Today we're going to explore what happens
when Edge Computing meets 3 distinct industries.
This is "The Future of".
Today, I'm going to be talking to Dr. Luca Marchi,
an expert and leader in the retail industry.
So, Luca, thanks for joining me here today.
What do you think is going to be
the opportunity to transform the retail industry
with the introduction of Edge Computing?
Retailers, they gather a lot of data about their consumer,
both internal and external,
but the main touch point is the cashier,
what you bought, at what price and when,
how frequently you buy it.
But think about how many different products you look at
in a supermarket.
All those things are not really captured.
So, you can use smart devices in different areas of a store
and collect those touch points
and understand more deeply your customer behavior.
So, really, the benefit of Edge Computing
in the future of retail
is really going to come from the power of personalization.
Yeah, I totally agree.
Personalization is going to be so important.
You need to sell to everybody,
but with very different and specific customer experience.
So, what do you find most exciting about
this emerging world of Edge Computing
in the retail industry?
Well, I believe there are 3 things
that are super exciting.
The first one, it could be the fully automated store.
The second one is the ability to leverage data
that is not generated in the store.
And the third one is a complete immersive experience,
characterized by virtual reality, or augmented reality.
Which kind of brings us back to, then,
the other part of the equation for the retailers,
and the pressure that they're under economically
is how to do so,
how to introduce these capabilities at lower cost.
So, Edge also has the great advantage of the Cloud,
of being flexible and scalable.
These really helps the cost-effectiveness
of integrating and deploying an Edge network.
Also, the maintenance costs are very limited,
because you can still manage them centrally,
but you are able to deploy different software
according to the different situation.
So, Luca, I really wanna thank you for being here today.
It's going to be exciting,
and I'm glad to have you here on board with us,
to take us through that journey.
Val, welcome, here.
Thank you for bringing your expertise
in the area of Financial Services.
What does Edge Computing mean
to the financial services industry?
With Edge Computing we're able to go that next step
of engagement with consumers anywhere, anytime.
So, we have ATMs.
In the ATM environment currently today
there are cameras.
We want to make sure it's a safe environment.
But also, in the situation where there is fraud,
they have the data collected
to be able to, you know, look at the log files
and see what happens.
That's all post-event, though.
So, what we can do now is,
in real time, identify that we have a risk,
either to human safety or to fraudulent behavior.
And, with that, alert within financial markets,
for example, and trading.
Your decisions have to be made
so rapidly in that environment.
And, you know, the latency,
network bandwidth, and sending things to the Cloud
to make it such -
it's just, it's prohibitive
to the ability to bring those analytics
right down to the Edge, where the data's created
at the network,
and then alert for decision-making in milliseconds,
can be a huge differentiator in gains.
To me, it's a very exciting time in our industry.
Well, Val, thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you for your insight, your expertise.
So, Utpal, I want to thank you so much for being here today.
So let's talk a little bit about
the distinction between 5G and Edge,
because we use them interchangeably sometimes,
but in fact they're quite different, aren't they?
Absolutely.
So, Edge use-case can also be done in 4G.
Edge is independent of 5G.
But 5G will provide a whole new set of opportunities
or use-cases that never existed in a 4G environment.
A classic example would be a use-case
which existed in 4G, but it may not have those latency,
may not have those network slicing features,
may not have those bandwidths,
and so its ability to be powerful,
or impactful, would be limited.
5G will transform it.
5G is the fuel for Edge computing.
Absolutely.
That's a right way of putting it.
If I'm a CIO for a telco (telecommunications company),
what should I be thinking about in terms of my future
and where I need to be taking the business?
We talk about their industry
in 3 strategic imperatives.
The first one is digital customer engagement.
How do you improve the experience for the end user?
The second one is network and Cloud agility.
How do you leverage Cloud,
virtualize networks, et cetera?
And then the third one is enterprise transformation.
And so it really kind of comes down
to accelerating delivery of value,
reducing operating costs and then increasing efficiency,
and getting a deeper return on investment.
Absolutely.
I mean, the telcos are going to be the key enablers
for ensuring that the industries take advantage of the 5G.
This was a great conversation.
I appreciate your expertise
and all the things that you've had to say
about the telco industry,
the world of 5G and Edge Computing. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Rob.
It's exciting.
Really enjoyed this conversation.