We have an opportunity to lead revolutionary change -- to disrupt business models, solve global and economic challenges and fundamentally transform human experiences. It enables us to extend not only ourselves and our abilities, but also our connection with the world. Consider the current global Covid-19 pandemic and the way the world shifted online in an instant. Despite the closure of physical borders, we have become more open. Technology has created a boundaryless global community, allowing us to instantly connect and communicate, irrespective of geography.

Neville Vincent says the combination of hyperconverged infrastructure, edge computing and AI is driving value and insights to new levels. While cloud has been a key component to AI's exponential growth and its availability on nearly every technological device, the combination of hyperconverged infrastructure HCI), edge computing and AI provides the ideal environment to uncover patterns in data from multiple devices and predict future performance or issues. It is driving value and insights to new levels. The adoption of hybrid cloud -- enabled by HCI and public cloud and combined with AI and data gathered from the edge -- offers granular visibility into operations, enabling real-time, comprehensive and actionable intelligence. Through this combination businesses will become self-learning, flexible, self-determining and able to adopt next-generation infrastructure to help realign their operations, personnel, business and even business models.

This German expressionist film was not sophisticated (in fact, science fiction writer H.G. Wells said the movie was downright "silly") but it did have some merit. If nothing else, it started an entire genre of films exploring the freakish possibilities of artificial intelligence. Fast forward ninety-plus years, and we're living in a world where intelligent systems are more than a sci-fi fantasy – they are becoming a necessity. In the technology trifecta of hyperconverged compute, storage, and networking, intelligence across the IT environment represents a critical next phase of networking. That line of discussion, as well as my affinity for AI movies, got me thinking about the accelerated pace of change in automation technology, and how the role of networking has changed, particularly in regards to network awareness.