, and integrations with business applications to improve customer service metrics.

    Which industries will benefit most from this new platform?
    The solutions are particularly tailored for sectors such as financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, and retail, addressing their unique customer interaction challenges.

  • Amazon Launches New AWS Cloud Region in Asia Pacific, Boosting New Zealand’s Tech Landscape

    Amazon Launches New AWS Cloud Region in Asia Pacific, Boosting New Zealand’s Tech Landscape

    Amazon’s announcement of the AWS Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region marks a significant expansion of its global cloud framework, bringing new opportunities to developers, startups, enterprises, and nonprofits across various sectors including retail, education, and government. With the launch of this new location, users can now enjoy greater flexibility to run applications and engage their audiences through data centers firmly rooted in New Zealand.

    A Long-Term Investment in New Zealand’s Digital Future

    In a move that signals its long-standing commitment to New Zealand, Amazon plans to invest over NZD 7.5 billion into the construction, connection, operation, and upkeep of its data centers. Initial plans for the AWS Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region include three Availability Zones, adding to a robust global tally of 120 Availability Zones across 38 regions, revealing a cloud network so extensive that even a flock of sheep might get lost in it — and that’s quite a feat in New Zealand!

    Enhancing AWS’s Role in Cloud Computing

    In addition to the new Kiwi expansion, AWS has ambitious plans to introduce ten more Availability Zones and establish three additional regions in Chile, Saudi Arabia, and its forthcoming European Sovereign Cloud. Designed with sovereignty at its core, the New Zealand region will provide secure and compliant cloud infrastructure, allowing customers to access a comprehensive suite of AWS services, including analytics, computing, content delivery, databases, generative AI (GenAI), machine learning (ML), networking, and storage.

    Empowering the Next Generation of Cloud Professionals

    To address the growing demand for cloud technology throughout the Asia Pacific, Amazon is also focusing on digital skills development, launching initiatives such as AWS Academy, AWS Educate, and AWS Skill Builder. Under a memorandum of understanding with the New Zealand government, AWS has pledged to train 100,000 individuals in cloud competencies, with over 50,000 already equipped with these essential skills. Moreover, AWS intends to hire and develop additional local talent to support this new region, further underscoring its dedication to New Zealand’s digital evolution and economic progress.

    Questions & Answers

    What are the key features of the AWS Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region?
    The new AWS region will initially host three Availability Zones and will provide a wide range of services including analytics, computing, generative AI, and machine learning, tailored to secure and compliant cloud infrastructure.

    How much is Amazon investing in New Zealand’s cloud infrastructure?
    Amazon plans to invest over NZD 7.5 billion, focusing on the construction and operation of its data centers, reflecting a long-term commitment to the region.

    What initiatives is Amazon implementing to develop local cloud skills?
    Amazon has committed to training 100,000 individuals in cloud technology through programs like AWS Academy, with over 50,000 already trained, demonstrating a serious dedication to enhancing local expertise in the tech sector.

  • Google Drive gets automatic captions for video uploads with new update

    Google Drive gets automatic captions for video uploads with new update

    Google Drive is now rolling out a useful feature for videos you upload: automatically generated captions. It seems the new feature is widely rolled out.

    The feature is available for personal Google Accounts and uses speech recognition tech to transcribe the audio. To use the feature, users should request automatic captions after uploading a video to Drive. On the other hand, for Google Workspace users, the captions are enabled automatically, unless their admins disable it.

    To generate captions for a video, you can right-click on the video and then click on Manage caption tracks, and then generate automatic captions. On mobile, tap the three-dot menu on the top right, and then go for Manage caption tracks and generate automatic captions, but this has to be done when a video is already playing.

    It takes some time for the request to process. Then, the automatic captions will be available in a YouTube-esque player by tapping “CC”.

    Having captions is also great for searching for videos based on content, while they also improve the accessibility of media stored in Drive. For now, English is the only language that is supported, with other languages planned “in the future”.

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  • AWS Cloud WAN, New Serverless Analytics Have Universal Access

    AWS Cloud WAN, New Serverless Analytics Have Universal Access

    Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud offering, has announced several services for general availability.

    The AWS Cloud WAN is a new managed wide area network (WAN) service that connects on-premises data centers, colocation facilities, branch offices and cloud resources to simplify operating a global network. Using a central management dashboard built into AWS Cloud WAN, customers can define their network configuration, view the health of their global network and automate routine configuration and security tasks.As a result, enterprises can now use AWS Cloud WAN to simplify the way they build, manage and monitor their networks using a single dashboard with minimal complexity.

