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Cisco WAN Automation Engine (WAE) is enabling real-time network planning. WAE 7.0 is a game-changer release, and we are thrilled to announce its general availability.

Youre likely familiar with WAE Design application, which has been the market leader innetwork modeling and capacity planning for years. Now the WAE Design can address new demands from Service Providers and Enterprise customers that have a tremendous need to drive not only CapEx reduction through planning, but also OpEx reduction with real-time automation.

For this new release, we took an innovative approach to the challenge of evolving an offline planning tool to an online platform that can help operators automate network management.

First, we moved to a YANG-based infrastructure that can automatically generate APIs and CLIs to simplify the customer experience. To feed the YANG-based infrastructure in real-time, our collection framework is leveraging streaming protocols such as BGP-LS, PCEP, and streaming telemetry. This not only improves scalability and visibility, but also provides the reactivity important for an online tool. It was also very important for us to offer a solution that could support legacy and multi-vendor networks. In that respect, we have built modular collectors that can be configured to augment models with data obtained by traditional sources such SNMP, CLI, and NETCONF.

Second, we put substantial effort into simplifying installation and configuration. What does it really mean for you? The installer now downloads and installs in minutes. Configuration of network collection is equally simple. You only need to provide device credentials, enable the desired data streams, describe how the data sources should be combined, and WAE will dynamically build a network model that reacts to change. This is a major improvement you have been looking forward to for quite some time.

WAE has always provided a rich set of optimization algorithms, and we keep adding features. In release 6.4, WAE added segment routing algorithms to support latency, disjointedness, avoidance, and bandwidth optimization. In release 7.0, WAE adds simplified Python APIs for running these algorithms and for applying the results of these algorithms back into the network.

And there is more! By combining a reactive network model with a powerful set of algorithms and easy-to-use Python APIs, WAE is now an application development platform.

As part of WAE 7.0, you automatically get access to a sample application for tactical traffic engineering.

What are the benefits to you?

This application enables you to significantly increase the utilization of your network infrastructure in an automated manner resulting in both CapEx and OpEx savings.

How does it work in simple terms?

WAE monitors the network for topology changes. If a network event such as a link failure causes congestion in the network, WAE will compute a set of Label Service Paths (LSPs) to mitigate the congestion and then deploy the LSPs into the network. When the link recovers, WAE will re-run the optimization, see that the LSPs are no longer required, and remove them from the network.

Why should you give this application a try?

This application clearly exemplifies the combined use of several software innovations Cisco brought to market over the past 12 months: model-driven telemetry, segment routing traffic matrix, segment routing capacity optimization algorithm, and LSP deployment in a closed-loop solution.

By innovating with a focus on the customer experience, we have evolved WAE 7.0 to an easy-to-install platform for network application development that is based on an easy-to-understand YANG networking model, a powerful set of algorithms, and well-designed Python APIs, helping you drive OpEx reduction through ruthless automation.

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WAN AutomationNot Just Another New Release, but a Game ... - Cisco Blogs (blog)

When leaders at the Defense Information Systems Agency asked Dave Mihelcic to become the agencys chief technology officer more than a decade ago, he initially was hesitant.

But over the last dozen years, Mihelcic, who retired from DISA on Feb. 3, transformed the role of the CTO from one that was a part time role giving the DISA director limited advice to a position that is bringing DoD to the leading IT edge.

Mihelcic said he is not only leaving the DISA CTO position in a good place, but is enthusiastic about how the CTOs office is leading major IT advancements for DISA and DoD at large. Mihelcic said Riki Barbour will be the acting CTO until DISA names a permanent one.

Federal employee bill tracker: How pending legislation could affect your bottom line

He said the biggest change in the CTOs office came from bringing in the right people to promote innovative approaches to IT.

We had a notion we wanted to drastically enhance the capabilities of the DISA CTO. We got approval very early on to bring in senior technologists and we brought in some of the best technologists from across the agency in everything from communications networking to computing to software development, Mihelcic said on Ask the CIO. Some of the innovation came in later. We recognized that as a gap. We were providing architectures, insight and oversight to DISA programs, but we had no inherent hands on capability, if you will. That was a gap we recognized several years into it and had to bring resources to bear to close that gap.

As DISA closed those innovation gaps, Mihelcic brought in leading edge technologies to help the military services and agencies.

One such initiative is around cloud. Not only did DISA lead the development of the DoDs cloud computing strategy and the MilCloud 2.0 acquisition, but it also is testing out software-defined networking capabilitieswhich many say is the next evolution in cloud.

The software defined environment looks to integrate and automate all of the technologies in a data center to have one-touch provisioning of entire systems supporting DoD needs, Mihelcic said.

This software-defined network effort also is the key for DISA to move more heavily toward an agile or dev/ops methodology. Mihelcic said DISA first started using an agile approach in 2010, but without the automation tools to test and verify software, moving to dev/ops wasnt easy.

What we tend to do is use techniques like agile but we accumulate updates to the network and then we send through a manual testing and certification cycle, and then manually push them out periodically, he said. What we really need to do is focus on the automation piece, both automate the test as well as the security certification, and then automate the deployment of software capabilities so we can match where industry is now.

DISA is testing these technologies to collect, compile, test and deploy the changes in real time.

We are about six months into the pilot and we have demonstrated these abilities, Mihelcic said. We are starting to spin out the results of that into DISA projects and programs to include our DCSDefense Collaboration Services. We also are looking at how the global command and control system can adopt some of these techniques, and likewise we are working with our computing ecosystem at DISA to use some of these automation techniques in the operational data centers today.

He added another goal of the software environment is to help DISA employees create, manage and oversee systems at a great rate. Through automation, he said, system administrators and cyber analysts can understand the health or vulnerabilities of a network more quickly and take action to fix problems.

Along similar lines, Mihelcic said several cyber-related projects are moving forward.

We in the CTO believe the cloud can be a security force multiplier, using technologies that will allow us to redeploy software instantaneously when a cybersecurity fault is detected. Essentially, the systems can patch themselves and make themselves immune to cybersecurity attacks in real time, he said. As part of our software defined environment lab demonstration that we are currently conducting, we have a scenario where a system is somehow attacked and infected with malware. We can detect that automatically and we can essentially reprovision a known good copy of the system without the malware, without the adversary owning the system, and then we can shut the adversary off to a virtualized version of that system and have our cyber defenders watch them in real time.

Mihelcic said he expects these advanced cyber capabilities to roll out more broadly across DISA over the next 12-to-18 months, especially as the agency modernizes its infrastructure to handle these upgrades.

All of these efforts around software defined environments and cybersecurity helps DoD become more comfortable with moving to the cloud.

Mihelcic said without the automation tools to rapidly provision, deploy and manage these cloud capabilities, then all the Pentagon is doing is paving the cow paths because they will continue to use their lengthy, legacy processes.

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DISA must rely on automation to avoid paving the cyber, IT cow paths - FederalNewsRadio.com

Weigh the needs of your packaging operation as it relates to workforce interaction and skill, quality, safety, productivity and profitability when deciding to use semi-automated or fully automated packaging machines on your production line.

