Aricent: How to be Digitally Durable

“APIs are now a business model!”
“A company that has more APIs has more value.”

If every industry is being digitally disrupted (it is) then the question companies need to ask is how to remain digitally durable. If you want insight into how to fight off the next wave of innovation before it makes you obsolete, a great place to start is talking to Frank Kern, the CEO of Aricent, the company responsible for helping other companies be disruptive.

If you don’t know them, Aricent has a few different practices from security and IoT/embedded to cloud and software defined everything. I last interviewed Frank in 2015 where he shared with us his vision for the future of technology.

In a recent conversation, he discussed the need in the market for different platforms to ensure maximal take-off rates. Specifically he was discussing wearables for children where size really matters. In response, Aricent teamed with Qualcomm technologies to develop the ADAPT Wearable Platform. The Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear11000 processor is at the heart of the device.

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“The Snapdragon Wear 1100 processor supports important features consumers are demanding in their wearable devices such as smaller size, longer battery life, smarter sensing, secure location, and an always connected experience,” said Pankaj Kedia, senior director, product management, Qualcomm Atheros, Inc. “We are pleased to be working with Aricent to bring the best of design and technology to connected watches for children and help our customers accelerate these products to consumers quickly.”

The Linux-based solution supports a bewildering amount of technologies such as two-way LTE/3G voice and messaging as well as bluetooth and WiFi. Battery life of course depends on what the final product is – as well as overall size.

Of course, as technology gets smaller, it allows new solutions to be built. Things we couldn’t actually envision before the form-factors were available. According to Frank, there is now a tsunami of disruption – he mentioned this at Zinnov Confluence 2016. He went on to say the R&D organization must anticipate and transform technology for the future.

He thinks R&D is the key to digital disruption. He went on to say digitally durable companies have intense customer affinity, product development nimbleness, R&D learning loops and long-tail innovation.

While my conversation with Frank centered on this product launch with wireless leader Qualcomm, I believe the greater value he provides to our industry as a whole is his vision for where the future is headed. Aricent supplies much of the technology we use each day but they typically aren’t allowed to tell us who they are supplying.

In my experience these “middleware” engineering companies are the true visionaries because they see what everyone is doing and can gauge where things are going far more efficiently than financial analysts, journalist and industry analysts.

If you’re interested in learning for yourself – check out this talk below. It’s worth a view or two.

In closing, yes, you need to focus on various segments of the market to produce tailored solutions for your audience. In addition you need to focus on making your company as durable as possible as the pace of disruption continues to accelerate. And of course, don’t forget – we can 100% agree (see below) with Frank’s idea that APIs are now a Business Model!

Come see the world of APIs at All About The API. Our event will feature a variety of intensive hack-a-thons, in-depth company-focused workshops helping attendees understand the value propositions from key vendors, powerful keynotes, daily and nightly networking opportunities plus an exhibit hall full of companies demonstrating the latest innovations in today’s market place. Every business has to pay attention to the new opportunities they are presenting or potentially be displaced. We hope to see you July 18-21 2016 in Las Vegas!

This is the only event where you can network and see keynotes from these thought leaders:

  • Darko Vokovic Manager, Product Management, API Platform at Oracle
  • Gareth Jones, API Architect, Microsoft Graph
  • Jose de Castro, CTO, Cisco
  • Vice President, Hybrid Cloud Integration and API Economy, IBM
  • Tony Jamous, CEO, Nexmo
  • Alexis Bonillo, COO, Zenly
  • Rob Zazueta, Director, Digital Strategy, TIBCO Software
  • Neil Trevett, Vice President Developer Ecosystem, NVIDIA

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