Convincing Your Manager That Upstreaming Is In Their Best Interest
In an ideal world, everyone would implicitly understand that it just makes good business sense to upstream some of the modifications made when creating your Linux powered devices. Unfortunately, this is a long way from being common knowledge.
By Martyn Welch, Senior Software Engineer at Collabora.
In an ideal world, everyone would implicitly understand that it just makes good business sense to upstream some of the modifications made when creating your Linux powered devices. Unfortunately, this is a long way from being common knowledge, and many managers still need convincing that this is, in fact, in their best interests.
Just so that we are clear, I’m not suggesting here that your next Linux powered device should be an entirely open design. We live in the real world and unless your explicit aim is to produce a completely open platform, doing so is unlikely to be good for your companies’ profitabilty. What does make sense however is to protect the parts of your product that drive your value proposition, while looking for ways to reduce costs in places which don’t drive the value add or unique selling point. This is where upstreaming and open source can offer you a massive advantage, if done right.
Say you have a new product in development, with a number of cool features to implement that you hope will drive customers to your door. You also have a new hardware design, thanks to the hardware guys that have discovered some funky new devices that optimise and improve this new design. You’ve also picked up the SoC vendors’ slightly outdated kernel tree and discovered that a number of these devices already have some support in the kernel, awesome. For others there is no support, either in the vendors tree or in the mainline tree, so backporting isn’t an option, and you’re looking to write some drivers. You’ve heard something about upstreaming and would like to give it a go, but you’re wondering if this is a good idea. Is this going to help my company? Well, the answer is generally “Yes”.
Uptreaming is the process of submitting the changes that you have made, typically, to existing open source projects so that they become part of the main (or upstream) codebase. This may be changes to support specific hardware (usually kernel level changes), changes to fix bugs that you’ve exposed via your specific use case or additional features that may extend existing libraries that you use in your project.
Upstreaming provides you with a number of tangible advantages which can be used as rationale to help convince your management:
You gain at least one 3rd party review, by a domain expert, giving you confidence in the quality of your changes.
You decrease your delta with the upstream codebase, reducing the maintenace burden of your product (you do security updates, right?), providing product updates and potentialy when creating the next version of your product.
Community suggested improvements, providing you with ways to reduce your code size whilst simultanously increasing available features.
Let’s use the Linux kernel as an example (one which many product developers will likely need to modify) of how these benefits manifest, as this is the project that I am familiar with.
Changes submitted to open source projects are not blindly accepted. Projects need to take some care that the changes are not going to negatively impact other users of the project that may have other use cases, and must also ensure that the changes are both sensible and done in a way that safeguards how the project can be maintained in the future. As a result, changes may need to be altered before being accepted, but such changes are likely to have a positive impact on your modifications.
The reviewer (who is very likely to be an expert in the area in which you are making changes) may be able to point out existing infrastructure that can be used to reduce code length and increase code reuse, or recommend changes that may remove potential race conditions or fix bugs that may not have been triggered during your testing. As the kernel (like most projects) expects a specific code style, there may be requests to change code to meet these requirements, as a consitent code style makes maintenance of the code easier. Once merged, the maintainer will be taking on the burden of maintaining this code, so he will want to ensure this can be done efficiently.
The upstream Linux kernel code base is being modified at a very fast pace, with a change being merged at a rate of one every 7 minutes. Different parts of the kernel develop at different rates however, some seeing a higher rate of change while others undergo little to no change at all. Should you have local patches, there is an increasing likelihood over time that these will be incompatible with the ever-evolving kernel.
This means your developers will need to spend time making modifications to the local patches when updating the software stack on an existing product, or when attempting to re-use these patches on a new product. Conversely, when local patches are applied upstream, existing code will be changed when APIs change, generally resulting in the modifications continuing to function as required in your use case without any engineering effort on your behalf.
Once a driver is added to the kernel, for example, others may add features to the driver that weren’t of immediate use to you. As your requirements change and grow for updates and subsequent revisions however, such changes may prove very useful to you and would be available with minimal work. A well documented example of this is Microsoft’s submission of hyper-V support. This large body of work was initially added to the “staging” area, an area where drivers that aren’t ready for full inclusion in the kernel can be put to enable them to be modified and improved with the help of the community. Whilst in the staging area the drivers were greatly improved, the drivers were modified to comply with the Linux Driver Model, reducing the code line count by 60% whilst simultaneously significantly improving performance and stability.
