Veeam has been named by Gartner as a Magic Quadrant Leader for the fifth consecutive time and positioned highest in ability to execute two years in a rowVeeam Software, the leader in backup, recovery and data management solutions that deliver Modern Data Protection, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the Leaders quadrant of the 2021 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup and Recovery Solutions. Not only does this mark the fifth time Gartner has recognized Veeam as a Magic Quadrant Leader, but it is the second consecutive year Veeam is positioned highest overall in ability to execute; the company had the greatest shift to the right in completeness of vision of all vendors mentioned. Veeam believes this recognition further validates the company's investment and commitment to protecting customer's data and delivering a complete Modern Data Protection portfolio, as well as its decade-long reputation for innovation and product excellence."Now more than ever, organizations expect and demand Modern Data Protection that is simple, flexible, reliable and powerful," said Danny Allan, CTO and Senior Vice President of Product Strategy at Veeam. "As a Magic Quadrant Leader for the fifth year in a row, Veeam is continually innovating and executing, and setting the industry standard. With $1B+ in annual bookings and 400,000+ customers, Veeam will continue to provide its community with the most advanced data protection across all environments – Cloud, Virtual, Physical, SaaS and Kubernetes – and the highest levels of customer-support."Veeam released Veeam Backup & Replication v11 earlier this year, enabling the most advanced data protection solution for Cloud, Virtual, Physical and Enterprise workloads. With more than 200 new features and enhancements, the single solution for comprehensive data management is powerful and flexible enough to protect each phase of the data life cycle, while handling all the complexities of a multi-cloud environment for AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Veeam recently surpassed 1 million active Veeam Backup & Replication installations since the inception of its flagship product 13 years ago.The report included analysis of 12 enterprise data backup and recovery solutions vendors. Access the full report here: https://www.veeam.com/2021-gartner-magic-quadrant.html.For more information, visit https://www.veeam.com.Supporting Quotes"Veeam is widely recognized for cloud data management, so we know that piece of the puzzle is there when we need it. We're counting on Veeam to help us ensure all data is available whether it's on-prem or in a cloud." – Bill Healy, Director of Operations, City of New Orleans"I'm looking forward to trying Instant VM Recovery for Microsoft SQL Server with v11 because SQL Server underpins our ERP system. Being able to recover instantly ensures ERP availability, which helps us meet customers' supply chain demands." – Ken Miller, EDI & Database Administrator, Heidtman Steel Products, Inc."Like most education institutions, we experience a high rate of phishing attempts. It only takes one student, faculty or staff member clicking on one phony link to give cybercriminals free reign for destruction. Veeam lets us create air-gapped tape backups, recover from them quickly and avoid paying ransom. That's priceless." – Mark Dean, Senior Systems Administrator, Morehouse School of MedicineGartner Disclaimer:Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.Gartner and Magic Quadrant are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.About Veeam SoftwareVeeam is the leader in backup, recovery and data management solutions that deliver Modern Data Protection. The company provides a single platform for Cloud, Virtual, Physical, SaaS and Kubernetes environments. Veeam customers are confident their apps and data are protected and always available with the most simple, flexible, reliable and powerful platform in the industry. Veeam protects over 400,000 customers worldwide, including 82% of the Fortune 500 and 69% of the Global 2,000. Veeam's global ecosystem includes 35,000+ technology partners, resellers and service providers, and alliance partners and has offices in more than 30 countries. To learn more, visit www.veeam.com or follow Veeam on LinkedIn @veeam-software and Twitter @veeam.Veeam named by Gartner as a Magic Quadrant Leader for the fifth consecutive time and positioned highest in ability to execute two years in a rowSource: Gartner

The highly anticipated 5G telecommunication technology has features such as high bandwidth, broad data connection, and low latency. Since its advent in 2019, 5G has been viewed as a crucial technology for smart services such as smart cities and smart transportation. However, 5G telecommunication technology has a narrower band signal coverage, compared to 4G. Given that some applied services, such as smart transportation, have extremely high requirements for network latency, telecommunication companies must build a wide range of small base stations to meet the needs of edge computing.Hence, Chenbro launched the RM252/RM352 series server chassis which are designed specifically for the telecommunication industry. The edge computing base station solution was designed based on the O-RAN architecture. This solution has high usability and conforms to the telecommunication industry regulations. The RM252/RM352 can provide resources for edge computing and assist telecommunication companies to seize the immense business opportunities in the 5G era.Chenbro's Product Development Project Manager, Lee Yu-Tzu, stated that although the RM252 and RM352 have slight differences in product positioning, they are all specifically designed for the telecommunication industry. First of all, both products adopt the OTII (Open Telecom IT Infrastructure), jointly developed by Intel and China's telecommunication industry, which reduces operating costs and enhances business agility. Secondly, the products adopt a 450mm ultra-short depth chassis