With the growing implementation of robotics and automation into production lines, various manufacturing sectors are able to reduce costs, provide even more consistent quality products and improve profit margins. But just how much automation do you really need on your packaging line?

Simply eliminating workers and oversight on the line does not always bring about greater efficiency. Manufacturers should understand the requirements of their lines to select the right level of automation. Will semi- or fully automated packaging equipment meet their needs?

Differences between semi- and fully automated lines

Depending on its use, full or partial automation can greatly assist manufacturers in achieving their business goals. The differences between the two hinge on one major factor: employee interaction. Fully automated lines operate with little to no workforce involvement, while semi-automated lines rely on some employee interface to maintain operations.

There are advantages and disadvantages depending on the circumstances. Both semi-automated and fully automated operations have a proven track record of reducing production costs, increasing profits and improving product quality.

Lets look at the pros and cons of each one separately.

Considerations of semi-automation

Semi-automated manufacturing lines give way to a collaborative model that allows automated robots and equipment to operate alongside employees on the manufacturing floor. While employee interaction along a packaging line requires consideration for human error and safety concerns, it can also help manufacturers increase line flexibility.

Not all applications require the high speeds or positioning accuracy of fully automated packaging systems. Sometimes a semi-automatic solution provides the right level of flexibility and affordability. Photo courtesy of Piab.

Employees can think critically about problems that can occur on the manufacturing floor that are beyond what any machine is equipped to handle. Instead of awaiting feedback from machines themselves, a skilled workforce has the ability to work with equipment to ensure any machine stoppages are addressed in real time, rather than relying on machinery to properly correct errors on their own.

This model provides the opportunity for continuous improvements along the line for smooth production and an increase in efficiency. However, a major challenge among manufacturers across various industries in the Unites States today is acquiring, developing and retaining skilled employees, which can necessitate greater steps toward a fully automated line.

Considerations of full automation

By implementing a fully automated system, manufacturers eliminate significant levels of workforce on the production line. These processes are especially suitable for the pharmaceutical and meat and poultry industries. According to a report from FDAnews, human error accounts for nearly 80% of deviations in the pharmaceutical and related manufacturing industries. By fully automating product lines and reducing workforce interaction, pharmaceutical manufacturers can continue to improve such deviations and ensure customer satisfaction.

In the meat and poultry industry, manufacturers focus mainly on quality and sanitation. By removing the human element, food processors can help decrease the risk of product contamination. Fully automated lines can help ensure that manufacturers are complying with the latest Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) regulations and help improve product quality and safety.

Additionally, fully automated lines can help to guarantee safety of the workforce on the manufacturing floor. As automation equipment design improves to allow for safer employee interfaces, the workforce can increasingly interact with equipment without compromising safety and skilled workers are able to interact with automation equipment remotely. Fully automated equipment can help increase employee safety on the line without compromising product quality.

Scope out solutions

As automation advances revolutionize manufacturing, its imperative for packaging engineers to keep up with the latest technologies. Manufacturers looking to automate their packaging lines with semi- and fully automated equipment can find many solutions on the show floor at Pack Expo East (Feb. 27-Mar. 1; Philadelphia).

Exhibitors at Pack Expo East are taking major steps in automation along product lines with the intention of helping end users comply with the latest regulatory and safety standards while increasing efficiency and product quality. Event attendees can also learn tips and gain more insight at the Innovation Stage, a series of 30-minute sessions in which a range of solutions and case histories will be shared by subject matter experts addressing automation, regulatory compliance, workforce development and best practices. The Innovation Stage is located on the show floor and is free to all attendees.

Sean Riley is the senior director, Media & Industry Communications, for PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. PMMI owns and organizes the Pack Expo portfolio of trade shows. He began his work with PMMI in 2006 as editor of its Packaging Machinery Technology magazine. He is a member of various industry organizations including the International Packaging Press Organization (IPPO) and the American Society of Business Press Editors.

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How much automation do you really need on your packaging line? - Packaging Digest

John Solari 12:34 p.m. PT Feb. 24, 2017

John Solari(Photo: RGJ file)

In an era many business leaders are calling the age of automation, the power of teamwork still remains a key to unlocking business results.

These two seemingly opposing forces are actually tightly interlinked. While automation, robotics and technology will continue to absorb rote, repetitive work, companies that unlock the skills that automation cannot bring to the table collaboration, creativity, and team-driven problem-solving will rise to the top.

Companies today must harness the power of their teams to deliver products, services and experiences that automation cannot provide. The power of an intelligent, collaborative and creative team can unlock ideas, relationships and new service lines that automation simply cannot deliver.

Marlin Steel in Baltimore, Maryland, was able to stay in business by automating its processes to stay competitive when many other manufacturing jobs went overseas. Video by Jasper Colt, USA TODAY

Peter Drucker, one of the foremost thought leaders in management culture, coined the term knowledge worker and said the most valuable asset of a 21st-century institution, whether business or nonbusiness, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity.

The challenge for companies today is how to attract, retain and inspire knowledge workers. And that can be done most effectively through the power of the team and through the strength of a companys culture.

As Drucker famously said, Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Culture and team are the prime drivers of recruitment, innovation, productivity and growth. But they are often ignored or downplayed by executives focused on measuring, monitoring and analyzing every aspect of business operations, mostly because culture and teamwork often defies measurement.

Some business experts even call culture the invisible ingredient that propels a company forward. But that invisible ingredient is vital to the execution of strategy. If strategy runs counter to a companys culture, it is almost impossible to implement. But when strategy and culture align, execution becomes almost effortless.

To create a winning culture, it is more important than ever to hire and cultivate team players who understand how to build culture and use it to drive performance.

Renowned business author Patrick Lencioni advises company leaders to look for three qualities when hiring and promoting team players: humility, hunger and people smarts.

Humility allows team players to put the team above their individual egos, and cultivate all members of the team. To truly grow a team you need to focus on the entire group, not individual egos or results.

Hunger is the ambition that fuels great work, but also makes team members self-motivated. If you have hungry team members who push for the best result without having to be coaxed along by a manager, you have the ingredients of a great inspired team.

And people smarts is the sensitivity to the team dynamics in the workplace that are critical to high-functioning teams. This is the emotional or relational intelligence that is so important in building trust and collaboration across an organization.

Automation and technology will continue to advance and change the workplace, but these changes will never alter the foundation of great companies the team dynamics and culture that fuels innovation, creativity and productivity that are the true hallmarks of great companies.

John Solari is the managing partner of J.A. Solari & Partners. He has 25 years of accounting experience and is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Nevada Society of Certified Public Accountants.

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Solari: Teamwork still holds power in the age of automation - Reno Gazette Journal

By Jon Gold

Senior Writer, Network World | Feb 24, 2017 5:08 AM PT

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The Linux Foundation announced yesterday that it had combined open source ECOMP and the Open Orchestrator Project into ONAP, the Open Networking Automation Platform, with the aim of helping users automate network service delivery, design, and service through a unified standard.

Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, said that ONAP should be a boon to enterprise IT departments, thanks to improved speed and flexibility.

+MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: FCC rolls back net neutrality ISP transparency rules + Brocade's Ruckus Wi-Fi business finds a buyer

As virtual functions move to cloud, eliminating manual steps and processes across businesses and service providers is an integral part of the value provided by ONAP, he told Network World via email.

Some of the tech worlds biggest names are on board with the ONAP project, including Huawei, AT&T, Cisco, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia, VMware and many others. The idea behind the merger is to take the best architectural components from both frameworks and put them to work in a unified project. The foundation will implement a governing board and a technical steering committee to that end.

David Ward is the CTO of engineering and chief architect at Cisco. He said that the value of the open source model in networking cannot be overemphasized.

This project along with other projects like ODL, FD.io, OPNFV and PNDA that we have invested heavily, have proven the value of open innovation and created a developer community around networking, Ward said in a statement.

Jon covers open source, mobile, and network managment for Network World.

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Linux Foundation smushes two smaller projects together to form ... - Network World

Forbes

How The Coming Wave Of Job Automation Will Affect You And The US Forbes The 227,000 jobs added to the payroll in January marked the 76th straight month of expansion. The headline number is impressive. But if you dig a little deeper, you'll find these jobs aren't what they used to be. Since 2000, the creation of full-time ...

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How The Coming Wave Of Job Automation Will Affect You And The US - Forbes

Linda Musthaler is a Principal Analyst with Essential Solutions Corp., which offers consulting services to computer industry and corporate clients to help define and fulfill the potential of IT.

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices. Click here to subscribe.

During my recent trip to Tel Aviv to attend CyberTech 2017, I had a one-on-one conversation with Barak Klinghofer, co-founder and CTO of Hexadite. He gave me a preview of an educational presentation he was to give two weeks later at the RSA Conference. His insight is worth repeating for anyone looking to add automation tools to their security toolset.

As I saw at CyberTech, and Im sure was the case at RSA, the hottest topics were security automation, automated incident response and security orchestration. These can be confusing terms, as every vendor describes them a little bit differently.

In this article, Klinghofer gives his definition of security automation and an overview of several hot market trends today. Klinghofer and the other Hexadite co-founders all worked as security analysts before they started their company, so they have walked in the shoes of the people who are most likely to use security automation tools.

Klinghofer defines security automation as an active process of the following:

1. Mimicking the ideal steps a human would take to investigate a cyber threat. The tool should not just assist or provide more insight or more data about a threat, but really mimic the same steps and the logic an analyst should take when doing a cyber investigation. If you can train people to do an investigation, you can probably codify the logic in a system.

2. Determining whether the threat requires action. This goes beyond running something in a sandbox or comparing it to a threat intelligence list, to include using the results of those kinds of tests and really questioning the evidence. A SOC analyst would do this, so its reasonable to expect a security automation tool to do this as well.

3. Performing the necessary remediation actions. This isnt as easy as it sounds because there are so many configuration permutations and ramifications for possible actions taken. You want to know that your automation solution is aware of as many use cases as possible because you are expecting the same result as you would get from a human analyst.

4. Deciding what additional investigations should be next. Many security automation tools stop after the first three steps, but a SOC analyst would go a step further and try to verify or validate that the threat was removed and is no longer a risk to the organization. For example, if there is an alert about a phishing instance, who else in the organization might have that same phish sitting in his inbox?

The big trend in the cybersecurity market is security orchestration. Most of these types of tools are API-driven as opposed to logic-driven, and the basic premise is to get different types of security tools to work together to drive a process. To get value from orchestration, you really need to define the outcome you are expecting.

Orchestration is the means to an end; its not the goal itself. If you can find use cases where connecting two devices or solutions gives you extra value that you couldnt get from either of the devices or solutions alone, then orchestration is worthwhile. That said, there are several types of tools that say they are doing orchestration or automation.

One example is workflow tools. Vendors say these tools will enhance alert data and automate the information sent to your SOC analyst to streamline your incident response (IR) communications. What they actually mean is they will provide you with a framework to better organize your teams IR flow with built-in ticketing, playbooks and user rules. What you get is something that will tell your IR staff what they should do and in what order, if they have the time to do it. Plus, everything will be documented.

Suppose one of your end-users received a phish. The workflow tool receives the phishing alert from the detection system and starts the process. First the tool will collect the data on the different entities within the email to get more context.The tool will scan and analyze the URLs within the email, and if there is an attachment, it will run it in a sandbox and try to find all of the threat intel. Next the tool will open and assign a ticket which includes the enriched data to assist in the manual investigation. The analyst will take over with a manual process to deep dive into the alert, but there might be additional steps the workflow tool can help facilitate. The main objective of the tool is to speed up the process and keep it moving along, especially if multiple people are involved.

Another type of security automation tool does threat prioritization. Vendors say they will enhance the alert data and prioritize the information sent to your security analysts to streamline your incident response process. This way you wont need to analyze everything. What they actually mean is they will ignore everything that is under a specified threshold.

Prioritization is essentially a conscious decision about what you are willing to let go without investigationbut you are never 100% sure that you can ignore something. Its hard to determine if something is a legitimate risk or not without investigating it. Many breaches have occurred when alerts were not investigated. The advantage of prioritization is that your SOC analysts arent overwhelmed with too much to do.

Scripting tools are another type of security automation tool. Vendors say they will provide a way to enhance your IR by integrating your SecOps solutions in order to get a good result. What you really get is an open development framework with some of the APIs already pre-built, but eventually you need to build the playbooks you want. It will take you longer to do this and you need to have experts who know exactly what they are doing. Defining, building and testing the use cases can be very complicated. While the scenarios might sound easy, the fact is that there are many complications and the scripts wont work in all situations. Basically you end up trading security analysts for programmers.

Klinghofer says Hexadites security orchestration and automation tool, Automated Incident Response Solution (AIRS), investigates every alert. AIRS receives alerts from multiple detection and endpoint security systems, adds contextual intelligence and then automatically launches an investigation.

He says the system analyzes data from the network and endpoint devices using algorithms and tools to determine whether the alert is a false alarm, low-level threat, or security breach. Based on pre-defined policies and best practices codified in the logic of the solution, AIRS applies targeted mitigation efforts to stop the full extent of the breach. It follows the same processes and logic that SOC analysts would follow, but without human intervention. (See Hexadite's Automated Incident Response Solution narrows the gap between detection and response.)

With an increasing number of security threats being detected, and the growing shortage of security analysts, most enterprises will be looking for some sort of security automation tool to improve their IR capabilities. If your company is in the market for such a tool, be sure you understand just what it will do for you.

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How to assess security automation tools - Network World

Scott Davisis EVP of Engineering & Chief Technology Officer for Embotics.

With the explosive growth of cloud and SaaS-based business applications and services, the underlying software architectures used to construct these applications are changing dramatically. Microservices architecture is not a brand new trend but has been picking up momentum as the preferred architecture for constructing cloud native applications. Microservices provide ways tobreak apart large monolithic applications into sets of small, discrete components that facilitate independent development and operational scaling. Key to this architecture is making sure that each microservice handles one and only one function with a well defined API. Microservices must also have no dependencies on each other except for their APIs.

