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100 Shropshire Jobs to be Created at Multi-Million Pound Hotel

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The owner of Telford’s International Centre has released details of a new £12 million hotel in the town, which will create 100 Shropshire Jobs.

Southwater Event Group is planning to build the 100-bedroom hotel, multi-storey car park, restaurant and bar on the land beside the conference venue in the centre of Telford.

It is separate to plans submitted by Telford & Wrekin Council last month for a 68-bedroom hotel on a patch of green space on the Southwater development.

Southwater Event Group, which owns The International Centre, is moving forward with its plans for a 100-bedroomed hotel, a multi-storey car park and a new restaurant and bar on land adjacent to the venue.

The new development is part of the long-term masterplan drawn up in partnership with Telford & Wrekin Council in 2009 which led to the creation of the Southwater area of the town creating an enormous number of Shropshire Jobs.

Outline planning permission is already in place and work is set to start later this year.

SEG chief executive Tom Gray said: “Our plans are for a site that is privately owned by our company, and the scale of the project and the investment we’re proposing shows our long-term commitment to Telford.

“The new on-site hotel and extra car parking spaces will help us to accommodate multiple events simultaneously more easily which, in turn, will help to ease any occasional pressure on the surrounding road network while events are in progress.”

Mr Gray said the new multi-storey car park, on the site of the existing ice rink car park, would provide more secure parking for hotel guests, visitors to The International Centre, shoppers using Telford Town Centre and Southwater, and visitors to the ice rink itself.

Southwater Event Group already has two on-site hotels adjacent to The International Centre – The International Hotel, and The Holiday Inn Telford-Ironbridge – as well as the nearby Ramada Telford-Ironbridge Hotel in Forge Gate.

– Shropshirestar

Cisco and IBM Collaborate on Internet of things Analytics

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Cisco and IBM combine edge analytics with Watson to enable a deeper understanding of data generated on the Internet of things

Cisco and IBM have begun a global collaboration to generate instant internet of things (IoT) insight at the network edge using Cisco’s edge analytics tools and IBM’s Watson IoT and business analytics technology.

Although billions of IoT devices and sensors are already generating huge amounts of data in real time, those businesses without easy access to high bandwidth connectivity to support access to the cloud have struggled to realise insight from this data, the two firms said.

Cisco and IBM believe that by joining forces, they can offer a new way of producing immediate and actionable insight at the point of data collection and can help enterprises operating on the network edge, such as manufacturing, shipping, mining and energy production, gain a deeper understanding of relevant data generated by the IoT.

“The way we experience and interact with the physical world is being transformed by the power of cloud computing and the Internet of things,” saidHarriet Green, general manager of IBM Watson IoT, commerce and education.

“For an oil rig in a remote location or a factory where critical decisions have to be taken immediately, uploading all data to the cloud is not always the best option. IBM and Cisco are taking these powerful IoT technologies the last mile, extending Watson IoT from the cloud to the edge of computer networks, helping to make these strong analytics capabilities available virtually everywhere, always.”

Mala Anaud, senior vice-president of Cisco’s data and analytics platforms group, said the collaboration would also help enterprises make better decisions based on critical data that may previously have been overlooked, or completely undetected.

“With the vast amount of data being created at the edge of the network, using existing Cisco infrastructure to perform streaming analytics is the perfect way to cost-effectively obtain real-time insights,” she said. “Our powerful technology provides customers with the flexibility to combine this edge processing with the cognitive computing power of the IBM Watson IoT platform.”

As an example, workers in underground mines may be able to monitor the health and behaviour of critical machinery and plan better for maintenance and upgrades. Cisco claimed that if they were able to adopt new approaches to condition-based maintenance, they could halve maintenance costs and increase productivity by up to 25%.

A number of tests of the collaboration have already begun in the field. In Canada, comms company Bell Canada has been using a 4G network to deliver Watson IoT and Cisco edge analytics to allow enterprise customers to collect real-time data and maximise their performance.

And in Colombia, the port of Cartagena has tapped into analytics on the edge to improve its efficiency by getting ahead of equipment degradation.

“As a container terminal trans-shipment hub, our port ships goods to almost 600 ports in 136 countries around the world,” said Eduardo Bustamante, director of operations at the port.

“The opening of the new Panama Canal has created new challenges for all ports in the region and has made service reliability a key factor of success.

“With these new capabilities from IBM and Cisco, we gain immediate insight into the health and operations of our more than 47 rubber tyre gantries and 180 trucks. As a result, we expect to be more productive in our maintenance processes to help ensure our fleet runs even more efficiently and vessels and cargo are moving smoothly in and out of the port.”

– Alex Scroxton

If you are interested in Enterprise, Infrastructure or IoT, check out some of our latest jobs here.

