Smart City
Envisaging IoT to Bolster Smart Cities
Maher Elfadel Aboukadir, CEO, Vision Valley
Envisaging IoT to Bolster Smart Cities
During the late ’90s, when the internet was still known to the few, a leader had envisaged how the same is going to whip up a storm globally. Maher Elfadel Aboukadir, Chief Executive Officer of Vision Valley, set up the firm as a systems integration company, diversified into telecommunications, networking and information technology industries in Dubai in 2002. Prior to starting Vision Valley, Maher worked with a major telecom operator in the region, building the internet infrastructure and services in the UAE. “The project started in 1994; the same time the commercial internet was at its infancy stage. Since we had no means to do research on the internet, we built a small lab and initiated self-learning on the internet. After establishing internet services in the UAE, the same was extended to other regions like APAC, Europe and USA’s East and West Coasts.” Simultaneously, Maher was also educating the public on the usage of the internet.
The Journey
Maher’s launch of his startup ‘Vision Valley’ demonstrated his bold decision to quit his established corporate life to venture out on his own. “Having only two full-time staff and growing organically to over 300 engineers with operations in three continents to become one of the most successful ICT providers in EMEA was indeed a feat,” notes Maher. “By 2005, the company was the recipient of ‘the most sophisticated video collaboration network’ award, while 2009 saw the company winning an award for the best SI of Video collaboration in EMEA keeping 700 companies (mostly from Europe) on the back seat. “As a result of the repeated major successes, one of the top vendors of telecommunication products offered to acquire Vision Valley which I instantly rejected and decided to continue as per the company’s strategy,” adds Maher.
IoT and the Smart City Connection
Noting that the advent of the internet brought in the concept of Smart Cities, Maher says: “At Vision Valley, we identified IoT & Smart Cities as a new line of business starting around 2010. Since then, we devoted a massive investment in learning, research, and development as well as building a robust ecosystem of partners getting ready for what we assumed was going to emerge as a landslide wave of technology followed by a similar wave of business needs. “Maher notes that the first project deploying the concept of the smart city where Vision Valley played a key role, happened in Dubai. “This place has become the role model in the region and many other parts of the world inspiring other cities around the globe. This project opened the door for other opportunities and many neighboring markets. We then moved into a parallel strategic objective; developing certain products that support the same notion of smart cities in a big way. This wave started with Letuno® then a chain of products carries the name ‘Spectro’.
The Launches
During the early days of 2019, Vision Valley launched its first IoT product; Letuno® offering a broad range of services based on Visual Light Communication {VLC}.
“We launched the second product set mid-2019; the Spectro® chain, starting with Spector Tanks, which is an end-to-end IoT based fluid tank monitoring system with a lot of built-in Artificial Intelligence and precise dashboards that offer both Birdseye view as well as detailed information digitally mapped. “During the past four months we have around 10,000 tanks being connected in more than one continent,” he says. Q4 of 2019 saw Vision Valley launching the second product of this chain – Spectro Cold Chain – an end-to-end IoT-based mobile and stationary cold store monitoring system composed of both the Spectro software platform as well as Vision Valley’s developed set of hardware IoT sensors.
More of the Spectro series of products are lined up for launch in the near future.
The Winning Edge
Maher believes that an important key to enduring long-term growth lies in building and then sticking to a clear meaningful strategy, that is why Vision Valley built a strong strategy, which is primarily based on innovation. “We followed the strategy with a few evolutionary updates for the past 17 years. Vision Valley hardly witnessed a year without acquiring a respected accolade of some kind. The most recent one being ‘SAP innovation Awards 2019’ winning the (Next-Gen Innovator) award globally; announced in Orlando mid of this year.
Top 25 Smart City Technology CEOs of 2020
The idea of a smart city has become extremely important when it comes to the context of defining the strength, performance, facility, demography and urban economy. How a smart city would perform? In what ways we can identify a smart city?
When it comes to understanding a city in terms of scientific growth and implementing important policies with the right quotient of strategies, it has a tremendous impact on the socio-economic growth of the place and worldwide. Several reports and research studies indicated there will be a continuous rise in the population living in the urban city. Under this circumstance, the present Government needs to tighten the loose ends. The first important aspects are to make all the resources easily available for the people to utilize. Not just basic resources, but when it comes to luxurious resources, the people living in the urban city have first access to it. A person’s mind is extremely inquisitive; they search for the technology that makes their life extremely easy and convenient. In a way, this contributes to the economic and social growth in a city but gives their poor environmental sustainability.
How does the scientist look into this growth?
Growth in technology is so widespread that some of the issues and problems that need immediate attention are often overlooked. The rise in population means deterioration of air quality, transportation, and economic risks. Not just this they are open to major health consequences. When the population density in a city is lesser, the lesser will be the energy consumed for electricity and transportation, which will certainly help in the dropping of carbon-dioxide. But there is no way that all these can be controlled. The situation indicates that the cities are in need of smarter ways to control and combat the new challenges.
The rate of metabolism in cities consists of consuming essential products and excreting waste. This is a common phenomenon and is unavoidable. This gives rise to socio-economic issues. Promoting any goods for sustainability has been taken through the growth and marketing of natural capital stocks. Also, if we consider and take into account city sustainability, this also promotes an anthropocentric approach. According to this, a city responds to people’s requirements for sustainability solutions or socio-economic growth.
If we have to consider that the cities with the high urban population depend on transportation facilities, land uses and other facilities, then we could be certain that this will also have an impact on technological growth. Public transport will be more efficient and will be of the highest quality to be able to respond to the economic needs of the city as well. It gives a better meaning of labor with employment, thus increasing the productivity of the firm.
As we take a new approach towards urban service provision, there is growth in technology, including ICT. The concept of a smart city is not limited to technological aspects alone. With the growing relevance of the smart city concept, the definition and meaning are also changing, giving rise to greater confusion and challenges for the policy-makers. In the next sections, we would take look at the deeper impact and implications of technology towards building a smart city.
