Best of LinkedIn: ICT & Tech Insights CW 43/ 44

00:00:00: This episode is provided by Thomas Allgeier and Frennus, based on the most relevant LinkedIn posts about ICT and tech insights in CW- forty three and forty four.

00:00:08: Frennus supports ICT enterprises with market and competitive intelligence, decoding emerging technologies, customer insights, regulatory shifts and competitor strategies.

00:00:18: So product teams and strategy leaders don't just react but shape the future.

00:00:22: Welcome back to the deep dive.

00:00:23: Today, we're aiming to give you that essential shortcut, um, synthesizing the really vital ICT and tech trends that we're driving conversations on LinkedIn back in calendar weeks, forty-three and forty-four.

00:00:33: Yeah, and it's more than just, you know, headlines this time.

00:00:36: Looking through the posts, there's a clear convergence happening.

00:00:38: AI, cybersecurity, quantum.

00:00:41: Right.

00:00:41: They're not really siloed topics anymore.

00:00:43: Right.

00:00:43: We're seeing this definite shift, moving past pilot projects, past isolated R&D.

00:00:48: and really into, well, mandatory production grade systems.

00:00:51: So our job today is to unpack the actionable insights and all that.

00:00:54: Okay, let's get right into it then.

00:00:56: Starting with what feels like the most urgent convergence.

00:01:00: AI

00:01:01: and cybersecurity.

00:01:02: It feels like the whole narrative has changed, hasn't it?

00:01:05: Security isn't just defense, not just a cost center anymore.

00:01:08: Definitely not.

00:01:09: It's becoming a strategic profit driver.

00:01:11: And AI is really accelerating that.

00:01:13: How

00:01:14: so?

00:01:14: Well, it's this duality.

00:01:16: Kaushik Jay highlighted this point.

00:01:18: AI-driven cyber threats, they're advancing incredibly fast.

00:01:22: Think sophisticated deception, massive automated attacks.

00:01:25: Serious stuff.

00:01:26: It is.

00:01:27: But at the same time, that exact same AI tech is powering a revolution in defense.

00:01:33: We're talking AI tools that drastically speed up threat detection.

00:01:37: response times the whole nine yards.

00:01:39: So it's an AI arms race.

00:01:41: Pretty much.

00:01:42: And think about what happens when the old idea of a corporate perimeter just dissolves, you know, with remote work, cloud everywhere.

00:01:48: Crest

00:01:48: becomes the central issue.

00:01:49: Exactly.

00:01:50: Yeah.

00:01:50: Which is why zero trust isn't just a buzzword now.

00:01:52: It's fundamental.

00:01:53: Yeah.

00:01:54: Mark Trump laid out that blueprint, continues verification, micro segmentation, and always assuming breach.

00:02:00: You just can't trust by default.

00:02:02: And then you layer on AI agents.

00:02:04: Patnissary Warrior brought this up, moving from human to software interaction to, well, human to agent.

00:02:11: That demands a whole new layer of trust, right?

00:02:14: A zero trust framework to constantly vet what these agents are doing.

00:02:17: Makes

00:02:17: it exponentially more complex, yeah.

00:02:19: And that's why cybersecurity can't be seen as just like an IT department fix anymore.

00:02:24: Ok, and Yilda's really stressed this.

00:02:26: It's a complex ecosystem.

00:02:28: Ecosystem.

00:02:29: Yeah,

00:02:29: involving risk management, GRC, app security.

00:02:33: automation.

00:02:34: it's miles away from that old stereotype of the hacker in a hoodie.

00:02:37: And managing that complexity.

00:02:39: It's expensive.

00:02:40: Adrian Buro made a really strong point about the hitting costs if your security architecture is all fragmented.

00:02:46: Operational inefficiencies needing top-tier expensive talent just to manage the mess.

00:02:50: Right, so the push for integrated security ecosystems is becoming an economic necessity now, not just a technical one.

00:02:56: Which explains the shift in leadership view.

00:02:58: You saw Kristoff Foulon and Nick Granak both observing that cyber security is now treated as a core strategic... business issue.

00:03:05: It's not just a technical checklist item to tick off.

00:03:07: Absolutely.

