The war between Russia and Ukraine has highlighted a number of potential weaknesses from energy security and in supply chains of chip set supplies and commodities such as food, to the exploitation of IT, through cyber-attacks and cyber-espionage. The latter can be a strength too, as new technologies have been tested in the conflict by, for example, Ukraine, to oust Russian forces from their territories. These include autonomous and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the use of artificial intelligence for data gathering to enable "precise strikes and effective surveillance and reconnaissance, which can – at least in part – be attributed to the knowledge which the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine is receiving from the western allies"; and the use of satellites such as Elon Musk's Starlink by Ukraine to attack Russian positions. Key to the success in the conflict is Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT). "The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has exposed the importance of resilient PNT for a nation's safety and security. It has opened up doors to discussions on the fragility of GPS signals that can cost millions of human lives, when data is available to an enemy entity", writes Nibedita Mohanta for Geospatial World in her article, 'Why PNT is vital for national security?'.

Following on from my comment in the February issue of DW, I thought it worthwhile to spend a few moments contemplating just how much, or how little, companies (as well as individuals) can learn from the history books. Thankfully, major health scares as per the current coronavirus pandemic, are few and far between. And organisations might do well to spend a little time, after we have weathered the storm, thinking about the future, in terms of the human aspect of their business. Yes, AI and robots are, we hope, immune to illness, but humans are still a vital part of any organisation, and large scale illness is something that might just need a bit more planning for in the future. At least as part of a business continuity/disaster recovery plan, where the emphasis tends to be on the machines, not the humans.

David Trossell, CEO Bridgeworks speaks to Digitalisation World on topics of platforms, devices, concepts and developments, infrastructure, communications and much more. There is an overarching fear that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning are going to take over people's jobs, but there is a counter argument that their main purpose is to support humans as enabling technologies. This is fine, but organisations should also look beyond SD-WAN to a data acceleration solution as it can do more for less. Mark Baker, CIO of JAS Global felt he had to embrace SD-WANs because his company was already supporting global applications and email with MPLS networks and VPNs. His goals would probably have been achieved more quickly and more simply if the latency challenge of having a global company "go from Atlanta to L.A. to London and Paris" had been solved with the PORTrockIT solution.