< PreviousBelden Single Pair Ethernet Portfolio of Connectivity Products Enables the IIoT Belden has introduced its Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) portfolio of connectivity products, designed to optimise Ethernet connection possibilities in harsh environments, including industrial and transportation operations. The SPE portfolio includes IP20-rated PCB jack, patch cords and cordsets for clean-area connections and IP65/IP67-rated circular M8/M12 patch cords, cordsets and receptacles for reliable field device industrial ethernet connections. For industrial applications, the products create the foundation for real-time communications between all devices on the network, the enterprise backbone and the cloud to improve process efficiency and reduce operational costs. As Industry 4.0 evolves and the number of sensors and actuators in automated production cells that connect to the factory backbone grows, the new SPE product portfolio is the simple, affordable solution to further enable predictive maintenance, digital twins and more. For transportation applications, the Belden SPE products offer a 30% improvement on bending ratio and 30% smaller outer diameter, alleviating issues caused by tight spaces between vehicle bodies. In addition, the products simplify cabling to improve customer experience with a greater range of connectivity, and reduce the weight added by existing connectivity products by nearly half. "The communication network plays an increasingly important role in both Industry 4.0 and modern transportation applications. In both areas, it's critical for real-time data from connected field devices to be monitored, seamlessly shared and analysed simultaneously to ensure the optimal performance of the operation," said Chen Shang, Product Manager at Belden. "Our SPE product portfolio ensures reliable connectivity and gives customers a future-forward solution for mission- critical industrial applications and radical new transportation applications." Belden's new SPE portfolio is a one-stop shop of connectivity products that are compact and durable, provide much greater coverage, and are the ideal network connectivity choice for machine building, automotive manufacturing, food and beverage manufacturing, intralogistics, mass transit systems, traffic control/systems, railway, train stations and rail-rolling stock. Logpoint has released a ChatGPT integration for Logpoint SOAR in a lab setting. It allows users to experiment with the potential of the AI-driven chatbot and discover how the technology could apply in cybersecurity operations. "We're excited to enable our customers to explore the possibilities of using technologies such as ChatGPT to reduce part of their workload," said Edy Almer, Logpoint Product Manager for Threat Detection and Incident Response. "Staying up to date with technology innovations and trends is imperative to understand how we can continue to improve cybersecurity operations." Logpoint SOAR automates the investigation of security incidents and provides case management tools to help analysts automate incident responses. Logpoint SOAR comes with a range of pre-configured playbooks and provides the capability to create custom playbooks, automating detection and response processes. The new ChatGPT integration for Logpoint SOAR allows customers to investigate the potential of using SOAR playbooks with ChatGPT in cybersecurity. Saving time on breach reports: A SOAR playbook can provide ChatGPT with the severity level and main timeline events of an investigation, to generate breach report drafts from attacks for an analyst to review and approve before further distribution, saving a lot of time spent on reporting. Short, readable executive summaries: A SOAR playbook can feed lengthy compliance report texts to ChatGPT to create an executive summary of main findings and remediation recommendations that's easy to read for executives. Believable awareness training: The ChatGPT SOAR integration can automate part of the awareness training. ChatGPT automatically generates phishing emails, and the SOAR playbook extracts data from LinkedIn, enriches it with email addresses and connections from past logs, and sends the phishing email to selected recipients, measuring how many click through and how many alert the phishing response team. "Our customers are always interested in exploring new technologies, and ChatGPT is no exception," says Christian Have, Logpoint CTO. "With our new integration, they can test whether the technology could reduce the time spent on an attack summary report, which is legally required in Europe, the US, and Asia, and potentially free up valuable time for security analysts." ChatGPT SOAR Integration Available for Customer Trials Vertiv Inaugurates new Factory in Ras Al Khaimah Vertiv has inaugurated an expansion of its factory in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE, to support its integrated modular solutions (IMS), low voltage switchgear and busway businesses. The latest addition will help the company proactively address the increasing demand for Vertiv products and services. This new facility will be strategic in Vertiv’s manufacturing network for its global business operations and it is strategically located to cater to the needs of customers in the Middle East, Africa, Australia and South Asia regions. The site is an extension of the existing E+I Powerbar Gulf factory, providing an additional 5,700sqm of indoor space serving as a production and office area. Giordano Albertazzi, CEO, Vertiv, said: “I couldn’t be prouder to see the