special

It’s all about cloud ₁₄Christian Sciullo, GoogleAI and the cloud – a universal panacea?

₁₀Martin Hess, SwissBanking“The law doesn’t distinguish between domestic and foreign clouds”

₀₆Peter Kummer, SBBWind of change

cloud 2019

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Dear Readers – When hardware becomes software

Digitalization stops at nothing, not even itself. From pure com­puting capacity to technology infrastructure to complete enter­prise services, these days everything is available via the net – now known as the cloud. And that means far more than the relocation of operational processes. The computing power of the cloud is accessible and available to virtually everyone, giving it the potential to revolutionize all forms of competition. The cloud is not an option; the cloud is the way in which digital services are provided. To some extent today, and certainly in the near future.

The cloud has the potential to throw overboard all conven tional cost accounting. The provision of digital services does not entail high up‑front investment in hardware and infra structure. The costs arise from operation – on demand and optimized to current needs (“from CAPEX to OPEX”). And providers are working with great intensity and delivering impressively on that potential. Even small users already have access to highly scalable and secure environments where they can realize

innovations that were previously the province of large corpora‑ tions with the right size budgets. But, as with everything in life, we still have some homework to do before the cloud can be adapted to bridge the gap between its potential and what it can deliver. There are many important legal and regulatory issues, particularly for banks, insurers and other holders of sensitive data. Where are the data stored, what legislation are they subject to, does storage and processing comply with data protection provisions, what happens when a cloud provider is taken over, who bears ultimate responsibility? Many lawyers will no doubt get rich off the back of these questions, but the issues are complicated rather than complex – and hence resolvable.

A further aspect is the software architecture of both new and existing solutions. Cloud solutions rely on fine‑grained services that are operated and orchestrated across many containers. First we have to master these new technologies; the migration of monolithic legacy applications is then the next challenge.

And then there’s the issue that the “cloud” doesn’t always mean the same thing. Each provider integrates its own solutions into its technology stack, so what happens when you want to switch

providers? How can I avoid vendor lock‑in, and what restric‑tions will I encounter if I want to take a multi‑cloud approach, for example?

None of these issues will prevent the cloud from triumphing. The cloud will become part of the mainstream because the

Thomas Wüst, CEO and founder of ti&m AG

“The cloud will become part of the mainstream because the

advantages of cloud‑based services are irresistible.”

ti&m special cloud 2019 03

Contentsadvantages of cloud‑based services are irresistible. And you can always call in an expert to help complete your homework. Our portfolio here at ti&m has a strong focus on the cloud. As a partner of the major cloud providers, we provide support across the full spectrum of areas, from training through development of the optimal cloud strategy for your business to implementation of the latest cloud‑based applications. The ti&m swiss banking cloud addresses all your needs for a highly secure, compliant and local solution. And last but not least, all our products are not just cloud‑ready; our ti&m channel suite open service middle‑ware also provides the ideal backbone for cloud‑based enter‑prise services.

This ti&m special features contributions from leading specialists and innovation leaders, who examine the cloud from a variety of expert perspectives. I hope you enjoy reading it and look forward to some stimulating discussions.

We’re ready for the cloud. Are you?

Warmest regards,

Thomas Wüst

From the hybrid cloud to the multi­cloud – new opportunities for successBernd Leinfelder, ti&m System ArchitectBjörn Sörensen, ti&m Head of Innovations

Wind of changePeter Kummer, SBBCIO and SBB Management Board Member

We digitalize your company.It’s all about cloud. Soar above the clouds with our cloud‑based services.

