Nutanix said in a press statement that it believes its placement in the Leaders quadrant is a strong validation of its leadership in the market it pioneered and of its vision to become the next generation operating system for the enterprise cloud.

Nutanix believes that by utilizing its Enterprise Cloud OS software, customers can realize the simplicity, agility and fractional IT consumption benefits of public cloud, with the control and security needed in the enterprise datacenter. With a unified IT operating environment that melds private, public and distributed clouds, it provides a single point of control for managing infrastructure and applications in any cloud. This delivers a consistent, high-performance and seamless experience for both cloud operators and consumers of cloud-delivered services and applications.

“To us, our strong position in this Magic Quadrant says it all, and we couldn’t be prouder,” said Dheeraj Pandey, co-founder and CEO, Nutanix.  “We believe this stand alone assessment of the HCI space comes at a key inflection point in the market. We are now seeing enterprises of all sizes, across all industries, embrace our pioneering HCI solution as a fundamental element of their multi-cloud architectures. And combined with the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS, we feel our mission is freeing customers to build their infrastructure, run their applications, and choose their cloud platform — all on their terms, not a vendor’s lock-in agenda. Ultimately, we believe long-term market leadership starts with this freedom.”

James Wu, president for Southeast Asia at Huawei Technologies, said in a media briefing at the Mobile World Congress (MWC2018) that the firm would largely expand its presence in the region by extending connectivity to include the unconnected and igniting broadband with blazing speed.

“For Southeast Asia, the growth will be driven by big population. We are very confident in economic growth of Southeast Asia as well as our capability in building telecommunication infrastructure there,” he said, boldly.

The region is home to over 653 million people, accounting for 8.59 per cent of the total world population, according to the latest United Nations’ estimates.

“We are committed to providing ICT technology and services in Southeast Asia to push forward digital agenda of these countries. Opportunities are developing together with the digital economy,” he said.

Among the Southeast Asian nations, Wu sees Thailand as one of the most promising spots for the firm’s business expansion, as it has a stable economy and very good 4G network and digital infrastructure in place.

He said the Thai market was as important as that of India, one of most populated nations in the world. He also considers Myanmar as a critical market, thanks to the government’s efforts to build a seamless 4G network by issuing spectrum licences to private firms, for one thing.

“These markets have a very big potential. So, we are committed to bringing advanced technology and solutions to the markets. We will work with our local partners to build the ecosystem, sharing our solutions and expertise with the local communities,” he said.

According to Wu, the firm will equally focus on all the nations in the region, regardless of the development gap between CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam) and some other nations.

“Developing the digital economy has become the consensus of most countries, and we are very glad to see many countries in Southeast Asia have launched their digital economy strategies such as Thailand 4.0 and Digital connected Myanmar,” he said.

Wu considers ICT as a high-potential sector and foundation of the economy. According to Huawei GCI, every additional US$1 of ICT Infrastructure investment could bring a return of $3 in gross domestic product in 2016, and the potential return would increase to $5 in 2025.

“ICT drives innovation and transformation in other sectors. It also offers new tools and solutions for responding to social challenges. With it artificial intelligence, ICT allows better communication between people, businesses and governments, and enables real-time agility,” he said.

At the briefing, Wu highlighted four key stages in digital transformation_ building ICT infrastructure, building security for both the physical and digital worlds, developing a supportive environment for industries to go digital, and enabling broader information sharing and processing to help cities and governments better manage the digitisation process.

According to the executive, the firm has been leveraging experiences across borders through close cooperation with Asean countries at each of the four stages.

He said governments should give priority to digital infrastructure, with a focus on broadband and cloud computing, to promote fair competition and inclusive development.

Wu urged to transform traditional infrastructure (such as railways, roads, water, and electricity) into digital one by accelerating industry upgrade.

“With strong government support and policies that enable effective digital transformation, the doorway to the intelligent world is open,” he said.

He pledged to bring the power of digital to every single person and organisation. The firm focuses on ICT infrastructure and smart devices for the development of information, automation, and intelligence technologies and enables partners to grow their content, applications, and cloud with scale, security and reliability.

“We stand at the precipice of the 4th Industrial Revolution, with ICT networks as a foundation and artificial intelligence enabling an intelligent world where all things sense, all things connect, and all things are intelligent. This will create a digital transformation market worth $23 trillion [globally],” he said.