Vertiv fundamentals of high-performance culture and innovation being brought to life in this new addition in UAE. This expansion allows us to better support our growing customer base in multiple countries, with solutions that are critical to ongoing digital transformation. We will continue to strengthen our capabilities to innovate with and for, our customers.” Adrian Sheridan, Director of Powerbar Gulf, Vertiv, commented: “The addition of the new factory space demonstrates the importance of serving the region. Vertiv is continuously striving to roll out the latest and most innovative technology solutions to support its clients.” NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.com 10Bulk Data Centers Launches Renewable Power Matching Bulk Data Centers customers will now be able to verify that their data is powered exclusively by 100% renewable energy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The 24/7 power matching service will initially be available at Bulk’s OS-IX facility in Oslo, with power being matched against the nearby Bingsfoss hydropower station. The new renewable power matching option is the result of a groundbreaking agreement between Bulk Data Centers and Akershus Energi, the owner of Bingsfoss hydropower station. OS-IX will be one of very few data centres in Europe to offer renewable power matching to its customers, according to renewable power consultancy Becour, which acted as an adviser in the process. “Renewable Power Matching is aimed at customers with the highest standards and the most transparent reporting policies with respect to sustainability. It represents a new level of transparency where the customers can be certain of the electricity's origin,” said Tor Ribland, VP Operations at Bulk Data Centers. Traditionally the challenge for data centre operators has been to certify the true carbon-free nature of consumed electricity. Existing systems look at the amount of consumed electricity by a company without considering the time and place of the consumption. This means that even though a company may have purchased renewable energy certificates or guarantees of origin equal to its total consumption, it might still use fossil fuels when and where the production of renewable electricity is low. Renewable Power Matching, in contrast, allows companies to match the electricity they consume with renewable electricity produced at any specified time, 24/7. “Guarantees of origin is a key market in carbon accounting, which today is the main method for companies to measure greenhouse gas emissions and reductions. With increasing demands on sustainability reporting from both regulators and lenders, and the need for real-time data to achieve sustainable business management, we are very excited to be able to deliver guarantees of origin to Bulk,” said Helene Moen, Sustainability Manager, Akershus Energi. “The Norwegian electricity mix is already close to 100% renewable, and therefore a preferred data centre location for a number of international customers. Renewable Power Matching brings sustainable operations to an even higher level,” said Stine Stine Bjønnstu Holthe, Head of Sustainability at Bulk Infrastructure Group. RIBER has further strengthened its development in the quantum processor materials market in 2022. Through Epicentre, a joint laboratory with LAAS-CNRS in Toulouse set up in June 2021, RIBER has begun to deploy technologies making it possible to build the core components of future-generation quantum computers. These are based on the physical phenomenon of quantum entanglement, which occurs when two elementary particles - two electrons (electrical particles) or two photons (light particles) - share identical parameters even though they are very far apart. This requires stringent conditions for their production environment, which must be ultra-pure, ultra-controlled and ultra-cold, with single-atom precision. The technologies available to deliver these performance levels include MBE, the material growth technique in which RIBER has built up industry-leading expertise. RIBER is part of a joint quantum computers laboratory program to develop the technological components enabling them to be built. To produce electrons or photons, it is possible to use “quantum dots”, which are small volumes of ultra-pure and ultra-controlled semiconductor alloys developed and controlled using MBE. To transport them, superconductor metals can be used with ultra-precise dimensions (atomic scale), within which the electrons flow undisrupted. The MBE technology is perfect for depositing these superconducting materials in an ultra-pure environment with atomic layer-controlled thickness. These quantum dots and superconductors need to be perfectly insulated from their environment, which is achieved by depositing dedicated oxide materials. The various stages for developing the quantum dots, superconductors and insulators require various deposition chambers which must have an ultra-high - or almost perfect - vacuum in order to avoid any contamination. Vacuum quality is part of the excellence provided by RIBER’s technology for these MBE machines. An MBE machine for quantum computers will therefore include several deposition chambers connected together by robots under ultra-high vacuum conditions. It may include three to five chambers linked by two or three robots under ultra-high vacuum conditions, controlled by highly sophisticated supervision software which manages the sample movements and material deposition process. With the complexity of this type of equipment due to the number of chambers and the