“The law doesn’t distinguish between domestic and foreign clouds”Martin Hess, SwissBankingChief Economist and Member of the Board of the Swiss Bankers Association

What Swiss decision makers say about the cloud.Comments from the industry

AI and the cloud – a universal panacea?Christian Sciullo, GoogleCountry Manager Google Cloud Switzerland & Austria

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₁₄Publisher: ti&m AG, Buckhauserstrasse 24, CH‑8048 ZurichCover image: ti&m art@work/Drüegg ti8m.com/en/specialcloudEditorial team: Thomas Wüst, Karsten Burger Design/Production: ti&m AG Circulation: 15,000 copies Printing and distribution: Multicolor Print AG

© ti&m AG / ti8m.com04

From the hybrid cloud to the multi­cloud – new opportunities for success

Well, most people know what public and private clouds are by now. A hybrid cloud is a mix of a private and a public cloud where part is located in a dedicated, private area and part is accessible via public systems.

A multi‑cloud is where several cloud providers are used in parallel. The use of these providers is more or less transparent for both users and administrators. So users shouldn’t notice any difference whatever provider is hosting the services used. And suitable tools should be used to abstract administrative pro cesses sufficiently so that administrators can use the same tools for all providers.

Advantages of multi­cloudBut why use it? Using a range of cloud providers brings ad‑ vantages. It allows you to choose the best solution from among your cloud providers’ portfolios. AWS might have an AI service that fits your requirements perfectly right now, but you prefer the cost structure of Google’s messaging service and buy an OpenShift platform from Red Hat. This best‑of‑breed ap‑proach can reduce development times and has the potential to cut costs.

Deploying identical services across several providers also in‑creases uptime. It is rare for large‑scale outages to affect two cloud providers simultaneously. These types of faults do occur, as shown by the outage of large parts of the AWS cloud in March 2017, when an incorrect entry by a technician paralyzed 54 of the 100 largest online retailers in the US for several hours. A multi‑cloud approach would have been able to prevent this. Your organization is probably already using a multi‑cloud. Presumably you already get your infrastructure services from Azure, and your sales team works with Salesforce. Since Sales‑force is a software as a service solution, you are operating two clouds. And voilà – you have a multi‑cloud.

Legal aspectsThe abovementioned advantages come at a price. And this starts with procurement. A separate contract is required for each cloud provider. These have to be negotiated, under stood and aligned with company guidelines. The compliance depart‑ment has to be sure that the various providers meet regula‑tory requirements. All these conditions are dynamic because terms and conditions as well as regulations are in a constant state of flux and are continually being adjusted by both sides.

Bernd Leinfelder & Björn Sörensen, ti&m

Technology // So. We have private clouds, public clouds and hybrid clouds. And now there’s even the multi‑cloud.

Why? And what’s the difference?

ti&m special cloud 2019 05

Special attention should be paid to data residency. In sensitive sectors it is imperative that you know at all times where the rel‑evant data are stored and processed and via which routes they are transported. Ideally your cloud strategy should set out clearly which data are suited to which cloud.

Technical challenges In addition to the legal and regulatory aspects, the various ser‑vices have to be integrated on a technical level. Communication channels have to be set up, secured and maintained between on‑premise installations and each individual cloud service. To these must be added any links between the cloud services so that the many connections can be brought together as appropriate for the topology and your requirements.

User and rights management presents a particular challenge. Anyone with experience of Identity and Access Management (IAM) projects will know how diffi cult it is to defi ne and imple‑ment functioning processes in IAM. Synchronization and del‑egation between different providers makes this even more complicated. At the application level, protocol adapters may be required to enable data exchange between different providers’ services. These need to be developed, tested and provided.

One frequent source of problems is latency, which is by de‑fi nition much greater between services supplied by different providers than within a single data center. With current micro‑service architectures, latency can mushroom into a serious per‑formance issue, even with planned workload scenarios, if this aspect is not taken into account in planning and thoroughly tested during the implementation stage.

Orchestration and managementIf application mobility is assured by several cloud providers, abstractions must be defi ned for the interfaces and orchestra‑tion. After all, porting an application from Cloud A to Cloud B needs to be as easy as possible. Guidelines on this subject are complex and call for extensive experience if serious errors are to be avoided.