According to Huawei’s Global Industry Vision, the number of personal smart devices will reach 40 billion, 90 per cent of smart device users will have an intelligent personal assistant, and many households will have a robot by 2025.

It expects 100 billion connections will be created around the world, 85 per cent of enterprise applications will be deployed in the cloud, and 86 per cent of global companies will adopt artificial intelligence. Additionally, 180ZB of data will be generated around the world every year, a 20-fold increase compared with today.

At MWC2018, the firm launched over 20 new products, showcased the results of its cooperation with over 300 partners and hosted 5 forums. It also won the “Outstanding Contribution to the Mobile Industry Award” for 2018 by Global System for Mobile Communications.

Talk about 5G’s potential to pave the way to a world of self-driving cars, lightening-fast video downloads and smart cities have dominated the Mobile World Congress for years.

But at the event in Barcelona this year, companies were full of concrete announcements of early versions of 5G uses.

The first commercial 5G roll-outs begin this year and next in the United States, Korea and Japan, and the wireless industry is counting on the new technology to trigger a wave of growth in equipment sales and mobile services.

China’s Huawei unveiled in Barcelona what it said is the world’s first commercial chipset that meet the standards of 5G wireless networks, which are better suited for virtual reality and high definition video.

KT Corp, South Korea’s largest telecoms firm which exhibited several 5G services at the Pyeongchang Winter Games, displayed at the congress what it said was the world’s first 5G tablet.

The telecoms industry only agreed to the first common 5G standards in December and analysts cautioned that the development of the network still has a long way to go.

Much of what is being billed as 5G in fact “resembles more LTE++”, or an improved version of the existing 4G network in use in most developed nations, said Carole Manero, director of studies at IDATE, a French think tank on the digital economy.

“There is a lot of marketing use of 5G,” she added.

Huge investments

The next common 5G standards will only be announced later this year so “what is being proposed now is just a first version, many evolutions will follow, as was the case with 4G,” said BMI Research analyst Dexter Thillien.

Tech firms are spending heavily to develop products that take advantage of the network’s possibilities.

“We are investing heavily in 5G, nearly 600 million dollars per year in research and development,” said Huawei executive director and president of products and solutions Ryan Ding.

Telecoms operators are also investing heavily to develop 5G networks for fear of falling behind their competitors.

5G will account for 14 percent of global wireless connections by 2025, according to GSMA, the global mobile operators association.

Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Hoettges has estimated the cost of providing 5G networks in Europe alone will be EUR300-500 billion ($370-615 billion).

The telecoms industry will invest $275 billion in the United States to develop 5G networks there, Sprint chief executive Marcelo Claure said Monday at the mobile congress in Barcelona.

Europe lagging

While the European Union wants European companies to start offering 5G in 2020, spending to develop the network has been lower than in Asia or the United States.

“The timescales vary widely on a country by country basis but the USA and China are the most likely winners to be the first” in 5G deployment, Nokia chief executive Rajeev Suri said on Sunday.

He said he still believed some European operators would start to move up to 5G next year.

In Europe telecoms firms are focusing their 5G efforts on business uses instead of by the general public as in other regions.

European telecom operators are more cautious because the move to 4G by consumers was lower in Europe than elsewhere, said Thillien of BMI Research.

“European operators know that demand will be low by the public. The y were burned by 4G and see that European consumers are more sceptical,” he added.

With most European operators targeting 2020 for its rollout, 5G is the term on everyone’s lips at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

How does 5G work?

Like the 4G networks currently widely available, 5G is based on radio frequencies, the same used for television broadcasts, walkie-talkies, wi-fi signals or a garage door remote control.

It will use a higher radio frequency which are not in use and can move data at a much faster speed.

But since higher radio frequencies don’t travel as far as lower frequencies, it will rely on denser arrays of small antennas and artificial intelligence to offer data speeds up to 50 or 100 times faster than current 4G networks.

What can it do?

5G will allow people to send texts, make calls, and browse the web as always — but will dramatically increase the speed at which data is transferred across the network.

This will make it easier to download and upload Ultra HD and 3D video and allow smartphones to run more complex mobile internet apps.

5G will also make room for the thousands of internet-connected devices entering our everyday world.

