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.<\/p>\n
This is according to\u00a0Mpumi Nhlapo, head of T-Systems South Africa\u2019s IT Portfolio and solution sales.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“With latency speeds in the milliseconds (rather than the hundreds of milliseconds) a world of new business opportunities opens up.<\/p>\n
“Think of augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, real-time data analytics and machine-driven decision making, artificial intelligence, and other emergent technologies.”<\/p>\n
Nhlapo said that the new cloud technology would not only\u00a0accelerate the levels of innovation and digitisation within South African companies, but (perhaps most importantly) it will present new opportunities for individuals.<\/p>\n
Citing a recent report by technology firm FastCompany and New York trend-spotting firm Sparks & Honey, Nhlapo said that a high percentage of today\u2019s jobs will not exist 10 to 20 years into the future.<\/p>\n
These jobs will be replaced by entirely new vocations, he said.<\/p>\n
Below are some of the jobs listed by\u00a0FastCompany which will come into existence by 2025.<\/p>\n
Digital death managers<\/strong><\/p>\n A role for someone who can take the mass of life-logged material, and make stories out of it.<\/p>\n That could be useful during our lives (for personal-brand purposes) but also in death, said FastCompany.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, it happens only with important people. Andy Warhol has a foundation, and so on. We\u2019re imagining this is going to ladder down to other people who want to shape what their legacy means”.<\/p>\n 3D printing handymen<\/strong><\/p>\n It will no longer be the case of having to order\u00a0a spare part from China. Instead, he is more likely to print it out in your front-yard.<\/p>\n Microbial balancers<\/strong><\/p>\n A \u201cmicrobial balancer\u201d is someone who can keep you aligned with your bacteria.<\/p>\n \u201cThey 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.<\/p>\n “They\u2019re the equivalent of the Feng Shui person who sets up your apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n “Urban shepherds\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n With cities getting greener, we\u2019ll need \u201curban shepherds\u201d to look after the new infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need someone who is going to take care of the urban beehives, who\u2019s going to make sure your composting is set up correctly, and who is going to know how to curate all the vertical gardens.”<\/p>\n Corporate disorganisers<\/strong><\/p>\n Big companies want to be more like startups, seeing innovation as vital to future profits.<\/p>\n This will lead to the rise of \u201ccorporate disorganizers\u201d who can introduce a little \u201corganized chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe disruptor will be tapping into the new systems of the collaborative economy, creating greater fragmentation and a more distributed ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n