The edge of the network is where critical enterprise operational decisions are made. From spotting machine failures to monitoring worker safety or checking inventory in real time, these immediate tasks need to happen at the edge, not in the cloud. By embedding global cellular connectivity into Cisco’s wireless products, NTT Data simplifies deployment and reduces complexity, letting enterprises put solutions to work quickly and reliably.
Heavy industries face unique challenges when adopting IoT. Devin Yaung, Senior Vice President of Group Enterprise IoT Products & Services, emphasizes four key hurdles: choosing the right technology, proving ROI within budget constraints, maintaining security across operational and IT systems, and earning trust in the data among users. By addressing these areas, enterprises can move beyond pilot projects and see tangible results. For organizations navigating complex environments, the edge offers a clear advantage to enable faster decisions, safer operations, and practical use of real-time data.
Steve Saunders:
Devin, NTT Data has a vast global presence. It operates in over 200 countries, but a top priority of your focus is at the edge of the network. Can you tell me why that is?
Devin Yaung:
Absolutely. One of the key things about the edge is that's where operational [inaudible 00:00:21] decisions are made. So how do you solve a problem? You make a decision. You could either make decisions in the cloud, which are more the business decisions, how many factories do I need? How many shifts do I do? But really, things that have low latency that really need immediate action has to be done at the edge. Is this machine about to fail? Is someone in danger in a worker safety zone? How much inventory do I currently have? These things need to be processed at the edge.
Steve Saunders:
So it sounds like the edge of the network is super important. It's almost like this sort of sensory zone where a lot of the information is pulled in, but how can you use that information in innovative ways or in strategic ways?
Devin Yaung:
One of the things that we're doing is with our great partner, Cisco, and we're embedding our global cellular connectivity into the Cisco wireless products. Why is that important? If you think about it, and one of the key decision things, if you take an extension of Occam's Razor is, the simpler things are, the more people are going to adopt it. Right now, connectivity, creating the edge is hard. I have to negotiate multiple contracts. I have to go embed things that are not naturally embeddable. And when you make it in an all in one solution, such as us embedding into Cisco wireless products, it makes it very easy. I don't need to send people to multiple sites, multiple countries. I can just have everything packaged. Someone puts it in. It's already connected. It's in a dashboard. I can put the blue wire in or not, and then all my enterprise configurations are there for whatever I need to deploy.
Steve Saunders:
Devin, one of the things which I'm really excited about is the digitalization of heavy industry. I mean, for me, that's sort of the 45 trillion dollar market. It's a fascinating, substantial opportunity. What do you think the biggest challenges are that those companies face, and how is NTT Data helping them to tackle them?
Devin Yaung:
The challenges that each particular vertical has, because it's unique, you can't take a one size a fits all approach in solving problems. I think one of the challenges is really understanding what the key business problems are and then fitting a solution that is tailored and bespoke to address those challenges. And some of the things that we run into, key issues, how do you get out of pilot phase? And four things, legs of the stool to get out of the pilot phase are very important. One, obviously there's a technology. What's the right technology to solve? But as part of that is, what is the ROI? It has to make sense. Everybody wants a Bugatti, but they only have a Honda Civic budget. So the thing is, what can I solve with the constraints of what you're willing to pay? The third one, first question I always get is security.
You're putting something in. How are you going to maintain security, especially OT/IT integration? This operational technology environment has never been opened before to the internet. Now I'm connecting a PLC or something to the internet of where someone could hack in and control it. I don't want that. So there's always that security thing, data privacy, all these things come in as part of security and governance, but really, it's the people challenge. I'm putting in technology. How do I get the trust of the data? Clients always say, especially in the IoT field, "I don't use 80% of the data I want. Most of the alarms I get my people don't trust because it's just noise or it self-corrects." So how do you tail it for the end user and get them bought in to the solution? So if you can get those four things right, you can get to the industrialization of your solution.
Steve Saunders:
It's an amazing, amazing time, and you've really pointed out both the opportunity and the challenges so eloquently today. Devin, thank you so much for joining us.