The more things change, the more they stay the same…if you can keep up!

New Island Technologies
February 20, 2023
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André Esterhuysen – Digital Business Automation Consultant, New Island Technologies

It is easy to look at your surroundings and think…nothing much has changed. However, if you stop and think a little, you quickly realise how much has changed and how you learned, evolved, and adapted to these very changes without even being aware.

In business and in technology the rate of change is extreme, and everyone keeps on learning and adapting to stay ahead.

Please see Ayman Sayed’s recent article here.

Technological changes over the past few years

To realize just how much has changed, let’s take a brief tour of the changes in the technological landscape over the past few years.

Tech that changed the world in the past 5 years.

Artificial intelligence – Although this has been around for many years, and mostly active behind the scenes it has become much more prevalent in more mainstream environments.
- We used to see AI applied to the areas of fraud management, revenue assurance, complex financial systems and in scientific fields.
- Today we see it hitting the headlines of every publication out there, technical or not; thanks in part to OpenAI’s ChatGPT being put in the hands of the public at large…although this same public will also be quick to point out that it has been right here for a couple of years already.
Internet of Things (IoT): IoT has expanded, with more devices becoming connected to the internet. We now have smart homes, smart cities, and even smart clothing. This has allowed for greater convenience and automation in our lives. IoT or Industrial IoT has equally claimed its spot as mandatory in every business out there, retail, logistics, manufacturing, mining, and the list goes on.
- The popularity of IoT over the past 5 years has been remarkable. Thanks to the advancement of technology, consumer demand and new business opportunities, IoT & IIoT has seen rapid growth and uptake in the market.
5G: The fifth generation of wireless technology promises faster internet speeds, lower latency, and greater capacity for connected devices. We saw this come to South African shores with Vodacom launching first in 2020, with MTN and Rain releasing their 5G in the same year.
- I noticed the impact connectivity has had on banking and retail specifically over the past 3 years…maybe in part due to a global pandemic. I hardly ever transact with cash anymore. Street vendors, Saturday markets, parking attendants and home call services were all traditionally cash based operations and all of these now offer the option of electronic payment mechanisms. This is thanks to widespread fast internet connectivity…and industry that was ready to embrace the change.
Cloud Technology: It is many things to many people. The one common factor is that everybody uses it. Yes, it is not new anymore and has been around for a long time now, but the last five years have seen massive change and massive uptake across industries.
- Cloud first strategy is not a strange concept anymore, and certainly not only for the digitally born businesses out there. Overall, cloud technology has undergone significant changes in the past five years, with increased adoption, advancements in technology, new deployment models, improved security, and the emergence of edge computing.
Blockchain: I must mention blockchain. It may still be a developing technology and is ever too often mistaken for the thing that makes cryptocurrencies work. Blockchain as a technology is much more than just the technology behind cryptocurrencies.
- Some of the real blockchain use cases for businesses today are supply chain management, identity management, voting systems, smart contracts, and decentralized finance platforms. This remains an interesting technology to watch and stay close to.

If I look at these changes, I can say that complexity, data, and connectivity are three critical influencers that drive development in these technological fronts

Changes in Control-M over the past few years.

So, if technology changed so much, what does this mean for your automation solutions?

Well, in short, if you have been using Control-M for your application and data workflow automation yesterday and today, you are in safe hands for tomorrow and beyond…

This is because BMC is committed to the continuous evolution of the control-M platform.

Control-M has had a long history of evolution and innovation, dating back to the early 90’s with proven ability to adapt to the changing business and technology landscapes.

BMC Control-M is a workload automation software solution that enables organisations to schedule, monitor, and manage their business processes, data pipelines and IT workloads. In the past five years, BMC Control-M has evolved to keep pace with the changes in AI, 5G, blockchain, and IoT technologies.

Here are some examples of the ways that BMC Control-M has evolved

Artificial Intelligence: BMC Control-M has incorporated AI capabilities to optimise and automate job scheduling and resource allocation. This helps to improve efficiency and reduce costs for organisations. A great example is the AWS showcase where Control-M was used to orchestrate a data pipeline across a complex landscape including integration to machine learning and artificial intelligence on Amazon.

5G: With the advent of 5G networks, BMC Control-M has adapted to support the increased speed and connectivity offered by 5G. This includes support for more complex and data-intensive workloads. 5G puts even greater focus on a well-controlled data pipeline with the expansive nature of Edge and IIoT.

Blockchain: BMC Control-M has integrated with blockchain technology to enable secure and transparent tracking of job scheduling and workload management. This can help to prevent fraud, reduce errors, and increase efficiency.

IoT: BMC Control-M has also evolved to support the growing use of IoT devices and sensors. This includes the ability to monitor and manage IoT workloads, as well as integrating with IoT platforms for more comprehensive automation and management. There are some really great use cases across logistics, transport, and retail industries where IoT data is transformed into great business insights and revenue to the bottom line.

Cloud: In 2020 BMC took another leap forward by releasing Helix Control-M. BMC Helix Control-M is a SaaS platform for application workflow orchestration. Helix Control-M brought a whole new angle on making data and application workflow orchestration even more agile.

The Cloud journey does not stop there… BMC increased support for multiple vendor cloud platforms and ensured that it stayed relevant and integrated to all the great new capabilities released on AWS, Azure and GCP.

Overall, BMC Control-M has continued to evolve to meet the changing needs of organisations in the rapidly evolving landscape of AI, 5G, blockchain, and IoT. By incorporating these technologies into its platform, BMC Control-M is helping organisations to stay ahead of the curve and maximize their operational efficiency.

As for what the future holds…I believe that the main technological developments will be more advancements in the fields identified earlier, AI, IoT, Cloud, Blockchain, connectivity. These will evolve and become mainstream. We will see advances in computing power, think quantum computing and the application of augmented reality and virtual reality (AR & VR) remains an interesting topic as well.

Automation holds the key to unlocking the value.

The changes in technology over the next five years will have a significant impact on the application and data workflow orchestration solutions. This includes increased complexity, the emergence of new workflows, improved efficiency, improved security, and greater customisation. Organisations will need to adopt more advanced and customisable orchestration solutions to manage the increased complexity and improve efficiency, security, and customisation.

Takeaways

Be a perpetual student…of industry, technology, and the tools available to you.
Be change fit.
Stick with the tools that keep up – BMC Control-M and BMC Helix Control-M are perfectly positioned and have proven that it can stand the test of time and it can definitely keep up with the pace at which technology and business is evolving.
If you stay ahead, you won’t be caught in the dust.