Of course, there are also less tangible reasons for contributing upstream. As a company, if you are planning to utilise Linux and other free software in your products, it is likely that you will want to hire talented, experienced developers to help you create your products. Contributions made to open source projects relevant to you are likely to be noticed by the very same developers that you hope to atract to your company, and will also reflect well on your company should they be looking for new opportunies or should these developers be asked if they have any recommendations for good places to work.
Submitting upstream, and contributing to an open source project, can also be a very rewarding experience for existing employees. By actively participating in a project on which your products are based, they not only gain direct access to the community behind the project, but also get a better understanding of the projects’ inner workings, enabling them to build future products more efficiently and confidently.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 12-07-2018, 04:34 AM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
Beyond automation: Volkswagen’s future of connected, shareable cars
[embedded content]
Cars as a service: the future of shareable vehicles “A future in which every single Volkswagen vehicle is shareable in every way you can imagine. This is what we want to achieve,” Huettel states.
For Volkswagen, the future of connected vehicles transcends beyond automation and even digital assistance.
“We want a future where you can find and enter a car using nothing but your smartphone as a key, or letting friends and family borrow your car while you’re away, simply by granting them permission through an app. It’s a future of convenience. It’s what we’re striving for. I think this could have a huge impact on transportation infrastructure in general. Our most important goal is to enable people.”
The importance (and integrity) of data For technology to become more useful, and as it does more for us, data increasingly vital. Without it, the many conveniences of advances such digital assistants and other artificial intelligence-powered solutions, simply would not be able to exist.
In a world where companies are transforming into tech companies, where data privacy concerns are rightfully becoming more important, Volkswagen is approaching privacy from the ground up: “AI is the future, but before we all work on it, we need to focus on the first step,” says Huettel. “Not only what data, and how it’s used to maximum effect, but the security of this data is absolutely paramount. The first step must always be to ensure that customer data is safe. Then, and only then, can we safely leverage that data to its full potential, to benefit the customer’s life.”
The integrity of data is also a primary concern for Volkswagen, and programs such as Microsoft’s Shared Innovation Initiative ensure that Microsoft will never leverage Volkswagen’s data to compate against the company.
As for the partnership between Volkswagen and Microsoft itself, Huettel states that “We had a lot of discussions and looked at offerings from several cloud vendors. We based our decision around organisational and cultural transformation. We weren’t just looking for a technology partner – we were looking for a cultural that is really interesting.”
As part of the partnership with Microsoft, Volkswagen will establish a new automotive cloud development office in the US, close to Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond. Microsoft will provide hands-on support to Volkswagen as it ramps up its new office, including assistance in the hiring process, human resources management, and consulting services. The workforce is expected to reach around 300 engineers in the near future.
In addition, Volkswagen developers and engineers will benefit from Microsoft’s cloud expertise across its organisation, learning valuable insights through collaboration, while ensuring that the development process remains agile.
“We came to the conclusion that we needed to change in a revolutionary way,” says Huettel, “We want to leverage what we can from Microsoft’s culture and Microsoft’s technology. We want to be the Microsoft of the automotive industry, in terms of being seen as the company that made a digital transformation, and is really perceived as one of the digital players in the market.”
Quality dampened as it's simple to obstruct the sound. This tab is helpful in regards to dealing with tasks that you're wishing to bypass or block. A cool thing about Zap-desktop is it's possible to generate the payment channel open as bi-directional, which means you can have a number of the cash already. You don't have to be worried about using Humidify.
Make certain that you have precisely the exact same quantity of copper as you've got tin. It's recommended that you mine iron ores until you're 60 mining. In case the axis is is, in case the object is orbiting about another one orbit is known as a revolution.
The Unexpected Truth About Runescape Jad
If they're a RuneScape participant's present slayer assignment ice Strykewyrms can be killed. Some of those things can be purchased from slayer masters. If you're hesitating where to obtain inexpensive RS Gold, Rsorder is going to be a fantastic selection.
There are an assortment of strategies to reach the TzHaar City. Unlike butterflies, catching implings barehanded doesn't require a particular Agility degree, but having a larger Agility level causes a greater success rate. You've got, you might make a team. He's the slayer master without any requirement.