ultra-purity, ultra-control and ultra-cold performance levels, this advanced technology has a market value of several million euros per machine. Michel Picault, Chairman of RIBER’s Executive Board, concluded: “The quantum technology is very promising, but it still needs to overcome some significant development challenges to build specific chips. RIBER’s MBE technology will make it possible to accelerate progress towards manufacturing quantum chips on a larger scale. Our Joint Laboratory with LAAS-CNRS will help us reach this higher level of technological maturity more quickly.” MBE Technology Deployed for Quantum Computing Materials NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.com 11NAKIVO Releases v10.8 with vSphere 8 Support, MSP Console and Hybrid Cloud Backup NAKIVO Backup & Replication v10.8 marked another major milestone in NAKIVO’s drive toward more reliable data protection for today’s business IT infrastructures. NAKIVO Backup & Replication remains one of the most affordable backup software on the market, cutting data protection costs by up to 55% and being 5-star rated by top industry professionals. The latest version delivers multiple new features and usability enhancements for large and medium enterprises. “We keep improving NAKIVO Backup & Replication to deliver the features required by every customer,” said Bruce Talley, CEO of NAKIVO. “With the growing adoption of hybrid clouds and advances in virtualisation, we are constantly finding ways to incorporate new technologies and platforms while keeping the solution affordable, fast and top-rated by customers and industry peers.” The demand for backup-as-a-service and disaster recovery-as- a-service keeps growing among organisations of all sizes. NAKIVO Backup & Replication allows managed service providers (MSPs) to create and manage multiple customers from a single solution deployment. With the new MSP Console in v10.8, service providers can add clients with standalone NAKIVO solution deployments and manage all tenants from the same centralised MSP dashboard. NAKIVO closely monitors the latest industry developments to ensure complete protection for all infrastructures. Version 10.8 adds support for vSphere 8, the latest and most advanced virtualisation platform from VMware. Customers can upgrade their VMware infrastructure to get the latest improvements while retaining uninterrupted data protection with NAKIVO Backup & Replication. Organisations are increasingly relying on hybrid cloud setups to get the benefits of public clouds on premises and save on their IT costs. With v10.8, customers can create repositories on S3- compatible object storage platforms to save data storage costs and reduce data transfer times. S3-compatible backup storage repositories can either be on-premises or in public clouds. Moreover, backups in S3-compatible storage can be made immutable to protect data from ransomware attacks and accidental deletion. “NAKIVO Backup & Replication saved us thousands of dollars in administrative hours and will continue doing so on a yearly basis. The software works smoothly with our Synology NAS, helps us automate our backups, and saves us time on backup maintenance,” said Patrick Cawsey, Systems Administrator at Harmony Beef. Sycope Announces Entry Into the UK & Ireland Markets Sycope has cemented its entry into the UK and Ireland markets after signing an agreement with Nuvola Distribution. The new agreement allows Nuvola to promote and distribute Sycope’s highly-specialised IT solutions for security monitoring and network and application performance in the UK and Ireland. As a global technology and services distributor with offices and logistics centres located throughout Europe, the partnership with Nuvola Distribution will give Sycope access to unrivalled experience and expertise. Nuvola provides partner reseller services, offering fully- integrated IT solutions to customers. In addition to the sales process, the distributor provides professional testing, training, installation, implementation and technical support. The flagship product to be distributed by Nuvola is Sycope's network performance monitoring and security tool, which uses real-time flow analysis enriched with business context to help firms assess performance and protect IT infrastructure. "As a challenger in the monitoring solutions industry, we at Sycope are excited to partner with Nuvola for the distribution of our products in the UK and Ireland,” said Tomasz Bartel, Sales Director, Sycope. "Combined with our innovative technology, their expertise in the market will help us to bring new and improved solutions to our customers, and we are confident this partnership will drive success for both companies." "We are proud to announce the new collaboration with Nuvola Distribution,” Tadeusz Dudek, CEO, Sycope, said. "The agreement enhances Sycope's presence in Europe. I'm convinced that by working together with Nuvola, we can build successful partnerships and presence in the UK and Ireland.” “Partnering with Sycope further extends our Intelligent Networks practice to deliver additional network monitoring and performance software solutions,” said Michael Lloyd, CEO of Nuvola Distribution. “These diagnostic management tools are becoming more imperative to channel partners as many technology solutions rely heavily on the network's stability. "More often, we see our reseller partners requiring our Professional Services practice team to support their client’s solution deployments that are very much co-dependent on security and network performance. With Sycope, our partners