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Today, everyone is focused on innovation. Companies promise to deliver it through new products and solutions. Customers expect you to offer it through novel approaches that help them outmaneuver their competitors. And your employees expect you to not only embrace it but encourage new ways of working that will pave your enterprise’s rise to the top.

Encouraging and enabling innovation is what separates average companies from exceptional brands – those that understand their markets and create exactly what their customers need, even before they know they need it. Innovation is at the heart of business success. It’s what allows creative doers to apply something old – or something new – to a problem in a novel way, improving people’s lives.

Innovation can deliver exponential value and transformative change.

To dig deeper into innovation, particularly technology innovation, we’re launching this new journal, Horizons by SAP. In these pages, we’ll discuss what technology innovation means, how it develops and evolves, and why you need to cultivate it in your corporate culture.

Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World Exploring the Horizons of Technology Innovation

Exploring the Horizons of

Technology InnovationBy Juergen MuellerSAP SE

Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World Exploring the Horizons of Technology Innovation

WELCOME TO HORIZONS BY SAP

From Improvements to TransformationInnovation is a tricky principle to nail down, but it has a simple formula: Innovation equals execution times creativity. One is not possible without the others. We consider three different types of innovation that occur along three horizons:

Horizon 1: Now – Continuous innovation that involves incremental improvements to existing products

Horizon 2: Next – Adjacent innovation that involves enhancing the existing portfolio using new technologies or applying existing knowledge to new markets to help you gain new customers

Horizon 3: New – Transformative innovation that occurs as a result of new trends, technologies, and business models, yielding revolutionary prod-ucts and markets

The goal of Horizons by SAP is to expose you to emerging ideas and business trends, share new viewpoints from leading technology experts, and prepare you to understand and evaluate technology and business innovations. SAP focuses on innovation every day so we can bring value to our customers. We’re excited to combine our knowledge with insights and provocative ideas from thought leaders around the world in this new annual magazine.

Juergen Mueller is chief technology officer and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.

Horizon 1Continuous Innovation

Horizon 2Adjacent Innovation

Horizon 3Transformative Innovation

NOW

NEXT

NEW

Exploring the Horizons of Technology Innovation

Composing the Perfect User Experience: Three Steps for IT LeadersBy John Thimsen, Qualtrics, now part of SAP

Beyond BlockchainBy Torsten Zube, SAP SE

How a Kinetic Infrastruc-ture Facilitates the Use of Emerging TechnologiesBy Ravi Pendekanti, Dell

Top Technology TrendsBy Scott Guthrie, Microsoft

Modular IT By Max Wessel, SAP SE

Augmented Reality: Enriching the Experience of Shop-Floor WorkersBy Brian Ballard, Upskill

Top Technology TrendsBy Nino Marakovic, Sapphire Ventures

Modernizing End-to-End Business Processes with ModularityBy Sindhu Gangadharan, SAP SE

Building Partnerships That Enrich the Customer Experience By Niall Wall, Box

Achieving Mass Customization, with Help from RoboticsBy Andreas Bauer, Kuka

Top Technology TrendsBy Julie Sweet, Accenture

Opportunity Versus Complexity: Preparing for 5GBy Toby Eduardo Redshaw, Verizon

Secure Your Modularized IT InfrastructureBy Tim McKnight, SAP SE

Top Technology TrendsBy Juergen Mueller, SAP SE

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CONTENTS

1Table of ContentsModular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World

Mod

ular

IT

Greater Choice, Personalization, and Innovation

Using Decomposition as a Catalyst for

The job of every business leader is to see into the future – anticipating change and taking action that puts the organization on the path to suc-cess. Yet in times of rapid change, visualizing the steps needed to pre-pare for the future has never been more difficult.Improvements in information technology are largely responsi-ble for the increased pace of change. They are also the source of enormous opportunity facing each industry. Software is permeating every business, imbuing the services and solu-tions we consume with near-magical characteristics. We can secure transportation wherever and whenever we want with a click of a button, changing the automotive industry forever. Language barriers that terrified travelers for generations melt away through character and voice recognition features resid-ing on tiny computers that fit in our pockets and translate the language at hand, opening worlds of travel to those previously constrained. Small business owners anywhere can access large customers around the world, creating opportunity for development and spurring competition in global markets.

All of this has been made possible by the connections enabled by cellular improvements, cloud computing, and mobile phones. Less than two decades ago, only 360 million people were connected to the Internet. Today, that number is almost 4.4 billion. Cheap, seamless access to software is available to everyone. It’s no wonder that each of our indus-tries has changed so dramatically in such a short period of time.

But the world isn’t standing still. The cost of computing continues to drop. The potential of emerging technologies such as machine learning continues to unfold. And the num-ber of devices and services enriched with software-based intelligence rises every day.

And so, we, as leaders in the IT industry, must ask the obvious question: What’s next? What are the tectonic shifts in enter-prise operations that IT can – and should – enable? How should executives prepare to deliver the perfect experiences their customers demand? Which technologies are worth championing and which will go the way of the floppy disk?

Less than two decades ago, only 360 million people were connected to the Internet. Today, that number is almost 4.4 billion.

2 3Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World

By Max Wessel SAP SE

Modular IT: Using Decomposition as a Catalyst for Greater Choice, Personalization, and Innovation

systems and users. And services are becoming more focused on ever-slimmer customer segments. The world is being decomposed into its smallest units.

As scale enables decomposition, decomposition in turn creates choice. With more offerings, people can select whatever best matches their needs. And vendors can create more personalized offerings designed to attract more customers.

This is what’s meant by modularization or modular IT. We are deconstructing our IT monoliths into smaller pieces and slotting them into the environment we’ve already constructed, where they integrate with existing modules and those still to come. Modularity paves the way for reassembling the IT world in new and untried combinations, which supports the innova-tion of enterprise business and technology teams. Get Ready for a New ApproachTo succeed in this new environment, it’s time to evolve.

In the past, our industry bet on decreasing costs and increasing the performance of standard applications. Now we must embrace approaches that help us decompose the monoliths and deliver the most personal and modular soft-ware our customers can imagine. We need technology and services that allow us to deliver business models and solu-tions that exceed the virtual boundaries of application code.

In this inaugural issue of Horizons by SAP, we address the challenges and opportunities of modular IT. With the help of thought leaders and SAP experts from around the world, we explore a variety of issues and trends that impact and are shaped by modularity. This issue includes important discus-sions that will help you evaluate your approach to users and partners, the use of emerging technologies such as machine learning and augmented reality, and foundational issues such as security and end-to-end business processes.

We hope these articles provide business leaders like you with the foresight and flexibility to make the best decisions for today and tomorrow – propelling your enterprises into a successful future.

Max Wessel is chief innovation officer at SAP SE.

We are deconstructing our IT monoliths into smaller pieces and slotting them into the environment we’ve already constructed, where they integrate with existing modules and those still to come.


As Scale Grows, Infrastructure Components Shrink Here’s my take: Technology is opening up an era of unprece-dented choice. In every market, production costs drop, competition increases, and the ability to customize products expands. For all those reasons, people are demanding more, and we must respond.

If we don’t deliver the experiences our customers demand, we stagnate. We get commoditized. It’s that simple.

In the world of software, that means IT must enable each of our businesses to deliver more of what every individual wants and needs. In the consumer market, we know what this means. Across our operations, the solutions we provide employees and partners must not require users to conform to enterprise systems. Instead, the next generations of soft-ware will adapt to users and help them perform better.

Next-generation systems won’t just record activity. They will understand our specific context, interact with tools we already use, and amplify our activities in a way that makes sense.

It may seem that we’re far from that world. But this new horizon is very much within reach. How do we get there? The answer rests with the impact of scale. Every business is becoming a software business. As this transition occurs, demand enables more applications, integrations, and services to emerge. The scale of our digital systems is huge and still growing.

This increasing scale comes with an interesting by-product: The smallest unit of viable software shrinks every day. Appli-cations are more focused on ever-smaller market segments. Standard integrations allow connections among various

To succeedin this new environment,it’s time to evolve.

Modular IT: Using Decomposition as a Catalyst for Greater Choice, Personalization, and Innovation

EVERY COMPANY IS BECOMING SOFTWARE INFUSED, DRIVING AN EXPLOSION OF DATA.Riding this shift successfully requires enterprises to view soft-ware as a responsibility of every function. Facing an increasing shortage of new developer talent, organizations need technology platforms that offer their developers leverage while democratizing software use and creation. Microsoft is focused on enabling organizations with integrated cloud offerings that address the needs of both professional developers and business users.

INTELLIGENCE COMES FROM REASONING ACROSS DIVERSE, CLOUD-BASED ASSSETS.Companies must aggressively desilo data and increase data accessibility and collaboration across functions to build true systems of intelligence. At Microsoft, we are working across end-user productivity, identity, and cloud platforms to help customers create value from their data assets while also ensuring data security and compliance.

DIGITAL FEEDBACK LOOPS WILL SEPARATE WINNERS FROM LOSERS.Companies are combining their vast new data assets with cloud-powered intelligence to drive a new model of innovation, which we call the digital feedback loop. They succeed not through one-time innovation but from the way they use the data or digital feed-back from software-infused products, services, and operations to drive ongoing improvement across their business. As customers flock to these improvements, companies can capture even more data to power innovation.


Scott Guthrie Executive Vice President of Microsoft Cloud and AI Group Microsoft Corporation

What’s New or Catching Fire?

