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Vol.32 - Opening the Way for Business and Its Evolution - The New World Being Created by Managed Services

The advancement of digital technologies such as IoT and AI are raising expectations for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS).
CPS is anticipated to create new value, primarily in the industrial field, and to lead economic development and solutions for social problems.
In the newly published "Toshiba Next Plan," Toshiba has declared its intent to become one of the world's leading CPS technology companies. Toshiba is developing various new technologies and transforming business to realize the goal.
Toshiba has a unique competitive advantage in the physical world through long history of manufacturing business and social infrastructure development. To leverage the advantage through cyber technologies to realize CPS, Toshiba has formulated a common framework, or Toshiba IoT Reference Architecture. Toshiba has also started to provide a number of industrial IoT services compliant with the Reference Architecture in various business field under a unified corporate brand "TOSHIBA SPINEX," and is accelerating its development.
This special feature looks at how Toshiba has fused its wealth of cyber and physical technologies to transform and to grow businesses to contribute social development.
It also introduces specific examples of these initiatives.

Hiroshi Yamamoto
Corporate Digitization CTO,
General Manager, Digital Innovation Technology Center
Toshiba Corporation

Vol.31 - Opening the Way for Business and Its Evolution - The New World Being Created by Managed Services

Technology is evolving at an unprecedented rate, and business environments are rapidly changing in the era of digital economy. The time has come to seriously reconsider how ICT is used. The SRE concept, which has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years, is being called on not only to provide system reliability, but also to contribute to business growth.
In April 2019, Toshiba Digital Solutions established its Managed Service Center. We have not stopped at mere ICT system maintenance. We also provide Albacore, Toshiba Managed Service that drives optimization and automation while making continuous improvements. Based on the operation experience Toshiba has accrued in a wide range of business fields, Albacore leverages the latest cloud, IoT, AI, OSS, and other technologies to contribute to ever-growing customer business. In order to create the Toshiba Group's Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Albacore provides services that integrate everything from the design and creation of IT platforms that fuse physical and virtual spaces at a high level to operation, including applications and business operation support.
Albacore will continue to support the growth and development of customers as it strives to realize full-fledged CPS. This special feature introduces some of these measures.

Makoto Ochiai
General Manager
Managed Services Center
Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation

Vol.30 - Toshiba communication AI RECAIUS, realizing work style innovation and rich society - Digital society brought by the interaction between people and AI

The values of Japanese society are changing due to the shrinking working-age population resulting from the country's low birth rate and the evolution of digital technologies. Japanese "work" itself is beginning to change.
We believe that companies must, in the face of these dramatically changing social environments and times, strive to create rich societies in which diverse people live and work happily and energetically. Two major goals in achieving this are transforming work styles and making life more comfortable.
This special feature looks at the new directions and latest technologies of Toshiba Digital Solutions in its efforts to create advanced interaction between people and AI, which holds the key to achieving these goals. Let's explore the frontlines of the social transformation being led by Toshiba communication AI RECAIUS.

Tomoki Tada
General Manager
RECAIUS Business Div.
Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation

Vol.29 - From system developer to value creator - The Solutions Center, Striving for Value Co-Creation

The appearance of cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) have brought innovation to various industries.
These advanced digital technologies are being used for operation efficiency and process improvements, but are also coming to be used to create new value by changing and creating business models. In addition to conventional system development methodologies and organization, this trend has also produced a need for personnel who is skilled at open architecture, which can rapidly respond to changes, and is rich in business ideas.
Our Solutions Center has cultivated rich expertise in various industries as a software factory that supports system development. We are combining the expertise with state-of-the-art digital technologies to improve our employees' digital transformation (DX) capabilities.
This special feature presents the latest initiatives of the Solutions Center, which is constantly evolving as it seeks value co-creation together with customers.