When mixed with automation as a dynamic management solution for the individual application components, applications become less limited by the infrastructure they run on. Through automation and infrastructure as code technologies, applications now have the ability to control their underlying infrastructure technologies, turning them into services to be harnessed on demand and programmatically during application execution. While weve seen cloud native pioneers such as Uber, Netflix, Ebay, and Twitter publicly embrace this method of building and delivering their services, many organizations arent sure where to begin when it comes to achieving effective and efficient operations through this app architecture revolution.

Before microservices, it would take engineers months or years to build and maintain large monolithic applications, but today microservices design methodology makes it easier to develop systems with reusable components that can be utilized by multiple applications and services throughout the organization, saving developers valuable time. This enables better continuous delivery, as small units are easier for developers to manage, test and deploy.

In order to successfully deliver microservices and container solutions cost-effectively and at scale, its important to have a proper design framework in mind. Microservices must have a well formed, backward and forward compatible API and only communicate with its peers through their API. Each Microservice should perform one and only one dedicated function. Each microservice is ideally stateless and if needed typically has its own dedicated persistent state that is not exposed to others. When all of these principles are rigorously followed, each microservice can be deployed and scaled independently because they do not require information about the internal implementation of any other services all that is required is that they have well-defined APIs.

At the same time, microservices are well matched to and driving the adoption of container technologies as the two often work in conjunction. Each microservice has to run somewhere, and containers are often the preferred choice because they are self-contained, rapidly provisioned or cloned, and usually stateless. Developers can easily construct a container with all the required code to execute the microservice, allowing them to break a problem into smaller pieces, which was not previously possible at this scale. Containers offer developers a way to package their function into this self-contained block of code, creating efficient, isolated and decoupled execution engines for each app and service.

The problem? This creates more component parts that need to be dynamically managed to achieve their promise of scalable, cost-effective cloud services. Automation can provide the dynamic management needed to deliver microservices and container solutions cost effectively and at scale. With microservices-based designs, developers and operations staff are left with many more component parts that need to grow and shrink independently. Automation can be harnessed to reduce this complexity and deliver the desired results.

Microservices-based designs fundamentally enable faster development and deployment of highly scalable applications, whether for the cloud or on-premise. Flexible automation via both portals and APIs is the key ingredient for effectively deploying and managing these next generation, distributed applications, across todays multi-cloud environments.

Opinions expressed in the article above do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Data Center Knowledge and Penton.

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The App Architecture Revolution: Microservices, Containers and Automation - Data Center Knowledge

There are a lot of networking projects operating under the auspices of the Linux Foundation Collaborative Project umbrella. In fact it's easy to argue there are too many networking projects.

Today the Linux Foundation consolidated the ECOMP and OPEN-O project to form the new Open Network Automation Project (ONAP). ECOMP perhaps has had the shortest life-span of any Linux Foundation project, lasting barely a month. ECOMP only becamean official Linux Foundation project a few short weeks ago, after being donated by AT&T. The Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management and Policy (ECOMP) is an effort that AT&T has been building for several years to help enable its network transformation for virtualization.

OPEN-O on the other hand was announced a year ago, as the Open Orchestrator effort.

"AT&T is excited to be working with a larger team on the future, open source network operating system for SDN automation," Chris Rice, SVP of Domain 2.0 Architecture and Design at AT&T said in a statement. "Creating a combined team of the initial 10 open source ECOMP members with the existing OPEN-O members bodes well for the project's success."

He added, that, AT&T expects more consolidation in this space, and we expect many more service providers and other technology leaders to join us in this important work, which benefits the entire industry.

The ONAP effort already includes a who's who of big global carriers with the participation of AT&T, China Mobile and the world's leading operators are driving ONAP with a diverse group of Amdocs, AT&T, Bell Canada, China Mobile, China Telecom, Cisco, Ericsson, GigaSpaces, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Orange, Tech Mahindra, VMware , ZTE,BOCO Inter-Telecom, Canonical, China Unicom, Cloudbase Solutions, Metaswitch and Raisecom.

The basic promise of ONAP is to deliver a comprehensive open-source framework for carrier-grade network orchestration and automation.

The consolidation of ECOMP and OPEN-O is hardly the first, or likely the last consolidation in the Linux Foundation's portfolio of networking projects. In October 2016 the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and ON.Lab announceda merger

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

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Linux Foundation Forms New Open Network Automation Project - EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet

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In software development, the rise of automation tools has largely eliminated human involvement. ON one hand, it's easy to say that automation has further eliminated the need for QA but that's not the case. As experts have noted, QA is still essential, as is human intervention in some cases, to ensure a quality product is deployed.

"Test automation may largely eliminate the need for manual testing in some scenarios, but it will never eliminate the need for QA," said Chris Marsh, director of technology for AKQA. Test automation will be a part of QA engineers' toolboxes and will help focus testing efforts, he added, noting that unit tests are cheap to produce and run and therefore the most likely to be automated. Integration and UI tests, however, may be subject to more manual intervention.

The problem with traditional approaches like this is in trying to eliminate all defects before launching new software, which can prevent feedback from actual users as well as reducing ROI. No piece of software is truly defect-free, according to Marsh. QA engineers need to be involved in the build pipeline and consult on quality across the entire project lifecycle, he added.

Testing is as only as good as the test

Automation does make some aspects of QA easier, but if the test itself isn't up to snuff, it won't provide the desired result, according to Greg Hoffer, VP of engineering at Globalscape. "Because technology development is a complex, dynamic process, automated QA...is doomed to fail unless someone is able to make sure that the tests are current, or new bugs and vulnerabilities will not be detected," he said, citing the case of a serious security bug in the CryptKeeper app that wasn't found during the QA process.

Additionally, fully automated QA may result in perfectly accurate yet completely unusable software that doesn't meet any business needs, Hoffer said. Any automation in DevOps needs to be validated for usability to meet the needs of humans.

"Automated QA, continuous integration (CI), and continuous deployment (CD) are all great advances in the efficiency of DevOps. But we should not expect them to be perfect. It is still incumbent on the developer community to be vigilant," he said.

QA may actually become more important

As a result of automation, more QA work will move to the front end of the software development lifecycle, and CI tools will become more important for testing, according to Rupinder Singh, senior vice president, expert services at Software AG. "As confidence in CI and automation increases, there is a very likely scenario of customers using Continuous Delivery for selective parts of their applications, although it still is not something that is completely reliable," he said. However, the QA role may become more important in technical communities as automation takes over manual test cycles, Singh noted.

QA automated tests can prove whether known paths still work or identify new features or code that might have introduced issues, said Mark Doyle, software architect at Collabroscape. "However, it still takes ... human creativity and ingenuity to explore those paths, and then write automated tests against expected outputs," he said. "Companies must - and should - continue to employee QA teams, and they need to invest in training and software licenses for the automation platforms, but the benefit is still there."

More stable software systems is one such benefit, according to Doyle. First, running an automated test can validate the build to save time and energy on the QA personnel side before testing. Secondly, if the failed tests automatically entered issues into a defect tracking system, QA is able to come up with more comprehensive test plans, he said.