can optimise and improve their client’s networks to meet the ever-increasing demands of the many new solutions that are being constantly added to the network infrastructure.” In an increasingly complex cyber-threat landscape, Sycope believes engineers in large organisations do not need a system that presents all available data about networks, devices and applications. Instead, teams require access to selected, specific information as rapidly as possible. It is with this ethos in mind that the Sycope system was created. Detecting and analysing security anomalies and threats in the context of the entire organisation, Sycope’s system is based on the MITRE ATT&CK methodology. Using the Sycope security module, security teams can identify attacks faster and ultimately reduce their scope. NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.com 12 Share your news! Send your press releases, company announcements or product news to: editor@networkseuropemagazine.comSEH Technology Updates INU-100 Industrial USB Device Server SEH Technology has announced that its industrial USB device server, INU-100, has been modernised both in terms of hardware and software to meet the current market requirements. The update also means that the device server is prepared for future functionality extensions, as the memory capacity has been doubled and the code base has been unified with that of the utnserver ProMAX. For more than five years, SEH Technology has been offering its USB device server for industrial use. The functionality of the updated INU-100 has significantly increased, meaning the device server is now compatible with the other new device server models, including the utnserver Pro and utnserver ProMAX. The INU-100 is an industrial USB device server designed for mounting in control cabinets and server racks, allowing for a uniform and "clean" integration into the existing IT infrastructures. Users are then able to access USB devices or USB2Serial adapter serial peripherals on the network. The special point- to-point connection, as with local connections at the client, ensures secure and location-independent access. SEH Technology also ensures high reliability and availability for the INU-100, which is indispensable in the industrial sector. With the new INU-100, the update files are no longer divided into firmware and software. In practice, this means that there is now only one update file, which significantly simplifies maintenance for users. In addition, SEH Technology has updated the software with a revised INU-100 control centre with web-based administration for user-friendly handling. Furthermore, the network specialist company has added full IPv6 support for the product, extended IP VLAN as well as WebDAV and Syslog-ng support. This is essential for secure monitoring in industrial environments. Captured data is stored on the INU- 100, but can also be transmitted in parallel and automatically to a syslog-ng and a WebDAV server for evaluation. Landmark Agreement Adopted on Safeguarding Privacy in Law Enforcement and National Security Data Access OECD countries have adopted the first intergovernmental agreement on common approaches to safeguarding privacy and other human rights and freedoms when accessing personal data for national security and law enforcement purposes. The OECD Declaration on Government Access to Personal Data Held by Private Sector Entities seeks to improve trust in cross-border data flows – which are central to the digital transformation of the global economy – by clarifying how national security and law enforcement agencies can access personal data under existing legal frameworks. It marks a major political commitment by the 38 OECD countries and the European Union that signed up to it during the OECD’s 2022 Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting. The Declaration is also open for adherence by other countries. “Being able to transfer data across borders is fundamental in this digital era for everything from social media use to international trade and cooperation on global health issues. Yet, without common principles and safeguards, the sharing of personal data across jurisdictions raises privacy concerns, particularly in sensitive areas like national security,” OECD Secretary-General, Mathias Cormann said, launching the Declaration during the OECD Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting. “Today’s landmark agreement formally recognises that OECD countries uphold common standards and safeguards. It will help to enable flows of data between rule-of-law democracies, with the safeguards needed for individuals’ trust in the digital economy and mutual trust among governments regarding the personal data of their citizens.” The Declaration, which rejects any approach to government access to personal data inconsistent with democratic values and the rule of law, is the result of two years of work by the OECD with a group of country experts in data protection, national security and law enforcement. The project stemmed from growing concerns that the absence of common principles in the sensitive domains of law enforcement and national security could lead to undue restrictions on data flows. Another motivating factor is a desire to increase trust among rule-of-law democratic systems that, while not identical, share significant commonalities. The Declaration complements the OECD Privacy Guidelines, one of the OECD’s flagship achievements dating back to 1980, and the basis of many countries’ privacy rules. Last updated in 2013, the Privacy Guidelines provide a common reference