Experts discuss IoT and automation in Qatar – The Peninsula

Doha: Data is a critical asset for any entity and security of data should be ensured. Integrity and confidentiality of transmitted data must be maintained as well as the authentication of the objects which are the key aspects of Internet of Things (IoT), security and privacy, according to experts during a virtual event.

Digital Incubation Center in partnership with Microsoft organised a webinar entitled IoT and Automation which discussed about accelerating business automation. IoT refers to the rapidly growing network of connected objects that are able to collect and exchange data in real time using embedded sensors.

Addressing the event, Mehdi Ben Moussa, Data & AI Senior Specialist at Microsoft said: On the project we are doing at country scale (in Qatar) we are running a digital twin initiative which is creating a version of any asset which can be a building, a vehicle or even a person to have the digital representation, doing simulation and being able to get the information related to sensors available. We are running this program as part of the Tasmu initiative, and it will be available for everyone to use in the country. We have other examples in the oil and gas industries for managing a fleet management. There are some customers in Qatar who are leveraging these solutions to track and monitor different fleets such as maritime or land fleets and they are able to get all the information from the different sensors.

We are also working with some security entities to do smart surveillance, leveraging smart CCTV as one of the assets and collect the information to identify any potential risk or incident to be monitored and managed, he added.

Speaking about the confidentiality of the data and privacy, Moussa noted that data is critical asset for any entity. One of the key pillars for any of the key solutions that we are deploying is security. By leveraging the Azure platform, we also enable and leverage the security scale we have on it. In Qatar, we are launching the data centre and are going through all the certifications and security with government to make sure that any data that will be transiting or storing on the cloud will be secured at the maximum level. The Azure platform is built on security first mindset.

He explained that IoT is becoming a very deep area. The Azure IoT hub includes bi-directional communication, enterprise scale and integration, and end-to-end security.

Rudy Yazbek, Business Applications Sales Executive at Microsoft said: Looking at the job market, 60 percent of automations that exist today have 30 percent of their task that can be technically automated which shows the huge potential of it. Most of the human activities are to do with data collection and data processing and we realise that by automating these tasks we have the potential to do it 60 percent faster from the process of collecting the data and getting intelligent insights out of them. By leveraging automation, you can unlock a lot within organisations.

Sarah El Achkar, Business Applications Technology Specialist at Microsoft discussed about the three automations digital process automation, robotic process automation, and intelligent automation.

IoT plays an important role in automation as the number of IoT applications are increasing and it helps automation to create systems that are effective, affordable and flexible to customer needs.

See original here:

Experts discuss IoT and automation in Qatar - The Peninsula