Tech Roundup February 2019
February 1 - The Singapore Management University (SMU) and Alibaba Cloud have launched a series of courses to upskill more than 1,000 working professionals in Singapore.
In January, Alibaba Group Holding launched A100, a partnership programme that offers companies a one-stop menu-based solution to accelerate digital transformation. A100 is built on the Alibaba Operating System, which encompasses cloud-based e-commerce, digital entertainment and local services, sales, logistics, supply chain optimisation, payments, and marketing.
February 3 - The Dubai Chamber's Market access programme bears fruit yet again with a number of major companies pairing with startups.
February 7 - Plantronics, a unified communications technology provider, joined forces with HP, Inc. to provide a high-quality native Microsoft Teams videoconferencing experience in larger conference rooms. Plantronics also launched its first entry into the huddle room video market with its new plug-and-play video bar, Polycom Studio, on February 20.
February 11 - Alsid, a French security firm, sets up regional infrastructure in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ). Its regional headquarters are in Hong Kong.
February 11 - Pivotal Software announces three new C-suite appointments for APJ. Lawrence Crowther is appointed Field CTO for APJ; Jerome Walter is Field Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for APJ; and Shaun Norris as the Field CIO for APJ.
February 12 - Huawei sets up ICT Academy with the Singapore University of Social Sciences, its second in Singapore.
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| Source: Huawei. Wang and Professor Attalah signed the agreement at the SUSS campus in late January, witnessed by Jim Lim, Global Senior Director, Huawei CTO office and Professor Tsui Kai Chong, Provost of SUSS. |
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| Source: Canon Singapore. The EOS RP. |
"The networked nature of our society has enhanced connectivity. But this can be exploited to disrupt and divide society, through cyberattacks, the spread of falsehoods, or other means," said Heng Swee Keat, Singapore's Finance Minister, during the Budget speech for 2019.
Heng noted that new technologies have made it easier to mount stronger, more sophisticated attacks, and announced a Home Team Science & Technology Agency to be launched by the end of this year. The new agency, under the purview of the Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is tasked with developing science and technology capabilities to support internal operational needs, particularly safeguarding the country.
As an inevitable consequence of the Smart Nation drive, Heng added that digital defence has been added to the Total Defence umbrella.
"Like the other pillars of Total Defence, Digital Defence involves everyone – individuals, community groups, businesses, and the government," he said. "We must all play our part to be secure, alert and responsible online, be it through practising good cyberhygiene, being vigilant against fake news, and helping one another use technology safely.
February 18 - KT Corporation and Hong Kong-based MVI Systems have signed a memorandum of understanding for joint artificial intelligence (AI) hotel services and business development in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions.
KT will link its GiGA Genie Hotel, a voice-recognition-based service platform powered by AI, with MVI’s information and entertainment solutions which run on Internet Protocol TV (IPTV). The partnership aims at providing voice-activated room automation, robot-delivered amenities, Korean pop culture content and other smart services by the end of the year. Service models will be developed and tested during the first half of this year.
February 20 - The Singapore Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) announced two cyber expert schemes and opened the Cyber Defence School (CDS).
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| Source: MINDEF. Singapore Senior Minister of State for Defence Heng Chee How (second from left) and ACCORD members view a demonstration of Cyber City, an interactive environment for cyber defence training. |
February 21 - The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has launched a public consultation to seek views on its proposed converged competition code for the telecommunication and media markets.APME RESEARCH
February 22 - Singtel, Optus and Ericsson completed a successful end-to-end 5G video call with augmented reality between Singapore and Australia. Ericsson announced an expanded 5G portfolio the same day.
February 25 - Huawei and Telkomsel to collaborate on advancing Digital Indonesia
February 26 - Singtel partnered China Mobile to ensure seamless use of Internet of Things devices across Singapore and China. The same day, Singtel announced a collaboration with Microsoft on AI.
February 26 - Crescent Girls’ School partnered Microsoft and Serl.io to launch Singapore's first mixed reality learning experience. The experience brings mixed reality into the education curriculum with Microsoft’s HoloLens for a biology module.