    With just a few clicks, teams can quickly and easily apply a policy that requires network traffic from branch offices to be routed through a specific network firewall before reaching cloud resources running in an AWS Region. AWS Cloud WAN also integrates with leading SD-WAN, network appliances and independent software vendors to make it easier for customers to connect their on-premises SD-WAN devices to AWS.

    David Brown, Vice President of Amazon EC2 at AWS said, “As the edge of the cloud continues to be pushed outward, and more customers move their applications to AWS to become more agile, reduce complexity and save money, they need an easier way to evolve their networks to support a modern, distributed model that allows them to reach their customers and end users globally with high performance.”

    Additionally, with the new serverless offerings for Amazon EMR, Amazon MSK and Amazon Redshift, AWS offers the broadest set of serverless analytics capabilities in the cloud, making it even easier for customers to lower costs, expand analytics to more users and maximize their data’s value.

    • Enabling customers to run big data applications and petabyte-scale data analytics faster, Amazon EMR Serverless lets customers specify the framework they want to run and automatically provisions, manages and scales the necessary computation and memory resources as workload demands change.
    • Analyzing real-time data streams from IoT devices, website clickstreams, database logs and many other sources, Amazon MSK Serverless provisions, manages and scales clusters automatically, so customers no longer have to worry about capacity planning or unpredictable streaming workloads.
    • Collectively processing more than two exabytes of data with Amazon Redshift every day, Amazon Redshift Serverless now makes it even easier to get insights from data quickly without the need to manage data warehouse infrastructure.

    Other serverless analytics offerings from AWS include Amazon QuickSight for business intelligence and AWS Glue for data integration.

    Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President of Database, Analytics and Machine Learning at AWS noted, “With these new serverless options, customers can run even the most variable and intermittent analytics workloads and expand the use of analytics throughout their organizations without worrying about provisioning or scaling capacity—or incurring excess cost.”

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  • M1 partners with AWS to improve customer experiences

    M1 partners with AWS to improve customer experiences

    M1 Limited (M1), one of Singapore’s leading Mobile Network Operators (MNO), announced its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), to launch Maxine, a VoiceBot for M1’s hotlines.

    Maxine is built on Amazon Connect, AWS’s omnichannel cloud-based contact center service that helps improve contact center agent productivity and end-user customer experiences. Powered by AWS Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as automatic speech recognition and natural language understanding, Maxine is able to engage in more lifelike conversations with customers. Combined with M1’s Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunk services for high quality digital voice communication, Maxine will help improve end-user customer experiences by engaging them in open-ended conversations instead of menu-driven interfaces.

    Since Maxine’s rollout in the last quarter of 2021, M1 is seeing an improved performance to the existing call system with the VoiceBot performing sophisticated functions such as authentication of callers with a One-Time Pin (OTP), or sharing the customer’s position in the call queue and estimated waiting time. In comparison with December 2020, M1’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) for December 2021 has seen a marked 40% increase, largely attributed to Maxine’s ability to capture callers’ intentions which then improves call agent productivity by freeing them up to focus on more complex cases.

    The deployment of Maxine is part of M1’s continuous transformation journey to be a digital platform. As a cloud native solution, M1 is able to regularly develop and deploy new and incremental features and capabilities that enhance Maxine’s services.

    The easy to use and quick to deploy solution enables M1 to scale up and down in a short period of time. It also provides call center agents the flexibility they need to work remotely, without compromising the customer experience.

    M1 has its 1627 (Bespoke), 1622 (Business) and 1800-843-8288 (Prepaid) hotlines operating on the Amazon Connect platform. This will be progressively rolled out to other hotlines. M1 is also supporting other members of the Keppel Group that are making the transition to adopt Maxine, starting with Keppel Electric.

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  • Apollo Tyres Collaborates With AWS To Make Its Factories Smarter

    Apollo Tyres Collaborates With AWS To Make Its Factories Smarter

    Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced that Apollo Tyres is going all-in on AWS to digitally transform. By moving all of its IT infrastructures to AWS, Apollo Tyres can use AWS’s broad portfolio of services to innovate new customer experiences while driving productivity, compliance, and process efficiency gains globally, across seven factories. Apollo Tyres will draw on the breadth and depth of AWS capabilities, including Internet of Things (IoT), data and analytics, and machine learning, to transform into an agile, data-driven enterprise. Using data from the factory floor and real-time information from production machines, like tyre rubber mixer machines, Apollo Tyres can expand operational intelligence capabilities and more accurately manage machine utilization, ensuring high-quality levels and machine efficiency. With AWS, Apollo Tyres is connecting all of its factories to the cloud this year in India and Europe. By 2022, Apollo Tyres plans to migrate all mission-critical enterprise applications, including its SAP applications, to AWS to enhance customer experience, improve process efficiency, and enable process automation.