Björn SörensenHead of Innovations, Member of the Executive Board, ti&mOver the last ten years, Björn Sörensen has held several leadership roles in the fi nance industry, specializing in major software development programs and digitalization. At ti&m, he leads the Innovation Department, focusing on AI, blockchain, cloud, agility, and design.

Bernd LeinfelderSystem Architect, ti&m

System Architect Bernd Leinfelder has been with ti&m since 2016 and has extensive experience with software development and systems engineering. Alongside his role with ti&m, he lectures at the Swiss Distance University of Applied Sciences (FFHS) on the robustness and maintainability of distributed software in enterprise environments. He holds a range of certifi cations in cloud computing, IT security and IT audit.

“Your organization is probably already using

a multi‑cloud.”

Specialized tools are available to assist with the management and operation of multi‑cloud environments. Parts of services can also be outsourced to service providers. The important thing is to have a fully automated delivery pipeline across all providers in order to keep operating costs low while ensuring service quality remains high.

The pivotal issue for any strategy that envisages the use of a multi‑cloud is expertise. Ultimately, expertise must cover both the technical interfaces and cloud providers’ toolsets and product portfolios. This hurdle gets harder to clear with each additional partner while the technical demands placed on IT staff spiral.

The adoption of a multi‑cloud strategy should be given careful consideration. The ti&m multi‑cloud strategy is designed to help with this: Our diverse projects in the banking, insurance, public and transportation sectors mean that our experts are familiar both with the challenges specifi c to individual sectors and with cloud providers’ strengths and weaknesses. ti&m is currently partnered with AWS, Google, Microsoft and Red Hat, and is therefore able to take a vendor‑neutral approach to fi nding you the optimal solution. And with the ti&m swiss banking cloud, we can offer you the option of a private cloud based in Switzer‑land to meet any special requirements you might have.

What is multi-cloud?

ti8m.com/en/specialcloud

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Wind of changePeter Kummer, SBB

Strategy // How a differentiated cloud strategy is supporting the digital transformation of SBB.

The world changes fast and so do we. So, like most businesses, SBB is focusing on digital transformation. As CIO for SBB, it is important to me that we don’t see this development as an im‑perative that prescribes how we should reposition our business in order to deal with the widely cited uncertainties we face. It is better, in my view, to recognize and seize the opportunities it presents. Because this is the only way we can play an active role in shaping this transformation instead of getting trapped in reactive mode, making permanent adjustments.

At SBB we identifi ed digitalization as a phenomenon in 2014. It quickly became clear to us that this was not hype, but in fact a complete, far‑reaching transformation with enormous potential. Internally, we often use the image of a wave towering over us. What should we do? Wait and see, dive into it, jump onto it? We decided back then to learn to surf, to leap onto the wave and ride it, and that’s why our heads are above water today and we have a say in where the journey takes us.

Digitalization cannot be fragmentedAt SBB we have taken a holistic approach to digital transfor‑mation from the start, addressing it in our corporate strat‑egy. We saw – and continue to see – potential at four levels: improved customer interactions, increased railway network capacity, increased internal effi ciency and new business models. To ensure we are systematic as we take advantage of the opportunities, we orchestrate and steer digitalization centrally across the group. We are currently about to take the

next big step forward in our digital transformation. Having tackled cultural issues through Agile transformations over recent years and evolved a new understanding of collabora‑tion – an Agile mindset – in IT and beyond, we are following up on an organizational level and developing a new IT operating model. The guiding question is supposedly a simple one: How will we provide IT to the railways in the future? But this in volves nothing less than a redesign of how everyone involved with digitalization works together, from the ground up. We want to move away from a small‑scale view of projects toward a more holistic perspective and collective responsibility for their impact on cus tomers and users. Because digitalization cannot be fragmented.