Xiaomi buys Microsoft Smartphone Patents

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Smartphone maker Xiaomi has bought the rights to hundreds of Microsoft’s smartphone inventions.

Experts say the patent deal paves the way for the Chinese firm to sell its handsets in Western markets.

Microsoft will benefit from the fact that some of its Android apps – including Office and Skype – will now be pre-installed on Xiaomi devices.

The announcement comes at a time when Xiaomi has been struggling to meet sales targets.

The Beijing-based company originally set itself a target of selling 100 million smartphones in 2015.

But it managed to sell only 71 million, partly because of increased competition from domestic rivals.

Oppo and Vivo overtook Xiaomi in phone shipments in the first three months of 2016, while Huawei extended its lead, according to research firm IDC.

That pushed Xiaomi down to seventh place in global market share. It had been ranked third in 2014.

Biggest challenge

“The patent deal comes at a pretty important time for Xiaomi, which has topped out in the Chinese market,” said Ben Wood from consultancy CCS Insight.

“Intellectual property had been the biggest challenge it faced in breaking out of its active markets in Asia and Brazil. Having a patent portfolio lets it defend itself against rivals who would otherwise have sued.”

Xiaomi gains nearly 1,500 patents as part of the deal, including rights to communications, video and cloud technologies.

The company has previously faced accusations of patent infringement from Blue Spike, a US-based rightsholder and Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson.

Microsoft has recently made moves to scale back its handset operations, cutting jobs in its smartphone division and selling its Nokia-branded feature phone business.

However, under chief executive Satya Nadella’s leadership it has tried to encourage use of its products on non-Windows handsets.

Xiaomi already used Microsoft’s Azure platform to power its MiCloud service.

From September, it will also pre-load Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Skype onto several of its devices including the Mi 5 and Redmi Note 3.

“Microsoft doesn’t have much interest in being a mass market smartphone manufacturer,” said Mr Wood.

“In doing the patent deal with Xiaomi, it gets an opportunity to get more users engaged with its apps, and can attempt to turn them into an ongoing revenue stream via subscriptions and other fees.

“There are an awful lot of people using Microsoft products in China already, but typically the software is pirated and has made the firm no money.”

  • BBC News

Asus Announce Release of New Household Robot

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Asus Announce Released Date of ‘Zenbo’. The House Robot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz5bWCna5uM

Asus made many exciting announcements on Monday at Computex, including the reveals of Zenbook 3 and the ZenFone 3 range. Perhaps most surprising, though, was Zenbo, Asus’ adorable home robot.

Zenbo will launch in the next 9 to 12 months, said Asus CEO Jerry Shen in an interview with CNET. It’s a long time for sure, but announcing the product early is deliberate on Asus’ end. It hopes to attract developers to work on apps for Zenbo, to have a robust ecoystem before the robot becomes available.

“If we didn’t announce Zenbo, we wouldn’t be able to get enough people interested. It’s a chicken and egg situation,” he said.

“The announcement timing’s really tough, but when I spoke to Jonney [Shih, Asus’ chairman], he thinks that if we have the momentum from the show, we will have more people join the program.”

Similarly, IDC Research analyst Bryan Ma told CNET that Zenbo would only do well if it can get the software to make the robot viable.

“The first thought that came to mind when Zenbo rolled on stage is what kind of applications would be available. It may be cute, but the cuteness can only go so far without apps,” said Ma.

When the Zenbo finally hits store shelves, Asus says it’ll be able to move independently around the house, recognize faces, play games with kids, read stories, assist with cooking recipes, place phone calls and more.

– Aloysius Low

BlockChain – A New Model for IT

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The digital revolution is bringing a New Model for IT…

A radically different platform for business and other institutions that can take us through the next quarter-century of human progress is coming to light. It is blockchain – the technology underlying the digital currency Bitcoin. This technology platform is open and programmable.

For the last few decades, we have had the internet of information. Blockchain is bringing the internet of value. As such, it has the potential to unleash countless new applications and as-yet unrealised capabilities that could transform everything in the next 25 years.

At its most basic, blockchain is a global database – an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions, but virtually everything of value and importance to humankind: birth and death certificates, marriage licences, deeds and titles of ownership, educational degrees, financial accounts, medical procedures, insurance claims, votes, transactions between smart objects, and anything else that can be expressed in code. This ledger represents the truth because mass collaboration constantly reconciles it.

We will not need to trust each other in the traditional sense, because the new platform ensures integrity. Think about it like this: trust achieved through clever code and mass collaboration. Collective self-interest, hard-coded into this new native digital medium for value, would ensure the safety, security and reliability of commerce online. Trust is programmed into the technology, which is why we call blockchain the “trust protocol”.

