Introduction to quantum-inspired optimization with Azure Quantum

In the future, we will be able to use quantum computers to solve valuable, but hard optimization problems as they arise in different industries and sectors of the economy. In the absence of sufficiently powerful quantum computers (as in 2022), it is possible to use classical optimization techniques, but also optimization methods which have been inspired by quantum physics and quantum effects. These so-called quantum-inspired optimization algorithms (QIO) can potentially help solve problems when classical algorithms run out of steam. Importantly, QIO optimization solvers run in the cloud on today’s classical compute infrastructure and therefore don’t require quantum computers. Such QIO techniques are e.g. available in the cloud in Microsoft Azure Quantum. For potential users, various questions will arise: How do these QIO algorithms work in principle? What type of business problems can be solved using such techniques? How to map a business problem into a mathematical description that can serve as input to QIO solvers? Once a mathematically suitable problem specification has been written up, how to work with such QIO solvers in the cloud? Here is an introductory article which addresses a number of these questions and leads the reader through an illustrative worked example to provide a better understanding how QIO methods can be leveraged in practice.

The Enterprise Micro-Datacenter: Small Cell Controllers, IoT Gateways and Edge Computing Servers

Today, enterprises can deploy small cell networks (e.g. Wi-Fi or sophisticated 4G cellular networks based on LTE technology) to go completely wireless, not only for their staff with the latest smartphones and tablets, but also to connect any of their assets, sensors, goods etc. to the Cloud. In addition, enterprises which go after the Internet of Things use IoT gateways as part of a tiered system architecture. Finally, the same enterprises may discover the benefits of edge cloud computing and consider the deployment of a cloudlet. The only issue: all needs to be enterprise-grade. Secure, reliable, with guaranteed quality of service levels. How does this relate to an enterprise micro-datacenter? And what does this small datacenter actually host? Let’s see. Continue reading

Edge Cloud to Cloud Integration for IoT

Telecoms and Internet industries work on concepts and architectures that will support new enterprise products and solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT), in addition to new products and services for the consumer sector. These concepts are known as mobile edge computing, edge cloud computing and fog computing. They are great. But what needs more attention is integration of edge cloud platforms with data centers and private clouds of IoT enterprises, as well as the integration with public hyper-scale clouds.   Continue reading

Open Fog Computing and Mobile Edge Cloud Gain Momentum

On 19th November 2015, Cisco, ARM, Dell, Intel, Microsoft and Princeton University have launched the Open Fog consortium with the goal to realise the full potential of the Internet of Things. On the other hand, the telecoms industry has been working since late 2014 on mobile edge computing. Also, edge cloud is seen by several vendors of telecoms infrastructure as a key component of 5th generation wireless systems. To add to the confusion, other renowned institutes like Carnegie Mellon University have promoted Cloudlets as a means to enable a new generation of edge cloud computing applications. What’s going on? How are things related?  Continue reading

QUIC – Making Web Browsing Even Faster and Improving over SPDY

Want to be faster underway in the Internet? Then you may want to have a look at QUIC. The acronym sounds like quick, and actually means it: surfing quicker through the Web by means of fast connections, this time over the User Datagram Protocol UDP. Continue reading

LWM2M – M2M The Lighter Way

If you went these days to ‘google’ for LWM2M, you would find something that is called a new technical protocol specification.  It is abbreviated LWM2M which stands for Lightweight M2M – Machine to Machine the lighter way. What’s that all about? Why does it show up here and there already on Google? Continue reading

WebRTC and RTCWEB – The World Soon Upside Down

WebRTC, standing for Web Real-time Communication, will gain some well-deserved attention in the months to come for a number of reasons: It may turn out to be disruptive, to drive some fights in the industry, to fuel innovation and to delight software developers and consumers alike. Less well known is RTCWEB, its sort of companion, the engine that works in the background for real-time peer-to-peer communication between browsers. Continue reading

2013, a Further Year of Revolution in the M2M Business

The Machine-to-Machine industry is on its way to revolutionise the world. Every year, we are getting closer to the Internet of Things. The commercial potential is enormous. There will be more “machines” and “things” connected to controlling and managing applications than PCs and cellular phones combined. The forecasts for 2015-20 go into the double-digit billions of devices. The promises from M2M for “M2M consumers” are very interesting as they are often related to cost savings, particularly Opex, and better customer service. Where are we today and what’s next? Continue reading