Moving toward an adaptive organizationIn order to respond better to high market dynamism and deliver our digital products more quickly and fl exibly, as well as provide greater value, we are making our entire value chain structure more market‑oriented. This means it is built from the outside in and focuses on the most important task at any given moment. Teams form and are disbanded in response. The organization is shaped by our customers or the market. Simul‑taneously, the internal small‑scale view of projects and individ‑ual IT applications is giving way to a more holistic, specialist, economic and technical perspective.

Clear with some cloud cover: The role of the cloud Interaction within the new organization consists primarily in service teams providing needs‑based support to product teams. This means that services have to be provided as fl exibly, scal ably and agilely as digital solutions or products require. This is where the cloud comes in: Strategy has to be geared to en abling technology and computing services to meet the demands of a dynamic organization. So the cloud model adopted has the potential to tip the scales either way. It can support and spur on digital transformation, or it can become a millstone and cripple it.

“The SBB IT Department is transforming from an IT operator into

a cloud services integrator.”

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centrally via digital services on the basis of a self‑service approach, thereby strengthening teams’ decentralized autonomy. This, in turn, is a prerequisite if an adaptive organization is to thrive.

The bottom line: Having the right cloud mix is key An adaptive organization can only do what it sets out to where it has fl exible and scalable access to the services it needs for its products. A cloud strategy must therefore aim to supply services as fl exibly and needs‑based as possible on the one hand while guaranteeing that these services are stable and secure on the other. The challenge of the digital transforma ‑tion can be summed up in general terms as striking a balance between fl exibility and stability. Using the cloud, and getting the right cloud mix as part of a differentiated cloud strategy, will decide how enjoyable the journey is. You can either try to head straight into a bitter wind or have the wind in your sails.

From the hybrid cloud to the hybrid multi­cloudIn recent years, the demand for cloud services (especially public cloud solutions) has increased considerably as a result of dig‑italization and the cloud‑fi rst approach. The operating model implemented in our fi rst cloud strategy is clearly running up against its limits. It can no longer meet the new demands of an adaptive organization that operates on a decentralized basis. At the same time, the public cloud market has expanded and matured signifi cantly.

To take advantage of this as a business, it is advisable to put to‑gether a balanced portfolio of public and private cloud services. Our 2019 – 2022 strategy update therefore shifts our focus from a hybrid cloud approach to a hybrid multi‑cloud approach. This entails integrating additional public cloud providers (pub‑lic cloud fi rst) in order to ensure that we provide the right com‑bination of stable, secure and innovative XaaS and computing services at all times.

The strategy update described above means that the SBB IT Department is transforming from an IT operator into a cloud services integrator. We will connect internal stake holders and cloud providers. We will orchestrate and organize the secure and straightforward handling of virtual private clouds and pub‑lic clouds. This approach will equip us to meet the requirements of decentralized product teams. These requirements are fulfi lled

Peter KummerHead of Information Technology and Chief Information Offi cer, SBBAs CIO, Peter Kummer has headed up IT at SBB for nine years. As member of the SBB Group Management Board, he plays an active role in driving forward digitalization. He studied Business Management and Business Information Technology at the University of Bern and has four daughters.

The SBB IT Department is transforming from an IT operator into a cloud services orchestrator.

Cloud Service Integration (CSI) is the organizational and technical interface between decentralized organizations and cloud providers. It structures interaction with cloud services to make this as straightforward as possible for product teams and simultaneously ensures that the SBB hybrid multi-cloud is robust and adaptable in the long term.

It performs a variety of functions in this context, follows the principles of the cloud computing strategy and empowers decentralized organizations to apply such principles in turn.

Are you ready for the cloud? Then call Karsten Burger, our Head of Innovation Hosting: +41 44 497 75 00, ti8m.com

We digitalize your company.ti&m stands for technology, innovation & management. We are market leaders in digitalization and security products and innovation projects. We offer our discerning clients vertical integration throughout the IT value chain. At our three offi ces, we currently employ over 340 outstanding engineers, designers and consultants. The basis of our growth lies in our strengths and values: courage, a wealth of ideas, agility, and entrepreneurial fl air, coupled with sustainability and Swissness.