A terrific informational podcast, Stuff You Should Know has hundreds of episodes to decide on a topic that you want to learn more about, whether or not a in depth illustration of how something works, or a in-depth research a topic's history. Your present page gives you a pop-up to depart out of your feedback for us to begin looking into.5. Another impling, Immenizz, are near the centre of Puro-Puro. It is possible to learn what the 8 pets are and how it is possible to acquire the new titles. There'll be information about the best way to turn into a digitisation partner and suggestions.
Other actions besides alignment has an influence on the Hero. This is useful if you receive a task you don't wish to finish. They'll assign you the job of killing a specific number of monsters for them.
The Runescape Jad Cover Up
Tasks you're allowed's assortment is correlated with your Quest Points. In the event the player becomes struck by TzTok-Jad, they need not to panic or consume lots of food or potions in 1 go. Speak to one of those recruiters and select what you would like.
You absolutely don't have to rush in any way, you are not able to stop Jack of Blades here. As the Fight Caves might have a lengthy time for gamers, the TokHaar edition of TzTok-Jad could be killed in its place. Nothing in life is random.
Finding the Best RS3 Gold[url=https://www.mmoko.com/rs2007-gold][/url] Jad
There is something for everybody sometimes all in the song that is identical. 360, 180 90Like Wave 45, you can take a whole lot of damage from the level 90s keep a watch on your wellness. There's a whole lot of very good stuff on record.
Which isn't impossible, it is simply costly. An kukri is more than that. You did not need to struggle together. Here's the best way.
Melee will be normally utilized by the wyrm and just occasionally use ranged while the player isn't within melee range. Players will need to be careful on the death slide since they can fall off and get hurt for as much as 30 damage, and it may kill them. The boss has an assortment of attacks.
All About Runescape Jad
You do not observe this kind of scenario unless things do not happen naturally and are not uncomplicated. It wouldn't for a couple weeks. If you want to understand more, please leave a comment. We always have a enjoyable time. This requires a response time, since the participant is going to be sent back a couple of squares wasting excellent battle time.
The Basics of Runescape Jad You Will be Able to Benefit From Beginning Right Away
Throughout that moment, gain expertise in at least abilities, and you are going to find an experience reward. Another advantage of hiit is that it give you the capability to combine a range of activities. To win this action, the player should have sort of combat abilities and equipment.
A recommendation panel that is fantastic runs too, which throws you recommendations depending upon your choice and tastes. We can tell that we've got the customer satisfaction in the business. But the business's strategy of quantity over vigilance has made for plenty of meh-flicks that were cruddy.
This is helpful when attempting to trap TzTok-Jad the moment it spawns. A lawsuit was made. Ill tell you what, you should visit the item seller in oakvale and purchase all his emeralds.
New Step by Step Roadmap for Maplestory 2 Auto Fishing
In the next step, two times are quickly dropped, causing damage to five enemies within 2m before you. Using their Orbs as the primary weapon to attack, it can absorb significant powers from critters and implement a distinctive final attack. While it's activated it doesn't get hit by an enemy attack.
The principal stat for a Warrior is DEX and STR, you wish to be sure your DEX is 2 times the quantity of your degree and the remainder of your points ought to be going into STR. Though their damage over time can compare with the vast majority of courses, each individual hit is lower than the attack. The brief range classes will endure 2 times the penalty, as they're not just taking a whole lot of harm, but in addition they need to manage the debuffs.
The Ultimate Maplestory 2 Auto Fishing Trick
If you want more tips and techniques on MapleStory 2, be certain you search for Twinfinite. Evidently, you've got to be of the job class and fulfill with the stat requirements. Last, the level cap is going to be increased to 60.
Additional through different item-related systems it is possible to make an endless number of items and get support in the creation of your character. These awards are added. It is ideal to have the equipment to enhance the treatment volume.
Housing can be relaxing and sometimes frustrating , especially as soon as you wish to rearrange your digs. These things can vary from chests to continue to keep your equipment that is extra, to mannequins that you may dress up with your favourite sets. In addition, you obtain experience for placing items in your home.
Previously you might need to go to a gaming store or center to have a match or add-on. MapleStory 2 is full of many different original things to do, from the many different side quests down to your everyday pursuits.
Maplestory 2 Auto Fishing: No Longer a Mystery
Local fishing levels are found on the World Map. The very first thing you ought to do would be a fishing rod. So now you know how to fish, you may be wondering where to throw your lines in MapleStory 2.
