Cloud computing: to the sky and beyond

Cloud based platforms are virtual networks which have been on the market since the early 2000s. In recent years they have experience a staggering growth as organizations globally have started looking for agile and scalable solutions to store, analyze and share an exponentially increasing amount of data.

The traditional company’s IT infrastructure seems increasingly inadequate to properly manage the massive flows of data generated daily, due to its non-scalable data storage capability and high management costs. The migration towards cloud-based technology solutions is becoming mandatory for organizations to stay ahead of the competition.

The global lockdowns experienced this year have only accelerated this trend due to the pressing need for companies to provide flexible solutions to allow employees to work efficiently from everywhere. Cloud computing systems can potentially have an impact on any business in the world, by enabling companies of all sizes, needs, and industries to embrace the digital transformation and avoid fixed costs such as equipment, staff training, or tools development.

Cloud technologies allow companies to scale up and speed their data management system from the get-go by sharing all information through the internet connection, rather than requiring implementation of new software or hardware. At the same time, the acceleration in deployment of technologies such as IoT and 5G are enhancing cloud systems to keep the latency to the minimum and increase the connectivity performance also in areas which previously would not have been accessible.

An example of an innovative cloud computing platform is Snowflake, an open data warehouse providing businesses across industries with easier and secure data access thanks to its virtual architecture, without hardware or software to configure. Thanks to its integrated cloud platform, Snowflake helps companies to maximize their efficiency by using and paying for storage and computation separately, which means companies can scale up and down the service ladder according to their needs. As Snowflake reports, a total of 250 petabytes of data runs through Snowflake’s cloud platform every day, an impressive performance when compared with tech giant Google which manages “just” 20 petabytes per day.

Microsoft is also heavily investing in the market: through its Azure Space division it is working on a new, space based, cloud ecosystem aiming to make the transmission of information easier by offering high-intensity cloud computing and secure satellite connectivity worldwide.

In the current and future scenario characterized by the rise of digitalization, the need for data analysis, storage and sharing is expected to increase massively. As reported by Markets&Markets research, the cloud industry is projected to continue its strong growth over the next years, growing from $371.4B in 2020 to $832.1B by 2025, at a CAGR of 17.5% during the forecasted period. In summary, cloud computing will act as a key enabler for companies by providing them with the flexibility, agility, and efficiency to accelerate their digital transformation and enhance their chance of survival in an extremely competitive environment.

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The information in this article should not be regarded as a description of services provided by Delian Partners SA. The opinions expressed in this article are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security or investment product. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. The views reflected in this article are subject to change at any time without notice.

AI supported drones as a key-component of the next generation e-commerce

Commercial drones are growing in popularity across different industries thanks to a wide range of potential applications. With the expansion of the e-commerce market and the increase in online purchases, the demand for better delivery services is pushing companies to invest in technologically innovative solutions to upgrade existing services and capabilities.

One of them consists in autonomous aircraft delivery: without human involvement products can be delivered to customers by controlling the entire process through intelligent communications systems, in a shorter time than using normal road transportation, avoiding traffic and other logistical problems.

With the goal to optimize timing and cut additional costs, e-commerce giant Amazon launched its own Prime Air drones service to deliver products to its customers. In August, the company received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), anticipating that in the future between 75% and 90% of Amazon products will be delivered by drones flying up to 15 miles and arriving at destination in less than 30 minutes.

Another promising area for commercial drones’ applications is the health sector. For example, the medical product delivery company Zipline recently announced its pilot program in partnership with American retail giant Walmart. With this project, Zipline plans to deliver health and wellness products across the US area providing its customers with medical supplies in less than an hour.

The concept is the same: by using AI technology and machine learning systems, autonomous drones can elaborate a higher amount of data to deliver products in less time and in a more efficient way, in a total independent and decentralized way.

The growing adoption of 5G technologies, smart devices, and the rising demand for faster services is making the drones market increasingly appealing to a broad range of businesses, and rising competition among players from different industries anticipates significant growth in the market over the coming years.

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The information in this article should not be regarded as a description of services provided by Delian Partners SA. The opinions expressed in this article are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security or investment product.  It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. The views reflected in this article are subject to change at any time without notice.

Tech innovation is shaping the future of the healthcare sector

Historically driven by analog processes, healthcare activities have been significantly altered by the technology revolution. The increasing application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems is becoming more common in the healthcare industry and is helping healthcare businesses to be faster and more efficient.

Already pre-pandemic, about 80% of hospital leaders said cloud investments were a moderate, high, or critical priority for 2020. Going forward, the convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT) will further accelerate innovation adoption and related applications in the healthcare realm.

Technologies like Cloud computing, AI, IoT and machine learning are disrupting the health market and providing patients with new innovative services: for example, by engaging with digital providers, today patients can receive personalized medicines tailored to their specific needs, lifestyles, and genetic code, or can be visited by doctors directly through their smartphone.

Population aging around the world is another major tailwind for digital, patient-centric healthcare services. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 703 million persons aged 65 years or over in the world in 2019. The number of older persons is projected to double to 1.5 billion by 2050. Technological advancements in screening processes, smartphones and wearables can bring point-of-care testing to the patients and represent a strong opportunity for providing sensitive, low-cost, rapid, and connected diagnostics.

There is increasing awareness that AI applications enable to analyze patient's health conditions and identify anomalies at a speed that humans cannot achieve, helping physicians to optimize and avoid time-consuming tasks, and reduce margins of error of diagnosis.

For example, today AI is already just as capable as (if not more capable than) doctors in diagnosing patients heart diseases, blood infections, and detect signs of potentially cancerous cellular growths. IBM’s AI program called Watson was recently challenged to analyze the genetic data of tumor cells. The human experts took about 160 hours to review and provide treatment recommendations based on their findings. Watson took just ten minutes to deliver the same kind of actionable advice.

Despite the rapid advancements in AI and machine learning in HC, we are still a long way from a total replacement of human intervention in medical processes. A research from Harvard showed that patients are reluctant to use health care provided by medical artificial intelligence even when it outperforms human doctors. The main reason is that patients believe that their medical needs are unique and cannot be adequately addressed by algorithms. For this reason, patients were less likely to utilize AI based services and wanted to pay less for it

The most likely evolution is that doctors will be supported by AI to perform repetitive tasks and increase quality of diagnosis at a fraction of time and costs. A recently developed machine-learning algorithm based on deep learning nearly matched the success rate of a human pathologist in interpreting pathology images, at about 96% accuracy. But the truly exciting thing was that combining the pathologist’s analysis the AI diagnostic method, the result improved to 99.5% accuracy,”

In summary: when it comes to healthcare, implementing AI solutions and machine learning will not necessarily mean replacing doctors, but optimizing and improving their abilities. The convergence between the healthcare industry with AI, Cloud computing, IT, and machine learning systems will further catalyze new innovative applications, providing patients with an early and accurate response to treatment and enabling healthcare organizations to reach new quality standards at a lower cost.

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The information in this article should not be regarded as a description of services provided by Delian Partners SA. The opinions expressed in this article are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security or investment product.  It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. The views reflected in this article are subject to change at any time without notice.