We integrate the entire IT value chain. Consulting, designing, developing and hosting. All 100% vertically integrated.

ConsultingFor your digitalization strategy in the banking, insurance, public and transportation sectors.

Research & digital transformation / Business consulting / Security consulting / Architecture / Agile coaching / Design thinking / Technology consulting / Cloud‑based business cases

Digital design & growth marketing

We design fun and functional digital user experiences.

Design ideation / Design thinking / Strategic design / UX/UI design & usability / Brand & visual design / Design for growth / User testing / Prototyping

Agile projectsThe fast and easy way to reach your goals with Agile development and vertical integration.

ti&m scrum / Time to market / Individual software development / User‑centered innovations / Experience‑leading edge technologies / Agile testing / Cloud migration / Cloud development

Digitalizationproducts

Digital customer relationships and security across all channels with the ti&m channel suite and ti&m security suite.

Strong authentication / Excellent usability / Out‑of‑the‑box modules: e‑banking / mobile banking / Online mortgage / Lead generator / Digital onboarding / Voice banking and much more

Innovation hosting We ensure the operability of your innovation solutions.

Time to market / 7x24 / Application management / Certifi ed Swiss hosting centers / ti&m swiss banking cloud / Multi‑cloud

In the ti&m garage, ideas become MVPs.

How the ti&m garage works: Small, motivated teams retreat to the garage, argue until they’re blue in the face, model and visualize their findings on the wall before testing them out. Our promise: a functional MVP in just 3 to a maximum of 12 weeks.

Design thinking / Vertical integration / Outstanding talent / Agile software engineering / Cloud pilot

Our commitments: We live strong values.

Our refreshing summer event at Lake Zurich.

shake the lake

Creativity and inspiration in the workplace.

art@work

Creative and sustainable development of young talent is part of our investment in the future.

hack an app

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Above the clouds

Stable & secure operation of your

applications

Take-off

Realize your solution

Ground check

Confi rm the idea in a working environment

Flight plan

Identify the possibilities, defi ne your goals

License to fl y

Understand the technology, recognize

opportunities

We offer individualized training services to help yout to:

– understand the technology

– recognize the potential

– prepare your company

We get you:

– into the cloud within a very short time

– test your proposed solution

– using a proof ofconcept

We advise on:

– the analysis of application areas

– identifi cation of the optimal technology

– development of a customized cloud strategy

Based on your requirements:

– we implement anoptimal solution

– work with your in‑house specialists

– focus on fl exibility, scalability and cost reduction

We operate the solution, which is tailored to your needs, ensuring the highest degree of availability and reliability.

It’s all about cloud.Soar above the clouds with our cloud­based services.

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“The law doesn’t distinguish between domestic and foreign clouds”

Martin Hess, SwissBanking – Swiss Bankers Association

Regulation // Many banks have only just begun to take a closer interest in the cloud. They continue to have reservations, fi rst and foremost about the compatibility of the cloud with banking secrecy. Martin Hess, Head of Digitalization and Economic Policy

and Board Member of the Swiss Bankers Association, has the answers.

ti&m: How has the issue of cloud computing evolved for banks in recent years? Martin Hess: I am pleased that there has been a signifi cant in‑crease in awareness in recent years of what the cloud is capable of and how it can empower banks. This includes enabling banks to offer better, more customer‑friendly and innovative products, which, in turn, enables them to achieve signifi cant increases in effi ciency. At the Swiss Bankers Association, we have produced a set of cloud guidelines that aims to make it easier for banks to procure cloud services. Smaller and less technology‑savvy banks will fi nd them especially helpful.

So do banks still need a lot of information?Many banks want to use the cloud, but for various reasons, they aren’t using it for customer data. We want the guidelines to bridge the gap between wanting to use the cloud and actually doing so. The guidelines cover about fi fty pages. Each bank will need to conduct its own evaluation and risk assessment. There’s still a great need for information.