TOP TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

Top Technology Trends

Iron is one of the most common elements on Earth. Alone, it is soft and malleable. When combined with carbon, however, iron becomes steel – a harder, stronger, yet flexible metal perfect for building skyscrapers, bridges, and ships. As the foundation for the Industrial Revolution and the technology innovations that followed, steel demonstrates how the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts.

So it is with modular IT. By decomposing monolithic IT sys-tems and software, companies can reassemble the smaller pieces into flexible, customizable solutions. These IT chunks can be integrated and combined in unique ways to meet specific business challenges – offering greater value to busi-nesses, their users, and customers than those individual “ingredients” ever could.

The principles of modular IT are already reflected in SAP® solutions such as SAP Cloud Platform. Let’s look at what we mean by modularization, how it is enabled in the Intelligent Enterprise, and the impact it will have on end-to-end busi-ness processes.

Modularization in the Age of the Intelligent Enterprise Technology teams have been breaking apart IT systems and software for decades, so modularization really isn’t new. What’s changed is how modular technologies are deployed today. At SAP, we see that companies are consciously mov-ing away from large, monolithic, on-premise applications

and opting instead for modular applications that run either in the cloud or using hybrid deployment models. These sys-tems enhance flexibility and allow users to consume exactly the capabilities or pieces of technology they need when they need them.

Of course, deploying solutions in pieces can result in a high degree of integration complexity. That’s why companies must always build their IT infrastructures with an eye toward their end-to-end business processes. Most end-to-end pro-cesses require multiple applications, touch several lines of business, and are experienced by a multitude of users.

Ensuring that so many moving pieces work together requires a unifying structure. That’s what’s behind our concept of the Intelligent Enterprise. Our solutions for the Intelligent Enter-prise include:

An intelligent suite that delivers intelligence across value chainsA digital platform, such as SAP Cloud Platform, that unlocks data-driven intelligence and innovationIntelligent technologies that can be incorporated into applications, delivering intelligence within core business processes

These solutions help enterprises become both data and process driven. They enable new capabilities to help bring value to entire end-to-end processes.

By Sindhu GangadharanSAP SE

The modular yet integrated Intelligent Enterprise suite enhances flexibility and allows users to consume exactly the capabilities or pieces of technology they need when they need them.

MODERNIZING END-TO-END BUSINESS PROCESSES WITH MODULARITY

8 9Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World Modernizing End-to-End Business Processes with Modularity

Design-to-Operate Process Integration Consider how these layers of modularization play out in a standard business process. Design to operate is one of the five core processes in our Intelligent Enterprise approach. Building on a digital supply chain and manufacturing process, the design-to-operate process includes the following steps:

• Design – Reduce time to market and sustainably innovate to meet customer demands.

• Planning – Develop a holistic view of actual demand while balancing inventory and service issues and improving forecast accuracy.

• Manufacturing – Optimize production processes, minimize waste, and increase responsiveness to business partners.

• Deliver – Improve the speed of product delivery while optimizing warehousing and transportation activities.

• Operate – Manage the lifecycle of physical assets, predict and simulate asset behavior, and avoid unplanned downtime.

In the Intelligent Enterprise, tight integration of modules provides end-to-end visibility of manufacturing assets from the beginning to the end of the design-to-operate process. To ensure that modules play well together, we have estab-lished well-defined integration standards that are applied consistently across the entire portfolio.

For identity and access management, for example, all applications must support single sign-on. We also support cross-product navigation by ensuring integration techniques are consistently applied, so that users have a seamless expe-rience as they work across multiple software modules. This experience is enhanced by the coherent use of our UI tech-nology, the SAP Fiori® user experience.

In the traditional definition of a microservice architecture, developers design a software application as a suite of indepen-dently deployed services that communicate with each other using lightweight mechanisms, such as HTTP or RESTful APIs. The architecture of SAP Cloud Platform is an evolution of the microservices concept. SAP Cloud Platform offers business services, such as master data and integration, along with support for open standards such as Kubernetes and Cloud Foundry. This openness supports uses cases for our cus-tomers as well as our partner ecosystem. By supporting modularization at these different layers, SAP Cloud Platform is evolving from a technology platform into a true business process platform.

A Balancing Act: Standardization Versus Flexibility Our Intelligent Enterprise framework is also open enough to meet the needs of heterogeneous customer infrastructures. The API-first approach helps ensure that any third-party application can be quickly integrated using open connectors that are part of SAP Cloud Platform. These connectors also support business-to-business and business-to-consumer scenarios that allow our customers to integrate with their business partners.

The modular yet integrated approach for the Intelligent Enterprise also helps us infuse intelligence into the core of the end-to-end process. The technological foundation for this is SAP Cloud Platform, which offers services for new, emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep analytics, and blockchain.

Often, business leaders who want to use an emerging tech-nology first need to identify the right business use case. With SAP Cloud Platform, the technology is already built in to the core of the end-to-end business process, so companies can begin using it right away. For example, some HR applications use machine learning technology to help HR personnel auto-mate resume matching. The technology can also accelerate headcount planning and identify the talent needed to meet specific project requirements.

Balancing the need for standardization and consistency with openness and flexibility is an interesting challenge in a modular environment. Although fixed-point connections within processes provide seamless operation already today, SAP is currently taking integrations to the next level by align-ing the domain models for core objects of our solutions.

For example, a standardized domain for a customer object provides users with the same 360-degree view of a customer whether the information is viewed in the SAP C/4HANA suite, SAP S/4HANA® software, or other SAP applications. Other typical domains include employee, supplier, and asset.

To guarantee that data and processes flow across indepen-dent modules, we rely on our comprehensive API strategy. We offer a rich catalog of business APIs developed by SAP and our partners. These APIs are building blocks that developers can use to create modern applications that support open integration. Some business APIs can trigger processes while others use services, such as machine learning, translation, or tax calculation. We also offer an API sandbox where developers can quickly test, explore, and use these business APIs.

10 11Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World 11

Flexible IT Components for a Continuous Evolution To meet their goals, business leaders want to find new ways to deliver a best-in-class experience to customers, with faster delivery and proactive services. They strive to empower employees and allow them to do meaningful work. They also want to improve productivity, so the business can do more with less. At the same time, they need to allocate capital carefully and innovate with relentless speed.

Addressing these challenges requires the ability to make sense of huge volumes of business data. No one system is a perfect fit. But with modular IT, companies can consume just the pieces they need, from whatever entry point is best, always in the context of an end-to-end business process.

Working with a solid business platform allows companies to quickly extend, change, and adapt their modular infra-structure. It also helps partners deliver their innovations to customers.

As we move forward in the experience economy, business processes and models will continue to change and evolve. Nothing will be static. By building on a modular IT infrastruc-ture, enterprises gain the flexibility to incorporate emerging technologies while continuing to modify processes so they can meet their business and customer experience goals. Just as steel delivers more value than iron and carbon alone, modular IT helps organizations bring together the technolo-gies needed to sustain innovation and progress. Sindhu Gangadharan is global vice president and head of integration at SAP SE and heads up the program for the Intelligent Enterprise.

IDENTIFY YOUR END TARGET – WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE – AND WORK FROM THERE. IT DOESN’T

MATTER WHETHER YOU WORK TO ADDRESS TRADITIONAL BUSINESS CHALLENGES OR YOU CHOOSE TO START WITH NEW, INNOVATIVE USE CASES. WHEN YOU BUILD ON THE RIGHT FRAMEWORK, YOU HAVE THE FLEXIBILITY TO CHOOSE.

– Sindhu Gangadharan Global Vice President and Head of Integration and Program Lead for the Intelligent Enterprise, SAP SE

12 13Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World Modernizing End-to-End Business Processes with Modularity


5G is not just much bigger data pipes – it is super-fast speeds, ultra-low latency, and many other features designed to help usher in the fourth industrial revolution.

Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, the cloud, the Internet of Things, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) are all accelerating in terms of influence, capability, ease of use, and economic impact. When com-bined with a network technology that is software defined, cloud native, and designed for these technology realities, you have a flywheel effect that drives step-function change across technology and business. That network technology is 5G.

Verizon turned on the world’s first 5G mobile network that can be accessed with a 5G smartphone in parts of Chicago and Minneapolis in early April 2019. We’ve also opened 5G labs in several major cities, where we’re working with innova-tive companies to explore the possibilities of 5G. As they see how emerging technologies can run on 5G using modular IT principles, these enterprises are making fascinating discoveries.

Emerging Technologies, Creative Applications5G and the intelligent edge will help companies create meta-platforms that apply across verticals and have applicability from front-of-house applications and back-of-house operations to customer engagement and internal productivity. Here are three examples of how 5G can deliver this impact.

Cognitive video – Computer vision utilizing the key features of 5G and the intelligent edge has truly become intelligent. Using a simple mobile device camera and connecting to basic AI technology at the edge, retailers can have immediate item- and shelf-level information informing them about real-time demand for stocking. Semiconductor manufacturers can use the technology for anomaly detection in circuit boards, using inexpensive cameras and edge devices to replace rigid, simple purpose machines.

High-precision visual recognition and guidance – Using video input and smart devices at the edge, entertainment companies can welcome individual fans back to the stadium, direct them to the nearest food kiosk, and notify them of loyalty-based offers. Airports can recognize the movement patterns of travelers who are lost and offer them special assistance, thus intercepting and preventing a bad travel experience and lost revenue for the industry.

