bdpatoday® | edge computing

Future of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud Contract

PENTAGON—Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) canceled the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) Cloud solicitation and initiated contract termination procedures. The Department has determined that, due to evolving requirements, increased cloud conversancy, and industry advances, the JEDI Cloud contract no longer meets its needs. The Department continues to have unmet cloud capability gaps for enterprise-wide, commercial cloud services at all three classification levels that work at the tactical edge, at scale — these needs have only advanced in recent years with efforts such as Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) and the Artificial Intelligence and Data Acceleration (ADA) initiative.

“JEDI was developed at a time when the Department’s needs were different and both the CSPs technology and our cloud conversancy was less mature. In light of new initiatives like JADC2 and Ai and Data Acceleration (ADA), the evolution of the cloud ecosystem within DoD, and changes in user requirements to leverage multiple cloud environments to execute mission, our landscape has advanced and a new way-ahead is warranted to achieve dominance in both traditional and non-traditional warfighting domains,” said John Sherman, acting DoD Chief Information Officer.

Concurrent with the cancellation of the JEDI Request for Proposals (RFP), the DoD announced its intent for new cloud efforts. The Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC) will be a multi-cloud/multi-vendor Indefinite Delivery-Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. The Department intends to seek proposals from a limited number of sources, namely the Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) and Amazon Web Services (AWS), as available market research indicates that these two vendors are the only Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) capable of meeting the Department’s requirements. However, as noted in its Pre-Solicitation Notice, the Department will immediately engage with industry and continue its market research to determine whether any other U.S.-based hyperscale CSPs can also meet the DoD’s requirements. If so, those Department will also negotiate with those companies.

^{— Source and photos: Department of Defense}

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CTA, HRS Unveil Recommendations for Managing Personal Health With Wearables at CES 2020

LAS VEGAS, NV — This week, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)® and Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) released a unique digital health paper recommending best practices for using wearable technology to manage personal health, including detecting and monitoring cardiovascular biometrics. Presented for the first time during a panel at CES® 2020 – the world’s largest, most influential tech event – this paper provides consumer guidance on understanding devices and managing their personal health data.

“The collaboration between HRS and CTA is timely and important for both consumers and clinicians,” said Dr. Andrea Russo, president, HRS. “Chronic diseases are increasing in prevalence and wearables help people monitor their health to aid in earlier diagnosis and better management of their conditions; furthermore, they provide information to the user that fosters a healthier lifestyle.”

“Digital health is changing lives for the better – providing more personalized care, delivering better outcomes and lowering costs,” said Rene Quashie, VP of digital health, CTA. “Wearable solutions are one of the fastest growing sectors in technology. And as more consumers capture personal health information, a cross industry-created guidance document has never been more important to provide clarity on the potential health and wellness benefits of wearables.”

The CTA/HRS Guidance for Wearable Health Solutions paper includes an overview of the wearables landscape and offers advice for consumers on using wearables. A FAQ section tackles topics including data management, when to call a doctor, sharing data with a health provider, data privacy and security policies.

Developed and reviewed by physicians, patient advocates, technology companies and health care organizations, CTA and HRS created these guidelines to answer common questions for consumers that currently own – or want to own – wearables that capture personal health information. The best practices were presented at the Disruptive Innovations in Health Care conference track at CES.

Dr. Nassir Marrouche, lead author of the paper, added, “in this document we aimed to highlight this new intersection between consumer tech and health. We want people to be aware of what these wearables have to offer, how they can increase knowledge about one’s health, and how clinicians are optimistic about the data wearables can deliver.”

According to recent data, CTA projects total sales of digital health devices in the U.S. – such as smartwatches, fitness trackers and blood pressure monitors – will reach $10 billion in revenue in 2020 (up by 16% over last year).

The Health & Wellness category at CES 2020 will have over 20% more exhibitors and 15% more exhibitor space than CES 2019, with notable exhibitors such as Abbott, Cigna, Humana, Omron Healthcare, Myant, Philips and Procter & Gamble.

To download the CTA/HRS Guidance for Wearable Health Solutions document, visit CTA.tech.

**by Danielle Cassagnol, CTA**

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McDonald’s Acquires Dynamic Yield to Optimize CX

CHICAGO, NEW YORK & TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – McDonald’s Corporation (MCD) and Dynamic Yield Ltd. announced an agreement by which McDonald’s will acquire Dynamic Yield, a leader in personalization and decision logic technology. With this acquisition of Dynamic Yield, based in New York and Tel Aviv, McDonald’s builds on its significant technology investments for growth.

McDonald’s will utilize this decision technology to provide an even more personalized customer experience by varying outdoor digital Drive Thru menu displays to show food based on time of day, weather, current restaurant traffic and trending menu items. The decision technology can also instantly suggest and display additional items to a customer’s order based on their current selections.

This will enable McDonald’s to be one of the first companies to integrate decision technology into the customer point of sale at a brick and mortar location. McDonald’s tested this technology in several U.S. restaurants in 2018. Upon closing of the acquisition, McDonald’s will begin to roll this technology out in the Drive Thru at restaurants in the United States in 2019 and then expand the use to other top international markets. McDonald’s will also begin work to integrate the technology into all of its digital customer experience touchpoints, such as self-order kiosks and McDonald’s Global Mobile App.

Dynamic Yield’s ability to meet McDonald’s customer needs, coupled with their commitment to grow capabilities around ever-changing consumer trends and evolving marketing technologies, allows for the continued advancement and elevation of the McDonald’s customer experience with technology and innovation.

“Technology is a critical element of our Velocity Growth Plan, enhancing the experience for our customers by providing greater convenience on their terms,” said Steve Easterbrook, President and Chief Executive Officer, McDonald’s Corporation. “With this acquisition, we’re expanding both our ability to increase the role technology and data will play in our future and the speed with which we’ll be able to implement our vision of creating more personalized experiences for our customers.”

Liad Agmon, co-founder and CEO of Dynamic Yield, added: “We started Dynamic Yield seven years ago with the premise that customer-centric brands must make personalization a core activity.  We’re thrilled to be joining an iconic global brand such as McDonald’s and are excited to innovate in ways that have a real impact on people’s daily lives.”

McDonald’s recent advancements in the tech space – including the development of McDonald’s Global Mobile App, Mobile Order and Pay, indoor and outdoor digital menu boards and self-order kiosks – have transformed customer experiences in and around its restaurants, by giving customers more ways to pay and personalize their orders to meet their needs.

Upon closing, McDonald’s will become sole owner and will continue to invest in Dynamic Yield’s core personalization product and world-class teams. Dynamic Yield will remain a stand-alone company and employees will continue to operate out of offices around the world. Dynamic Yield will also continue to serve their current, and attract future, clients.

Founded in 1940, the McDonald’s Corporation is a National BDPA Sponsor. As an American fast food company, it is an Industry leader optimizing customer experiences (CX) at each point of sale. For BDPA Members, McDonald’s has current openings for Data Modelers, Data Architects, and Cloud Architects. Industry will yield more opportunities to deliver food orders via drones, autonomous vehicles, or explore on-premise edge computing to move vast points-of-sale data processing power to the “edge” of computer networks.