What are the key concerns that are holding banks back from using the cloud?The biggest concern is customer data – there’s no doubt about that. We are seeing the fi rst banks starting to use the cloud for internal, non‑business‑critical data or anonymized test data. But the sticking point is customer data. This is where we win or lose our customers’ trust. At the same time, however, it is the area where the greatest effi ciency gains can be made and where innovation can deliver the greatest benefi ts. In the longer term, there’s a good prospect that certain software will only be available via the cloud.

In its 2018/3 bulletin, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) permitted customer data to be held abroad. What does that mean in concrete terms for the banks?The Swiss Banking Act doesn’t distinguish between domestic and foreign. However, up to now banks have always stored data domestically and prevented it from being accessed from abroad, following the principle “over the border, out of control.” It was assumed that the moment data are processed or accessed from abroad, banking secrecy would automatically be compromised. We take a different view in our guidelines. In principle, the only issue is ensuring that data cannot be accessed by unauthorized parties. This doesn’t depend on where they are stored; it was

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merely a practice that established itself. There are also legal opinions that state explicitly that data can be stored and pro cessed abroad provided appropriate safeguards are adopted.

The law doesn’t distinguish between domestic and foreign. However, Swiss banks continue to favor Swiss providers, or those with data centers in Switzerland. Why is that?

The question will be irrelevant to banks when they feel confident that storing data abroad does not carry any greater risk. In our guidelines, we argue that banks have to be able to prove that they have not negligently disclosed secret information, regard‑less of where it is located. We cannot absolve banks from this responsibility. The guidelines set out technical, contractual and organizational elements that can ensure that they meet it. The elements must be combined in such a way that data cannot be accessed with reasonable effort.

The new CLOUD Act requires US firms to enable US authorities to access their data centers, including those located overseas.

What is your assessment of this law?We are looking closely at the CLOUD Act right now and examin‑ing the possibility of a bilateral executive agreement such as the USA already has with Great Britain and similar to the agreement that it is aiming to conclude with the EU. Since the CLOUD Act has extraterritorial effect, it can come into conflict with local legislation. An executive agreement would allow us to resolve such conflicts bilaterally. We are currently devoting some thought to whether this would be a solution that would work for Switzer‑land. I think it’s realistic to assume that some day there will be a network of executive agreements between the key countries. The US Department of Justice has found that the CLOUD Act has triggered a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty. They have therefore published a white paper aimed at addressing the outstanding issues. We are in the process of studying this information and will draw up appropriate recommendations. In my view, the legal and political considerations are paramount.

How long can Swiss banks afford to wait and see with the cloud?I can only speak from my own personal experience. Banks have different customer bases, business models and appetites for risk. I think we will see the first banks making a move very soon. Other banks, however, will continue to make do with their current IT systems for longer because they are working well. The issue is often where banks are in their internal innovation cycles. This is what will determine how fast the cloud is adopted. It is diffi‑cult to give a general answer, but there will be a couple of front runners and others that hang back. It shouldn’t be assumed that everything has to be migrated all at once. Every bank will start with something different. For the most part, something less busi‑ness‑critical. Many banks will certainly have the strategic goal of migrating to the cloud in a specific number of years.

Interview conducted by Christoph Grau.

Martin HessChief Economist and Member of the Board of the Swiss Bankers AssociationMartin Hess has been Chief Economist and Board Member of the Swiss Bankers Association and a member of the European Banking Federation’s Chief Economists’ Group since 2010. He previously held various positions in the Federal Department of Finance and the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters (SIF).

© ti&m AG / ti8m.com12

What Swiss decision makers say about the cloud.

“The cloud democratizes access to the latest technologies such as AI and is thus the innovation platform of the future. We need more courage, openness and curiosity when it comes to digital transformation.”