Intelligent AR – Sensors, process triggers, and AI at the intelligent edge can help hospitality companies improve service by generating pop-up messages that remind workers to take steps to meet guests’ needs or preferences. For example, the system could remind housekeeping to leave chocolates on a hotel pillow for a customer with a sweet tooth. Warehouses can use video and AR technologies to identify intersections prone to collisions by workers and machines where near misses occur, thus proactively preventing accidents.

3D Rendering in the Blink of an EyeThese examples are just the beginning. The companies we host in our labs continuously surprise us with fascinating new ideas. As the technologies become more sophisticated, we expect modular 5G solutions to become more valuable and also more disruptive.

One computer vision and sensing firm developed an integrated software and rendering platform for near-real-time capture and processing of holographic content. Using 5G and volu-metric capture technologies, the company has created some early prototypes that perform motion capture of people and things.

Existing technologies use farms of servers to perform 3D rendering, which can generate 7 gigabytes of data per second. This volume of data processes very slowly on traditional networks using non-5G approaches.

With 5G and other emerging technologies, the company can do the same work 200 times faster and with 10 times less cost – all with a single machine. What’s more, the ability to quickly capture and transform this data at these cost points opens up new business opportunities.

For example, the firm’s leaders envision capturing tens of thousands of products sold by catalog retailers and big-box stores and converting them into 3D assets. A job that previously would have taken months and been prohibitively expensive can now be completed in a day, potentially changing an important aspect of retailing. 5G will move a lot of the 2D world to 3D.

By Toby Eduardo RedshawVerizon Communications Inc.

Opportunity Versus Complexity: Preparing for 5G

Preparingfor 5G

16 17Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World16

The Question of ComplexityWith technologies and use cases changing so quickly, will 5G create more complexity for users? I don’t think so.

These applications will deliver simpler, better experiences. As we mentioned, real-time computing at the edge combined with emerging technologies will make experiences, processes, and engagements more predictive, proactive, preventive, personal-ized, peer connected and pattern matched – what we call the “six Ps.” Complexity for the business and the customer will lessen as the value of the technology increases.

Think of the possibilities. An AI-enabled app that can recognize 20,000 stock-keeping units at the local retailer is no big deal. But if that same technology can be used to create a better expe-rience for an individual customer by recognizing behavioral patterns in real-time, that’s cool.

We’re also hoping to see these technologies channeled into applications that improve lives. For example, AR tagging, immersive engagements, and pattern matching offer many opportunities to better engage students and enrich the learning experience.

A major university is developing a VR application that helps patients relearn and pattern their motors skills after a brain injury, such as a stroke. Using VR goggles and paddles, patients work with a therapist to practice balancing a virtual ball on a virtual tray. Digital data captured by the application shows the therapist which skills need more work and rank the benefit of therapy pro-tocols. Thanks to the immersive experience, built-in performance loops and AI, and the inherent advantage of the VR-enabled therapy running over 5G, the application is 5 to 10 times better than current physical therapy approaches.

From an IT perspective, integration of various technology modules is not an issue. All of the use cases described here have been executed in our 5G lab, even though 5G devices are just starting to hit the market. 5G will, of course, also simplify the current nightmare of cabling and wiring environments for connec-tivity. The low-latency and massive bandwidth of 5G is delivered through the air, eliminating the need for cables.

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A major university is developing a VR application that helps patients relearn and pattern their motors skills after a brain injury, such as a stroke.

Modular IT – Innovating in a Fragmented World Opportunity Versus Complexity: Preparing for 5G

1918 Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World Opportunity Versus Complexity: Preparing for 5G

Block by BlockAs companies modularize their systems in preparation for 5G, it’s important to focus on system architecture. To develop a modular architecture that supports critical business goals, companies need to view system components as building blocks to other pieces of the IT landscape. Businesses that don’t thoughtfully assemble these building blocks will soon find themselves with IT infrastructures that are too rigid to adapt to market change. What’s more, the costs and effort of maintaining nonmodular IT resources will rise, reducing competitiveness.

In the next two to four years, the pace of change and disruption from technology will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Companies that neglect to embrace architectural thinking will be leapfrogged by competitors with greater operational agility and efficiency.

To become intelligent, responsive businesses, organizations must take action now to prepare for modular IT that runs on 5G. By building on a flexible, modular IT stack and under-standing how emerging technologies can accelerate the business, firms can create processes, operating structures, and customer engagement approaches that are predictive, proactive, preventive, personalized, and pattern matched. 5G and the intelligent edge will be a game changer. It will deliver simpler, better experiences and lower cost structures – the kind that help businesses grow and thrive even in the face of rapid technological change.

Toby Eduardo Redshaw is senior vice president of enterprise innovation and 5G solutions at Verizon. MAXIMIZE

THE VALUE OF

MODUL

HOWDO YOU

ARIZATION?

– Toby Eduardo Redshaw Senior Vice President, Enterprise Innovation and 5G Solutions, Verizon Communications Inc.

IMMERSE YOURSELF IN

MODULAR ARCHITECTURAL

THINKING AND UNDERSTAND ITS

VALUE. IT’S ESSENTIAL FOR YOUR

FUTURE SUCCESS. IF YOU AREN’T

THINKING ABOUT MODULAR IT, YOU

ARE NO LONGER THINKING ABOUT

MODERN IT.


Most enterprise computing today is an answer to a particular problem: the paper-based processes of yesterday. Before the IT revolution kicked in more than 50 years ago, the information of a typical company was recorded on paper and scattered everywhere. Branch offices, for example, maintained paper invoices on- site. Perhaps they sent copies to headquarters, which incurred transport costs and required effort to compile the numbers from different branches. Or maybe the branches simply for-warded reports with relevant high-level numbers, which meant that headquarters had limited visibility into potentially relevant data at a granular level. Either way, information was scattered and the processes to bring data together were manual, costly, and not very transparent.

Copying the Physical World Is Not Enough AnymoreAs enterprises began to digitalize business processes, most organizations copied the assets and work streams they knew from the physical world into the virtual sphere. In our invoice example, this means companies generated an invoice and sent it to a customer.

BEYOND BLOCKCHAIN

Creating Truly Digital Business Processes Through Federated Data Management

By Torsten ZubeSAP SE

Both vendors and customers used their own IT systems to record these transactions, so each company created its own virtual representation of the invoice. For decades, this was not a problem. Running those processes with the help of computers was still more convenient and cost-effective than doing tedious paperwork – and also less vulnerable to fraud.

With the advent of globalization and the emergence of ever-increasing international trade relationships, the number of transactions between companies grew exponentially. And so did the complexity.

In our invoice example, paper-based processes have been digitalized on the accounts receivable and accounts payable sides. Both vendors and customers store copies of the invoices in their respective systems. Different copies of the same invoices tend to run out of sync. Vendors struggle to determine if their invoices have been received, whether they will be paid on time, or if customers have a dispute with the invoice. Vendors need to understand what was or will be paid to support their cash flow.

Every big company is flooded with these kinds of queries, and most firms employ entire departments of workers to address them. With these business transactions, the need for synchronization has become a significant cost factor.

To innovate in today’s business environment, we must break down the paradigms that allowed companies to flourish in the past. Some of the biggest challenges of digital transformation result from an outdated understanding of how we digitalize information and handle transactions. We can run digital business processes across companies, but to do this effectively, we must revisit our views on data management.

Beyond Blockchain: Creating Truly Digital Business Processes Through Federated Data Management


A financial audit would ultimately validate that the accounting is correct. In the future, a technical solution will maintain the ledgers in sync at all times.

And now comes the tricky part. If you want to modularize data management and ensure that only the essential parts of the data are visible to business partners, you need to pro-cess the data in an abstract yet precise way.

Data aggregation is the process of hashing all information so that you can process it in a protected way. Today, we carbon copy the document and blacken sensitive parts. Digitally, this can be done much more elegantly.

By componentizing business transactions, companies can use the preferred technology, protocol, or system for each function, harnessing the value of blockchain without experi-encing its disadvantages.

For example, you can store the invoice in your proprietary system just as you have always done. You can choose a com-munication tool to share the data with your network. You can use the blockchain technology of your choice to notarize – not store – your data to verify its authenticity without the

A Modularized Future: Federated Data ManagementAt SAP® Innovation Center Network, we began exploring the use of blockchain to accentuate its benefits without the common downsides. The paradigm we envision is called “federated data management.” By breaking down cross-company data management into different components, we can modularize the processing of different functions of any intercompany business transaction.

Federated data management includes the following components.

Data virtualization is the shared virtual data model of how information is arranged and visualized. Think of the invoice: Today, each party to a transaction would store a copy of the invoice in its respective business systems. In the future, both parties will see the same invoice, no matter how they store their copies locally.

Data exchange is the ability to share information with others. Making enterprise systems talk to each other directly is very costly today. We need to break down this barrier.

Data notarization is the mechanism used to validate the data and the transactions. Today, this is mainly done by third parties.

The Advent of Enterprise Blockchain – And Its DownsidesBlockchain generated a lot of hype when it entered the enterprise space. It is an emerging technology that offers advanced encryption techniques and promises to democratize the Internet. Promoters said it would simplify the way com-panies handle cross-organizational business processes while managing transactions in complex value chains based on a shared truth.

Blockchain is most often described as a distributed ledger of transactions. Transactions can represent almost anything of value – cryptocurrencies, stock certificates, or smart contracts that trigger automated actions based on certain conditions, for example.