Ultimately, automation isn't a bad thing - it saves time and helps focus efforts on more human-intensive processes while removing the low-hanging fruit. It makes QA testing easier for routine tests. But it does need to be taken with a grain of salt to ensure that accurate, useless software isn't being deployed.

Also see: 80% of IoT apps not tested for vulnerabilities, report says 3 ways to prevent your app developers from blowing off QA testingHow to use scrum for app development QA testingHow to build a solid workflow for updating mobile apps

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Why automation doesn't necessarily remove the need for QA - TechRepublic

Linux Foundation Creates New Platform for Network Automation Wall Street Journal (subscription) (blog) The Linux Foundation said Thursday that it had created a new platform for automating the management of communications networks, a labor-intensive process that is widely viewed as a bottleneck in the the world of corporate information technology. The ...

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Linux Foundation Creates New Platform for Network Automation - Wall Street Journal (subscription) (blog)

Mark Cuban at FOX Studios in New York City on June 9, 2016.John LamparskiGetty Images

Business mogul Mark Cuban found himself in a Twitter feud this week over how best to deal with future job losses caused by automation.

The tech investor, Shark Tank host and Dallas Mavericks owner tweeted earlier this week that we need to prepare for impending job losses due to robots and artificial intelligence, CNBC reports.

When asked by writer Scott Santens, an advocate of universal basic income (UBI), whether he would support the policy of governments providing a baseline income to all citizens regardless of their employment status, Cuban replied that it was one of the worst responses to the problem.

UBI advocates argue that giving citizens cash income is more effective than welfare programs in countries where it has been piloted, and that the policy may not, as detractors suggest, incentivize unemployment.

Countries such as Finland , Namibia and Liberia have experimented with the policy with varying results. Santens replied to Cuban with a picture of a fact sheet claiming that self-employment in Namibia rose 301% after implementing UBI, while in India recipients were found to be three times as likely to start their own businesses.

For more on the impacts of automation, watch Fortune's video:

Cuban nonetheless rejected the argument, saying he had spent a lot of time looking at it and wasnt convinced, prodding Santens for more evidence and triggering a trailing back and forth between the two.

The billionaire investor has previously said little about how automation may impact jobs in the future. As a major investor in tech giants like Amazon ( amzn ) and Netflix ( nflx ) , Cuban is likely to reap benefits from AI where the average worker may see less desirable outcomes.

A number of other major figures in the tech industry, such as Tesla ( tsla ) CEO Elon Musk , have begun to back policies like UBI out of concern that a wave of unemployment could be created by automated labor.

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Mark Cuban Says Basic Income Would Be the 'Worst Response' to Automation - Fortune

Advancements in technology are not always welcome, particularly to a workforce fearing displacement. This is particularly true with the rise of automation, with the threat that companies could outsource labor to machines. And while experts say artificial intelligence and automation can provide a cheaper and better way to solve problems that previously took up valuable human time and effort, putting numbers to those changes is challenging.

Almost half of knowledge work activity can be automated, according to a recent McKinseystudy.Physical tasks "in highly structured and predictable environments, as well as data collection and processing" will be the first to be automated, according to the report. And because those types of jobs make up a little over half of activities in the economy, that equates to almost $2.7 trillion in wages.

McKinsey also acknowledges almost all occupations blue collar and white collar have potential for some automation, which could result in a savings of about $16 trillion in wages. Those are big numbers, certainly large enough to garner the attention of businesses looking to trim costs in a competitive environment.

Though it is often approached with fear, automation doesn't necessarily mean bad things for employees. When it comes to replacing workers altogether,McKinsey estimates that could only work in less than 5% of occupations.

Instead, automation is more likely to make employees more productive.

While some people express concerns about job losses due to automation, others focus on how the gradual displacement in the workforce through automation will aid the economy and drive growth. McKinsey estimates automation could raise productivity growth globally by 0.8% to 1.4% annually.

"Technology such as natural language generation (NLG) AI technology that can absorb vast quantities of big data and communicate key insights and conclusions into easily digestible reports will drive our workforce forward by streamlining processes, helping people to do their jobs more efficiently," said Sharon Daniels, CEO of Arria NLG. "The best and brightest will be free to innovate; the engineers to build, the doctors to heal, the scientists to discover."

Only 60%or less of actual work time today is spent productively, according to a report from Atlassian.If employees had access to tools and technology they need to automate their workflow, the amount of time spent on workflow disruptions could be drastically lowered.

Through technologies like AI and automation, "the best and brightest will be free to innovate; the engineers to build, the doctors to heal, the scientists to discover."

Sharon Daniels

CEO of Arria NLG

"Successful work will require humans and machines working together to better delight customers, better grow the top line, and better improve the bottom line," said Tiger Tyagarajan, CEO of Genpact.

Workers will not only be happier, many are likely to see a bump in salary as well, Tyagarajan predicts. For example, a recent Deloitte study in the U.K. found that AI technology has replaced 800,000 lower-skilled jobs with 3.5 million new ones, which pay on average 10,000 ($12,500)more than the jobs they replaced. Those jobs include engineers and data analysts, who create the machines and analyze the data collected by the them.

"Essentially, as tasks and jobs become increasingly automated, that automation opens the door for employees to work more efficiently and creatively to solve problems in which human knowledge is intrinsically valuable," said Tyagarajan. "Machines are taking over more and more repetitive, time-consuming tasks, meaning humans will have more time to take on higher-skilled roles."

Daniels agreed. For example, in financial services and healthcare, the vast troves of data collected can change as fast as someone can analyze it.

"AI capabilities and the ability to automate reporting actually takes the time-consuming and repetitive mechanical tasks away from the human, freeing them to investigate new ideas and to create new solutions," said Daniels."We believe that AI will augment knowledge-workers, who will advance to a whole new level of expertise."

"Successful work will require humans and machines working together to better delight customers, better grow the top line, and better improve the bottom line."

Tiger Tyagarajan

CEO of Genpact

The tasks that are taken away by AI are often the time-consuming, repetitive, mundane tasks associated with preparing reports.

"The responsibility of actual reporting remains intact but now can be done more efficiently, in real-time and at scale," said Daniels. "This does not remove the job per se; it optimizes the dynamics of the task, allowing knowledge knowledge-workers and analysts to do more and know more, faster."

One question that remains unanswered: If automation is to take away jobs, will the CIO be responsible for making that decision?

While it's still unclear, experts say in some cases, it will likely be the CIO, but the chief data officer (CDO) may also play a role.

It will also depend on the area being automated. For example, financial services and healthcare sectors see a strong ROI from using AI technology."While the CIO has a responsibility for implementation, the benefits are delivered to multiple departments and stakeholders, so decision-making typically becomes a collective exercise of evaluating and redefining information-related roles," Daniels said.

Either way, experts say enterprise IT leaders need to begin preparing their workers to embrace robots as teammates, not adversaries. McKinsey predicts workers will have to adapt for automation and perhaps learn new, more complex skills that they then perform alongside machines. It will therefore be more a matter of better assisting machines rather than being replaced by them.

