Amidst a number of downward trends, the news that Microsoft and other companies plan to deliver hyper-scale cloud services from local data centres in South Africa is very good news for the country.
Mpumi Nhlapo, head of T-Systems South Africa’s IT portfolio and solution sales, said.
“With local access to this scale of computing power, local organisations will be able to explore opportunities presented by the fourth industrial revolution,” said Nhlapo.
“With latency speeds in the milliseconds (rather than the hundreds of milliseconds) a world of new business opportunities opens up.
“Think of augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, real- time data analytics and machine-driven decision making, artificial intelligence, and other emergent technologies.”
Nhlapo said that the new cloud technology would not only accelerate the levels of innovation and digitisation within South African companies, but (perhaps most importantly) it will present new opportunities for individuals.
Citing a recent report by technology firm FastCompany and New York trend-spotting firm Sparks & Honey, Nhlapo said that a high percentage of today’s jobs will not exist 10 to 20 years into the future.
These jobs will be replaced by entirely new vocations, he said.
Below are some of the jobs listed by FastCompany which will come into existence by 2025.
-Digital Death Managers
A role for someone who can take the mass of life-logged material, and make stories out of it. That could be useful during our lives (for personal-brand purposes) but also in death, said
FastCompany.
“Today, it happens only with important people. Andy Warhol has a foundation, and so on. We’re imagining this is going to ladder down to other people who want to shape what their legacy means”.
– 3D Printing Handymen
It will no longer be the case of having to order a spare part from China. Instead, he is more likely to print it out in your front-yard.
– Microbial Balancers
A “microbial balancer” is someone who can keep you aligned with your bacteria. “They will understand how to read your genome, your gut, and your mouth bacteria and get you better balanced at a house, school, or individual level. They’re the equivalent of the Feng Shui person who sets up your apartment.
– Urban Shepherds
With cities getting greener, we’ll need “urban shepherds” to look after the new infrastructure.
“You need someone who is going to take care of the urban beehives, who’s going to make sure your composting is set up correctly, and who is going to know how to curate all the vertical gardens.”
-Corporate Disorganisers
Big companies want to be more like startups, seeing innovation as vital to future profits. This will lead to the rise of “corporate disorganizers” who can introduce a little “organized chaos.”
“The disruptor will be tapping into the new systems of the collaborative economy, creating greater fragmentation and a more distributed ecosystem.”