00:03:08: And the market's validating this.

00:03:09: Look at telecoms, like Andrews Lawler observed.

00:03:12: They're treating securities a profit center now, selling managed detection, secure connectivity.

00:03:17: It's a premium service

00:03:18: and the projected spending reflects that.

00:03:20: over seventy five billion dollars globally by twenty thirty just in that niche.

00:03:25: huge numbers

00:03:26: and just for context on the scale of defense needed Vasu jackall from Microsoft shared that their security stack processes one hundred trillion signals

00:03:36: Daily.

00:03:37: Wow, that's monumental.

00:03:38: intelligence needed just to stay.

00:03:41: and that shared data processing intensity It naturally leads us to the absolute cutting-edge quantum technologies.

00:03:48: the post we saw show this field is moving fast Really fast out of the pure academic labs and towards well potential real-world use.

00:03:56: the keyword seems to be hybrid though, right?

00:03:58: It's not purely quantum replacing classical yet

00:04:00: not yet.

00:04:01: Summit Chunder highlighted NVIDIA's NVQ link, which is pretty crucial.

00:04:05: It seamlessly fuses quantum processors with GPU supercomputers.

00:04:09: That high-speed connection unlocks this first wave of hybrid quantum AI computing.

00:04:13: And you need different hardware approaches for that kind of scale.

00:04:17: Bob Clark pointed to what Sequantum is doing, using photons, light, for qubits.

00:04:22: Apparently, that helps solve some of the stability problems you get with the traditional methods.

00:04:26: Innovative stuff.

00:04:27: And then... thinking really big scale.

00:04:29: John Mickelon noted Elon Musk's rather ambitious proposal.

00:04:34: Oh yeah.

00:04:35: Building quantum infrastructure on the moon in the permanently shadowed craters to get those naturally super cold stable environments.

00:04:43: Okay, that's definitely thinking outside the box.

00:04:46: Maybe a bit.

00:04:46: far out for now.

00:04:47: Hey,

00:04:48: perhaps.

00:04:49: Bringing it back down to Earth, Europe is making some serious moves here.

00:04:52: Dr.

00:04:53: Karina Meath shared some interesting metrics.

00:04:54: Europe has about a third of the world's quantum startups and almost half the global QC hardware and software development.

00:05:01: That sounds really strong.

00:05:02: Is there a catch?

00:05:03: There is.

00:05:04: A big one.

00:05:04: Talent.

00:05:05: Europe's looking at a shortfall of maybe a thousand quantum experts a year by twenty twenty five.

00:05:09: So huge opportunity there if you're an ICT Pro thinking of a pivot.

00:05:13: I see.

00:05:13: But we are seeing real commercial steps.

00:05:18: Dr.

00:05:18: Jose Ignasi Latour mentioned Quantanum's Helios machine moving towards commercial clients.

00:05:23: They're even deploying one outside their HQ in Singapore.

00:05:26: So the whole conversation is getting more practical, less speculative?

00:05:29: Definitely.

00:05:30: Jaime Gomez Garcia and Antonio Grasso both emphasize this shift away from vague milestones like Y-to-Q,

00:05:36: remember that?

00:05:37: Vaguely, yeah.

00:05:38: Towards pragmatic things like long-term crypto agility, getting ready for compliance.

00:05:43: And Michael Marthala really hammered this home.

00:05:45: Durable progress means focusing on provable algorithms, ones with super quadratic speed-ups that definitively beat classical methods, not just relying on heuristics.

00:05:55: That's where the real value is.

00:05:56: That focus on real value is a good segue, actually, because none of this high-tech stuff, AI, security, quantum works without a solid digital foundation.

00:06:05: Let's shift to our final theme, digital infrastructure, cloud sovereignty, and data alignment.

00:06:11: AI scale seems to have put data centers firmly back on the board's agenda.

00:06:15: Absolutely essential.

00:06:16: A part of K gave that stark reminder.

00:06:19: infrastructure strategy is business strategy, especially when.

00:06:23: what was it?

00:06:23: Sixty percent of IT outages cost over a hundred thousand dollars.

00:06:27: The financial risk is massive.

00:06:29: And the investment needed just for AI scale.