The distributed aspect is critical. While most ledgers are stored centrally, a blockchain ledger is stored across multiple nodes in a decentralized peer-to-peer network. Each node holds a copy of the transaction, the validity of which is dictated by consensus. If everyone in the network agrees on a proposed transaction, the transaction goes through.

Blockchain allows companies to share data in a network, and it enables trusted transactions. There is no need to manually sync different visual representations of the same transaction. And – even more important – blockchain reduces the need for third parties to notarize the validity of transaction information.

Is There Something in Between?Public blockchains also have some disadvantages: They replicate data in every node of the network. Data sharing among participants requires high computational efforts that slow process execution. What’s more, costs are still quite high. In some use cases, full transparency is undesirable because it can provide your competition with critical business insights.

One approach we use is to work with customers in permis-sioned blockchain networks. These networks grant access only to parties with a relevant stake in working with shared data for common business processes. Permissioned block-chain networks usually can overcome the problem of high energy consumption and low transactional throughput. Even though this is a great option for many scenarios, the vast majority of companies tend to maintain a full digital copy of the information.

That leads us to an essential question: If enterprises want to synchronize and authenticate data to create trust in their network-based business without involving a third party, why should we store and communicate all information on the blockchain?

How can you maximize the value of modularization?

You can maximize gains by adding cheap techni-

cal trust to existing business processes without changing them. You can imagine new business processes, but that’s a tremendous effort. Why not stick to the processes you have for now and add trust on a technical level?− Torsten Zube

Head of SAP Innovation Center Network, SAP SE

need for third parties. You can aggregate the data and decide whom to share it with. All of these capabilities work seamlessly together.

Building Truly Digital Business ProcessesAt SAP, we are working to enable the vision of federated data management while reducing complexity for our customers.

We believe in a decentralized future of data management. While companies want to use systems, such as their SAP HANA® database, that are perfectly tailored to their specific needs, the requirement to work seamlessly across company borders will continue to increase. The rise of enterprise block-chains has even inspired the emergence of network-based business models. Federated data management could allow all of this at the same time, helping companies build business processes that are not only a copy of the physical world but are truly digital.

Torsten Zube is head of SAP Innovation Center Network at SAP SE.

Beyond Blockchain: Creating Truly Digital Business Processes Through Federated Data Management

AUGMENTED REALITY: ENRICHING THE EXPERIENCE OF SHOP-FLOOR WORKERS


Mention the phrase “user experience” and most people think about the intuitiveness of office software. It’s true that vendors are increasingly focused on delivering more modular, personalized applications that adapt to the needs of white-collar workers. But providing an engaging user experience is important to other workers as well. Augmented reality (AR) technologies are helping factory employees work more productively and accurately and are being applied in use cases that include product assembly, machine repair, and equipment service. From nonimmer-sive displays to immersive mixed reality applications, AR tools are expanding from the shop floor to remote field service environments and more. And because these appli-cations are being built on open, modular platforms, they may soon be integrated into core business systems.

To better understand how AR is improving the user experience for shop-floor workers, Horizons by SAP sat down with Brian Ballard, CEO of AR software industry leader Upskill. The following are some highlights of the conversation.

Augmented Reality: Enriching the Experience of Shop-Floor Workers

By Brian BallardUpskill


AR and virtual reality (VR) technologies spark the imagination, thanks to science fiction and

some high-profile gaming technologies. But AR tools have a practical role in the workplace, right? Ballard: We think of it as a wearable world, where AR will offer a new field of view through glasses and visual devices. There’s also a class of AR happening now on phones and tablets, where the camera is seeing the world and the user adds information to that. There are different tools for different jobs, but one area of AR that is definitely growing is on the factory floor.

Is this part of what’s typically considered the digital factory?

Ballard: Exactly. In factories, warehouses, and the field, AR is a tool for the workforce. It’s an extension of a worker’s utility, augmented with better access to information and real-time connections to the systems around them. AR will be a force multiplier for the workforce. Bringing that information into the job will be a real game changer, and AR will be the way that workers get it.

What are some of the latest AR technology developments?

Ballard: We see a steady release of new technology in both mixed reality and assisted reality devices. Microsoft recently introduced the new HoloLens 2, which are mixed reality smart glasses with a more pronounced business focus than earlier generations. And the comfort of new devices is much better. In some ways, better wearability actually trumps some of the technology enhancements, because greater comfort encourages people to use the devices more.

But there are plenty of technology improvements too.

Ballard: That’s right. In the assisted reality space, battery-life improvements are beginning to allow all-day wear from devices such as Glass Enterprise Edition. Manufacturers have begun targeting enterprise use cases with more-rugged devices, better cameras, and more-sophisticated voice processing. Certainly, with improved sensors on the devices, we can also pull in more-advanced server-side or cloud-based processing to enrich and augment the intelligence of the whole system.

That really extends the reach of the technology.

Ballard: You see these devices being used on oil rigs, in warehouses, and on factory floors. People wear them all day, every day, as part of their work kit. As companies integrate these devices into their work processes, we’re moving toward a desk-free workforce. I don’t expect it will ever go back to the old paper-based technology.

This is an investment that will improve people’s lives and their work on the factory floor. Are

CIOs ready to meet the need for worker technology? Ballard: Companies need to interact with hands-on employees in a software-centric way. And this is not yet the norm. Most businesses support white collar workers with spreadsheets, e-mail, and word-processing tools. But rarely have they made it a priority to digitalize the other 50% of the workforce. That’s changing with AR. CIOs and their counterparts, such as chief digital officers (CDOs), need to be aware of this and have a plan for how to work together to deliver value to that part of their business.

Manufacturers are increasingly producing more-individualized products. For the shop

floor, that means there are more product variances and complexity. How can AR help workers be more productive in this climate? Ballard: Leading manufacturers are already using AR to seamlessly guide workers through customized or changing job tasks. There’s huge potential there to boost productivity while increasing product complexity or customization. Also, if you can reskill or retrain people faster, it’s easier to support highly distributed, flexible manufacturing strategies. AR lets you create a tight digital thread of data between design and manufacturing. A designer can change a product spec, click a button, and the information is immediately passed to the shop-floor worker. We’ve talked about this for years, but there has always been a block between systems and people. That wall has finally come down.

It sounds like that connection would shorten the feedback loop from design to production.

Are there other ways that AR supports collaboration? Ballard: “See what I see” features let an expert view things from the user’s perspective. Imagine that a designer tweaks the design and the operator finds a problem. Since they are both seeing the same thing, the designer can quickly make changes and resend the updated design. This feature is commonly used in field service, where a repair person can share a problem with an expert and receive instant guidance.


Building the Future of Manufacturing with Transformative Technology

What are the current obstacles for integrating AR with ERP and MES systems? Where do

software companies need to improve?Ballard: On the assisted reality side, integration into those systems is pretty straightforward. It’s easy to take advantage of traditional data structures. In two to three years, when more of the design and build process develops a 3D compo-nent, we will need to develop a pipeline between the design and assembly sides of the manufacturing world. How do you deconstruct 3D models and present them in a way that is consumable quickly at the edge? We’re working with partners to determine how to deconstruct work into an AR-native format. That’s where exciting work is happening.

We’re seeing some pilot implementations being deployed for one-of-a-kind production

issues – such as making unique cabling connections in a data center. Is that where AR is likely to be used most? Ballard: We actually approach it from the opposite perspective. Repetitive processes can be a great starting point for AR. Take your data center example. Few workers can memorize all of the information needed to work on every cabinet in the data center. But the company probably has detailed records of how to build or maintain each server. By putting the infor-mation in front of the worker, you can decrease errors and reduce shop-floor confusion. Having technology that reduces worker frustration and makes the job a little easier is a great way to boost good will.

Automation, connected devices, and low-latency data exchange will lead to a shift in manufacturing productivity within the next

years. Machines will relieve humans of repetitive, monotonous, noner-gonomic, and even dangerous tasks. And data from connected devices, product components, and humans will enable action through new in-sights. We design our systems to help companies master their specific manufacturing and adjacent logistics processes to meet cost, time, and quality requirements. Our organization combines domain-specific expertise with technology ‘derisking’ in small teams, providing the technological foundation for new business opportunities.


What’s the better approach?

Ballard: Identify a problem to solve where you can use AR as a tool. It should be a problem that matters, one that touches the workforce, production systems, IT, and mobility. By coming to the table knowing who to work with, companies realize success much faster and often at a lower cost than by running a couple of experiments that go nowhere.

Is modularization reshaping AR technologies and uses?

Ballard: Absolutely. We think of it in terms of building platforms that modularize individual work processes. By taking the platform approach and adding modular components on top, businesses can employ application modules while retaining the platform’s security and management functionality.

Will increasing modularization – of both AR and enterprise systems – help developers

embed more AR and VR into their business models and processes? For example, will we see AR and VR embedded into enterprise resource planning (ERP) or manufacturing execution systems (MESs)? Ballard: That‘s the obvious evolution of the technology. In the last decade, productivity increases have been measured in single digits. Yet we constantly see improvements of 30%, 50%, and 100% in processes that use AR. I think you’ll see a global economic jump in productivity once this technology is widely adopted.

5G networks are on the horizon. How will they support AR?

Ballard: 5G will be extremely impactful, especially once the next generation of 5G-capable devices comes to the shop floor. 5G will provide not only bandwidth but also a quality of service that is critical in factories running Internet of Things technology. It may take a couple of years to roll out the infra-structure – both chips and towers – but I am excited for 5G.