Adventurers will be the staple of Maplestory. It's one of the activities which can be done in-game. It's surprisingly an excellent way to get experience.
The Importance of Maplestory 2 Auto Fishing
There are 2 processes it's possible to utilize to update called scrolling, equipment. When you would like to begin doing dungeons you've got two options. That means you'll need more 2 mesos to find this item.
Archers rain down arrows all over the area from variety. In case the seat displacement effect is correctly utilized, it can be utilized in most present Class 50 Dungeons. You finish this quest, return it and you will receive an attack scroll!
The Battle Over Maplestory 2 Auto Fishing and How to Win It
Utilizing world events in place of questing is an intriguing approach for an MMORPG that provides the game world a feeling of life and immediacy. They're identified for having the capability to hide themselves and turn invisible, together with dashboard! Why is storytelling exciting is contingent on the storyteller.
According to Nexon, MapleStory 2 occurs within the world as the original but in addition functions as a prequel. MapleStory 2 seems to be taking cues from different MMOs and has streamlined progression, which makes it a lot easier for folks to really have the game as opposed to repeating the identical monotonous endeavor. Much MapleStory two, like its predecessor is going to be a free-to-play game.
Maplestory has turned into the most popular 2D. A class is an essential element within the game.
Players may take on others in a string of conflicts to look at their abilities. Contrary to what people think, PC games are costly.
Here's What I Know About Buy MapleStory 2 Mesos 2 Auto Fishing
Create to catch the names that you would like. You have to finish the actions on the surface of the page. If you're interested in MapleStory 2, it is possible to see its official site also.
What the In-Crowd Won't Tell You About Maplestory 2 Auto Fishing
The registry for a part of your WIndows working program is a component which retailers information about the games in addition. Some classes are unavailable in various regions. Each work class is great at many of them, but none are them.
As a result of this popularity even though it's been a tricky genre to compete in meaning there is a lack of choices. There are many excellent sites accessible to market and purchase handcrafted goods. There are a whole lot of great Minecraft clones and alternatives and the majority are free to play.
Players will encounter NPCs from the version along with completely new ones with Monsters Quests, and Bosses to resist against. Guild Coins are added that you are able to utilize to obtain items from the Guild House stores. Fire is among the elements offered in Maplestory.
Open Source Compliance Projects Unite Under New ACT Group
As open source software releases and customer adoption continue to increase, many companies underestimate what’s involved with going open source. It’s not only a matter of volunteering for the encouraged, but optional, upstream contributions to FOSS projects, but also complying with the legal requirements of open source licenses. Software increasingly includes a diverse assortment of open source code with a variety of licenses, as well as a mix of proprietary code. Sorting it all out to can be a major hassle, but the alternative is potential legal action and damaged relations with the open source community.
The Linux Foundation has just launched an Automated Compliance Tooling (ACT) project to help companies comply with open source licensing requirements. The new group consolidates its existing FOSSology and Software Package Data Exchange (SPDX) projects and adds two new projects: Endocode’s QMSTR for integrating open source compliance toolchain within build systems and VMware’s Tern, an inspection tool for identifying open source components within containers.
Announced at this week’s Open Compliance Summit in Yokohama, Japan, the ACT umbrella organization aims to “consolidate investment in, and increase interoperability and usability of, open source compliance tooling,” says the project.
“There are numerous open source compliance tooling projects but the majority are unfunded and have limited scope to build out robust usability or advanced features,” stated Kate Stewart, Senior Director of Strategic Programs at The Linux Foundation. “We have also heard from many organizations that the tools that do exist do not meet their current needs. Forming a neutral body under The Linux Foundation to work on these issues will allow us to increase funding and support for the compliance tooling development community.”
The four ACT projects, with links to their websites, include:
FOSSology — This early project for improving open source compliance was adopted by the Linux Foundation in 2015. The FOSSology project maintains and updates a FOSSology open source license compliance software system and toolkit. The software lets users quickly run license and copyright scans from the command line and generate an SPDX file — a format used to share data about software licenses and copyrights. FOSSology includes a database and web UI for easing compliance workflow, as well as license, copyright, and export scanning tools. Users include Arm, HP, HP Enterprise, Siemens, Toshiba, Wind River, and others.
