The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the ways businesses create value, engage with customers, and facilitate innovations. Delivering digital experiences also has become an absolute must as consumer behaviour is likely to have been transformed forever. From a shift to remote working to a surge in e-commerce shopping, industries will have to adapt fast to deliver the best experiences and instant access in order to attract and retain customers.

Whether you are a national business with sites across Singapore, a global enterprise with operations in multiple markets, or a SaaS provider looking to roll out in new geographies, interconnection is becoming more essential for connecting to customers and partners. In this article we look at how the acceleration in adoption of cloud-based services is causing businesses to revaluate how they interconnect with clouds, data centres and their business partners.

By Nicholas Ma, President of Huawei Asia Pacific Enterprise Business Group

In 2020, one of the most serious pandemics in history swept across the world — the impact was profound, as we know all too well. COVID-19 has dramatically changed how people live, work, and create value. As such, it has driven the increasing convergence of the digital and physical worlds. It has also supercharged the digital transformation of industries and thousands of industries are being reshaped, marking an epochal shift.

In this e-book get insights on:

• The uCPE Market: High Growth Driven by Secure SD-WAN    
• Evolution of uCPE, the universal Customer Premises EDGE?
• Is Your SD-WAN Future-Proof? If Not, Why Not?
• uCPE: A Launchpad for the Next Generation Enterprise Services
• uCPE: A New Money-Maker for Enterprise Services 
• How to Get a Head Start with Secure SD-WAN on uCPE

Mei Lee Quah, Associate Director, ICT, Frost & Sullivan and speaker at CommunicAsia 2021, an anchor event of Asia Tech x Singapore, lays out the top growth opportunities for Telecoms and Payments in APAC for 2021.

This International Women’s Day, accelerateHER Asia, brought to you by the team behind Asia Tech X Singapore,  has partnered with global leadership community YPO to shine a light on the leaders in tech who #ChooseToChallenge gender norms in business.

In this blog, Mieke De Schepper (Executive Vice President, Online Travel Companies and Managing Director Asia Pacific at Amadeus IT Group) Mui Hoon Poh (Co-Founder and CEO of Esseplore) and Su-Yen Wong (Founder and CEO of Bronze Phoenix) share their insight on: 

• Shifts businesses still need to make to give women a seat at the table
• How they, as business leaders, are striving to close the gender gap in tech
• Advice for women looking to enter the tech industry
• The challenges we still face in the journey towards gender parity.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role within Singapore’s economy and society. Making up 99% of the overall number of enterprises within the island state, SMEs account for nearly three-fourths of employment and these small business owners are what keep the Singaporean economy going. 

For SMEs, the pandemic brought into key focus a pain point that had been previously identified, albeit with limited progress – the need to digitalize and future-proof their businesses.

The “new normal” of staying at home has provided pirates with a wide range of economic opportunities to capitalize on the early availability of high-quality content and pent-up consumer demand. In many cases, the theatrical distribution window has been drastically reduced; some content owners are releasing premium content only a few weeks post-theatrical release (as opposed to the standard 70 to 90 days) and others are going straight to premium video on demand, foregoing theatrical release altogether. While it is unclear whether these changes to the traditional distribution chain will continue, under current circumstances the increased reliance on digital revenue makes protecting these valuable assets critically important.

We sit down with John Wastcoat, SVP, Strategic Alliances and Marketing at Zixi and find out what 3 tech trends he thinks are going to take over the next few years, what innovations caught his eye during COVID-19 and what he enjoys doing in this spare time. 

Outlines the near-term consequence of COVID-19 on the insurance sector and that IoT will play an increasingly central role in new insurance offerings and the claims process.

Considers how consumer dynamics have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and how consumer's relationship with digital services such as messaging apps and group calling has shifted.Connect now.

The Smart Nation Navigator (SNN) is SGTech’s first attempt to document all the organisations that provide Smart Nation solutions in Singapore. It is supported by the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). The SNN aims to facilitate user-organisations to connect with smart solution providers in Singapore, and solution providers to connect and collaborate on future projects in Singapore and overseas.

Showcasing at ConnecTechAsia 2020, the Ontario, Canada pavilions brings 12 companies that are putting the spotlight on an already robust tech scene up in the North. 

We sit down with Managing Director of SenseTime International and ConnecTechAsia headliner speaker, Martin Huang and learn more about AI, the curriculum they have designed for tertiary students and why its important for them to start learning young and what he enjoys doing in his spare time. 

We sit down with judge Mohan Belani, co-founder and CEO of e27.co and chat about what he'll be looking out for at Elevating Founders, his thoughts on tech in a COVID world and what he enjoys in his spare time. 

What are the steps telcos can take to capture a share of the advertising market? Find out in this piece contributed by media partner, Pioneer Consulting Asia-Pacific.

We sit down with Natalie Black, Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Asia Pacific, UK Government at Department for International Trade (DIT) and chat about advancements in tech accelerated by COVID-19, cybersecurity and the passion she's rediscovered since the global lockdown. 

Learn how Verizon adapted to the large scale disruption and change caused by the COVID-19 pandemic while also helping customers manage and keep their business operational. 

In this edition of Connect With, we sit down with CommunicAsia Awards judge Kaustubha Parkhi, Principal Analyst at Insight Research, and learn more about cloud-native telco adoption, what sort of innovations he'll be looking out for at the awards and what he carves out spare time for despite his increased workload. 

We sit down with Thandi Demanet, co-founder and director at Tessellate Advisory and CommunicAsia Awards judge and chat about some of the more innovative products borne from COVID-19, her take on remote working and virtual yoga. 

CommunicAsia Awards Judge Pamela Clark-Dickson, Principal Analyst in the Service Provider Consumer team at Omdia, shares her insights on OTT trends, the relevance of teleconferencing platforms in a post-lockdown world and a new skill she's picked up.  

CommunicAsia Awards judges, Nicole McCormick, Senior Principal Analyst at Omdia, chats with us about the immense shift toward digitalisation, what she'll be looking out for at the awards and her least favourite move at the gym. 

Work from home (WFH) was a lifesaver for many enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are some negative effects to consider. WFH reduces serendipity, affects lifestyles and mental wellbeing, and can disengage participants.

We chat with one of our CommunicAsia Awards judges, Neil Shah, Vice President Research and Partner at Asia-based firm Counterpoint Research, and chat 5G, Fixed Wireless Access and what he does in his spare time. 

We sit down with one of our CommunicAsia Awards judges, Aaron Boasman-Patel, Vice-President of AI, Customer Experience and Data at TM Forum, and chat about inherent biases in AI, how COVID-19 has accelerated AI technology and what he's been up to in lockdown. 

We sit down with one of our CommunicAsia Awards judges, Shiv Putcha, Founder and Principal Analyst, Mandala Insights, to find out what he'll be looking out for, his thoughts on COVID-19 and its impact on digital, and what he likes doing in his spare time.  

In an era where online content is increasingly user-generated, the responsibility for removing illegal and harmful content, as well as disinformation and fake news, is increasingly lying with the platforms themselves.

Contributed by knowledge partner: OMDIA

Contributed by knowledge partner: OMDIA

By Veronica Tan, Director, Infocomm Media Development Authority

By Shweta Jain, APAC Head of Business Development, Media and Entertainment, AWS

Contributed by knowledge partner: OMDIA

Contributed by knowledge partner: OMDIA

By: Ivan Ferrari, Event Director Telecom, Media & Technology Events at Informa Markets