How should companies begin to move forward with AR technologies in a modularized world?

Ballard: AR is not one size fits all. You need to apply the right combination of technologies to the problems you want to solve. We advise people to think about operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT). OT needs to identify the use cases that matter. IT needs to establish some level of digital maturity to take advantage of the technology at scale.

− Thomas Czumanski Manufacturing Lead, SAP Innovation Center Network, SAP SE

Are you saying that efficiency isn’t the main benefit of AR?

Ballard: Productivity is important. But first-time quality tends to be a bigger driver for our customers. For manufac-turers, warranty claims are measured in the tens of millions of dollars. If you can avoid that with better first-time manu-facturing quality, you’re way ahead.

How do companies measure AR return on investment?

Ballard: Let’s say you’re in a warehouse environment. By putting information in a worker’s line of sight and eliminating the need to put down tools to check instructions, you can realize a 10% to 20% productivity improvement. For a man-ufacturer building capital assets, AR commonly increases productivity by 30% to 50%. That’s great. But if you avoid one quality issue, you could pay for the system in savings.

What advice can you offer companies that want to get started with modular AR

technologies? Ballard: Don’t view this as an experiment. Instead, choose an area where it will drive real business value. Sometimes people put a toe in the water but they don‘t bring the right resources to support the project. They can do the project four to six times before they get it right. In fact, companies tend to see higher benefits when they implement large-scale versus small-scale AR projects.

Who should be on the team?

Ballard: Sometimes we hear from operational business owners, such as the vice president of manufacturing. We ask who they’re working with on the IT side. If they haven’t identified someone, we encourage them to connect with the CIO team. If we’re approached by an IT team that wants to build a cool feature, we ask them who on the OT side will consume the technology? More and more, these two elements of the business will be working hand in hand, so we need to make sure both sides are represented.

Brian Ballard is founder and CEO of Upskill.


NEW SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PARADIGMSEnterprises are radically shifting the way they build, test, ship, and distribute software – as evidenced by the widespread adoption of DevOps, microservices, and newer distributed architectures. This change brings sheer agility to digital transformation initia-tives across industries. Established organizations should explore opportunities to absorb these newer architectures and software development paradigms – so they reflect the status quo but provide a foundation for future innovation.

A NEW CYBERSECURITY ERA Today, the default approach to enterprise security is evolving from an enterprise perimeter to concepts like “zero trust.” This shift is driven by a heightened threat landscape, connectivity-related vulnerabilities, and macrofactors, such as remote workers and a gig-based economy. It’s time to acknowledge that we live in a fundamental state of insecurity and adopt commensurate risk and security management strategies and tools.

EARLY DAYS FOR DATA, ANALYTICS, AND MACHINE LEARNING There’s still a lot of enterprise value to be unlocked from these technologies. Organizations need to address essential tooling choices, data quality issues, and preparation work before they can have an autonomous, enterprise-class deployment of analytics tools.



Nino Marakovic CEO and Managing Director Sapphire Ventures LLC



BUILDING PARTNER-SHIPS When it comes to content-generating applications,

however, the rising number of solutions does not always create a great user experience. Think of all the content produced by different applications in your enterprise: e-mail, instant messaging and collaboration, digital signatures, performance reviews, and customer relationship management, to name just a few.

Each of these applications generates unstructured data that must be stored and shared. And workers expect to use a wide variety of mobile and desktop devices to access this content.

A few years ago, many of these applications might have been part of an on-premise software suite that centralized the data and associated metadata in one database. Such enterprise software allowed the data to interoperate with different business processes across discrete applications.

No more. With most companies using cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, content is fragmented by application and distrib-uted across the virtual enterprise. Data from one software module cannot be shared with another or accessed by another module. And the informa-tion is typically siloed, making it difficult to get a clear picture of the business.

Some vendors sell content management systems that reach across software applications – but only those within the same product line or from the same vendor. That’s not going to cut it in today’s heterogeneous world, especially with companies that use SaaS solutions. Although the increasing modularity of applications improves user choice, it significantly adds complexity, reduces transpar-ency, and complicates data access.

Best-of-breed applications are great for people who want to choose the tools they like, the ones that help them work as they prefer. Everyone likes to get what they want, exactly the way they want it.

By Niall WallBox

That Enrich the Customer Experience

32 33Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World Building Partnerships That Enrich the Customer Experience

Developing a Modern Approach to Content ManagementThese challenges require a different approach – a new model for horizontal software development. Years ago, the founders of my company started with a simple idea: that people are more productive when they can access their company’s unstructured data. We wanted to make it easy to access and share data and files anywhere, from any device.

Today, our mission is to help people work together. We developed a cloud-based content platform that supports file synchronization and sharing across the enterprise – without propagating content fragmentation. This platform deeply integrates with a variety of applications, allowing users secure, intuitive access to corporate data. People can continue using their preferred best-of-breed tools, and they can create and access content from different applications without changing the way they work.

But this approach required us to develop a different model for software development and new ways to manage partner-ships with other software vendors. From the start, we decided to extend the functionality of Box solutions to other applica-tions using application programming interfaces (APIs).

Customers that want to enable secure sharing of documents can use Box in concert with any of our partners. Let’s say a company wants to use Slack for collaboration but they want to maintain control over corporate data. Slack uses APIs to integrate with Box, which allows companies to support employee collaboration while meeting their security goals.

strategy, we are able to be vendor neutral, which is an important principle of modern SaaS software development. Instead of a tightly coupled software architecture such as those used by legacy on-premise enterprise systems, our solutions are designed with modularity that supports downstream flexibility for IT buyers. Our neutrality allows customers to easily integrate a variety of applications, eliminating the threat of vendor lock-in.

To be clear, Box is not unique in this regard. The whole premise of SaaS is to enable a modularized, open architec-ture so that companies can use the applications that make sense for each business process. By enabling this openness, we help companies quickly leverage the rapid pace of innovation and solve their business challenges.

Partnering for Customer SuccessTo address our customers’ needs, we look for several key characteristics in our application partners.

In larger enterprises, we like to work with companies that have demonstrated a realization that a need to have control of everything in their own ecosystem or the cloud is not a winning strategy. Companies that commit to adopting approaches that benefit their end customers – knowing that those choices ultimately will be beneficial to their business as well – tend to be good partners in an environment of modularization. And vendors that prioritize openness are usually more willing to design their software to support interoperability.

Today we work with more than 1,400 companies in our partner ecosystem to serve more than 92,000 client companies. Well-defined APIs make integration seamless and easy, allowing each vendor to use Box as the content layer for its applications. Managing our relationships with these 1,400 partners takes effort. For approximately 20 of our strategic partners, our relationship includes a dedicated partner manager and coor-dinated plans to support deep integrations and a successful collaboration between our companies. We refer to these partners as our best-of-breed ecosystem. They are the top SaaS and security applications that our customers use all the time.

With another set of partners, we rely on a programmatic engagement model. This includes standard contracts, API integration methodologies, and go-to-market motions for co-sell, enablement, and developer support activities.

Partnering with these companies gives us an advantage over vendors who are not designed – or inclined – to integrate with others. Through our partnerships and our API-first

For smaller vendors, we prefer companies that work with open APIs at the core. These firms create conditions that make it easy for customers, other businesses, and service companies to enable integration.

Using open APIs is an important prerequisite to enable interoperability between applications. We also engage in deeper joint engineering projects with our top 20 best-of-breed partners – including operating system players, mobile platforms, and public cloud platforms.

It’s important to mention, however, that even in partnerships where we deploy joint committed engineering teams, we never modify the Box API-first strategy. Nor do we “fork” our APIs to specific custom integrations. Instead, we continue evolving our APIs to ensure that integrations with these applications and platforms are executed in a consistent, open way. That’s what’s best for our customers.

And in the end, everything comes back to the customer. People are happy when they can get what they want, just the way they like it. For Box, a best-of-breed approach is not just cool or trendy. Because it’s right for our customers, modularity is fundamental to our corporate identity and the products we offer.

Niall Wall is senior vice president of business and corporate development at Box.

Focus on the user experience and the real utility of the application to the user. Then work from there. If the application doesn’t result in a better user experience or a better outcome for your customer, don’t bother.

– Niall Wall Senior Vice President of Business and Corporate Development, Box

34 35Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World Building Partnerships That Enrich the Customer Experience

HOW TO MAXIMIZE THEVALUE OF MODULARIZATION

How can businesses benefit from modular IT without compromising data security or losing control over costs?

With constantly changing technologies and threats, every day as an IT security professional offers a new challenge and an opportunity to solve big, intractable problems. After 26 years in the security industry, I am excited to go to work each morning.

A quarter-century in the industry also lends me a broader view of trends, threats, and security approaches. One issue that keeps my team busy is that IT infrastructures are becoming increasingly componentized, with a growing collection of small hardware and software components that must be managed and secured. The effort required to provide a secure environment continues to grow, with the enemy becoming more sophisticated every year.

36 37Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World Secure Your Modularized IT Infrastructure36

By Tim McKnightSAP SE

Secure Your Modularized ITInfrastructure

New controls that detect behavioral anomalies are essential in more-complex environments. By deploying features that identify when a user or intruder modifies data, changes code, or otherwise abuses the system, companies can pin-point unapproved behaviors before they harm the business.