The combination of speed and quicker response times could unlock the full capabilities of other hot trends in technology, offering a boost to self-driving cars, drones, virtual reality and the wider Internet of Things.

Beyond speed, the biggest benefit of 5G is its low latency, or the short lag time between a device pinging the network and getting a response.

A 5G network virtually eliminates it, meaning a surgeon may not need to be in the same room as a patient in the future for example.

Why is 5G seen as essential?

The tech industry is counting on 5G to trigger a wave of growth in equipment sales and mobile services.

For years telecom operators and device makers have debated common standards, which will make it possible to have a similar network everywhere and develop products that could be targeted to it.

What are the obstacles to its adoption?

The industry is still fighting over the nitty-gritty details of the technology itself and a lack of common standards could slow its adoption.

5G compatible phones are still not on the market and in many countries 4G deployment is not yet complete. In a number of African countries it is only just starting.

Telecoms operators must make a massive investment to deploy 5G.

Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Hoettges has estimated the cost of providing 5G networks in Europe alone at EUR300 billion to EUR500 billion ($370 billion to $615 billion).

5G also faces competition from other technologies that may be better suited for the connected devices, such as French firm Sigfox’s non-cellular IoT network or LoRa, a rival non-standardised low power wide area (LPWA) offering backed by France-based Orange amongst others.

The announcement was made during a seminar that locally launched the recent World Bank report, “The Internet of Things: The New Government-to-Business Platform”.

Over 150 representatives from the Thai government, international organisations, businesses, NGOs and the media attended the seminar.

“The Internet of Things plays a key role in our daily lives,” said Minister Pichet Durongkaveroj of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES).

“Recognizing the importance of IoT in creating digital innovation that will boost productivity and improve individual lives” the Ministry is working to promote its development through various initiatives, said Pichet.

The Ministry has spearheaded creation of the IoT Institute to nurture a healthy IoT ecosystem in Thailand. The seminar was the Institute’s first step “in promoting the development and adoption of this exciting technology,” said Pichet.

Policy recommendations include improving the knowledge and familiarity of IoT among most government agencies and its relevance to their immediate functions; translating “hype to reality” and preparing how-to “toolkits” to implement initiatives with IoT components; and disseminating “lessons” from peers, as many agencies are keen to learn about initiatives in other countries, and what had worked or had not.

Fujitsu developed the new service for the distribution industry, which is struggling with labor shortages. It shows on computer screens the distances that workers move and how long their activities take, monitoring these elements via sensors installed in warehouses.

The main feature of the new service is to check whether warehouse staff are using inefficient processes during their work.

In the future, the company plans to offer proposals about the most suitable staff allocations and workflows by using artificial intelligence (AI), Fujitsu officials said.

Fujitsu also offers similar services for retailers. The company aims to earn a total of ¥20 billion in sales from the service by fiscal 2020.

The case, which dates back to 2013, involves a US warrant ordering Microsoft to turn over the contents of an email account used by a suspected drug trafficker, whose data is stored in a cloud computing center in Ireland.

It has been watched closely because of its implications for privacy and surveillance in the digital age, and specifically how law enforcement can reach across borders to obtain digital evidence that may be scattered across the globe.

Microsoft has maintained that US courts lack jurisdiction over the data stored in Ireland.

The US tech giant, backed by many firms in the sector and civil liberties groups, argues the case is critical in showing that American authorities cannot simply request such data via a warrant without going through the process set out in law enforcement treaties between countries.

The Snowden effect

Microsoft president Brad Smith told reporters last week the principle is especially relevant after former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden leaked details on global US surveillance programs in 2013.

“We’ve always said it was important to win this case to win the confidence of people around the world in American technology,” Smith said in a conference call.

Smith said officials in Europe have been notably concerned about the implications of a decision in favor of the US government, and that was made clear during a discussion with a German official on the case after a lower judge ruled against Microsoft.

“He said that unless we persist with this lawsuit and turned it around, no German state would ever store data in a data center operated by an American company,” Smith said.

Last year, a federal appeals court sided with Microsoft, overturning a district judge ruling.

Yet the case is complicated by the intricacies of cloud computing, which allow data to be split up and stored in multiple locations around the world even for a single user, and some analysts say the court has no good solution.

