In a world where the COVID-19 pandemic is running riot, the need for automation and a disruptive path in Industry 4.0 type of initiatives is now really coming to the fore. We sat down with Fitri Abdullah, Managing Director of Oracle Malaysia recently to get his thought on things. This is the second part of this interview series.
These days, robotic automation and Industry 4.0 initiatives are always being talked about along with buzzwords such as 5G, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). How does Oracle Malaysia see all this holistically?
“Industry 4.0 is all about marrying the latest artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities with automation and other data driven technologies, enabling businesses to capitalize the rapidly growing volumes of data that exist to improve overall business processes,” Fitri explains. He went on to say that this approach can help enhance processes, identify gaps in operations and provide valuable insights to managers or supervisors so that they can continue to make continuous improvements. “It can also minimize the need in some areas for human intervention, freeing staff up from mundane tasks or bringing new opportunities for people to work in more strategic activities such as analytics and decision-making,” he added.
It’s All About Revenues At Oracle
“No wonder a recent research by Oracle in partnership with ESG, Emerging Technologies: The Competitive Edge for Finance and Operations, found that organizations that have adopted emerging technologies grew their annual revenues 58% faster than organizations not investing in these technologies,” he said. One can say that this shows how important it is for a business to continue to evolve digitally. In fact, 84% of the organisations surveyed use at least one emerging technology in production today and that has formed the basis of their success. “Because of this, we urge businesses to take advantage of IoT, machine learning, AI, and blockchain capabilities quickly and easily through cloud…Software as a Service (SaaS) lets organizations scale quickly and realize real-time business value at a much faster pace,” he added.
Challenges Remain
But the challenge for many, and especially smaller businesses, is that they often lack the expertise, and the technology is still changing and maturing. Oracle helps to manage this, as they offer various prepackaged AI technologies and low code development tools and that help customers accelerate their adoption of AI and machine learning (ML). “For example, we have embedded AI capabilities into our cloud applications…this means users can continue to use what they know and are comfortable with, but at the same time leverage new intelligent features that drive better business outcomes,” he stated.
Disruptive Autonomous Technologies
Additionally, Oracle’s ready-to-work Autonomous Database, has machine learning and automation working behind the scenes so it can autonomously execute security patching, backups, and optimize database query performance. Larry Ellison, the enigmatic co- founder of Oracle, has always maintained that the Autonomous Database ‘will replace everything else’. According to Ellison, an Autonomous Database is only available in two forms. If it is put in the cloud in your data center, it will be in Exadata and middleware machines. The rest will be in storage and the public cloud. Ultimately, the autonomous nature of these databases will mean that Oracle’s database business will double or triple in the near future with Industry 4.0 initiatives, 5G, Blockchain, AI/ML, Big Data and cloud computing: all rolled into one.
Be sure to tune in to our 3rd part of this interview series next week with Fitri Abdullah, MD of Oracle Malaysia.
First Published on: Asia Blockchain Review
