Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Author: Paul Wallbank

  • Probing the weakest links of the banking system

    Probing the weakest links of the banking system

    The breach of the Bangladeshi banking network has been shocking on a number of levels, not least for the allegations the institutions were using second hand network equipment with no security precautions.

    Fortunately for the Bangladesh financial system the hackers could spell and so only got away with a fraction of what they could have.

    Now there are claims the SWIFT international funds transfer system may have been compromised by the breach, which shows the fragility of global networks and how they are only as strong as the weakest link.

    As the growth of the internet shows, it’s almost impossible to build a totally secure global communications network. As connected devices, intelligent systems and algorithms become integral parts of our lives, trusting information is going to become even more critical.

    The Bangladeshi bank hack was a lucky escape but it is an early warning about securing our networks.

    Update: It appears the hackers were successful in getting malware onto the network according to Reuters but, like their main efforts, were somewhat crude and easily detected. One wonders how many sophisticated bad actors have quietly exploited these weaknesses.

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  • Planning a Saudi pivot

    Planning a Saudi pivot

    In the face of a volatile oil price and falling reserves, Saudi Arabia’s new Crown Prince is looking at pivoting the economy to knowledge based industries.

    That is a hard task in the face of Saudi Arabia’s religious, cultural and work cultures. This is not a society easily dragged into the 21st Century.

    Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans seem even more daunting when Richard Florida’s 3Ts of the Creative Class are considered – Talent, Technology and Tolerance.

    It may well be easy to buy in the technology, but attracting the right talent to Saudi Arabia is going to be hard particularly given it is one of the most intolerant societies on the planet.

    Saudi Arabia though has plenty of challenges, so a few big bets may be in order. Tolerance though might be the deal breaker.

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  • Managing a shrinking company

    Managing a shrinking company

    It isn’t just software companies and telcos that are facing a changing, less profitable, world. As margins decline for their enterprise customers, equipment vendors are facing the squeeze.

    A good example of this is Sweden’s Ericsson which last week announced declining sales as China’s Huawei displaces them in market and their enterprise and telco customers tighten budgets in the face of declining margins.

    For Ericcson this means finding new opportunities but for them, like Cisco and Microsoft, most of the promising markets offer nowhere near the profits they have been used to in their traditional businesses.

    Managers in these industries face a difficult dilemma in explaining to shareholders their company needs to be smaller and less profitable than previously which is something few want to hear.

    Not to admit that painful reality risks killing the company as margins continue to shrinks, sales shrivel and desperate managers engage in increasingly desperate stunts in the hope on stumbling on another river of gold.

    It’s an ugly place to be for staff at these companies but it shows that fat profits can never be considered to be given in any industry.

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  • Cloud computing’s elusive gold

    Cloud computing’s elusive gold

    Alphabet, aka Google, and Microsoft yesterday announced their quarterly results and despite both making healthy profits the numbers show the online world is a tough place to make money.

    Microsoft’s stockholders took a five percent hit to their wallets after the company announced weaker than expected results for the last quarter.

    Notable in the results were the stunning sales growth of its cloud services with Azure boasting a 120% year on year on year increase.

    Yet Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud division which includes Azure saw its profits fall nearly 13%, showing the company’s products may be making inroads against Amazon Web Services but making profits in that market is very tough indeed.

    Similarly Alphabet’s results still show the company is sill totally dependent upon the advertising river of gold for its profits.

    Particularly concerning for Alphabet is its ‘other bets’ division doubled its sales but saw losses increase by 20%. Overall Google’s advertising revenues made up 89% of Alphabet’s total revenues this quarter compared to 90% last year.

    While both companies have very healthy profits – about five billion dollars this quarter for each – Alphabet’s continued dependence on Google advertising and Microsoft’s declining profitability should be a worrying sign for shareholders in both companies.

    Both companies show that despite the apparent riches of the technology sector, making profits is getting tougher. Shareholders of both companies should be watching carefully for any disruption to either business.

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  • Introducing Singapore’s driverless pod

    Introducing Singapore’s driverless pod

    A while back we speculated on what the autonomous vehicle would look like, given that having a dashboard, steering wheel and even forward facing seats were no longer necessary if a car no longer has a driver.

    It seems almost certain that the future driverless cars will take a very different form the vehicles we travel in today.

    Now the Singaporean mass transit agency has unveiled its trial autonomous ‘pod’ that’s designed to carry 32 passengers.

    How the pod integrates with other transport modes and interacts with general road users will be interesting to watch, but illustrates why thinking about the future of public transit has to look beyond apps.

    The big question is how will these technologies change the economics of public transit and the behaviour of users. It seems we’re about to find out.

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