The Art of Allen

Episode 785 08.23.22 Nick McQuire, director, strategic missions and technologies, Microsoft joins Peggy to talk about the future of the cloud, sharing the four key areas that are collectively shaping the future of cloud. He also shares the three key technology shifts that are core to both today’s innovations and tomorrow’s disruptions, and stresses how co-innovation will play a role in making future cloud technologies available to all. Below is an excerpt from the interview. To listen to the conversation from The Peggy Smedley Show, click here or go to https://peggysmedleyshow.com/ to access the entire show. Peggy Smedley: Nick, I’m excited to have you back to talk about your new role at Microsoft. So, really tell us what’s going on. Nick McQuire: Yeah, lots going on. It’s so exciting to be able to share a little bit with you and your listeners. I work in Microsoft’s Strategic Missions and Technologies division or SMT, as we refer to it, in the acronym sense. This is our busin...

At this year’s Inland Transport Committee roundtable hosted by the UNECE (UN Economic Commission for Europe) , the panel identified three critical challenges facing global supply chains: labor shortages, equipment availability, and the ripple effect of global bottlenecks. Though the panel convened earlier this year, the challenges facing international supply chains across industries remain the same in the second half of the year. Can the newly passed CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 deliver on its promise to strengthen supply chains? Will it help alleviate the ongoing chip shortage? In January, Gartner predicted things like inflation, increased borrowing rates, and geopolitical stressors (particularly those involving China) would impact supply chains and the broader economic picture in 2022. The research firm was right. Because of the stressors of the past few years, global supply chains seem to be under more scrutiny than ever before. Disruptions that began as part of the fallout fro...

Artificial Intelligence or AI Hal in 2001. Google in 2022? The future or the past technology? AI has many supporters, extoling the benefits and many critics call out cautions. It also still has gaps keeping it from a practical present according to some developers. Deep learning-powered advancements in AI have led to innovations that have the potential to revolutionize services, products, and consumer applications across industries such as medicine, manufacturing, transportation, communication, and retail. However, the AI efficiency gap — a situation in which hardware is unable to meet the increasing computing demands of models that are growing in size and complexity – has proven to be an obstacle to more widespread AI commercialization. This efficiency gap means that inference is still generally bound to the cloud, where computer hardware is abundant, but costs are high and concerns around data privacy and safety are prevalent. A company in Israel, Deci has been working on a solutio...

Gartner survey finds 83% of B2B buyers prefer ordering or paying through digital commerce. The post Fact of the Day – 8/30/2022 appeared first on Connected World . from Connected World https://connectedworld.com/fact-of-the-day-8-30-2022/ via IFTTT

For the second half of our blog series on hot construction technology, we are looking at how technology can enable process, procedures, and business practices. Things like collaboration, project management, scheduling, accounting, estimating, and more. All of these have existed in construction before the dawn of technology but are now being enabled by technology in new and interesting ways. Last week we dove into the topic of project management and discovered AI (artificial intelligence) is playing a bigger role than ever before, as technology providers are also aiming to created integrated project management platforms for construction. Today, let’s look at an offshoot of project management: scheduling. Gantt charts have been trendy long before the advent of the internet, with Henry Gantt popularizing the bar chart that illustrates a project schedule back in the late 1800s. CPM (critical path method) has been used since the mid-1900s—which is a method for managers to see where poten...

Collaboration has many synonyms—association, combination, teamwork, alliance, joint effort, among others—but strangely, communications isn’t one of them. Strange because the main element of collaboration is indeed communication among individuals both near and far. Especially far, even in these dwindling days of COVID-19’s remote work and distancing, as remote work is giving way to hybrid work relationships. Hybrid work is collaborating as a community, connecting not only colleagues but also those outside the organization. Collaboration tools must have the adaptability to bring productive, secure, and equitable experiences to a blended team or audience. The ratio of types of events (in-person to virtual to hybrid) have become nearly evenly distributed as hosts offer more attendance options to meet the needs of a greater audience. As the return to in-person and hybrid collaboration events become more popular, event platforms not only support remote attendees, but can be used to enhance...

I have spent several decades writing about women breaking through the glass ceiling in male-dominated industries like construction and manufacturing. The stories are always beautiful triumphs of women doing incredible things with business, process, and technology in an industry that isn’t traditionally built for them. But has it been enough? Are we still stalled in many areas? A new survey piqued my interest when it crossed my desk earlier this month because it focuses on the biggest barrier preventing more women from entering the project profession in industries like construction, transport and logistics, and more. The survey by the APM (Assn. of Project Management) of 1,000 project professionals (from junior to director level), shows of the 308 female respondents, a third (33.4%) say unequal pay is the main barrier, followed by gender stereotyping (32.5%), and not enough women having taken STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects while studying at school, ...