These controls can be extended beyond the four walls of the enterprise to protect the data of customers and partners. For example, we have engineered our products to detect data access by anyone. This feature protects customers using distributed computing environments.

Emerging Technologies for New Threats Intelligent technologies can add even more speed and preci-sion to enterprise security in a complex modular infrastructure. Many companies are interested in using system-log files to identify unusual user or program behavior. But parsing these files is incredibly difficult, time-consuming, manual work. Using intelligent technologies, such as machine learning, can auto-mate security assessments and help administrators quickly identify anomalies or disruptive behavior.

Intelligent technologies can also support “taint analysis,” a technique that checks to see that no malicious data input harms http requests, database requests, or command execu-tions. By building taint-detection features into the security platform, we can help companies – and often their partners who use the system – prevent runtime attacks.

Other advanced features are deceptive applications, where a programmer adds a decoy to the system that identifies an attacker who tries to access it. The decoy is a software artifact, such as a database table, which is a valuable asset for an attacker but is not accessible by standard applications. Intelli-gent technologies are also a good match for honey patches, where past vulnerabilities are simulated to trap attackers. Each of these features becomes increasingly important to protect corporate systems as they become more complex, heterogeneous, and modularized.


Two Steps to Stronger SecurityMost companies began with monolithic mainframe systems with centralized processes and data. Over time, they moved to client and server systems with centralized processes and distributed data. Now, the majority of enterprises have dis-tributed processes and data. As we’ve embraced the cloud, microservices, and a variety of applications, IT complexity has skyrocketed.

Surprisingly, the changes needed to secure modular IT systems are not radical. Companies should begin by putting their own security house in order. They must consistently employ zero-trust security models that maintain strict access controls for all users. It’s also important to get back to basics by deploying sophisticated authentication techniques, classic firewall and antivirus technology, and compliance solutions. In too many cases, enterprises have not yet fully executed on these foundational security components.

With these pieces in place, firms can enhance security to meet the unique requirements of modularization. By deploying intelligent technologies that help decision-makers learn from experience – such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced analytics – enterprises can track patterns and identify threats. These technologies can be especially helpful for intrusion and anomaly detection.

Security Orchestration Across IT LandscapesOne way to improve security in a fragmented infrastructure is to ensure it is applied on a platform basis.

Think of the average IT environment and the large number of applications that are deployed. Loosely coupled applications and microservices are integrated throughout the infrastructure. However, there is no common authentication or verification that helps these programs or their users comply with an orga-nization’s security requirements.

The platform must have protections in place to secure these components in a controlled manner. Companies need to ensure software fits in with the larger security framework, enabling teams to optimize data flows, authorization, authentication, and verification.

In a modular IT environment, security must become the responsibility of the entire organization, not just the security team.

Secure Your Modularized IT Infrastructure

Shared Responsibility for SecurityIt’s essential to have a dedicated security organization. But in a modular IT environment, security must become the responsibility of the entire organization, not just the security team. The chief security officer must work with the chief finan-cial officer and line-of-business (LoB) executives, ensuring all groups align to secure the company’s processes and information chain.

Even LoB leaders need to become security experts. Because attacks are becoming more sophisticated and targeted, secu-rity awareness must become the responsibility of everyone in the organization. Companies should ensure that employees are security aware. Using traditional courses or gamification, employees can be trained to make good choices, such as not opening a macro or clicking on potentially dangerous links.

In a recent ransomware attack, one of the world’s largest shipping companies lost US$350 million. As a result of this high-profile incident, many companies that recently thought security was not a top priority are stepping up their efforts to protect their IT infrastructure. Now, they realize this new generation of threats against a system with subpar protec-tion could put them out of business.

The appetite for and acceptance of breaches is falling rapidly, as attacks become more costly and dangerous. In many cases, these security risks are becoming increasingly physical. For example, breaches of autonomous vehicle applications or healthcare data can threaten human life.

As attacks become more disruptive and sophisticated, security-minded companies expect more from their vendors. In simpler times, customers would ask us whether our security was up to date. Now, they ask us which features are available to respond to more complex breaches. Business leaders know that one security method alone is insufficient, and they want more-innovative and -competitive security strategies.

For many years, the standard for IT security has been “zero trust, validate all.” Yet, companies can only achieve that if they have appropriate measurements in place that identify and validate the traffic, the originator, and the impact on data, processes, and people. The only viable option is to apply controls and testing validation consistently and continuously.

Security must be built in to the organization. The best way to accomplish this is by forming security policies, developing awareness throughout the network, and putting appropriate technologies in place to handle attacks of any quality and number. And quite simply, every application needs to have security embedded in it.

Companies also need to employ security experts who are familiar with security by design. By employing top-notch secu-rity professionals who are knowledgeable about the threat landscape and armed with the latest tools, business leaders can meet today’s growing threats head-on.

Achieving Trusted Security in a Modular WorldSometimes organizations expect their security experts to wave a magic wand that protects everything in a single stroke. In a modular world, this is unrealistic. There are too many components, microservices, and applications to seal off from the world. Protecting every asset is not only costly, but it would also break the system.

As IT infrastructures grow more complex, business leaderswill need to classify the assets worth protecting. In most companies, 80% of the data is common knowledge and only 20% is crucial to the business. By taking the time to define this critical data, companies can reduce the cost and effort of securing unessential assets. They can also use risk assess-ment and threat modeling exercises to understand which parts of the IT infrastructure require protection.

In the world of modular IT, we cannot put a fence around the entire IT infrastructure, but we can protect critical information components. We can also create processes that determine the extent to which users can access information. In this way, distributed data and distributed processes can help protect vital digital assets.

A healthy, secure business requires trusted security. In an increasingly modular world, simplification is key. By focusing on the basics, developing a strong security culture, and embed-ding intelligent technology such as AI or machine learning into security processes, we can create secure infrastruc-tures that are ready to support business growth.

Tim McKnight is chief security officer at SAP SE.

40 41Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World Secure Your Modularized IT Infrastructure

GET TO KNOW ME Digital interactions are creating an expanding technology identity for every consumer – one that will be key to understanding the next generation of consumers and delivering rich, individualized, experience-based relationships. Companies will understand people and their goals better than ever before, and they’ll have the agility to act in the moment to meet people’s needs.

HUMAN-PLUS WORKERS Workforces are becoming “human plus.” Workers are empowered by their skill sets and knowledge, plus a new, constantly growing set of capabilities made possible through technology. Companies must adapt the technology strategies that successfully created this next-generation workforce to support a new way of working in the postdigital age.

SECURE US TO SECURE ME In our Accenture Technology Vision 2019 survey,* 87% of business and IT executives agree that to be truly resilient, organizations must rethink their approach to security in a way that defends not just themselves but their ecosystems. Companies must embrace ecosystem partnerships for security, just as they have done to deliver best-in-class products, services, and experiences. It’s about collaborating with partners and making security a key component of how companies build business partnerships.

42 43Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World Top Technology Trends

Julie Sweet CEO – North America Accenture


*”The Post-Digital Era Is Upon Us: Are You Ready for What’s Next?,” Accenture Technology Vision 2019, Accenture, 2019.


The promise of a great customer experience is no longer just for consumers. In our conversations with hundreds of thousands of Dell customers, we find that business leaders increasingly expect to get precisely what they need from technology vendors too.

Our internal research supports this finding. By a ratio of four to one, our customers believe that a modular IT architecture is the right way to get what they need. And we agree. Modular hardware brings compute, storage, and networking hardware together seamlessly so IT experts can precisely provision technology resources to meet the company’s needs.

Modularity helps enable something that we call a kinetic infrastructure. Like kinetic energy, which can be transferred between objects and transformed into other kinds of energy, kinetic infrastructures enable companies to assign the right resources to the right workload. They can also change resources dynamically as business needs evolve.

Think of your data center: whatever its needs or workloads are today, they will be different 12 months from now. As requirements change, a kinetic infrastructure allows you to add or subtract necessary technology elements to and from your IT landscape. It scales seamlessly to match the current workloads, data center requirements, and storage needs.

How does this approach differ from traditional IT approaches? With legacy solutions, companies typically buy compute power for peak performance, which only occurs occasionally. They start off with a fixed amount of storage, a certain number of CPUs or compute power, and an associated amount of memory.

When demand rises and resources are insufficient, the orga-nization buys more technology – typically added as a bundle of compute, storage, and memory. If you increase memory, you probably have to buy storage and CPUs too.

By Ravi PendekantiDell

In contrast, a kinetic infrastructure begins with exactly what the business needs now. As needs change, the IT team adds more resources on the fly. If the company needs more memory, IT adds only memory. There is no need to procure additional CPUs and storage.

As a result, kinetic infrastructures reduce the purchase costs of unnecessary technology, and they lower the cost of administration and maintenance. By acquiring and man-aging only what they need, companies also slash their total cost of ownership compared with legacy technologies.

Emerging Technologies on Modular HardwareThis hardware flexibility is especially valuable with data-intensive emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Let’s consider an example.

When IT professionals think of deploying a machine learning application, they usually assume that they need

many graphical processing units (GPUs). In a kinetic infra-structure with modular hardware, that’s not necessarily true.

Depending on your company’s requirements, you can perform machine learning with your existing processing capabilities. You can, for example, use field-programmable gate arrays, which consume less power and are more afford-able but require programming skills. Or you can buy more GPUs, although they cost more and require more power.

There is no one correct approach to a machine learning deployment. When using modular hardware, you can make the best choice based on your technology needs, workloads, and budget.