Dr. Marianne JanikCEO Microsoft Schweiz

“The cloud gives all businesses equal access to the latest technology such as data analytics and machine learning, and enables them to develop their business models, whatever their size; it is a further step toward the democratization of new, cutting‑edge technology.”

Christian SciulloCountry Manager

Google Cloud Switzerland & Austria

“Cloud computing is an enabler of innovation, agility and growth that allows companies of all size to operate at startup speed.”

Jim FanningAWS Country Manager

Switzerland

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“In essence, the cloud is nothing more than my data stored on the hard disk of a professional IT infrastructure operator. Contrary to persistent rumors, this increases data security because security experts monitor systems 24/7 and keep them secure, which many firms with small in‑house data centers often fail to do.”

Dr. Thomas Dübendorfer President

Swiss ICT Investor Club, Cyber Security Expert

“The cloud has fundamentally transformed the world of work. Location‑independent working has never been easier, and employees of the Town of Zug are benefiting from it.”

Martin WürmliTown clerk Zug

“The cloud will be a game changer, and in banking, too. But be vigilant when choosing a provider, and keep an eye on data handling as well as regulatory requirements.”

Johannes Hoehener Fintech Cluster Leader

Swisscom

“If the data are the fuel of the 21st century, then the cloud is the engine. The cloud makes working, learning and living easier, more flexible, more mobile and, in combination with other key technologies such as AI, AR, IoT or 5G, opens up unimagined possibilities.”Dominik Hof

Head of Corporate IT FHNW

“Cloud solutions have many advantages, even for the public sector. The federal government uses them and will use them much more. It pursues a hybrid cloud strategy, as private or public cloud solutions are best suited to the requirements.”Peter Fischer

The Delegate for Federal IT Steering FITSU

“Cloud solutions provide start‑ups with a simple and straightforward point of entry to IT, including Office 365, SmartDraw, Salesforce, Google Forms, Doodle and Mailchimp to name but a few. A couple of years ago, as a new entrepreneur, you would have had to invest a great deal more money, time and hassle. Cloud solutions are the lubricant for start‑ups.”

Dr. Andreas Kronawitter Managing Director its‑ch and founder

Kronawitter Innovation

“It’s all about cloud? It’s all about design! Design of your data, infrastructure, models and most important: use cases. The possibilities of the cloud seem to be limitless. Therefore, the identification of user needs to create desirable UX is essential. Technology gains advantage – creativity makes the difference.”

Robert Fritze Head of Design

ti&m

“The use of the broad portfolio of integrated, cloud‑managed services allows us to focus more on value‑ creating activities for our customers and products as well as to spend less time on operations.”

Marco Bazzani Head of IT

Swisscard AECS

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AI and the cloud – a universal panacea? Christian Sciullo, Google Cloud Switzerland & Austria

Artificial Intelligence // AI has evolved into a real buzzword these days. But it’s such an emotionally loaded term that there’s now a wide gap between the idea and the reality.

This article attempts to explain what AI is already capable of and why cloud technologies have such an important role to play in it.

Just what are we talking about actually? “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) refers to the basic idea of getting machines to perform “smart” tasks. The subordinated term “Machine Learning” (ML) by contrast refers to the learning process by which a system acquires a given behavior based on data. In general, it can be said that ML is learning based on patterns, examples and experience. However, today’s algorithms are still very simple. Until now, programming has primarily been concerned with defining rules. Machine learning is the program that identifies these rules for us and continually improves them over time on the basis of data.

AI is not all high tech and roboticsArtificial Intelligence is often associated with robots that may serve us at some future point in time. This picture is exagge‑rated by the media – AI often quite simply means that smart algorithms can use data to support processes. We already bene‑fit from the assistance of many cloud‑based AI applications: Google Maps automatically shows us the quickest route to our destination, households use intelligent devices to measure and independently adjust their electricity consumption, and the best email spam filters use AI. In business, too, machine learning

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can perform many practical tasks, from assisting with resource allocation to predicting and responding to future customer needs through to automating tedious and repetitive jobs.