Hiroki Nagamitsu
General Manager
Solutions Center
Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation

Vol.28 - Increasing the value of information assets - Software production technologies supporting digital transformation

Advances in digital technologies are causing disruptive innovation, producing innovative business models in a variety of industrial fields. Needless to say, digital transformation will hold the key for Japanese companies to emerge victorious in the face of increasingly fierce global competition.
The issue there is what to do about existing systems, which have become more and more complicated over time, turning into black boxes. Digital transformation involves using the data stored in existing systems, cutting maintenance costs, and ensuring agility and scalability.
Toshiba Digital Solutions offers a selection of advanced software production technologies that can be used to overcome these challenges, driving IT modernization that enables existing systems to adapt and respond to changes in the business and societal environment. We have systematized the technologies and methodologies used in digital transformation. This special feature presents an overview of the IT modernization we offer customers, together with one of the latest case examples.

Daisuke Imamura
General Manager
Systems Engineering and Technology Center
Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation

Vol.27 - How O&M will be transformed by digitalization! - Toshiba's O&M solutions, maximizing the potential of both equipment and people

The equipment of factories and infrastructure facilities constructed during Japan's period of rapid economic growth are becoming deteriorated.
Problems related to their operation & maintenance (O&M) have become evident: operators are growing older, successors are going short, and the operations are highly dependent on the experts’ knowledge and capabilities of individuals. At the same time, advances in digital technologies such as the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) are making it easier to remotely inspect equipment and replace components in a timely manner. It is becoming possible to implement condition based maintenance (CBM), which is based on highly precise failure prediction, degradation diagnosis and lifetime prediction, at little cost. These progress realize more efficient working process, long-run operations of equipment and creation of new service businesses.
Toshiba Digital Solutions has been at the forefront of innovating O&M operations and performing overall O&M optimization through digital transformation. This special issue features the initiatives we are carrying out based on our experiences both as a provider and as a user of devices and equipment. These initiatives are showing the new potential for O&M to be turned from a cost to a value, and then on to a source of corporate competitiveness.

Shunsuke Okada
Vice President
Industrial Solutions Div.
Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation

Vol.26 - Supporting new business creation together with customers - The co-creation and services being produced through digitalization

In order to convert business models group-wide through the use of digital transformation (DX), Toshiba is working on creating new outcome co-creation business based on customer issues and market needs in a wide range of business fields.
For the purpose of accelerating this direction, in April 2018, Toshiba Corporation appointed a CDO (Chief Digital Officer) to spearhead a company-wide strategy of growth through digital transformation, and established a new Digital Transformation Strategy Acceleration Division, headed by the CDO. Also in April, Toshiba Digital & Consulting Corporation was incorporated under Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation, in order to provide integrated services encompass everything from new value creation through digital business consulting to value confirmation.
This special edition introduces the new digital services based on SPINEX, Toshiba's IoT architecture, that fuse consulting and SI developed through Toshiba's past experience in order to realize digital transformation.

Hironobu Nishikori
Corporate Executive Vice President, Toshiba Corporation
President and CEO, Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation

Vol.25 - Supporting the digital transformation of company-wide infrastructure systems - Toshiba's industrial IoT security

Recent years have seen numerous cyber-attacks targeting social infrastructure.
We are in an era where these attacks could not only damage systems, but even have the potential to cause major accidents that threaten people's lives and cause severe environmental damage.
This trend is the result of attacks becoming more advanced and sophisticated and the rapid rise of the IoT.
Toshiba has promoted digital transformation through its "SPINEX" IoT architecture, and has combined the strengths of its entire Group to reinforce its security approach, countering the threat of cyber-attacks, which have extended into the control security field.
We are implementing reforms, both organizational and technical, on an unprecedented scale, to protect important infrastructure such as energy, manufacturing, transportation, and medical facility infrastructure, support customer business operations, and help ensure the safety and security of people and society.