“The speed by which data can be moved about the globe, the fact of third-party control and the possibility of data being held in locations that have absolutely no connection to either the crime or target being investigated makes location of the 0s and 1s that comprise our emails a particularly poor basis for delimiting jurisdiction,” American University law professor Jennifer Daskal wrote on the Just Security blog.

“Conversely, there is a real risk that a straight-up US government win will — rightly or wrongly — be perceived around the world as US law enforcement claiming the right to access data anywhere, without regard to the countervailing sovereign interests. This creates a precedent that foreign nations are likely to mimic.”

‘Larger problem’

Both sides have said that any court decision may be flawed, and that Congress needs to address the issue by rewriting the 1986 Stored Communications Act at issue.

Microsoft’s Smith said he was encouraged by a bill introduced this year called the CLOUD Act that would authorize cross-border data warrants with countries that meet certain standards for privacy and civil liberties.

The proposal has the backing of the tech sector, according to Smith, and respects the laws of each country where a request is made.

John Carlin, a former assistant US attorney general for national security, agreed that a legislative solution is preferable.

“Regardless of how this case turns out, it’s not going to solve the larger problem,” Carlin said.

Carlin said current law affecting crimes with cross-border components are not designed for the digital age.

“The problem now is there is a lack of clarity over how you can serve traditional legal process for what used to be local crimes,” he added.

Carlin said the CLOUD bill could address the issues because it “provides incentives for countries that have protections for civil liberties.”

But some civil liberties activists have expressed concern the measure would expand US surveillance capabilities.

The measure “would give unlimited jurisdiction to US law enforcement over any data controlled by a service provider, regardless of where the data is stored and who created it,” said Camille Fischer of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

It also “creates a dangerous precedent for other countries who may want to access information stored outside their own borders, including data stored in the United States,” she said.

The South Korean firm showcased the Galaxy S9 on the eve of the official start of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which comes after a year of flat smartphone sales.

With no other major handset maker using the annual event, the world’s largest phone show, to launch a new flagship device this year, Samsung had the opportunity to grab the spotlight.

The S9 features essentially the same design as last year’s previous flagship, with the full screen and curved glass edge of the S8, which was followed by Apple’s iPhone X and others.

But it includes louder sound, a faster processor and software that turns selfies into animated emojis, which will appeal to consumers who are increasingly preferring to use their phones to send text messages rather than talking.

Samsung also included a dual lense camara on the Galaxy S line for the first time, which will improve low-light capture and enhance slow motion video, which is popular on social media.

A service powered by artificial intelligence (AI) allows users to point its camera to instantly translate a sign in a foreign language.

It is also one of the few flagship phones left that still comes with a standard headphone jack.

“Despite these incremental innovations, Samsung will have to smartly leverage its brand and marketing machine to correctly position the new smartphones to a target audience,” said Forrester analyst Thomas Husson.

Global smartphone sales fell by 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter due to slower than expected Christmas sales, according to research firm IDC.

Overall global smartphone sales for 2017 were virtually flat — down 0.1 percent at 1.47 billion units — as phone makers struggled to come up with innovations that encourage customers to upgrade their devices.

Cost concerns

Samsung suffered a humiliating recall of its Galaxy Note 7 device in 2016 after several devices exploded, but its Galaxy 8 smartphone was a consumer and critical success.

While it kept its lead over Apple as the world’s biggest seller of smartphones in 2017 with a 21.6 percent market share, up from 21.1 percent in the previous year, Samsung faces stiffer competition from Chinese rivals like Huawei and Xiaomi that offer cheaper handsets with many high-end features.

The S9 will sell for 859 euros ($1,055), a price which analysts warned could turn off many consumers.

While the S9’s camera is “markedly different” in quality from older smartphones that people already own “consumers may delay purchase because of rising flagship prices,” IHS Markit said in a research note.

“Samsung must work hard to market the benefits of these designs to counter negative pricing perception.”

Huawei unveiled a new laptop and tablet in Barcelona earlier on Sunday but will present its new flagship smartphone — the P20 — on March 27 in Paris.

Thomas said this will allow it to “fine tune its marketing message based on how the new Samsung S9 devices are perceived by consumers”.

Earlier on Sunday South Korea’s LG unveiled the V30S — an updated version of its flagship V30 smartphone launched six months ago — which features higher memory and artificial intelligence-based technologies that focus on photos and voice recognition.