SPDX — The Software Package Data Exchange project maintains the SPDX file format for communicating software Bill of Material (BoM) information including components, licenses, copyrights, and security references. The SPDX project was spun off from FOSSology as a Linux Foundation project in 2011 and is now reunited under ACT. In 2015, SPDX 2.0 added improved tracking of complex open source license dependencies. In 2016, SPDX 2.1 standardized the inclusion of additional data in generated files and added a syntax for accurate tagging of source files with license list identifiers. The latest 2.1.15 release offers support for deprecated license exceptions. The SPDX spec will “remain separate from, yet complementary to, ACT, while the SPDX tools that meet the spec and help users and producers of SPDX documents will become part of ACT,” says the project.
QMSTR — Also known as Quartermaster, QMSTR was developed by Endocode and is now hosted by ACT. QMSTR creates an open source toolchain that integrates into build systems to implement best practices for license compliance management. QMSTR identifies software products, sources, and dependencies, and can be used to verify outcomes, review problems and produce compliance reports. “By integrating into DevOps CI/CD cycles, license compliance can become a quality metric for software development,” says ACT.
Tern — This VMware hosted project for ensuring compliance in container technology is now part of the ACT family. Tern is an inspection tool for discovering the metadata of packages installed in container images. Tern “provides a deeper understanding of a container’s bill of materials so better decisions can be made about container based infrastructure, integration and deployment strategies,” says ACT.
The ACT project aligns with two related Linux Foundation projects: OpenChain, which just welcomed Google, Facebook, and Uber as platinum members, and the Open Compliance Program. In 2016, the OpenChain project released OpenChain 1.0 with a focus on tracking open source compliance along supply chains. The project also offers other services including OpenChain Curriculum for teaching best practices.
The Open Source Compliance group hosts the Open Compliance Summit. It also offers best practices information, legal guidance, and training courses for developers. The group helps companies understand their license requirements and “how to build efficient, frictionless and often automated processes to support compliance,” says the project.
ACT has yet to launch a separate website but has listed an act@linuxfoundation.org email address for more information.
Now that our December Update is available on all platforms, we’re ready to talk about Rocket Pass 2!
Starting at 10:00 AM PST (1:00 PM EST/ 6:00 PM UTC) on December 10, Rocket Pass 2 will be available for FREE in Rocket League on all platforms with no download required. Just like our first Rocket Pass, we’re also offering a Premium Upgrade in exchange for 10 Keys (USD $9.99 or regional equivalent) that will include even more content, including the brand new Artemis Battle-Car!
We listened to your feedback about the first Rocket Pass and (as a result) have now increased the variety of items found in the Premium track. Additionally, items in the Premium Upgrade path are no longer tradeable for Tiers 1 thru 70, but 'Pro Tier' items (i.e. Tier 71 and above) and Free items CAN still be traded. We have also changed Pro Tier behavior so that they will ALWAYS drop as a 'Painted' item, while still carrying a 25% chance to drop as a 'Certified' item. Moreover, we've increased the base experience you earn from matches by 40% so that you can reach Pro Tiers faster and increased the weekly match maximum from 14 to 21. You can read more about all progression changes, including how 'Weekly Win' bonuses are awarded, RIGHT HERE.
Finally, we’re introducing a brand new Customization Item attribute to various Pro Tier items. The 'Special Edition' attribute reworks an item into an alternate version of itself that still supports Painted attribute colors. Several of the Pro Tier Wheels in Rocket Pass 2 -- ‘Gripstride HX,’ ‘Rocket Forge II’ and ‘Sprocket’ -- support the Special Edition attribute; any time you unlock one from a Pro Tier, you'll have a 25% chance to receive the Special Edition version. You can see an awesome example of a Special Edition item in the screenshot below.
Be sure to check out the Rocket Pass 2 trailer and Artemis Battle-Car up top. You can let us know what you think of our changes to the system on Instagram, Reddit and Twitter, while also heading over to RocketPass.com to view the entire list of what’s coming next week. Thanks, everyone!
FROM ROCKET PASS WEBSITE
How far will you go?
Playing Rocket League Online matches can earn you even more. Tier up to unlock rewards with Rocket Pass.
Purchase Rocket Pass Premium to get an initial 50% XP bonus and earn up to 70 rewards including the new Battle-Car, Goal Explosion, Keys, and more!