In fact, kinetic infrastructure is so flexible that hardware concerns generally take a back seat to more fundamental issues, such as collecting the right data and choosing the right framework (for example, TensorFlow from Google or Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit). Spending time on these issues will help ensure that you gain maximum value from your machine learning, AI, or analytics application.

44 45Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World How a Kinetic Infrastructure Facilitates the Use of Emerging Technologies

How a Kinetic Infrastructure Facilitates the Use of Emerging Technologies

IoT Data CollectionAnother critical emerging technology catalyzed by modular-ity is the IoT. Experts estimate that there will be billions of devices in the world in the next few years. The devices alone have little value. But what about the data they produce? That’s where companies can really develop market-changing innovation.

For an IoT use case, organizations must collect and synthe-size the data and analyze it at the data center. Some of the applications for this are impressive. I’ve visited some smart buildings with about 30,000 end points that collect all kinds of data on the facility environment. Based on analytics, busi-nesses can lower the air-conditioning temperature in a crowded conference room or turn off the lighting after the workday ends.

With so many end points at the network edge, however, com-panies need to deploy the right servers in the right places. Not all devices are equal. Purpose-built servers can help capture and recognize the data that’s being processed. At the edge, your best choice might be a low-powered, one-socket server.

In the data center, a more modular approach will allow you to scale analytical capabilities to meet the changing needs of the business. In this case, a four-socket server in the data center might be the right option.

Companies also need a consistent, seamless way to manage all of these devices. Comprehensive solutions, such as our Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise, manage everything from the edge to the data center. Based on open RESTful APIs, the tool plugs into all popular management frameworks. IT professionals can use it to manage complex deployments from the edge to the core to the cloud.

There’s another wrinkle to this, though. With applications like the IoT, some companies are thinking about processing data at the edge instead of in the data center. Think about cases such as a connected sports stadium, an oil rig, or a factory floor. In these environments, it might not make sense to pump data back to the core for processing. At Dell, we’re working on new innovations to address this issue.

More Proactive, Predictive Capabilities AheadLooking ahead, I expect it won’t be long until we realize the implementation of a completely kinetic infrastructure, where companies will be able to use exactly the resources required. A company that needs more processing power to perform machine learning will soon be able to plug in additional GPUs without the added payload of more CPUs, memory, or hard drives.

Today, most of the server deployments we see are very reac-tive. Something breaks and companies deploy new servers to fix a problem. Over time, I expect to see IT become more proactive as predictive analytics becomes a key component of the kinetic infrastructure.

Modular IT will support this evolution. IT professionals will be able to use machine learning and deep learning to identify when the IT infrastructure needs more CPU resources or more memory, for example. It will also provide a tight loop mechanism that measures performance and recommends resource changes based on the specific workloads running. With that insight, IT leaders can deploy additional resources or correct problems before something breaks.

Our customers continue to demonstrate demand for a more dynamic environment that delivers business value through technology – in a faster, more differentiated way. As the number of end points grows, there will be more volumes of data to analyze and more technology to manage.

To deal with these challenges, we depend more than ever before on open, collaborative partnerships, such as the one Dell has with SAP and Intel. Being able to co-innovate openly and honestly with our partners through these established relationships will be especially important as the number of geographically dispersed devices grows and IT architectures become more complex.

Complexity is a huge factor in each of these deployments. But modular hardware solutions that create a single interface, streamline technology deployment, and simplify manage-ment are an essential foundation for creating an excellent customer experience.

Ravi Pendekanti is senior vice president of server product management and product marketing at Dell.

UNDERSTAND YOUR WORKLOADS AND WHERE PIVOT POINTS WILL HAPPEN.

CONCENTRATE ON THE ARCHITECTURE THAT BEST SUPPORTS THOSE VECTORS. THAT WILL HELP YOU MANAGE YOUR COSTS MUCH MORE EFFECTIVELY.– Ravi Pendekanti

Senior Vice President Server Product Management and Product Marketing, Dell

There is no one correct approach to a machine learning deployment. When using modular hardware, you can make the best choice based on your technology needs, workloads, and budget.

46 47Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World How a Kinetic Infrastructure Facilitates the Use of Emerging Technologies

Some manufacturers use robotics to drive efficiency. Think of a straightforward assembly line, as inherited from Henry Ford. Large, stationary robotic units are positioned “behind the fence” and away from humans – allowing the robots to do their thing without causing harm or injury to workers. These robots move fast and don’t get fatigued. This is where the efficiencies are gained.

Yet efficiency isn’t the only advantage. As manufacturing execution systems (MESs) become more advanced, manufacturers are considering how robotics can be added to planning and shop-floor operations. For example, robotics can help some enterprises more flexibly program custom-izations into the assembly process – so this car gets a sunroof, and that one gets the sports trim. This flexibility allows manufacturers to accommodate customer prefer-ences with greater ease.

Shifting from Assembly Lines to Production CellsWhile assembly lines are still common, today’s state of the art for robotics is shifting from large, stationary devices to flexible machines with self-learning capabilities that help optimize processes over time. This move is helping to fuel a much higher degree of modularization in production.

Modular production means agile production – the kind capable of serving low-volume, flexible lots and even the “lot size of one” while still maintaining profitability. The desire or agile production has led to the rise of production cells.

These stationary groups of equipment include advanced robotic devices that can be used to manufacture a wide and changing variety of products. And as customer needs evolve, these cells can reassemble themselves as needed to produce different assemblies or finished goods.

Mobile robotic units – also known as automated guided vehicles (AGVs) – can be used to fetch and deliver the parts and materials needed for each cell to complete its assembly and manufacturing tasks. They can also carry required parts and tools needed in each cell, increasing overall flexibility.

Using a navigation algorithm, the AGVs navigate to the individual manufacturing cells. Once the robot arrives in the cell, it picks up the work piece or part. A second robot in the cell holds the other part, locking the pieces together to form an assembly. A third robot welds the pieces together. In addition, some mobile robots are enhanced by a static production robot. The mobile robot moves around from cell to cell, and the static robot executes its work task wherever needed.

Helping the mobile robots move throughout the factory to production cells are onboard sensors that scan their surroundings and let the navigation system determine the location of the AGV fleet with respect to shop-floor schematics. Coordination between MESs and robots can facilitate and optimize these tasks – therefore optimizing overall produc-tion significantly.

Such flexible production requires real-time coordination of demand, schedules, and all robots throughout the work processes. The enabling software, which is based on artificial intelligence technologies, keeps track of and determines where the moving AGVs are located and which component or tool the AGV needs to deliver to the robot. The robots can quickly prepare the parts so that assemblies or other work tasks are completed efficiently.

More flexible, matrix-like production can become a decisive competitive advantage for manufacturers. Compared with rigidly linked production concepts, robotics-enabled manu-facturing improves flexibility and versatility while optimizing shop-floor space. In the future, this technology may even lead to modular and mobile factories.

For years now, manufacturers have been using robotics to revolutionize production. The imple-mentation approaches, however, vary by use case.

By Andreas Bauer Kuka AG

ACHIEVING

ACHIEVING MASS CUSTOMIZATION, WITH HELP

FROM ROBOTICS48 49Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World Achieving Mass Customization, with Help from Robotics

Balancing Modularity and StandardizationIt is important to remember that not all manufacturing requires the same robotics support. An auto manufac-turer follows different processes than a manufacturer of semiconductors. Thus, for robots to be more broadly adopted, they need to be made in a domain-agnostic way.

Robot functionality, in a sense, needs to be modularized. This requires a certain amount of standardization across use cases. Basic equipment – such as motion sensors, grippers, joints, voice recognition systems, and welding cells – can be used across models and quickly adapted to a wide range of requirements and unique use cases.

Because robots are used as part of complex processes – manufacturing and otherwise – this notion of stan-dardization needs to extend to back-end business and operational systems as well. One area ripe for progress

Many companies today are competing in the arena of customer experience. The product created by manufac-turers is an integral part of that experience. And the ability to personalize the product to unique customer expectations and requests can make all the difference.

The production cell approach maximizes customization flexibility. With robots and humans working together, organizations can orchestrate unique production runs. The result is sometimes called “mass customization” – or the ability to deliver what customers want with short lead times and optimal price points that drive both sales and profitability.

Automakers, for example, can accommodate nearly any mix of options – rather than producing high volumes of cars in just the three or four product lines offered today.

is the technological integration of robots into MESs. By creating robotics that can flexibly adapt to specific use cases and still interoperate with other applications, companies could improve the networking and interde-pendency among these technologies.

Achieving Mass CustomizationWhile progress in standardization is still needed, robots are already being used to make personalization feasible in terms of cost, timely delivery, operational logistics, and other key metrics. As mentioned, manufacturers can use robots to increase customization, even with assembly-line production models. The production cell approach, however, is leading the way forward in terms of increasing flexibility and responsiveness to customer demand.

Consumer electronics companies can meet require-ments for storage capacity or screen size without producing large lots ahead of time and hoping to sell what’s produced. Shoemakers can open their design process to consumers and then deliver precisely what the customer has created.

This kind of mass customization is already happening today with robotics and modular production techniques. Moving forward, improvements in robotics will make it easier for manufacturers to bring their customers more intimately into the product experience – from design to production. By using modular robotics technologies to increase personalization, manufacturers can increase customer engagement and increase loyalty over time.

Andreas Bauer is a software architect at Kuka.