Shuichi Shimoda
General Manager
Industrial ICT Security Center
Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation

Vol.24 - Toshiba's "SATLYS" Analytics AI, Converting IoT Data to Business Value - AI Data Analysis Brings Digital Transformation

In our modern era, companies can no longer remain competitive merely by extending their existing business models.
The key to business transformation lies in big data analysis and using the results of this analysis to create new value and business models.
Toshiba, which has driven digital transformation using our "SPINEX" IoT architecture, has fused its rich experience in fields such as semiconductor manufacturing and societal infrastructure with leading edge technologies. Toshiba has released the fruits of these efforts, its "SATLYS" analytics AI service, for analyzing and leveraging diverse IoT data.
This special feature looks at SATLYS in depth, covering everything from Toshiba's vision to key SATLYS technologies and the latest examples of SATLYS deployment for the Toshiba Group. Read on to learn about the Toshiba analytics technology that is leading business change through digital transformation.

Shigeyoshi Shimotsuji
Chief Information Officer
General Manager
Software & AI Technology Center
Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation

Vol.23 - Communication AI for knowledge processing with speech and image data - The business innovation produced by collaboration between people and AI

Led by the concept of "understanding peoples' intentions and conditions, communicating with and supporting people," Toshiba has developed and provided a wide range of "RECAIUS" communication AI products and services.
Advanced AI technology will accelerate digital innovation by further advancing communications between people and things, leading to collaborations between people, things, and systems.
This special issue focused on RECAIUS, introducing the technologies, product strategies, and latest use cases of AI from Toshiba Digital Solutions.
Expectations are high for the future of RECAIUS, the culmination of the technologies Toshiba has developed through the years!

Tomoki Tada
General Manager
RECAIUS Business Development Div.
Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation

Vol.22 - The speed and expandability required of the IoT - Fully using sensing data in worksites

IoT accelerates digital transformation in various fields.
Using the data obtained from sensors in worksites requires systems for sorting the massive amounts of data, rapidly processing it on-site, performing simultaneous analysis of big data in the cloud, and providing feedback to worksites. Toshiba's SPINEX IoT architecture contains the core technologies and platform products that make this possible.
Its advanced products and services are used to realize the key features of SPINEX, such as "edge computing" and "digital twins." Toshiba uses its corporate DNA as a manufacturing company and its pioneering technologies to provide powerful support for customer's digital innovation in various industrial and social fields.
This special features examine several major products and presents the latest use cases.

Yoshikazu Ikito
General Manager
Product and Service Marketing Div.
Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation

Vol.21 - Toshiba's new IoT architecture, “SPINEX” - Digital innovation from Japan, changing the business models of the industrial world.

It is now or never for Japanese industry and society to transform using digital technology.
Toshiba has released a new, innovative IoT (Internet of Things) architecture that represents the culmination of its technologies. The name of this new IoT architecture is “SPINEX”.
It brings state-of-the-art technologies such as IoT, big data, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology, together with the diverse range of technologies Toshiba has developed in its various worksites.
By providing an open, flexible system which includes global standards, it enables digital transformation optimized to meet customer needs, helping transform business.
Just started, the world where people, things, and services are brought together and technologies, products, and services are linked in real-time.
This article pulls back the veil on SPINEX and introduces its features, together with its latest deployment examples.

Noriyasu Okitani
General Manager, IoT Buisiness Creation Division
Industrial ICT Solutions Company, Toshiba Corporation

Vol.20 Artificial Intelligence Discovering Values of IoT Data - Analytics towards Deep Learning -

Various technologies of AI (Artificial Intelligence) are already used in the world of games and internet services, and in the manufacturing and social infrastructure region where a very large volume and variety of data is handled, AI has begun to be utilized along with the spread of the IoT (Internet of Things).
Toshiba has long been active in the research and development of AI and the result of this effort is incorporated in Toshiba Communication AI "RECAIUS". The know-how and technology acquired through this versatile experience is brought together. Toshiba Industrial ICT Solutions Company is accelerating its efforts to support our customers' businesses and the Toshiba Group in the industrial region by using "Deep Learning", which is attracting attention among AI technologies.

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