Earn up to 23 rewards just by playing Online Rocket League matches.
Some facts!
*Artemis uses the 'Plank' hotbox (like Batmobile and Mantis)
*The new Quasar Goal Explosion will not actually teleport you around the arena.
*Frosty Fest doesn't start at the same time as RP2, but it's coming soon!
*You can buy into the Premium Upgrade at any time, will get the previous Tier items as soon as you do.
The Game Awards 2018: All The Games And News To Expect
The Game Awards are coming, promising not only a celebration of the last year in video games, but also a slew of new announcements for the coming year and beyond. The annual award show has become known for hosting game reveals, and this year's event promises to be no different. Eager to get started, some studios have already begun teasing their impending news.
The festivities will begin today, December 6, at 8:30 PM ET / 5:30 PM PT / (Friday at 1:30 AM GMT / 12:30 PM AET). You can check out all of the games we are certain or expect to see below, or read about the games we know won't be there.
Ten New Game Announcements
As part of the promotion behind the event, host Geoff Keighley teased that ten brand new games will be shown for the very first time. This is on top of other updates for various existing games. That will make for a packed show, especially given that it needs to fit all those reveals around the accolades, musical performances, and other variety events.
Obsidian's New Take-Two Game
Obsidian, the developer behind RPGs like Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, has stated very directly that it will be announcing its next game at the award show. We've seen teases of a retro-futurist space setting. This one will be published by Take-Two's indie label, Private Division. It remains to be seen how Microsoft may be involved in this project, having recently acquired Obsidian.
Far Cry Plus Nuclear Fallout
Ubisoft is planning a Far Cry reveal for the awards. The studio released a short teaser trailer that showed a nuclear explosion and the resulting devastation over rural farmland. The narration explained that after the earth recovered, people became the deadlier threats. It all appears to set the stage for a post-apocalyptic Far Cry game, possibly tying into the events of Far Cry 5. It's unknown at this point if it will be DLC, a spin-off, or an all-new game.
Anthem Shows Off
EA has announced that its upcoming multiplayer RPG Anthem will get a new trailer presented by general manager Casey Hudson. It launches next February, so this will be one of the last big public events to show off the game.
Fortnite Reveals Abound, But More On The Way
Fortnite is teasing something big for the Game Awards. We don't know what it is, but we know a few things that it isn't. Epic has already noted that it won't be related to Season 7, which the studio has already started outlining elsewhere. It also won't be the new creative mode. Keighley emphasized that the creative mode reveal was just "part 1 of the story" and that the Game Awards reveal will "get even crazier." Creative director Donald Mustard will be on-hand to drop the announcement himself.
Dragon Age Breathes Some Fire
Call this one an educated guess. BioWare's Casey Hudson will already be on-hand to reveal something new for Anthem, but that may not be all. Hudson also recently said that the studio is preparing to outline plans for the next Dragon Age. In fact, he specifically said that news will be coming in December, but stopped short of outlining exactly where or when. The Game Awards is one of the few high-profile announcement vehicles in the month of December, so the smart money is on this being the venue.
Super Smash Bros. Maybe
Nintendo always plays its cards close to the blue overalls, but a recent promotional tweet raised eyebrows. The company specifically told fans to watch the Game Awards just before the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, possibly implying an announcement on the way. It could be just the place to announce a solid release date for Piranha Plant, outline the first of the impending DLC roster, or something else entirely.
Super Smash Bros. Inspired Splatfest Will Take Place In Splatoon 2 Next Week
If you’re willing to take a break from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate later next week, you might be able to allocate some time to the next Splatfest in Splatoon 2. The worldwide event will be a Super Smash Bros. special, asking players to side with heroes or villains.
The event starts on 14th December in the US and will take place in Japan on 15th December. Europe’s start date will be announced shortly. Here’s the official tweet from the Nintendo Versus Twitter account:
Will you take some time out from Smash Ultimate to participate in this upcoming Splatfest? Which side will you be choosing? Tell us in the comments.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 12-06-2018, 04:33 PM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
From seed to sip: How Anheuser-Busch InBev uses AI to drive growth
Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) is using artificial intelligence to drive growth and innovation across all dimensions of its global brewing business.
The brewer of Budweiser, Corona, Stella Artois and more than 500 other beer brands has built a worldwide analytics platform on the Microsoft Azure cloud, enabling the company to draw data driven-insights about everything from optimal barley growing conditions to drivers of successful sales promotions.