    Apollo Tyres produces more than 2,425 tons (2,200 metric tons) of tires daily in its seven factories worldwide. Each factory previously ran their on-premises infrastructure in silos, which provided limited visibility into global manufacturing efficiencies. Apollo Tyres needed to upgrade its infrastructure to develop new ways of engaging with fleet operators, tyre dealers, and consumers while delivering tires and services efficiently at competitive prices. The company’s first step was to create a data lake on AWS, which centrally stores Apollo Tyres’ structured and unstructured data at scale. This data lake provides the foundation for an integrated data platform, which enables Apollo Tyres’ engineers around the world to collaborate in developing cloud-native applications and improve enterprise-wide decision making. The integrated data platform enables Apollo Tyres to innovate new products and services, including energy-efficient tyres and remote warranty fulfillment.

    Using AWS IoT SiteWise, a managed service that makes it easy to collect, store, organize and monitor data from industrial equipment at scale, and AWS IoT Greengrass, an open-source edge runtime and cloud service for building, deploying, and managing device software, Apollo Tyres developed an IoT-in-a-box solution. The solution connects production machines on the factory floor to AWS in as few as five days. Once connected, the solution captures data from multiple machines-including mixers, tyre building equipment, and curing presses-and feeds it to the data lake. Apollo Tyres uses Amazon Redshift, a cloud data warehouse, to create a global dashboard for visualizing production information from the data lake, providing business teams and plant managers with real-time visibility into the manufacturing process. This visibility improves production efficiency and productivity, for example by reducing the idle time of curing presses that shape the tyre in a mould by 50%.

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  • Nokia debuts innovative public cloud charging for CSPs on AWS

    Nokia debuts innovative public cloud charging for CSPs on AWS

    Nokia has today announced the deployment of its cloud-native convergent charging solution on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate communications service providers (CSPs) migration of business-critical, high-frequency charging applications to the public cloud, and to deliver the benefits of the cloud for 5G.

    This announcement, which builds on an existing relationship with AWS, enables CSPs to efficiently run workloads on AWS and pioneer new monetization schemas as part of their journey towards deploying business support systems (BSS) in the public cloud.

    As a containerized network function (CNF) on AWS, Nokia Converged Charging (NCC) provides true continuous availability, supporting the high frequency, low latency demands of an always-on, real-time convergent charging system built for the needs of the 5G economy. This enables CSPs to tap new revenue streams from 5G capabilities, including differentiated pricing, network slicing, and flexible product offerings, such as IoT and B2B2X.

    According to Analysys Mason, “SaaS and public cloud will make inroads into the market for monetization platforms by growing more than 6.5X from 2019 to 2025 and increase its share to over 14% of the total spend.” NCC’s architecture can support CSPs at every step of their public cloud journey, from the deployment of greenfield sub-brands as a first step towards hosting testing environments to full production workloads of the main brand on the public cloud.

    Fabio Cerone, EMEA Telco Managing Director at AWS, said: “We are pleased that Nokia is expanding its relationship with AWS by offering its cloud-native convergent charging system on AWS and connecting it to various services, such as with analytics to pioneer new monetization schemas. As the world becomes increasingly cloud-centric, it’s important that our customers can leverage cloud-native solutions to unleash the potential benefits of the cloud and 5G.”

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  • Biggest AWS consumer from Singapore stole multiple identities for mining cryptocurrencies

    The Amazon Web Service cloud service had recently received one of its biggest consumers from Singapore, but it was quickly discovered after a small investigation that the user was impersonating several US-based personalities and thus using the computing power for his own benefit by mining several cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, and LTC.

    Ho Jun Jia, also known as “Prefinity” and “Ethereum Vendor” was arrested in Singapore in September 2019 and is waiting for the United States court to decide if they want to extradite him from the country.

    This is very likely to happen as the US and Singapore have an extradition treaty. If the extradition does happen, Ho will have to face fines above the $5 million’s worth of computing power he consumed as well as some jail time for identity theft and fraud.

