In the 21st century, business has to be digital if it is to abide.

From direct-to-consumer ecommerce activity, to the vast amounts of data generated and waiting to be mined, digital tools must be wielded — not only for business to thrive, but simply to survive.

Enabled by IoT technologies, big data, and the cloud, the smart grids of tomorrow will, in effect, be capable of running themselves. They’ll gather massive amounts of data from smart sensors littered across every operational part of the grid — from transmission cables and transformers, to appliances in end-users businesses and homes — analyzing it all in order to make smarter, more informed decisions, big to small.

Digital transformation of the transport industry is well underway. And one of the ways that IoT technologies and big data analytics can come together is to provide smart parking solutions.

Urbanization is accelerating across the globe, with an increasing number of people living and working in cities. In an effort to match this trend, governments in the Middle East have adopted various policies ranging from greenfield developments touted as future cities (such as NEOM in Saudi Arabia), to accelerating urban digital transformation (Doha), and incorporating a 'happiness' oriented mindset (Dubai). Infrastructure investments lie at the heart of all such efforts, but they are capital-intensive and time-consuming. Therefore, future plans need to accommodate for much longer-term growth, addressing the huge volume of users as well as their evolving requirements.

The aim of smart transportation is to improve convenience — in the hope that we can achieve safe, efficient, as well as enjoyable travel — and ensure smooth logistics.

These shifts have significant implications for the evolution of Smart Cities towards Cognitive Cities and the future of national digital transformation. This article highlights eight significant forces that will shape the future of urban living.

With digital transformations well underway globally and across all industries - driven by ICT - the transportation industry in particular will witness explosive development over the next few years, having reached a turning point that will eventually define the overall success of its transformation.

The concept of the Smart City has been discussed for more than a decade now, and both the promises and expectations have been high. Around the world thousands of cities – and their citizens – have been transforming the way that they work, with varying degrees of success. But what makes some cities successful and other cities not? Why are smart city projects so difficult to realize?

Cities are complex ecosystems that are evolving fast and — like citizens — becoming increasingly digital. By 2025, the total number of global internet users is expected to reach 6.2 billion; the total number of connected devices is expected to surpass 100 billion by the same year.

Drawing lessons from Huawei’s experience with Smart City projects to identify factors that are common, maybe even critical, to successful Smart City projects.