GEC NEWS WIREPower of innovation is incredible and the future of business success is going to be defined by how innovative and well structured your journey to connectivity is. Magnus Karlsson, Director, Advisory services, Cybercom tells us how Cybercom as a trusted business partner helps enterprises make the right decisions on the path to digital transformation in a connected world.
“IoT is something all should consider; once you put connectivity in place, the potential for innovation will be immense unlike ever before”
Magnus Karlsson, Director, Advisory services, Cybercom
In a world of digitalisation, Internet of things has become a concept you can’t ignore. It’s been proven by now that the future of business success lies in the innovation of connectivity. Cybercom plays the role of a trusted business partner in this innovation quest helping customers understand the challenges they face and advising them on the best moves to make.
Magnus Karlsson, Director, Advisory services tells us that at Cybercom, they offer their services in three phases- starting with advisory services, followed by solution services, and in the third phase, they can cooperate and manage those services, or in other words, host them basically for their customers.
When it comes to advisory services, they have 2 entry points- first one is through business modelling. They helping customers understand how to benefit from connectivity, and how to make money out of it when you connect products and services. The other thing they talk of is security. How to manage security in an IoT world? In words of Magnus, “It will be impossible to secure your system. You will be hacked. That’s the takeaway from IoT. IT security as we see today will be dead. So, there’s a need to find an alternative way.”
Cybercom has a service termed compliance management. Its objective is to help customers to see what kind of security level they have currently; because Magnus says, without knowing that, it’s not possible to know the risk areas and the ways to prevent and handle breaches.
Cybercom is covering the whole MEA market from its headquarters in Dubai (Mr Ammar Adhami is the Head of Cybercom International, HQ in Dubai). “We approach the market in two ways-as business advisory or security advisory”, says Magnus. They have partnered with Datamatics and complement eachother in their services. Apart from them, leading vendors like Dell and RedHat are Cybercom’s technical partners as well. Magnus adds that they are constantly looking for new productive partnerships in the IoT space in the region.
When asked about the way the Middle East has been responding to new gen technologies, Magnus sees high ambition in the region, especially in Dubai. The city is focused on smartness and happiness and hence it’s very refreshing to observe the positive energy in the region. In addition, the lack of the baggage of legacy systems makes it all the way a better and faster journey for the region to adopt the best and new out there when it comes to technology.
So, which are the verticals that are rapidly adopting the IoT in the region? As Magnus puts it across, “Telcos are definitely spearheading the race; since IoT is what they have been doing since eternity. Apart from that, automotive and logistics sectors are showing great potential and are adopting IoT towards smarter systems in operation.”
Too many connections being talked of might lead to concerns over technology becoming way too invasive. But then as Magnus says, “the moment you will draw a line, people will be more eager to cross it”. So, there’s no point having rules as to what should be connected and what not. But yeah, in case at any step, anybody is offended, steps should be taken for redressal.
“Power of innovation is incredible”, says Magnus. He believes just like the internet has become a part of life today; in few years down the line, IoT will be understood better and implemented in a big way. But what needs to be kept in mind is that it doesn’t come without risks. So, Magnus says, “It’s very important for enterprises to manage security continuously and with high focus. IoT is something all should consider; once you put connectivity in place, the potential for innovation will be immense unlike ever before.” He adds that when it comes to IoT, every organization will have unique requirements so, it’s not really a plausible option to buy IoT solution through a box; rather that is something, organizations shall need to get developed as per requirements of the business with advice from a trusted partner.