point for the protection of personal data and aim to facilitate cross-border data flows while upholding democratic values, the rule of law and the protection of privacy and other rights and freedoms. Crucially, however, they allow for exceptions for national security and law enforcement purposes. This new Declaration articulates a set of shared principles that reflect commonalities drawn from OECD members’ existing laws and practices and complement each other in protecting privacy and other human rights and freedoms. The principles set out how legal frameworks regulate government access; the legal standards applied when access is sought; how access is approved, and how the resulting data is handled; as well as efforts by countries to provide transparency to the public. They also tackle some of the thornier issues – such as oversight and redress – that have proved challenging to policy discussions for many years. The Declaration on Government Access is an important milestone in the OECD’s work to support countries in promoting trust in cross-border data flows. The Declaration complements the OECD’s Going Digital project, which in its current and third phase focuses on data governance for growth and well-being and offers evidence-based solutions to critical data governance challenges that countries face. Deliverables from this phase of the project, concluded at the Ministerial Meeting, include the Going Digital Guide to Data Governance Policy Making and the report Going Digital to Advance Data Governance for Growth and Well-being. NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.com 13 Send your press releases or announcements to: editor@networkseuropemagazine.comTRENDS AND PREDICTIONS www.networkseuropemagazine.comwww.networkseuropemagazine.com 14What’s the outlook? From AI and robotics to sustainability, the evolution of 5G to network security, we head into 2023 with a look at what the future might hold for the networks and data centre industry. Laura Vallis, Editor of Networks Europe asks some of our magazine’s friends to help us with those predictions. TRENDS AND PREDICTIONS www.networkseuropemagazine.com 15Mark Pestridge, Senior Customer Experience Director at Telehouse considers AI and machine learning technologies: “The benefits of automation have become clear over recent years, making sensationalist headlines about robots “stealing” people’s jobs ring increasingly hollow. As a result, growing numbers of businesses will leverage AI and robotics in 2023 and beyond, recognising its potential to free up human employees for more rewarding tasks, augment their skills, and unlock the power of intelligent decision-making by ensuring a continuous flow of accurate, high-quality data.” Mattias Fridström, VP, Arelion is concerned about the ever-increasing cost of living. He said, “The cost of networking is going up in every respect, and energy is just one component of this. In 2023, carriers and operators will be looking closely at how they can address the expense of running networks and find better ways to run them. Looking at where legacy assets can be replaced and decommissioned will be an important part of this process. Enterprises will be doing exactly the same, and we can certainly expect more IT infrastructure to be placed in the cloud as part of these cost-cutting measures.” Mattias Fridström VP Arelion Mark Pestridge Senior Customer Experience Director Telehouse Chris Dyke, Sales Director UK & Ireland Allied Telesis How will the approach to networking evolve in 2023? Bandwidth remains an issue. Chris Dyke, Sales Director UK & Ireland, Allied Telesis: “As mobile users expect more immersive experiences on their devices, the demand for bandwidth will continue to grow. Current IT devices are evolving to provide more throughput, both on a wired network, moving from 1G to 2.5/5 or 10G, and on a wireless network with the full adoption of WiFi 6 technology. These two evolutions need to proceed in parallel, WiFi 6 requires high-speed wired devices with 2.5G or 5G to provide the full potential, and the wired switches need to connect to WiFi 6 Access Points to use all the available bandwidth. Companies will need to take a step-by-step network upgrade, starting from the wired device, to build an infrastructure ready to deploy the new WiFi 6 Access Point and then, once ready, migrate the WiFi from the current implementation to WiFi 6.” “Growing numbers of businesses will leverage AI and robotics, recognising its potential to free up human employees for more rewarding tasks, augment skills and unlock the power of intelligent decision-making.” TRENDS AND PREDICTIONS www.networkseuropemagazine.com 16Both Fridström, Arelion, and Dyke, Allied Telesis, are aware of security concerns. Fridström says, “Physical security of networks is definitely an area of evolving global interest, be it the fibres in the ground or in remote locations. Whether it is damage caused by a natural disaster or sabotage of one kind or another, there is a clear need for operators to re-assess how network assets are protected. It is something that is on the mind of enterprises too in the buying process: gone are the days of just being concerned about alternative route options, customers want to know what DC power generation there is at primary route network nodes, and how those nodes are protected from attack. It is something that operators are acutely aware of, and will be even more of a focus across their estates going forward.” Dyke, continues, “The exponential growth in the number of attacks on IT services will become a large part of the