00:06:31: Olga Meiler highlighted a projection of six point seven trillion dollars in total capex by twenty thirty.

00:06:37: Huge numbers.

00:06:38: But she also noted it's complex, right?

00:06:40: High barriers to entry and most tenants are just a few hyperscalers.

00:06:44: Exactly.

00:06:45: And that concentration of power, that's the core of the sovereignty.

00:06:48: debate, especially in Europe.

00:06:50: Christine Ackfuss-Nicolakes stressed how urgent it is for Europe to cut its reliance on non-European hydroscalers.

00:06:56: Because

00:06:56: they handle, what, seventy percent of European workloads currently?

00:06:59: That's

00:06:59: the figure.

00:07:00: So initiatives like T-Cloud Public are explicitly about reducing that financial and, frankly, geopolitical risk.

00:07:05: And we're seeing investment follow that strategy.

00:07:07: Lauren Eccles reported on that.

00:07:09: NVIDIA and Deutsche Telekom collaboration, potentially a billion-euro data center in Munich, aimed squarely at European enterprise clients needing local AI.

00:07:17: infrastructure.

00:07:18: Makes sense.

00:07:19: But remember, the best infrastructure is useless without good data.

00:07:24: Christian Klein's point was fundamental.

00:07:26: Trusted data is the absolute prerequisite for AI value.

00:07:30: Garbage in garbage out.

00:07:32: Still applies.

00:07:33: And it needs to be fast data, too.

00:07:35: Kai Weiner shared insights on real-time processing becoming the norm, using things like Apache Kafka to stream SAP ERP data, ECC, S-for-HANA breaking down silos, speeding up decisions.

00:07:47: That integration piece is key.

00:07:49: And beyond the tech, regulation is pushing for more agility, too.

00:07:52: Alexander Pokrant detailed the EU Data Acts goal.

00:07:56: fight vendor lock-in.

00:07:57: By twenty twenty seven they want to slash the barriers even get rid of switching fees for changing data processing providers.

00:08:03: That's a significant push for flexibility.

00:08:05: It is and all this regulation.

00:08:07: the tech shifts its changing architectures.

00:08:09: Dr.

00:08:09: Yocontin Malinowski pointed out how edge computing enables new hybrid models pushing processing closer to where data is actually created faster more resilient.

00:08:17: And Abby went had a good reminder too that even with all this complexity, you don't have to boil the ocean immediately.

00:08:23: Digitalization can start small.

00:08:25: Model one process first, perhaps.

00:08:27: It really was a packed couple of weeks reflected in those posts.

00:08:31: We saw cybersecurity fundamentally redefine.

00:08:34: It's now a strategic profit engine, not just defense.

00:08:38: We saw quantum making that critical shift from theory towards, you know, the beginnings of hybrid scalable production.

00:08:45: Right.

00:08:46: And maybe.

00:08:47: Most importantly, digital infrastructure got reframed.

00:08:50: It's now seen as a strategic, even sovereign, national level asset.

00:08:56: Yeah, the acceleration across all three themes is what really stands out.

00:09:00: So as organizations look ahead, considering how fast AI hardware is improving and how complex cybersecurity is getting, demanding that integrated thinking there's a really critical investment choice coming up, isn't there?

00:09:10: There absolutely is.

00:09:11: And maybe that's the final thought to leave you with today.

00:09:13: Given that pace and complexity, how should organizations best prioritize their long-term infrastructure investments?

00:09:20: Is it about owning the physical assets like data centers to guarantee sovereignty?

00:09:24: Or is it more about optimizing the agility and resilience of hybrid architectures, spreading across multiple cloud and edge providers?

00:09:31: Where do you place your bets?

00:09:32: That is a tough question and one that will likely shape ICT strategy for the next decade.

00:09:37: If you enjoyed this episode, new episodes drop every two weeks.

00:09:40: Also check out our other editions on cloud, defense tech, digital products and services, artificial intelligence, sustainability and green ICT, defense tech and health

00:09:50: tech.

00:09:51: Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into the latest tech insights.

00:09:54: Don't forget to subscribe for your next deep dive into the source material.

00:09:57: We catch you next time.