S3Corp. Tech Blog

Humans need to get ready for the arrival of a new “digital brain” that will never grow old.

They also need to prepare for embedded smart chips, which will mark the beginning of true human-machine integration.

The next generation of “wisdom for humans” will be coming from the digital brain that resides in the cloud, according to Ken Hu, Huawei’s rotating (and current) CEO.

Autonomous vehicles, intelligent medicine, and practically everything that requires mental activity can be augmented by this massive digital brain,  Hu said at the Huawei Connect 2016 Conference in Shanghai.

In the future, all people and all things will have the ability to sense their environments. Essentially, each device or physical node on a massive, ubiquitous network will serve as an entry-point to an intelligent world, where “interconnected computers distributed all across the world will aggregate vast oceans of information and data, forming a ‘digital brain’ in the cloud,” according to Hu. “The wisdom and insight that it provides can be called upon at any time by people and machines that have access to high-speed connections and smart devices.”

Smart chips in your skin

“Now we’re in the age of wearables, which are just a few millimeters from our skin. Eventually, embedded smart chips will mark the beginning of true human-machine integration,” he added. “In the next five to 10 years, we will see all kinds of smart devices that automatically adapt to various use scenarios. Smartphones will only be one type among them.”

Play Pokemon Go in a 5G era

Hu said that optical fiber and wireless networks would provide super-high bandwidth connections and future 5G would be geared towards virtual reality and augmented reality.

“With current 4G technology, for example, in theory we should be able to achieve latency of around 50 milliseconds. But this type of response time is simply not enough to support VR and AR applications that run on networks, which is one of the reasons why people can’t always catch their Pokémon in Pokémon Go. There’s too much of a delay. In the 5G era, in theory we should be able to achieve network latency of one millisecond.”

Hu emphasized that like other major technological revolutions in human history, the cloud’s impact on society has already extended far beyond the confines of technology alone.

Cloud-born disruption

Companies like Google, Amazon, Didi Chuxing, and Airbnb, which were “born in the cloud,” were the driving force behind the Cloud 1.0 era, Hu said.

“These companies leverage cloud technology and cloud architecture to more effectively share resources. They also leverage mobile application development technology to connect their customers better, enabling them to adopt disruptive business models and create new value in otherwise traditional, difficult-to- enter sectors like hospitality and the taxi industry.”

According to Hu, the success of these disruptors seems to have awakened all industries to the potential inherent in cloud technology. In the next 10 years, we will enter the era of Cloud 2.0, in which enterprises are the main players and we will see the rise of countless industry clouds, he predicted.

Devices, pipes, and the cloud

Hu explained that, in an intelligent world, all things will be sentinent, connected and intelligent. Such a world will have three defining elements –  devices, network pipes and the cloud – which depend entirely on advanced ICT. In this intelligent world, devices will play the role of the “feelers” in an all-sensing environment – networks pipes will connect everything, and the cloud will be the source of intelligence behind all things.

He highlighted Huawei’s commitment to strategic partnerships such as its alliance with Deutsche Telekom. Together the two companies released the Open Telekom cloud, a complete set of services that includes private cloud, public cloud, and software solutions designed for enterprise use.

For Huawei, adapting this new landscape has required a shift from a “technology first” mindset to one that puts the customer first.

 “We believe the most noteworthy aspect of our collaboration is that the Open Telekom Cloud was completely driven by customer needs,” Hu said.

He added that by 2025, all enterprises will employ cloud technology and 85% of enterprise applications will be deployed on the cloud.  “Every company will integrate its core business with the cloud.”

What’s next for Cloud 3.0? Huawei revealed more of its plans and evolving cloud products at Huawei Connect 2016. Learn more here.