    Who did Ho impersonate?

    According to the investigation, Ho was impersonating an unnamed game developer in California, which was actually paying the bills on Ho’s illegal activity on the AWS. Furthermore, Ho had also undertaken the identity of a Texas-based individual and an Indian businessman.

    In total, Ho had consumed a staggering amount of $5 million’s worth of computing power, thus potentially generating far more in profits than anticipated.

    Investigators also say that Ho was using trading bots to then speculate with the cryptocurrencies he had generated through his illegal activities.

    It is easily understandable as according to this Bitcoin Trader review on InsideBitcoins, the larger the amount deposited on a Bitcoin trading robot, the higher the chance of not making too much of a scene, therefore helping Ho keep his identity a secret.

    It’s assumed that Ho made far more from speculations than he made with simply mining the cryptocurrencies, thus the unauthorized exchange of securities could also be added to his list of illegal activity.

    Why will Singapore approve the extradition?

    According to investigators, it is assumed that Ho was also hiding his identity in Singapore as well, therefore he was not subject to any type of income or capital gain tax that is active within the country.

    Therefore, it’s easy to say that even if Ho is not extradited he will have to face charges of tax evasion in Singapore, which, although garners a much lighter punishment, would still mean the disclosure of the fortune he accumulated as well as several years served in prison.

    However, considering that most of the damage was caused to US-based individuals as well as companies, Singapore is very unlikely to deny the extradition and allow US authorities to punish Ho.

    In the end, all victims will be compensated for the damage they received from Ho’s illegal activities and further security measures will be implemented on the AWS and Google Cloud platforms.

  • Singapore Fintech Launches Platform for Personal Loans

    Singapore Fintech Launches Platform for Personal Loans

    The new digital platform, which offers lower lending rates and encourages prompt debt repayment, could compete with banks’ personal loan facilities. Singapore fintech company Credit Culture has announced the launch of its moneylending platform, making it the first licensee from a pilot by the Ministry of Law for new business models in the personal loans industry, to do so.

    Promising transparent loan terms with no late interest and no early repayment fees, Credit Culture says its platform allows 24/7 access to personal loans with monthly interest capped at 1 percent, disbursed within only 10 minutes.

    We have seen how inefficiencies have affected the industry for years and the move to use technology to improve the system is long overdue. This is a win-win situation whereby improving the ecosystem, customers will be able to gain better access and management of their finances, said Edmund Sim, founder and CEO of Credit Culture.

    New Models for Loans

    Credit Culture’s credit scoring and application process is simpler, cheaper and more transparent than the manual processes offered by traditional banks. Its platform is built on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud and taps on MyInfo, the central data repository of Singapore citizens’ information to populate loan applications.

    A proprietary credit-scoring engine then uses this data to assess the creditworthiness of a customer instantly. Apart from lower backend costs, the AWS approach is also scalable depending on customer demand, allowing the firm to grow quickly and roll out in new markets with ease.

    The rates charged by Credit Culture are significantly lower than those charged by banks on overdue credit card payments, which average 24 percent per annum, or more than 2 percent per month. However, the effective interest rate could turn out higher than personal loan rates offered by some banks.

    Ministry of Law Pilot

    Credit Culture was founded by a group of banking industry veterans with knowledge of the consumer credit and technology space. In December 2018, the firm was among six selected by the Ministry of Law as part of a pilot to professionalize the personal loans space in Singapore.

  • Behind Amazon’s 63 per cent income rise

    Behind Amazon’s 63 per cent income rise

    The latest Amazon results are positive – but there is now a clear divergence in performance between the top and bottom lines. On the profit front, Amazon’s results are impressive. Net income increased by 63.1 per cent and operating income by 78 per cent. Much of this is coming from the AWS segment, where income from operations rose by 61 per cent. However, some credit should also go to the North American operation where volume increases helped ease up operating profits by 33 per cent. These uplifts come in spite of the fact that Amazon is still investing huge amounts in the business. Therefore they go a long way to justify the myriad of projects that Amazon has undertaken and continues to undertake.

    While the profit lines look rosy, the sales line presents a mixed bag. The slowdown in product growth is now tangible and although an 8.2 per cent uplift is strong compared to many retailers, by Amazon’s standards it is a weak performance. On a divisional basis, North America held up better than international markets, largely thanks to the confidence of the American consumer. Even so, sales growth in North America has also dipped.