Pretrained AI systems from the cloudVarious technology providers are keen to make artifi cial intelligence more accessible and are making available inter‑faces, known as APIs, that enable any organization to integrate pretrained AI systems into their own processes. Many APIs are already used for image analysis. Google’s AutoML, for instance, can be used to train an in‑house image recognitionmodel by feeding it with predefi ned image type templates that the model learns from and that enable it to recognize and identify, with relatively little effort, a wide range of images, e.g. of screws.

Data are an important part of AI development. And data‑driven tasks – that is to say, information‑based challenges – are a prerequisite for any AI application. However, these do not have to be present within your own company. A large number of digital datasets are made freely available by communities in‑terested in a wide variety of issues, from wine ratings to urban sounds through to consumer behavior on Black Friday, in the form of texts, satellite images and videos.

Many businesses are already using image recognition and iden‑tifi cation, and are able to train it with increasing specialization. With AutoML, Google Cloud is making a system available that anyone can use to build and train their own ML model without much prior knowledge.

Two examples: Disney uses AutoML Vision to assign products and product photos rapidly to specifi ed categories in its online store. So a product manager might upload photos of a T‑shirt with a Spider‑Man design to the website, and the product is immediately tagged with “Spider‑Man,” “T‑shirt,” “Marvel” and “Superheroes.”

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has pledged to protect animal species worldwide. In order to be effective in fulfi lling this mission, they have installed so‑called camera traps across the globe. This enables them to count and record animals in their natural habitat. ZSL has used AutoML Vision to train an ML model to recognize which animals have been photographed,

Christian SciulloCountry Manager Google Cloud Switzerland & Austria Christian Sciullo is an economist (lic. oec. HSG) with over 20 years’ experience in the technology sector helping clients to implement new technology and cloud solutions. He joined Google’s Cloud division in 2013. Since January 2018, he has been Google Cloud Country Manager for Switzerland and Austria.

enabling them to be automatically classifi ed. The work of many weeks thus becomes the work of only a few hours or a couple of minutes.

Computing power from the cloudWhat does all this have to do with the cloud though? Machine learning, deep learning and artifi cial intelligence in general require huge amounts of processing power. One simple way to acquire this is to hire high‑performance hardware in data centers that users can access via the Internet. The latest technology for generating signifi cant improvements in processing power for AI systems is known as Tensor Processing Units (TPU). Tensor‑Flow is a key component of many AI and ML systems. The TPU processor developed by Google is built to run the TensorFlow open source AI framework at exceptional speeds, enabling AI systems to run between 15 and 30 times faster. This is equiva‑lent to a leap of seven years into the future compared to previous development cycles. We have installed large numbers of so‑called pods in our data centers, to which TPUs can be connected. One pod alone delivers 11.5 petafl ops of performance. Companies can scarcely maintain this sort of hardware at the local level. For this reason, cloud computing plays a key role in the develop‑ment of AI systems.

The three points for successful use of AI are:

1. It requires high‑quality datasets that ML systems can useto recognize patterns. Ideally, ML systems should be trained with data that are representative of the real world.

2. Good tools and frameworks are essential. Although basicML algorithms can be described in just a few minutes, they are pretty complicated to implement. It is therefore neces‑sary to have a series of services that do not require ML orprogramming know‑how.

3. Immense processing capacity is required. The cloud provides precisely this kind of high‑performance hardware that busi‑nesses and developers can use for their own ML models.

These simple steps will ensure you make a successful start with AI in the cloud.

youtube.com/watch?v=QNF9OGySQYM

kaggle.com/datasets

Whether private‑, public‑ or multi‑cloud, we know what it is all about. ti&m has the ideal solution for your needs and everything from a single source. Daniel Killen, our Head of Cloud Competence Center, explains you how it works.We digitalize your company. ti8m.com/en/cloud

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