"While the CIO has a responsibility for implementation, the benefits are delivered to multiple departments and stakeholders, so decision-making typically becomes a collective exercise of evaluating and redefining information-related roles."

Sharon Daniels

CEO of Arria NLG

"I would advise CEOs and CIOs to stay focused on creating a company culture that equips employees with the tools to succeed in a workplace cohabited by robots," said Tyagarajan. "Pushback both internal and external is inevitable during times of transformation, especially at the beginning."

Leaders need to be transparent and accountable. This begins with keeping employees in the loop when it comes to how and when the company plans to apply AI and automated systems. Employees need to know that while the robots are coming for some jobs, it is possible to retrain and reskill to work alongside them.

"Developing reskilling and education programs is absolutely key to helping employees feel empowered rather than threatened by the rise of robots at work," said Tyagarajan. "[These] programs should focus on teaching human employees how to create, use and maintain the AI systems they will be working alongside."

Workers should also keep in mind there are many areas where humans still outperform machines such as any task requiring negotiation, judgment or creativity.

"By helping human employees build on these strengths, leaders will help employees accept machine teammates as valuable supplements to human talent, rather than insidious replacements," said Tyagarajan.

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Automation, employees and the bottom line - CIO Dive

As we gear up for Robo Madness 2017: A.I. Gets Real, our annual robotics and artificial intelligence conference at Googles offices in Kendall Square, lets connect a few dots around the topic of automation.

In just the past day or two:

Uber has started testing self-driving cars in Tempe, AZ, after having its tests banned in San Francisco in December. (Of course, Uber has got bigger problems at the moment.)

UPS tested a rudimentary form of drone delivery in Lithia, FL. A drone carrying a package took off from the roof of a UPS truck, dropped the package at a destination, and returned to the truck.

Amazon is planning to sell beer and wine at its Go convenience store in Seattle, which will automatically bill customers on their way out (no cashiers). A human worker will be needed to check IDs, though.

The impact of automation on jobs and society is an increasingly hot topic, with debates going on about how and when human workers will be displaced by robots and A.I. systems.

Bill Gates said in a recent interview with Quartz that governments should tax companies use of automation technologies, to mitigate the impact of job losses. Right now, the human worker who does, say, $50,000 worth of work in a factory, that income is taxed and you get income tax, social security tax, all those things, Gates said. If a robot comes in to do the same thing, youd think that wed tax the robot at a similar level.

Gatess idea is that robot taxes can be put towards things like education, elder care, and other societal needs. But government, not businesses, would need to make that happen, he said. And thats what scares me.

Gregory T. Huang is Xconomy's Deputy Editor, National IT Editor, and Editor of Xconomy Boston. E-mail him at gthuang [at] xconomy.com.

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Amazon, Uber, and Bill Gates's Robot Tax: An Automation Snapshot - Xconomy

A recent episode of CBC Radios Day 6 featured an interview with David Levy, artificial intelligence expert and author of Love and Sex with Robots. Levy discussed a line of robotic sex dolls to be released in 2017 that can speak and respond to touch. He reaffirmed his 2007 prediction, in his book Love and Sex with Robots, that humans will be marrying robots by 2050. He suggests this will be a step forward.

There are millions of people out there who, for various reasons, dont have anyone to love or anyone who loves them. And for these people, I think robots are going to be the answer, he said.

I suspect that Levy sees this as a lucrative business opportunity for Intelligent Toys, Ltd, a company the article mentions he founded.

The profit potentials of automation are not limited to robot spouses.

Front and center is the issue of jobs. Donald Trump promised to bring back millions of jobs that globalization outsourced at the expense of U.S. workers. According to a 2014 MIT study recently cited by the New York Times, 2 million to 2.4 million jobs have been lost to China alone since 2000. People living in areas of the country most impacted by those job losses suffer long-term unemployment and reduced income for the rest of their lives. They are understandably angry and constitute an important segment of Trumps political base.

But, as former President Barack Obama noted in his farewell address, those jobs are gone forevernot because of globalization, but because of automation. The next wave of economic dislocation wont come from overseas. It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes a lot of good, middle-class jobs obsolete.

Gartner, an information technology consulting firm, estimated in 2014 that by 2025, a third of current U.S. jobs will be replaced by some form of automation. Indeed, China itself has become a world leader in automation, threatening both Chinese and U.S. workers.

Trump touted United Technologies as his first victory in convincing a corporation to keep a factory in the U.S. But UT has announced plans to use automation to do the jobs it would have moved. So, in the name of saving jobs, Trump is subsidizing with tax breaks their elimination by automation.

We are seeing a flood of predictions in business media from artificial intelligence experts that jobs at risk include pharmacists, cashiers, drivers, astronauts, soldiers, babysitters, elder care workers, sports writers, and news reportersamong others. On Wall Street, the jobs of most floor traders have already been automated, and the jobs of hedge fund managersand stock market analysts may soon be on the chopping block.

These predictions suggest we face the prospect of an economy with little need for humans. As with any technology, however, artificial intelligence is not inherently good or bad. The issue is how we choose to use it and who makes the choice.

The economy is a human creation. The only reason for its existence is to support peopleall people in securing material well-being sufficient for their good health and happiness. For most people, there is no happiness without relationships, a sense of being needed by others, and opportunities to express their creativity. That most always includes some form of work. Thus, while the automation of dirty, dangerous, and boring tasks can be a blessing for humanity, the need for meaningful work remains an imperative.

Our vision of how to deal with the coming workforce disruption must be guided by our common quest to actualize the fullness of our human possibility, not by the quest for corporate profits. The primary decisions regarding how to use artificial intelligence and how to distribute the benefits must be in the hands of self-governing human communities rather than profit-maximizing corporations.

The social isolation of which Levy speaks is realthe product of economic forces that undermine the family and community relationships that for millennia sustained our species and defined our humanity. Our need to relate to one another is foundational to our humanity.

Attempting to meet that need by turning to machines that look, feel, and act like humans would be a further step toward our dehumanization. If we want our children to learn to relate to humans and if we are more comfortable being treated by human doctorsthen let our primary care providers be humans aided by machines as appropriate. But let us not confuse the two. The creation of machines that look, feel, and act like humans should be prohibited. If it looks, feels, and acts like a human, it should be a human.

In our current political climate, everything is up for grabs. This is a timely moment to stretch our imaginations and envision the lives and the society we want. Let us be clear that a world in which we are distracted from our lonelinessby electronic games, animated videos, and robot sex is more appropriate as a horror movie plot than as a desirable vision for society.

Let us strive for an economy in which a primary goal and responsibility of business is to make work meaningful, build relationships of internal and external community, and heal the Earth. A combination of the appropriate use of automation and of worker and community ownership would make this possible. This might be a foundational element of a positive democratic vision for a living Earth economy, around which all people of good will can enthusiastically unite.

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For Automation to Benefit Society, It Must Serve Humans, Not Replace Them - YES! Magazine

Caterpillar(NYSE:CAT), the world's No.1 heavy machinery maker,is telling miners not to rest on their laurels now that the industry is finally coming back up from a brutal downturn that forced companies to cost cuts and closed down operations.

