CIO Straight Talk - Issue 11 - 11

allows for an inexpensive and easy integration
with those technologies," Cantor says.
At Citrix Systems, a software provider, cloud is a
key enabler of AI and machine learning. "[It has]
unlocked a whole new realm of possibilities,"
says Steve Wilson, Vice President of Cloud and
IoT for Citrix Systems. The company is now able
to use AI for a wide range of projects, including
projects to improve end-user behavioral
analytics for information security and cloud
vendor APIs to stitch together workflows
and fuel analytics that streamline employee
productivity. "A lot of what we're doing with
data analytics and AI is only possible due to
cloud economics," says Wilson. "Many of the
fundamental technologies behind today's
machine-learning platforms have been available
for years - or even decades. However, harnessing
sufficient compute power wasn't practical for the
majority of use-cases."

THE CONNECTION
BETWEEN CLOUD AND IOT
Cloud computing is also proving to be a
fundamental ingredient in the effective use
of IoT. One of the world's largest medical
device manufacturers had been investing
heavily in IoT to extend the product lifecycle
and provide better aftermarket support
services. This new treasure trove of patient
monitoring data created a wealth of insight for
product improvement, but it was also creating
operational inefficiencies and cost challenges
for IT. The amount of data transmitted daily by
cardiac monitoring device implants, for example,
caused processing bottlenecks and application
performance issues.
Cloud migration was the solution. The company
was able to develop an end-to-end IoT platform
that connected patients, physicians, salespeople

and operations teams while also serving as a
foundation for future development and migration
of IoT applications. Cloud service delivery didn't
only reduce costs. The enhanced performance of
IoT applications and increased efficiency of IoT
data analytics capabilities helped the company's
customer to serve patients proactively.
The IoT platform, able to support up to 100
million annual transactions, improved patient
monitoring, reduced the re-admission rates
by as much as 20%, and increased medication
adherence. Better understanding of end-user
behavior led to a reduction in new product
development cycle and time to market by as
much as 10 percent.

"WITHOUT THE CLOUD, IT WOULD
BE A HEAVY INVESTMENT JUST TO
DO A PILOT."
DEAN DEL VECCHIO
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
AND CIO
GUARDIAN LIFE

The combination of cloud and IoT could
have ramifications for all sorts of business
functions in the near future. "The advance
of cloud and the rise of IoT devices (that are
connected to cloud-based applications) is
going to dramatically change the way we
use computers," says Wilson. "We're going
to move from a place where individuals are
closely bound to a specific location or device
to a next-generation working model where the
relationship of users and applications change.
We'll see more use of voice control, which is
already accelerating so quickly. But we will also
see a shift where technologies like augmented
reality and virtual reality go from the domain of
video games to real business applications."

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CIO Straight Talk - Issue 11

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CIO Straight Talk - Issue 11