Never let your precon-ceived notions about how robotics and modularization can improve manufacturing hold you back from making the most of all the possibilities.– Andreas Bauer

Software Architect of the Automotive Division, Kuka AG

HOW TO MAXIMIZE

THE VALUE OF MODULAR-

IZATION

50 51Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World Achieving Mass Customization, with Help from Robotics


Juergen Mueller Member of the Executive Board of SAP SEChief Technology Officer




MACHINE LEARNING AT SCALE Machine learning has been hot for several years, but we’re now just beginning to see the technology moving from proof-of-concept to enterprise deployments. That’s where the most significant benefits can be realized. My recommendations: move quickly from model to production and always think about machine learning and data science in a lifecycle management context. This is how machine learning will deliver maximum value for your use case.

DATA MANAGEMENT AND DATA ORCHESTRATION MATTERData volumes are growing exponentially, and companies are storing data in multiple systems, including on-premise, cloud, and hybrid scenarios. Leading companies are increasingly bringing algorithms to the data and processing that data where it resides. They also use analytics solutions infused with machine learning capabilities to enable more confident, data-driven decision-making.

GEOPOLITICAL DECISIONS THAT IMPACT ITTrade wars, protectionism, and resulting regulations are making IT decision-making more complex. To comply with data residency mandates in multiple geographies, global companies are weighing the use of public clouds and wondering whether private clouds limit their scale and speed of innovation. My advice: don’t bind yourself to a single IT vendor, and deepen your knowledge of processes and providers across your value chain.

To deliver the perfect experience – to customers, employees, and partners – you must provide the best tools for the job. Meeting this requirement demands agile transformation, an approach that stresses the decomposition of monolithic IT systems, and a modular, platform-based approach. By combining modular IT with the right services, companies can speed time to innovation while delivering value to stakeholders and providing a great customer experience.

For IT leaders, however, this can seem overwhelming. After all, CIOs have built their technology stack over decades. It may be inflexible and outdated. Pulling it apart and reassembling the IT landscape in a more effective way sounds like a tall order.

So where should technology leaders begin?

Start with the Easy EffortsWhen I first joined Qualtrics three years ago, we had a legacy monolith that was appropriate for the time our company was founded. It became clear that if we wanted to delight our customers and reduce our operational complexity, we needed to break apart the monolith.

Before beginning, CIOs must lay the groundwork. Think about building new capabilities using a services orientation. Consider how to reduce or eliminate the time it takes engi-neers to acquire resources they can deploy. Review the services lifecycle and determine how services might evolve independently.

It’s best to begin with something easy. We began by splitting components from the monolith that were relatively decou-pled from the application layer. That helped us prove we could decouple, operate services, and put in place the nec-essary operational models and organizational components.

Next, look for the areas of the business experiencing scale and growth. We were experiencing triple-digit growth on our directory product and in the number of survey responses being generated. That was a key signal that these areas were ripe for splitting away from the system monolith.

Another task is to focus on features. Consider which features create the most requests from customers. Where is the most entropy and change in the monolith? Which parts of the monolith are changing most?

At Qualtrics, we had library capabilities that remained unchanged for 10 years. Demand for these features was predictably low. But we saw rapidly rising demand for analytics capabilities. Customers were asking how they could use our solutions for dashboards, reports, and visual-ization. They wanted to know about analytics capabilities they could layer on top. It was imperative for us to move those capabilities out of the monolith as quickly as possible.

By John ThimsenQualtrics, now part of SAP

THREE STEPS FOR IT LEADERS

54 55Modular IT − Innovating in a Fragmented World 55

COMPOSING THE PERFECT USER EXPERIENCE:

Composing the Perfect User Experience: Three Steps for IT Leaders

For example, we thought extensively about the various tasks that occur during the customer journey once a deal is signed. How do teams decide who makes contact with the customer at any point? What is the contract between inter-nal teams? How does each team know when their work for a customer is complete so they can transition the customer to the next team?

We also instrument our touch points so we understand where a customer is in our processes. We know when a client has begun or completed implementation, is receiving engineering services, or is working with a partner. Feedback from each of those experiences is routed directly to the associated team. The team manager can log directly into a dashboard each day and see how well the group is doing. It’s an incredibly powerful tool that allows us to understand customer experiences relative to our organizational design, system interfaces, and product capabilities.

Modularization can help companies move toward creating a perfect experience – for customers, employees, and part-ners. Prioritizing the IT stack will enable the flexibility that customers demand and the scale needed for innovation and growth. Feedback loops help teams get closer to customers, and instrumenting the organization helps IT leaders identify dependencies and touch points. By considering each of these pieces and how they work together, CIOs can be well prepared to create a modern technology organization.

John Thimsen is chief technology officer at Qualtrics, now part of SAP.


Get Closer to CustomersAfter tackling the infrastructure challenges, it’s always valu-able to find out what customers think of the changes. We have an internal tool that provides real-time comments from critical customers. Many times, customers have given us feedback that kicked off big changes in how we think about our platform and our products.

For example, we previously helped customers ingest O-data primarily through custom engineering solutions and contri-butions from our partner ecosystem. But customers let us know they preferred to have some of these capabilities built into products. As a result of this feedback, we recently devel-oped features that allow customers to directly ingest O-data into the platform.

The power of our platform is a huge enabler for this change. I’ve never had better visibility into what our customers thought about our solution, implementation, delivery, and support than I do today. A technology platform that enables real-time feedback and allows us to tighten the feedback loop helped us connect with our customers.

Create Trust Among TeamsIn addition to empowering people to make decisions and tightening the feedback loop, it’s important to architect the organization to support efficient teamwork. In our reor-ganization, we considered how to not only decompose our organization but also create standard interfaces that would offer trust among teams.

Pursue InnovationFor companies that have monolithic IT infrastructures, not everything can change at once. Yet there are some prerequi-sites CIOs can take to create a foundation for innovation.

In addition, it’s important to ensure that engineers have a direct line of sight to customers and that they can talk to customers. We also encourage bottom-up planning, because it enables teams that are closest to both the mission and the solution to provide input into the overall planning process.

At Qualtrics, we did all of these things over the last four years. We transitioned from a project-based to a functional organi-zation. Our project teams became long-lived functional teams. And we reoriented the engineering team to focus on innovation rather than 10-month project cycles.

Although we were able to anticipate many issues, we were surprised by the impact of our agile operating model on certain costs. Unblocking engineers and allowing them to access system resources quickly helped us create an empowerment culture. But our cloud costs grew quickly. In hindsight, we should have created an overlay for cost accounting and cost controls to prevent costs from spiraling out of control. We layered those controls onto our platform later, but it would have been easier to include them in the beginning.

Focus on agile operating models and an agile infrastructure. Think about how engineers get resources to do their jobs. What do they need to be able to deploy code in seconds rather than days? How can they be encouraged to think about a services orientation? How do they leverage platform-as-a-service offerings?

Deploy agile technology. Which systems will drive continuous delivery? How can a service mesh or service orchestration help? What is the best way to empower teams to choose the framework that makes sense for the problems they are solving?

Develop a consistent, agile methodology and approach. An agile approach to R&D requires a transition from a project-based organizational structure to a functional organizational structure. Companies should create long-lived small teams that are empowered to quickly iterate on system components that they “own.” Rapid iterations allow teams to fail quickly and learn from experience.

Anticipate ScaleAfter assessing these preliminary concerns, it’s important to consider the potential of the business. As enterprises change from industrial automation to digital enablement, the magnitude of change is massive. Successful companies won’t see linear change – it will be exponential.

For this reason, every leader should think about what the infrastructure should look like at 10 times the scale. It can be difficult to pinpoint what needs to be optimized for 20% or 30% increases in scale. But thinking about systems growing by 10 times tends to make the necessary changes clear.

Let’s be realistic. Not every facet of your platform or architec-ture will be subject to 10-fold growth. But there are certain inputs that inform your choices and directly affect how your architecture needs to scale. For example, a company with a strategic initiative to drive mass use of mobile technology might build a new mobile-first infrastructure. That firm will see its mobile infrastructure scale out at a different factor than its Web or legacy infrastructure.

For Qualtrics, our strategic imperative was to make it easier to gather and bring operational data (O-data) and experi-ence data (X-data) into our platform. That way, we could combine and analyze data in ways that help customers effect change. If we met those goals, the two subsystems of our platform would very easily grow by 10 times within the next two years.

We focused our “10 times” question on those areas: What if we saw survey taking increase by 10 times? Or IT directory services? What if we had a 10-times increase in the ingest of X-data into the system? We extracted those three capabilities from the monolith and built them in aservices fashion so they could scale in a linear manner.

Modularization can help companies move toward creating a perfect experience – for customers, employees, and partners.


WE DO SEMIANNUAL HACKATHONS. OUR ENGINEERS TAKE THE SERVICES WE BUILT TO SUPPORT OUR BUSINESS AND

REARRANGE THEM IN UNIQUE COMBINATIONS THAT CONSISTENTLY SURPRISE ME. YOU COULDN’T DO THAT WITH A MONOLITH. IT’S ONLY POSSIBLE WHEN DEVELOPERS CAN PICK AND CHOOSE SERVICES. IF YOU REALLY WANT TO UNLOCK THE INNOVATION OF YOUR ENGINEERS, MODULARITY IS ONE OF THE SECRET INGREDIENTS.


– John Thimsen Chief Technology Officer, Qualtrics, now part of SAP


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