Tassilo Festetics, AB InBev’s vice president for global solutions, shared insights about the company’s AI strategy at a recent AI in Business event in San Francisco, which Transform edited into an abbreviated Q&A.
How is Anheuser-Busch InBev using AI today?
Tassilo Festetics.
FESTETICS: The question is not going to be where we deploy AI, but where is it not going to be deployed, because we see it in so many different fields.
Can you share an example or two?
FESTETICS: Smart Barley, which is one of our platforms, enables us to work with farmers to use artificial intelligence to improve their yields, reduce water usage, reduce fertilizer usage and create a much more sustainable environment. We started there five years ago.
Now we see AI in the customer-facing area with chatbots and voice. Customers are expecting to have the same frictionless interaction with every company that they’re also having in their private life. Conversational bots that allow your customers to interact with your company in that way are a basic machine learning algorithm.
We also use AI in our supply chain and back-office operations. We use Azure to simplify tasks that people are performing every day and to make people’s lives much more focused on real added-value activities rather than just on transactional activities.
How did you get started in your AI transformation?
FESTETICS: When our company was born, the cloud was not there yet. Microsoft was even not there yet. We were born in 1366. So obviously we are not a digital company. We are a company that’s being digitized.
Our company has grown over time, as a large global organization our data landscape was fragmented. For us the first step was really looking at how we basically get data together, how do we harmonize it, how do we platform it. When we looked at the entire data infrastructure we said, ‘OK let’s just not touch it. Let’s hope it doesn’t break.’
We basically rebuilt everything totally as if we were starting a new company today. With advantages in technology and the cloud you can do that. And that saves a lot of time and allows you certainly to be much more agile. But for sure it’s the biggest barrier to get that data right at the beginning.
How did you develop AI expertise within AB InBev?
FESTETICS: We were very lucky that our senior management understood very early on that this was something that we should work on. So we were early to invest in new resources to join the company, because obviously we didn’t have them around. But then we also started to develop and improve the capabilities of our own people.
Last year I took my entire team to Berkeley. We spent a week on just machine learning. And it was very fun, because normally if I take my team anywhere, they are very — well, they know a lot of things. So if you put them in a room with professors after one day they will probably be explaining to the professors how life works.
In this course about machine learning you could hear a pin drop after the lesson, because everybody was still processing. And that’s, I think, the important part — that you really continue learning and you continue to build those capabilities inside of your company.
By getting new people in and by developing new skills in your people you start to see different approaches to problem solving. These people will start to find ways to deploy new technologies, new methodologies inside of the company to provide better customer service, better waste management, improved ROI on certain activities. It really starts a different way of thinking.
What advice would you give to companies that are just getting started with AI?
FESTETICS: Really start looking at your data early, because data is the fundamental part. There is no AI without data. Then start looking at the areas where you have the best business cases, where can you drive the most value for your company.
Top photo: At the Conversations in AI event, Microsoft CVP of Azure Julia White leads a panel discussion with (left to right) Tassilo Festetics, vice president, global solutions, Anheuser-Busch InBev; Abhishek Pani, senior director of AI product and data science, Adobe; Jack Brown, SVP of product and software, Arccos Golf; and Fiona Tan, SVP of customer technology, Walmart Labs.
Related:
Watch how Anheuser-Busch InBev taps data for even better beer.
Read more about how customers including ABInBev are using AI.
Learn more about Microsoft’s AI tools for businesses.
Celebrate International Ninja Day with these shadow-clad titles!
Celebrate International Ninja Day with these shadow-clad titles!
Centuries of folklore has cemented the ninjas place in history. Hidden in plain sight or aided by the shadows, common folk became masters of stealth, infiltration, and sabotage.
Celebrate the legendary warriors with these ninja-inspired games.
![[Image: rl_rp2__hero_artemis_desktop.c6e1dc555a6...06c9a5.jpg]](https://rocketleague.media.zestyio.com/rl_rp2__hero_artemis_desktop.c6e1dc555a6eff57c623d9877706c9a5.jpg)
![[Image: rl_rp2_pro_forge.SkC4kwQkE.jpg]](https://rocketleague.media.zestyio.com/rl_rp2_pro_forge.SkC4kwQkE.jpg)
