Innovation Is Dynamic and Beyond
Rose A. Canlas
For the better part of a decade, Digital Transformation has been the core driver of organizational change. The transition from legacy IT to cloud computing; the expansion of retail and banking into the mobile space; the rise of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and smart automation. Were among other massively transformative technologies, at the heart of a generational forward evolutionary leap. And it is therefore not surprising that these very technologies have enabled businesses, governments, healthcare systems, students, and workers to adapt to the maelstrom of disruption caused by the pandemic and by sudden and oftentimes draconian efforts to mitigate it. Over the course of the last few months, the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has thrown the world into disarray. In an effort to save as many lives as possible, entire countries have all but shut down, many imposing quarantines or requiring nonessential workers to stay home.
This has forced organizations and workers in pretty much every industry to reinvent presence, productivity and collaboration, and adapt to one of the most challenging and sudden waves of disruption since the second world war. Fortunately, science and technology have advanced considerably since 1945, and while both the human toll and the economic impact of this pandemic are already staggering, technology has at least allowed hundreds of millions of people in affected countries to remain connected, productive, and healthy. Every single one of the technologies upon which the world now depends on to function, even during global disruptions of this magnitude, is the result of years - If the value of the massive investments in technology and innovation that we saw over the last ten to twenty years wasn’t already abundantly clear before this crisis, it should be now, particularly in several areas that have played a critical role in helping us adapt to the radical changes that were thrust upon us so suddenly: Network connectivity, the digital devices that we interface with, and the software that powers them.
It bring up network connectivity first, because without the infrastructure that makes our phones, computers, tablets and smart TVs connect to Gmail, Webex, Microsoft 365, Sales force, Zoom, Netflix, Hulu, Twitter, and a million other services and platforms, it would be very difficult to work from home in our day and age. Part of that connectivity infrastructure is wired - DSL, coaxial cable, and fiber - and, increasingly, wireless connectivity, in the form of 3G, 4G, and now 5G networks. While copper and fiber continue to connect households and businesses to the internet, most of us are wireless for at least the last few meters, and the growth of wireless internet use in recent years has driven a push in 4G and 5G network investment.
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The author is Administrative Assistant III at Division of City of San
Fernando, (P)