Nearly all consumers believe climate change will lead to rising energy bills—and as such expect homes and apartments to be equipped with smart-home devices. Still, experts suggest mindset is still the biggest barrier to change when it comes to our household energy diets. All of this is according to a new survey from Schneider Electric , which has revealed nearly nine out of 10 consumers believe climate change will lead to rising energy bills and individuals should play a larger role with climate change. The driving factors for consumers to act and invest in sustainability are the rising cost of living and the desire to manage energy consumption. Beyond what the research suggests we need to really examine consumers perception of climate change before we can affect change. Roughly 72% suggest considering reducing carbon footprints is a personal priority. More than half place importance on their homes becoming net zero, yet less than a third believe this is likely to happen. The study ...

ABI Research says increasing demand for human-drone collaboration will spur market to reach 3 million shipments by 2025. The post Fact of the Day – 8/29/2022 appeared first on Connected World . from Connected World https://connectedworld.com/fact-of-the-day-8-29-2022/ via IFTTT

Wooden buildings are hardly a new idea. One aspect of the wooden building that has started to take off, generated by the quest for lower carbon footprint in new construction, is the mass timber structure. Mass timber construction is a carbon removal technique that involves using specialized wood products to construct buildings, including high-rise buildings. Manufacturers use products such as CLT (cross-laminated timber), LVT (laminated veneer lumber), and glulam (glue laminated timber) to produce wood panels and beams that can replace concrete, steel, and masonry as building materials. Because it displaces emissions-intensive steel and concrete, mass timber can significantly reduce the “embodied carbon” in buildings. Because the wood stores CO 2 ( carbon dioxide) that was captured from the atmosphere via photosynthesis, mass timber construction can function as a form of carbon removal when combined with sustainable timber production and building demolition practices. Timbe...

In case you haven’t been on this planet for a year or so, fuel prices have gone up. And up. And up some more. As rising fuel and maintenance costs add pressure to already slim margins in today’s economy, businesses need robust, data-driven telematics to manage their fleet operations effectively. Even though prices are starting to come down, the market is also responding. Truck and equipment companies are making changes to incorporate advanced technology to meet the demand. Take Navistar as an example. Navistar committed to a connected and data-driven future with the standardization of a factory-installed telematics device on all new builds of the complete Class 6-8 International Truck and IC Bus vehicle product portfolios, including electric models. This allows all stakeholders access to actionable vehicle data, enhanced capabilities with industry partners, and further improved integration with truck equipment manufacturers. The International eMV Series battery-electric med...

Parks Associates says 29% of U.S. internet households plan to purchase a smart thermostat in the next six months. The post Fact of the Day – 8/26/2022 appeared first on Connected World . from Connected World https://connectedworld.com/fact-of-the-day-8-26-2022/ via IFTTT

A lot of information has been coming out on the 3D-printed building approach to rapid construction. Perhaps forgotten in the rush, other rapid methods are available, especially for residential construction. As the economy shakes out from the slump caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, builders are looking for better ways to get people into new homes. Among the resources available to help are specialized exterior panelized wall systems from Tempe, Arizona-based HercuTech. Their innovative product, HercuWall, is an ICC-certified panelized exterior and demising wall system technology comprised of four common materials – EPS insulating foam, reinforced with a patented steel ShearStrip, laminated with a weather-resistant barrier, and followed by site integrated concrete. HercuWall is cost efficient and light enough to be carried by one installer but is three-times stronger than comparable wood wall panels. A HercuWall unit goes up panel by panel, in numerical order, and can be stood up in an h...

Juniper Research says digital domestic money transfer volume to surpass 300 billion globally by 2026. The post Fact of the Day – 8/25/2022 appeared first on Connected World . from Connected World https://connectedworld.com/fact-of-the-day-8-25-2022/ via IFTTT

Being a new homeowner is an exciting time. You now have a property to call your own that you can truly personalize and ensure fits your style and taste. The post Top Tips to Keep in Mind as a New Homeowner appeared first on At Home in the Future . from At Home in the Future https://athomeinthefuture.com/2022/08/top-tips-keep-mind-new-homeowner/ via IFTTT

Smart homes are a reality and a concern. A basic aspect of “smart homing” is that the house and its many smart appliances and functions are connected via the internet, either for diagnostics or remote monitoring or for automatic resupply—the talking refrigerator effect. And while the technology is available to meet most demands, the end user—the homeowner—is not quite sold on the total package. According to Parks Associates , a market research and analysis firm, three-fourths of respondents to a recent survey have concerns about the safety of their personal data in the connected home. In addition, their research finds 50% of smart home device owners have experienced a recent problem with one or more of their devices, with many problems related to wireless connectivity, contributing to the high return rates for these devices. These are real problems for those who want a technical solution without being technologists themselves. Most homeowners and potential smart home buyers like t...