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ICT in business

Countries with a digital agenda generally have a better A data chain is set up between all relevant disciplines, such
development of their gross national income’, Edwin as the hospital pharmacy. ‘And all of this should, of course,
Prinsen, general director Cisco Nederland notes. ‘In be absolutely safe’, Prinsen remarks. ‘The sad truth is that
these countries, such as Sweden, Australia, Singapore, during the coronavirus crisis, hacking attempts have spiked
Israel and the Netherlands, Cisco strives to support the globally. Criminals regard poorly secured working-from-
national digitalisation agenda. We call this policy, born out home connections as an excellent hacking opportunity.
of societal responsibility as well as a business perspective, On behalf of UMC Utrecht, we enabled an accelerated
“Country Digitalisation Acceleration”. For obvious reasons, roll-out for 6,000 employees to work safely from home.’
we’ve adopted “Digitale Versnelling Nederland (DVN)” as
an alternative name for the Dutch version of this policy.’

DVN focuses on a number of key sectors: infrastructure,
education, healthcare and (cyber)security. Contacts
regarding the execution of this policy take place on
the highest level, as Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins first met
prime minister Rutte at the World Economic Forum in
Davos. Afterwards, the two met once again in Rutte’s
office “het Torentje”.

SMART SECTORS

‘The Netherlands has an outstanding infrastructure.
This includes physical infrastructure such as railways,
ports, motorways, the power grid, water purification and Edwin Prinsen
airports, but also digital infrastructure and technology
acceptance’, says Prinsen. ‘The latter enables us to roll out
new technology here, especially new digital infrastructure INTEGRATED APPROACH
to optimise the use of physical infrastructure.’
This close collaboration with government, universities
Hence Cisco’s deep involvement in the Port of Rotterdam’s and hospitals rises above Cisco’s original claim to fame,
“Smartest Port” programme. Prinsen: ‘Enabling unmanned supplying internet hardware like routers and switches.
shipping demands a coordinated deployment of 5G, Wi-Fi Prinsen: ‘As you can learn from the cases mentioned
and Internet-of-Things and data-integration in a dashboard before, our call has become far more general. We develop
that shows parameters such as saltiness and water height.’ integrated, scalable solutions based on our architecture in
Cisco and their partners are currently busy fitting out the close collaboration with our customers. This is more about
port with loads of sensors to enable this. As Schiphol nears big data analysis on secured software platforms than about
its capacity limits, Cisco is involved in digital support to hardware – although I must admit that is also important.’
optimise passenger logistics. Prinsen gives some other
examples: ‘On behalf of the Ministry of Justice and A new development is to connect these major platforms
Security, we analyse internet traffic to assess safety and ecosystems on a meta-level, for instance to link airport
threats. Together with the University of Twente, we work data to railway data. Prinsen: ‘How can you connect data
on making their campus and library smart, with a joint safely and in such a way that it remains for the owner’s
effort to develop new demand. It is an activity that we eye only? This involves blockchain technology of course.
enjoy a lot: to explore the forefront of new technology These aspects of the software layer on top of networks
in close collaboration with our customers.’ has changed our scope drastically.’

Networks, for instance, have to be scaled so rapidly
HACKING SPIKE nowadays; that scaling can only be carried out auto -
matically – by software. Prinsen sums up: ‘Our analysis
Also, in the healthcare sector, a lot is going on at the activities: software. Security: software. Platforms and
moment. ‘Remote consultation, which allows the patient connectivity: also software-driven. It is therefore safe to
to stay safely at home, has now really taken off’, says say that the more extensive our assignments have become,
Prinsen. ‘The same goes for bedside connectivity that the more we have evolved into a software company.’
enables on-the-spot analysis. An example is X-rays taken
at the patients’ bedside, which are instantly transferred
via Wi-Fi to be filed.’

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