    There are several dynamics at play here. First, is the maturity of Amazon’s operation: Amazon is now a massive retailer and it is simply unrealistic to expect it to keep on growing at its historic pace. However, more concerningly, this maturity is also coinciding with a period of rising competition. Retailers like Target and Walmart have invested heavily in their online operations and pulled out all the stops this holiday season. Our data show that they made solid customer gains, and some of that dented Amazon’s growth. In our view, the gap between Amazon and the rest is now narrowing.

    Another area of concern is Whole Foods. Amazon’s results show that sales at physical stores dropped by 2.7 per cent over last year, largely thanks to the grocery division. The investment in lower prices partly explains this, but it does not account for the bulk of the decline. In our opinion, much of this is because Whole Foods’ proposition is simply not up to scratch. Basics and commodity products still cost way more than at rivals like Target, and this is one of the reasons perceptions that Whole Foods is needlessly expensive have persisted. Such expense is not justified by store experience nor by customer service, both of which remain lackluster.

    Arguably, a holiday period that coincided with strong consumer finances should have been fertile ground for Whole Foods to thrive. However, very little effort was made to entice or enthrall customers. Aside from fresh counters, the festive product line up was incredibly poor with a noticeable lack of treats and interesting items. As a result, many consumers simply went elsewhere.

    We are cognisant that many of the Whole Foods issues are not of Amazon’s making. However, the poor performance underlines how much work remains to be done in transforming the chain’s fortunes.

    Despite these niggles, we remain positive about Amazon. The Prime platform still has enormous potential, there is plenty of upside in devices, and there are many opportunities to improve own-brands (some of which have underperformed). Taken together, along with AWS, this means Amazon has scope for future growth.

    However, it is also clear that Amazon will now need to work doubly hard to achieve any future sales gains.

  • Korean Air shifting most of its data to Amazon’s AWS

    Korean Air shifting most of its data to Amazon’s AWS

    Korean Air Lines said Tuesday it will transfer most of its data and applications to Amazon’s cloud computing platform as it overhauls its IT infrastructure over the next three years. The planned data migration to Amazon Web Services (AWS) is part of Korean Air’s broader plan to invest 200 billion won ($178 million) over the next 10 years to accelerate the company’s digital innovation and transformation, Korean Air said in a statement.

    “Leveraging cloud technologies means we will be able to provide faster and more efficient services that are tailored to the needs of our customers,” Korean Air President Walter Cho said in the statement.

    Cho, AWS Managing Director Ed Lenta and LG CNS Chief Executive Kim Young-seob signed a data center outsourcing agreement. LG CNS, one of Korea’s leading IT outsourcing providers, will help Korean Air move its data to the AWS system.

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  • Hyundai teamed up with Amazon to plan new retail model

    Hyundai teamed up with Amazon to plan new retail model

    Hyundai and Amazon plan to develop a “next-generation” retail model amid South Korean retailers’ push to adopt the latest technology to their online and offline platforms.

    Under the strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Service (AWS) Korea signed on Friday, Hyundai Department Store Group said it will also establish a system to analyse customer activity and expand the partnership between its information technology arm and AWS, the US retail giant’s cloud-computing platform.

    Their joint research will focus on developing the Korean version of Amazon Go – the US e-commerce firm’s checkout-free offline mall – as well as using drones to deliver food and beverages, and applying artificial intelligence technology for automated concierge service, according to Hyundai.

    The Korean retailer’s aim is to implement Amazon’s cutting-edge technologies to its department store set to open in Yeouido, Seoul’s financial district, in 2020.

    “We will partner with Amazon to find a medium- and long-term roadmap to provide a new shopping experience to our customers,” a company official said.

    The deal was made as South Korean retailers are moving to secure competitiveness through the use of new technologies.

    Last Friday, E-Mart Everyday, another major South Korean retailer and Shinsegae’s supermarket-chain operator, opened a “cashier-less” store in Seoul where customers can pay via the firm’s mobile payment service app without going through a checkout counter.

    The 212sqm Gangnam store is expected to increase the company’s competitiveness in the market, allowing customers to use Shinsegae’s SSG Pay mobile payment system to make their purchases. It is the latest in a series of technological advances made by the company, including electronic price labeling and the use of robotic concierges and autonomous shopping carts.

    The new store will include a self-checkout counter as an alternative to using the app, and a cashier for age-verification sales of alcohol and tobacco products.

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