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Factors that Slingshot Smart Cities in APAC
The adoption of smart city systems make the cities healthier, safer, and more prosperous. Asia-Pacific (APAC) has accelerated to the front of the line, courtesy of the recent paradigm shifts.
FREMONT, CA: The concept of smart city occupies a place on the gold pedestal from the technology sector’s viewpoint. For making the cities smart, technology is integrated into all fields, raising the scope for research and development. The adoption of smart systems, which make the cities healthier, safer, and more prosperous, is slower than expected in most cities. Unlike some regions, Asia-Pacific (APAC) has accelerated to the front of the line, with the courtesy of recent paradigm shifts. The sudden hike in artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, broader availability of low-cost IoT sensors, and distributed hybrid multi-cloud IT architectures have unraveled a plethora of opportunities in the APAC regions.
A recent report by UBS predicts that the APAC regions will account for about 40 percent of the global market growth, with its overall value exceeding $800 billion by 2025. The interconnection trends in the same regions are said to mimic the same pattern. According to the Global Interconnection Index, APAC is the second fastest developing region in terms of interconnection bandwidth, as it projects to 51 percent CAGR from 2017 to 2021.
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Many factors are driving the growth of interconnected smart cities in the APAC regions. The most important of these factors are discussed below:
1. Crowded Megacities:
The APAC is a sanctuary for more than 60 percent of the world’s commercial zones, with more than half of the planet’s human population living in the region. The rapid urbanization is vastly encouraging the IT build-out and Interconnection Bandwidth growth to incorporate the expanding demands of the digital market. Here are a few indicators:
• APAC will be responsible for more than 44% of the growth in the global digital video market by 2022.
• The number of data centers are increasing in the APAC region for a few years and is expected to double over three years.
The proximity between the digital services and users is of utmost importance, as it showcases the support to the exploding urban demand. Private traffic exchange allows businesses and smart city providers working for the development of the megacities to solve security challenges. This is a crucial factor that fuels the growth of interconnection in APAC, specifically for those companies that require private connections to Network, Cloud, and IT providers. These companies are also empowered by data management services providers to manage their data assets intelligently and extract actionable insights for increased revenue growth.
2. Geographic and Environmental Risk:
By accommodating more than half of the world’s population in less than 30 percent of the geographical area also presents its own set of risks and challenges. With more people, more cars to more trash come into the picture, driving the existing infrastructure of the city to its threshold. The increasing demands arrive with the company of typical big-city concerns like pollution, energy usage, waste, and natural disaster risks, much concentrated due to limited resources.
Many smart city systems like smart grids, air and water management, intelligent transportation, integrated waste collection, and disaster response are retrofitting the legacy systems. By doing so, it manages the growth in APAC cities efficiently, sustainably, and resiliently. Cities are trained to intelligently adapt to the demand and respond to issues with the usage of sensors coupled with AI algorithms, which provides real-time insights. To handle the vast amounts of data, fast and reliable network speeds with minimal latency are essentially the key solutions. A complex network of sensors collect, filter, and analyze the data collected in real-time. In a region that is already saturated and subjected to significant environmental risk, thesmart city systems should be designed in a more sustainable manner..
3. Government Participation:
Rapid growth and environmental risks jointly pressurize APAC governments to streamline its focus on intelligent urban planning and solutions. Asian governments are open to investing in smart city initiatives and partner with the private sector. Many other APAC activities include:
• China’s National Smart City Program: China has invested CNY 500 billion in this campaign. As a result, more than 500 smart cities were built by the end of 2017 and existed in various stages of development, leveraging IoT, big data, cloud computing, and other smart systems.
• Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint: Hong Kong's governing body has invested HKD 50 billion and has initiated the blueprint for innovation and technology development.
• South Korea: The government of South Korea, has pledged to invest $350 million in 300 companies to encourage the innovation of the IoT ecosystem within the country. A pilot program is launched in Seoul, with the partnership of Samsung and SK Telecom. This program will set up an IoT-based infrastructure for renewable energy, medical services, and smart cars.
Every smart city initiative is unique to its geographical profile but aims to achieve a centralized result in the APAC. This goal is attained only by pursuing different strategies that are cohesively bound to address immediate risks, while also targeting ahead to manage the development sustainably.
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