More than 100,000 people are expected to descend on Barcelona for the annual show, which features driverless carmakers, social media giants and chip companies in addition to handset makers.

A pilot project involving three Thai medical research facilities and a China-based genomics company will build a genome-sequence database of Thais in order to better match medical treatment to patient needs.

The Thailand Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences (TCELS), Thailand Research Fund (TRF), and Ramathibodi Hospital’s Centre for Medical Genomics have together teamed up with Shenzen-based BGI Genomics, one of the world’s genome sequencing centres, to collect the entire genome sequence for Thais.

The five-year pilot project will collect the whole 19,000 genome sequencing of 10,000 Thai volunteers. The results of the pilot project would then form the initial data as a national “bio-bank” for Thais is kicked off.

The sequencing work will begin at a TCELS lab, before being expanded and moved to Thailand Science Park, which will also serve as the home of the national bio-bank data centre.

Sirisak Tapakam, TCELS’ deputy director for academic affairs and innovation, said that collected genomic information will help ensure that Thais receive precise medical treatment in future.

“We have been running genome sequencing of 120 Thai people,” said Sirisak. “Under this pilot project, we will collect the whole 19,000 genomes in each of 10,000 people. We really hope this will accelerate further genome sequencing for the whole population.

“The beauty of having genome sequencing information is it helps the country improve public health policy and platforms,” he said.

Under the collaboration, BGI Genomics will support the computer-based sequencing technology.

Jeremy Cao, general manager for BGI Asia Pacific, said that the company wanted to be involved in helping create a national precision-medicine ecosystem to benefit the Thai people.

“We will support the computing machinery and share our experience running genome sequencing,” said Cao. “We will not be in control of the genome data of Thai people.”

This Thailand pilot project sequencing the Thai genome is one component in a regional collaboration called the “Pilot Project on Southeast Asian Human Genome and Human Biobank Network”. It is run through the Southeast Asian Pharmacogenomics Research Network (Seapharm), along with the International Research Network Programme (IRN) and supported by the Thailand Research Fund, one of the three local partners in the Thai genome collection project.

Seapharm has teamed up with a Japan-based research institute, the Riken Centre for Integrative Medical Science, to develop genome sequencing focusing on 100 drug-related genes for 1,000 subjects in the SEA region. That project’s aim is to research genome sequencing associated with drug use.

“It is the genetic testing to identify genes associate with drug allergies, [to allow for future] individualised therapy for Thai patients as well as among patients throughout the Asian region,” said Sirisak.

He added that the achievement of the genome-sequencing project will augment and support the medical and health industries, one of the S-Curve industry clusters identified as a priority by the Thailand government.

Pongsakorn Tantileepikorn, TRF’s assistant director for International Research Networks and International Affairs, said the genome projects could also help position Thailand for a leading role in the Asian corridor for pharmacogenomics and genomic medicine. The country could perhaps even develop sufficient capacity to reach the regional pinnacle in pharmacogenomics.

Meanwhile, Wasun Chantratila, director of the Centre for Medical Genomics at Ramathibodi Hospital, spoke up for the SEA genome-sequencing project focusing on 100 drug-related genes for 1,000 subjects. That research could solve three significant problems in drug use – avoiding allergic reactions by knowing of vulnerability in advance, ineffective use of drugs, and adjusting doses to match genetic profiles for each person. It could also further add to “predictive medicine” as well.

There are several conditions where gene testing could lead to better matching of drugs by individualised application of medicine, said Wasun. “The medication for treatment in some patient can lead to life-threatening side-effects. In other case, some patients do not respond to a particular drug.

“The goal is to find the right drug and the suitable drug dose for the right patient to achieve the best benefit before therapy,” said Wasun.

The ultimate goal is also to hope the result of the two genome sequencing projects (the 100 drug-related genes sequences from 1,000 subjects in SEA, and the 19,000 genome sequences from 10,000 Thais) will provide sufficient data to allow government to make decisions about adjusting and improving public health policy and more efficient budget spending.

Wasun said that three Thai hospitals – Ramathibodi Hospital, Siriraj Hospital, and Chulalongkorn Hospital – have been providing pharmacogenomics and personalised medicine for their patients for five years. At Ramathibodi Hospital alone, some 3,000 patients have benefited from pharmacogenomics and personalised medicine and receive partial reimbursement for some drugs.