initiative in preventing and protecting company assets. This will result in a redesign of IT services to become more resilient under different aspects. Network security, disaster recovery, power supply redundancy and network resiliency are the main aspects that companies need to consider. Businesses are also increasingly realising that maintaining their own networks and protecting them is too difficult a job, so we anticipate continued growth in out-sourcing to managed service providers offering remote monitoring, management and cybersecurity services. Steven Carlini, VP of Innovation and Data Centre, Schneider Electric considers the need for higher capacity networks: “High-definition video remains the technology driving the need for higher capacity networks – primarily for integrated video analytics and maintenance. High-capacity networks are required by video to help maintain operational readiness and efficiencies. At Schneider Electric, we’re seeing more applications switch from IoT sensors to high-definition video. For example, instead of a farmer placing upwards of one thousand IoT soil sensors on its land, they could utilise a small number of cameras, or a drone with high-definition capabilities to take images of the plants and soil, and generate the data to determine if more moisture or fertiliser is needed. “Boston Dynamics and IBM are already using edge technology together with private 5G networks in industrial scenarios via a maintenance robot named Spot. With over 1,000 robots in operation, onboard processing and AI analytics are employed to securely perform key tasks, ranging from maintenance to information gathering in remote areas - often those deemed too dangerous for humans. While Spot requires significant amounts of local processing, it also needs access to a communications network to raise any urgent issues it uncovers.” What are the most urgent needs of the industry? Aware of the expanding digital skills gap, Matt Pullen, EVP, Managing Director, Europe at CyrusOne, is concerned that the issue is hampering its long-term development and growth: “While notable progress has been made in recent years, the sector continues to grow on a steeper curve than the advancements made to-date.” He continues, “It’s imperative that the data centre industry comes together in a meaningful way to address this gap, identifying additional ways to communicate the value and opportunity that this sector provides and educating on its broader societal impact. We will see more urgency placed around this issue in the coming year as the industry struggles to compete and maintain demand, with many companies widening their net to include recruits in unrelated disciplines who can be trained.” Matt Pullen EVP, Managing Director Europe CyrusOne Steven Carlini VP Innovation and Data Centre Schneider Electric TRENDS AND PREDICTIONS www.networkseuropemagazine.com 17and Sustainability? Which vertical markets are expected to face the most significant changes and why? Pullen, CyrusOne, says that we need increased transparency in sustainability reporting: “Sustainability will undoubtedly remain a key focus for the industry, with legislation and standardisation of auditable reporting driving more transparency in the market in the coming year. We are already seeing developments of this, with signatories of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact launching an Audit Framework to assess and verify the compliance of data centre operators with the Pact’s Self-Regulatory Initiative (SRI), and make data centres climate neutral by 2030. “Consequently, 24/7 carbon-matching will become a requirement with companies having to track their power usage on an hourly basis and match their usage to a carbon-free energy source. This will also result in a move away from carbon offsetting and toward PPAs, directly with green energy generators.” Pestridge, Telehouse : “As the clock ticks relentlessly towards the net-zero targets of 2030 and 2050, many businesses are realising the limitations of their current approaches to sustainable IT. Worryingly, a recent Telehouse survey of IT decision-makers in the UK found that over a third (34%) of organisations have not yet made any progress on their sustainability goals or have not even defined them. This is likely to change in 2023, with the mounting customer and regulatory demands making it essential for businesses to take responsibility for all their IT operations – from manufacturing processes to the Scope 3 supply chain emissions that are outside of a company’s immediate control.” Fridström, Arelion.“Sustainability might be nothing new to the boardroom of enterprises, but more of a focus is now being placed on network operators, and we believe this will grow. Enterprise customers have been making great progress in how they demonstrate sustainability and energy saving within their own businesses, particularly if they are heavy data centre users or operate in a manufacturing supply chain. But now the focus is shifting to other suppliers and, as a network backbone operator, we are seeing greater interest from enterprises in how we address sustainability. Several areas will be of particular interest including how electronic waste is managed, efforts to lower energy consumption, and the type of energy that is sourced. Going forward, this is going to be an area that can win or lose clients for network operators.” Manufacturing is seeing significant changes due to IT/OT integration and the adoption of edge computing. Dyke, Allied Telesis, says “This requires evolving the network to develop a