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| Source: Microsoft. Secondary Four students at Crescent Girls’ School in Singapore exploring a nuclear site in a mixed reality environment using the Microsoft HoloLens. |
APME RESEARCH
February 5 - The 2019 Microsoft Digital Civility Study placed Singapore 10th out of 22 countries on the Digital Civility Index, and found that Millennials and teenagers were the hardest hit by online risks in Singapore. Sixty-nine percent of Millennials (aged 18 to 34) and 66% of teenagers (aged 13 to 17) in Singapore have encountered at least one form of online risk in their lifetime.
APME EVENTS
February 15 - Money20/20, the platform where the financial services, payments and the fintech community connect and create the future of money, has announced the agenda for Money20/20 Asia.
February 4 - NVIDIA's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) has been added to 3DMark’s Port Royal benchmark, enabling GeForce RTX users to see the performance and image quality benefits of this technology.
February 7 - Cognizant announces a new CEO.
Puppet, which automates the delivery and operation of the software, named Yvonne Wassenaar as its CEO on January 31. Wassenaar brings experience in cloud computing and enterprise go-to market acceleration to the table, having held leadership positions at Airware, New Relic and VMware.
February 7 - OpenText, an enterprise information management (EIM) provider, has acquired Catalyst Repository Systems, which offers e-discovery solutions for legal requirements.
February 8 - Mastercard debuted a sonic brand identity. HSBC already has one. Could this be the start of something for brands?
February 8: AMD has announced the availability of the world’s first 7 nm gaming graphics card, the Radeon VII. On February 26, AMD also announced support for Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics processors in Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition drivers.
February 10 - NVIDIA Quadro RTX-powered design workstations were launched. BOXX Technologies, Dell, HP Inc. and Lenovo unveiled workstations with enhanced capabilities for real-time ray tracing, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and simulation.
GLOBAL RESEARCH
February 19 - Check Point Software Technologies, a provider of cybersecurity solutions globally, has published its Global Threat Index for January 2019. The index reveals a new backdoor Trojan affecting Linux servers which is distributing the XMRig cryptominer.
February 20 - The 2019 CrowdStrike Global Threat Report: Adversary Tradecraft and The Importance of Speed says nation-state activities and global e-crime across all targeted industries is increasing. The continued rise of the practice of combining targeted, intrusion-style tactics for the deployment of ransomware across large organisations - "big game hunting" - is one of the most significant trends in e-crime for 2018.
Key findings include:
- Increased collaboration between highly sophisticated e-crime threat actors and the use of geo-targeting to support multiple e-crime families
- Media, technology and academia as top targets for malware-free intrusions
- Increasing operational tempo from China-based adversaries
INTERNATIONAL EVENTS
At MWC19, February 25 to 28 in Barcelona, Spain, Huawei showcased government and enterprise solutions for the first time and launched new all-flash storage. Microsoft unveiled the HoloLens 2 and new Azure services.
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| Source: KT. Visitors watch the 5G-powered AI robot cafe b;eat2E in action. The cafe was co-developed by KT and Dal.Komm Coffee, and went live at MWC 2019. |
KT and Dal.Komm Coffee, Korea's first robot café franchise, showcased b;eat 2nd Evolution (b;eat2E), at MWC. The world's first 5G-connected robot cafe, developed by Dal.Komm, is powered by KT's AI solution, GiGA Genie. B;eat2E, uses a robot arm to autonomously mix and serve 47 tailored drinks.
Ericsson said it would switch on 5G globally in 2019. President and CEO Börje Ekholm stressed the role of 5G as a critical national infrastructure. The company has publicly announced 5G deals with 10 named service provider customers and has signed 42 memoranda of understanding.
At the time, he said: “Consumers and enterprises are waiting for 5G. According to Ericsson
ConsumerLab research, one-third of smartphone users globally will change either immediately or
within six months to a service provider that switches on 5G. Today, the US and Asia are leading in
5G development.”
*Dates reflect the timezone the news was announced in.
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