In a presentation at the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Explorations (SME) meeting 2017 this week, the Peoria, Illinois-based firm (soon to move to Chicago) showed how its Cat MineStar a comprehensive suite of mining technology products aimed atincreasing productivity and profit can help firms reap even more benefits from the current recovery in commodity prices.

Cats automation tools contained in MineStar enable miners to configure technologies to fit their needs, providing everything from material tracking to sophisticated real-time fleet management, machine health systems, autonomous equipment systems and more.

The package of solutions, designed to support and maximize returns and efficiency of mining operations, has already been adopted in 220 sites across the globe, Cat said in the presentation. The majority of its users, it noted, are based in the Asia-Pacific region and North America, but the company sees huge opportunities in other markets such as South America and Europe, especially now that miners have begun climbing out of one of the industry's most severe slumps.

In the past 12 months, as sales were stalled, Caterpillar focused on developing ways to improve current equipment performance.

Together with increasing the presence of company representatives at mine sites, whose mission is to help operators make the most out of their acquisitions, Cat has been heavily investing in research and development of digital solutions, the firms President for Resource Industries, Denise Johnson,recently told MINING.com.

The goal, though seems counterintuitive, is to reduce the amount of mining equipment needed at operations. That means that during a downturn, such as the one that wrecked the industry lately, Cat would keep onthriving in terms of salesbeyond those related toequipment.

Now that many are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, the company said it would continue to work on bringing mining customers improved operational decision-making capabilities.

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Caterpillar touts automation solutions as top miners swing back to profit - MINING.com

Programming has often been considered one of the few safe jobs out there that cannot be automated away.

Now, that may no longer be the case, thanks to a new artificial intelligence designed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Microsoft Corp.

Dubbed DeepCoder, the new AI can supposedly create new programs with requested features by simply cutting and pasting code. In a research paper, the team behind the AI noted that there have already been a few AI programmer projects out there, but they havent exactly been designed to be user-friendly.

A dream of artificial intelligence is to build systems that can write computer programs, the research team said in a paper detailing their methods. Recently, there has been much interest in program-like neural network models, but none of these can write programs; that is, they do not generate human-readable source code.

The researchers ultimate goal is for non-coders to be able to tell DeepCoder exactly the type of program they need, and then let the AI handle the rest, greatly reducing development time and cost.

All of a sudden people could be so much more productive,said Armando Solar-Lezama, an associate professor whose work was cited in the paper, told New Scientist. They could build systems that it [would be] impossible to build before.

Those systems also wouldnt require nearly as many programmers to build. The potential for automation that this kind of technology offers could really signify an enormous [reduction] in the amount of effort it takes to develop code, he said.

Indeed, while a tool like DeepCoder would certainly be welcomed by pretty much any company that needs its own software, it could spell bad news for coders. Fortunatelyfor them, DeepCoder is not able to write entirely new code on its own. Instead, it pieces together already writtencode taken from the source code of various existing software programs.

DeepCoder is also not creating high-end enterprise-grade softwareor even new mobile apps. So far, DeepCoder has only been able to write code that meets the requirements of the simplest problems on programming competition websites. The researchers noted in their paper, however, that they expectmany extensions of DeepCoder in the future, particularly in the realm of natural language processing.

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New AI shows even programmers are not safe from automation - SiliconANGLE (blog)

Both manufacturing automation and lean manufacturing have the same goals: to satisfy customers at the lowest possible cost. To achieve these goals, both disciplines address removing low-value or nonvalue activities, reducing waste and producing predictable quality. Yet even many accomplished manufacturing professionals have trouble reconciling the two disciplines. Here are a few benefits that capitalize on the synergies of automation and lean manufacturing.

Automation is an excellent way to get rid of waste. Properly set up and programmed equipment produces parts within tight tolerances and can provide automatic alerts if the process veers toward upper- or lower-tolerance limits. This eliminates scrap and rework two of the gravest sins of lean manufacturing. Even the most highly skilled operators cannot match the efficiency and repeatability of automation on routine or semi-routine processes. In addition, automation can lessen wasted motion in two ways:

Connecting equipment to business systems helps reduce the effort necessary for reporting production status. By removing the need to report operation completions, scrap or material usage required for accounting or inventory management systems, the internet of things (IoT) enables your operators to focus on more productive work that can help satisfy customer needs.

Manufacturing companies in developed countries struggle to stay competitive with low-labor-cost areas. Automation lowers the number of people or shifts needed to accomplish the same level of throughput, as well as lessens the need for material handling equipment such as forklifts.

Even more groundbreaking is the emergence of collaborative robotics. This new generation of automation is designed to operate side by side with human workers and is usually optimized to support agile production. According to a recent report from ABI Research, the market for collaborative robotics will reach$1 billion by 2020, amounting to more than 40,000 units per year. Theseversatile robotshave a relatively low initial cost and can provide a rapid return on investment.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2.9 million workplaceinjuries were reported in 2015, which equates to about three injuries per 100 full-time employees. Of these accidents, more than238,000were falls, trips and slips. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports that companies pay nearly$1 billion perweekin workers' compensation alone.

Using warehouse automation can help keep employees safe, since most will not need to enter the automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) area or even walk through the warehouse as often except during maintenance. Thus, the incidence of falls in an automated warehouse will more than likely be lower.

Managing inventory is one of the most vital and yet wasteful tasks in manufacturing. No production facility can hope to satisfy its customers or operate effectively if its inventory is not accurate and controlled. One of the most effective ways to ensure inventory accuracy is to automate the picking and put-away processes. Automated equipment can greatly reduce lost or misplaced materials and help ensure accurate lot tracking, which can decrease obsolescence or scrap due to expiration or spoilage.

Far more than simple workflow or informational alerts, today's office automation solutions approach the level of artificial intelligence (AI). They are capable of handling routine tasks and streamlining business processes, ranging from accounts payable and production dispatching to prioritizing sales orders for shipment. This can provide consistent quality and eliminate the waste of printing and filing paperwork while ensuring that workers have the bandwidth to attend to high-value activities.

Automation is a growing presence in manufacturing and can come in many forms. By capitalizing on its synergy with lean manufacturing, you can embrace the tenets of lean and reap the many benefits.

John Hinchey is the vice presidentof sales atWestfalia Technologies, a leading provider of logistics solutions for plants, warehouses and distribution centers.

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Benefits of Automation in Lean Manufacturing - Reliable Plant Magazine

While opinions vary on the number of jobs that can be automated away, its clear a large number of positions now handled by people, including accounting jobs, will be supplemented or replaced in some way by intelligent machines.

The utterance of the word automation conjures up gloomy images of job losses and people left behind by rapid technological change. While some job losses are inevitable, there is hope for optimism. Whats the reason? Simply put, the analytics at the root of those intelligent machines can provide expanded career paths for accountants and finance professionals.

Were already seeing a displacement of jobs in the accounting industry through outsourcing and robotic process automation, among other trends, yet the role of traditional accountants is expanding well beyond simple reporting measures.