Some scholars have argued that the invention of double-entry book-keeping enabled the rise of capitalism and the nation state. Today, the new platform enables a reconciliation of digital records – call it the digital reconciliation. The “internet of everything” needs a “ledger of everything”. Business, commerce and the economy need a digital reckoning.

Building 21st century companies

It turns out that every business, institution, government and individual can benefit in profound ways.

How about the corporation – a pillar of modern capitalism? With the rise of a global peer-to-peer platform for identity, trust, reputation and transactions, we will be able to re-engineer deep structures of the firm, for innovation and shared value creation. We are talking about building 21st century companies that look more like networks than the vertically integrated hierarchies of the industrial age. The whole financial service industry is already being reinvented by blockchain, and others will soon follow.

How about the internet of things? In the not-too-distant future, billions of smart things in the physical world will be sensing, responding, communicating, sharing important data; and generating, buying and selling their own electricity, doing such things as protecting our environment, charging our homes and managing our health. It turns out that this internet of everything needs a ledger of everything.

As with major paradigm shifts that preceded it, blockchain will create winners and losers. But if we do this right, blockchain technology can usher in a halcyon age of entrepreneurship, empower us to reinvent our institutions for the better and create a fairer and more prosperous world.

This creates significant opportunities and challenges for the CIO. Like other big innovations, such as the PC, the web, mobility and the social web, blockchain experimentation often starts outside the IT function. Thoughtful CIOs should view this as positive because every business will become a blockchain business and every business leader needs to explore opportunities for transformation.

The trouble is that IT challenges are enterprise challenges. Companies need to have an integrated enterprise architecture to have a single version of the truth and to harness the power of blockchains. They need to have security standards and systems to protect them from bad actors. They need backup capabilities to ensure business continuity.  They need an enterprise strategy for the next generation of blockchain collaboration tools and systems to cut across business silos. They need to have elite IT talent to deal with the many complexities of becoming a blockchain business.

Blockchain Services Supermarket

There is a solution to this dilemma. A new model of the IT function is emerging – one that makes the CIO more important than ever.

Call it the “blockchain services supermarket”. Here’s how it works: the CIO anticipates business needs and provisions a rich supply of services, from standards for blockchain application development and architecture-compliant applications, to elite talent with expertise in blockchain architecture and development – all in the “shelves” of a supermarket.

The business customer goes to the supermarket – a self-service portal or catalogue – and pulls up the available services. They choose the services, the level of service required, and combines them to meet their technology needs.

How can a CIO get started? Here are some suggestions:

  • Personal use of this technology is a precondition to comprehension. Get a digital wallet on your mobile phone and buy something with digital currencies.
  • Takes steps to ensure you are informed about the blockchain revolution.
  • Hire or transition key blockchain IT talent to get going.
  • Initiate a next-generation blockchain architecture project. Every firm will need a target architecture and a migration strategy so that new investments contribute to a desired future, rather than perpetuating the past.
  • Launch a pilot where your company can learn, gain experience and make initial successes. Think big, but start small.

Start fast, too. It is likely that the second era of the internet will happen much more quickly than the first, because many of the technological preconditions for it to take off already exist.

  • Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott

A Guide to IT Infrastructure / Cloud Computing

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What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud Infrastructure refers to the hardware and software components — such as servers, storage, networking and virtualization software — that are needed to support the computing requirements of a cloud computing model. In addition, cloud infrastructures include a software abstraction layer that virtualizes resources and logically presents them to users through programmatic means.

In cloud computing, virtualized resources are hosted by a service provider or IT department and delivered to users over a network or the Internet. These resources include virtual machines and components such as servers, compute, memory, network switches, firewalls, load balancers and storage.

In a cloud computing architecture, which refers to the front end and back end of a cloud computing environment, cloud infrastructure consists of the back end components.

Cloud infrastructure is present in each of the three main cloud computing models — infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS). Together, these three models form what’s often called a cloud computing stack, with IaaS as the foundation, PaaS as the middle layer, and SaaS as the top layer.

Businesses use cloud infrastructures to run their applications. Unlike subscription-based pricing models, or payment structures that enable users to subscribe to vendor services for a set price, cloud infrastructures are typically purchased using a pay-per-use model. In a pay-per-usage model, users only pay for the services consumed — generally on an hourly, weekly or monthly basis.

Rather than purchase cloud infrastructure from a provider, businesses can also build cloud infrastructures on-premises. When cloud providers maintain the cloud infrastructure, the environment is a public cloud. When the organization using cloud maintains the cloud infrastructure, the environment is a private cloud. And when both the cloud provider and user own pieces of the cloud infrastructure, the environment is a hybrid cloud.

If you are already familiar with all this information then be sure to check out our latest job which offers the opportunity to join a business with sky high performance results and infrastructure solutions.

– Techtarget

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