unified infrastructure with high performance and security architecture and features to protect the most sensitive part of the company - the production. Building management is facing a serious challenge due to the increases in energy costs. One way to minimise this impact is to take a ‘Smart Building’ approach, where all of the different services depend on a reliable network. From the monitoring of all building aspects, PoE lighting, DVS and access control, it is the network that is the core of the smart building. This will be a revolution in the management of the building but will offer the enormous benefits of lower energy consumption, improved occupant comfort and safety, and increased building occupancy.” There are three initial areas; transportation, telehealth and entertainment that will face the most significant changes says Carlini, Schneider Electric: “In transportation, applications will include facial recognition for ticketing/access, physical security and contact tracing. In telehealth – video and AR will be used for appointments as well as training and robotic surgery. This is a topic that is very interesting, as technology has had a long battle being integrated into healthcare. Within entertainment, ultra-high- definition (UHD) video (4K and 8K) on mobile devices, as well as VR and AR entertainment applications, and users seeking to watch video/movies in 3D, 360° video and 3D techniques, including hologram videos, will drive major change.” Carlini suggests that personalised applications will also be a hot topic in 2023. “As higher capacity and edge data centres proliferate, and new 5G and WiFi-6 networks allow for more IoT and AI leveraging not only sensors but high-definition video, a much more personalised experience is achievable. “In 2023, everyone will be talking about the Multiexperience – creating a seamless user experience, with one application, across a variety of digital touchpoints. These include websites, mobile apps, chatbots, augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR). Moving from device to device continuously or having the device remember where you left on your mobile, tablet, wearables, car or computer.” “Of particular interest is how electronic waste is managed and the type of energy that is sourced.” But what of cost, energy costs and financial viability? Pestridge, Telehouse, says, “With the price of energy reaching unprecedented highs, many organisations will see their IT spend continue to rise next year. However, while budgets might be able to absorb these extra costs in the short term, it is not a sustainable financial option for most businesses. Decision-makers will therefore start to look towards other means of ensuring a reliable, secure energy supply, and energy reduction schemes to minimise the impacts on operational costs, to ensure current and future productivity.” TRENDS AND PREDICTIONS www.networkseuropemagazine.com 18Evolution of 5G, if and how will the network landscape change? Fridström, Arelion.“As a backbone provider, we don’t see the evolution of 5G having a significant impact on how we operate. We are always planning for the future bandwidth and traffic needs of our customers and the wider internet. In the same way that we were ready for the huge uplift in traffic linked to streaming services and the pandemic, we are always looking at how traffic might evolve and making sure the capacity and performance is in the network. Whether it is 5G or the metaverse, these are just additional sources of network traffic to build into our plans rather than requiring any fundamental change. It is business as usual for backbone operators.” Dyke, Allied Telesis: “5G and WiFi are seen as competitors when it comes to coverage for mobile user services, these are currently competing in outdoor solutions where WiFi is not an option (eg data transmission outside a company). 5G will try to erode the WiFi market by moving in the direction of traditional WiFi services, starting from company outdoor access, and then to the non- controlled temperature environment (eg warehouses). Ultimately, it will then try to take some space in indoor access. In response, WiFi will evolve from 6 to 7, to improve performance and maintain its market, and to always be able to deliver higher speed within its coverage area.” Carlini, Schneider Electric: “Although we still don’t have a killer application to drive high-band mmWave 5G, many companies are starting to build out mid-band 5G, which is picking up speed, literally. “Mid-band offers a balance of speed, capacity and resiliency. Coverage has been expanding - quickly - and most leading service providers are moving quickly. Both 5G radio access networks and 5G network cores are coming online, and when both cores and access networks become true 5G service, this will be a configuration known as 5G Standalone or 5G-SA. The use of 5G network cores will also complete the shutdown of 3G networks, freeing up additional spectrum for 5G-SA networks. “While the world is still anxiously waiting for the “killer application” that will drive high-band 5G investment, some analysts are bullish. McKinsey and Co predict that by 2030, only one- quarter of the world's population will have access to high-band 5G coverage and that the rollout will cost $700 billion to $900 billion.” “As higher capacity and edge data centres proliferate, and new 5G and WiFi-6 networks allow for more IoT and AI leveraging not only sensors but high-definition video, a much more personalised experience is achievable.” TRENDS AND PREDICTIONS www.networkseuropemagazine.com 19Next >