Todays finance professionals must take into account a multitude of forces shaping financial performance: talent acquisition strategies, geopolitical forces, fluctuations in capital, emerging markets and intellectual property challenges, just to name a few. To suggest that smart and insightful accountants cannot acclimate to automation is to miss a fundamental truth about our nature: We are innovative, adaptable creatures who have been evolving and adapting to change for millions of years.

Beyond the Zero-Sum Game

Most enterprises and recruiters have struggled to redeploy jobs. A common mistake in thinking is: Once an accountant, always an accountant. So, what are some of the options?

At the end of 2016, Genpact Research Institute attempted to reframe the job loss mindset away from for every winner there must be a loser to how can we make the transition less painful for those affected? How can we better identify opportunities within the accounting profession to capitalize on the evolving role of the finance function?

Using data from 1,120 randomly selected people with accountant roles in their LinkedIn profiles and employed at large U.S.-based companies, we created a way to explore options for workers whose job has become obsolete or who require additional training.

The data analyzed career histories, education and skills to identify factors that enable people to move into roles traditionally unrelated to finance and accounting (F&A). The data showed that approximately one-third of accountants have held a role unrelated to F&A during their careers. The roles were in a much wider range than expected, and certainly broader than conventional recruiting firms would encourage candidates to consider (see chart below).

Diving deeper into specifics, it is clear that numerous career paths may exist for accountants. Customer service, operations, and sales and marketing were all well-represented in this research. In addition, possible positions in research, program management, consulting and business analysis stood out. Our research findings are clear: the skills and competencies that accountants possess are applicable to many fields, both in and out of finance. Risk-focused professions, where precision capabilities are central to supporting statistical and compliance methods, are just one example. We also found that the ability of accountants to work across the organization and understand other disciplines such as sales, marketing, supply chain and human resources may enable them to channel their skills into those areas.

The role of the finance function is expanding dramatically. Taking into account such factors as supply chains and market fluctuations, as well as how intellectual property and human capital shape business performance, further expands the boundaries of traditional accounting activities and broadens career opportunities.

Whats Next?

While the deployment of automated technologies will inevitably lead to some job losses, the evolving role of the finance function and skill sets accountants possess can lead to new, expanded and rewarding careers. The American Institute of CPAs and its management accounting designation, CGMA, reinforce the value that accountants bring to the table, with skill sets that can help address a wide array of business challenges.

Big Data can also help those at risk of losing their jobs identify new roles. With deeper study, corporate management and human resources professionals will be able to draw deeper conclusions on career progression, more effectively develop reskilling programs, and create new alternative jobs paths. Such learning and development initiatives may identify jobs for many positions in risk of being eliminated through automation.

For accountants, whose professional lives will be impacted by the rapid emergence of automation, it is certainly a time of increased anxiety. But for organizations that think creatively about the skills finance professionals bring to the table and how they can apply more broadly across the enterprise, this may be an opportunity to map a more hopeful and promising path to the future.

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Voices Does automation mean job losses for accountants? - Accounting Today

Technology can aid rather then usurp public workers but for that to happen, public sector teams need solutions that give them autonomy and control

Public sector morale over job security is at an all-time low. More than a million jobs have been cut over the past six years in line with the governments austerity drive, with plans to axe still more from local authorities.

Added to this is concern that automation will see yet more public workers lose their jobs. Amelia, the AI employee deployed by Enfield Borough Council in the autumn of last year, is hailed as being 60% less expensive than her human counterpart, making AI an attractive option. But is the threat of robot replacements a real one?

According to recent research by Oxford University and Deloitte, 850,000 public sector jobs could be automated by 2030. It states that administrative roles are most at risk, while those interacting with the public are less so.

But theres a clear inference in the report that automation doesnt equate to unemployment. The authors suggest that automation has the potential to complement existing jobs by automating repetitive processes or even create new better-paid jobs.

>See also: Do you think a robot could replace your job?

Make no mistake, automation is already with us. The digitalisation of public sector services has already seen many of the processes previously carried out by human hand now scheduled by software.

Far from being met with resistance, this digitalisation has had an emancipating effect, freeing up staff from the daily grind to focus on other issues and the reduction in red tape has generated efficiency gains.

Alongside this, theres another story thats hitting the headlines when it comes to public sector employment: the woeful lack of digital skills. This drove the DWP to rollout digital academies in a bid to upskill staff, with 3,000 civil servants undergoing courses over the last two years.

As of September, those academies came under the remit of the GDS, which has pledged to double the number being trained annually. But the future of the academies now seems uncertain. Some sources even saying a lack of funding is the reason behind the current stonewalling over the Government Transformation Strategy.

So if we cant upskill public sector staff at the rate needed, could we outsource technical expertise? Finding (and keeping) skilled developers can be a challenge and the cost of employing the right people can be high. This is because digital skills are in short supply across the board.

According to the Digital Skills Crisis report published in June, the private sector is also struggling with 93% of tech companies reporting that the skills gap is affecting their business. Clearly theres a technical deficit as well as a fiscal one and to overcome that we will need automation.

Far from being made redundant by robots, technology could continue to empower staff, provided that solutions are built to cater for rather than replace human operators. Investing in this type of enhanced automation makes sense, not least because teams increasingly comprise a range of technical abilities. Technical competencies vary on digital design projects, for instance, and often include user experience designers, business analysts and developers.

Imagine, then, if that team could be united through the use of a technically agnostic solution. Even during the digital design process, theres no need, for instance, for staff to be proficient in code.

What they do need is the vision to design a service that fulfils user needs and thats easier to accomplish if you dont have to hand over your design to a third party, introducing delay, cost and inconvenience.

If solutions are intuitive to use they can empower these non-technical team members to be actively involved in digital service design and management.

Low-code services offer this level of control and flexibility with user-friendly dashboards and GUIs that feature drag-and-drop tools, the ability to reuse interfaces or integrate with third-party extensions and plug-in APIs.

The team doesnt need to be upskilled or supplanted by an expensive third-party contractor conversant in code. They simply need to have access to some initial support and self-help tutorials to quickly get up to speed to create, design and update digital interactive services independently.

The resulting digital services do themselves automate previously time-consuming laborious processes. For example, when it comes to case management, an automated digital solution can provide the applicant and case worker with access to documentation, monitor the progress of the application, and avoid problems such as duplication, incomplete or fraudulent claims.

>See also: Make way for the automated workforce

This type of case management is transforming how government departments work, from solicitors and plaintiffs associated with Legal Aid claims, to those seeking grants from public bodies such as Heritage Lottery Fund and the Creative and Cultural Skills agency, to charities seeking to file financial audit reports via the Charity Commission.

In the future, automation could free workers from other bureaucratic tasks. The police force, social workers and NHS staff all stand to benefit from a joined up system whereby records can be accessed across different government departments.

Automation can break down barriers by enabling staff to collaborate across different departments and across geographical areas. And it can level the playing field between highly technically skilled and the non-technical professionals.

Technology can, and should, aid rather then usurp public workers but for that to happen, public sector teams need solutions that give them autonomy and control.

Sourced from Jane Roberts, strategy director, Toplevel

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Automation and austerity: will robots make you redundant? - Information Age