design with a dual-processor motherboard that supports the SSI EEB specification. In addition to providing high-performance computing capabilities, it can also optimize space in the data center.Thirdly, the RM252/RM352 series offer FIO (Front I/O) and RIO (Rear I/O) connection mechanisms, allowing operators to have a full understanding of the devices' operating status at the front end. Operators can also install additional devices. Besides meeting the requirements of different application scenarios, the two products can also reduce operating costs. In order to facilitate the maintenance of equipment, the two products adopt the latest disassembly tool-free design in addition to a dual redundant power supply with built-in hot-swap functions. This not only greatly reduces maintenance time but also improves the reliability of the system. It is worth noting that the two products adopt a flexible fan design, which was designed based on the limited space for microcell base stations and the relatively harsh environments where they are deployed. This design allows the RM252/RM352 to operate normally even in a scorching-hot environment without air conditioning.Tom Tsai, Project Manager at Chenbro, said that in addition to enhancing the reliability of the products, many components in the two products adopted modular designs. In other words, when encountering unfortunate incidents, such as hardware equipment failures or when needing to install an expansion card, an operator can replace or add components in the shortest amount of time, lowering service interrupted time to the minimum.The RM252 series server is 2U in height and is equipped with two 800W power supplies. It can be installed at most three full-height or seven half-height PCIe expansion cards, such as the FPGA accelerator to boost edge computing performance. The product comes with a SATA hard-disk drive by default. If you need to store large amounts of data, you can also use an NVMe all-flash hard-disk drive to enhance overall I/O performance. The RM352 series server is 3U in height and is equipped with two 1600W power supplies, which can be installed at most eight full-height PCIe expansion cards, such as the GPU or FPGA accelerators to boost machine learning performance.According to Chenbro's plans, the Company will continue to build small base stations according to the requirements of the telecommunication industry. The Company will adjust the specifications of the RM252/RM352 series server chassis and add more model types to assist telecommunication companies to seize the immense business opportunities in the 5G era.Chenbro released a 2U highly expandable server chassis and a 3U GPGPU server chassis, providing more options for edge computing deployment

Blockchain technology is based on programmed computation and cryptography, and its transactions are both immutable and irrevocable. The technology also makes use of peer-to-peer network (P2P) protocols to ensure that the functionality of the entire network remains highly stable even when any individual node is damaged or lost. When applied to innovative business models such as charging stations in the electric vehicle (EV) market, blockchain technology provides a stable, secure, and large-scale management system for different consumers such as vehicle manufacturers, government regulators, energy providers, banks, and the general public.The mobility industry is in the midst of a revolutionary change driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and self-driving technology. The active development of blockchain technology has given rise to important opportunities, signaling the start of a software-driven evolution. The booming electric vehicle market is one such example, wherein it created a successful business model that generates profit by introducing software upgrades and value-added services. The future development of the entire automotive industry will likely hinge on such profit models as well.Because the mobility industry is so large, accounting for 10-15% of the global GDP, the business opportunities it presents are also staggering. Be it electronic payments, data exchange, and information sharing and preservation, blockchain technology will be playing an emerging and crucial role. Thus the establishment of an industry standard for blockchain technology has consequently become a pressing necessity. The Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) was established in 2018 as a nonprofit organization to set new standards for blockchain technology in the mobility market, with the expectation that a universal standard will allow the industry to jointly develop value-added services that use blockchain technology for more efficient, lower cost, greener, and safer intelligent transportation.VID standard creating new profit modes MOBI co-directors and founders Chris Ballinger and Tram Vo jointly attended this interview. MOBI currently has six working groups in charge of setting blockchain-based standards, with their foremost important standard being the Vehicle Identity, or MOBI VID. Other standards the initiative have created include Usage-Based insurance (UBI) and Electric Vehicle Grid Integration (EVGI), and an effort to set a standard in the globally recognized fields of carbon tracking and smart contracts is also underway. Digital wallet and electronic payments for the data market as well as integrated standards for supply chains are also prospective areas for the initiative. MOBI is leading the conversation in the global mobility industry and has created significant investment and business opportunities in booming start-ups.MOBI's first-generation VID standard was announced in August 2020, and Ballinger noted that MOBI has integrated the standards established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to quickly reach the market. For the industry, the increasing ubiquity of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) allows vehicles to share real-time services such as weather, traffic, maps, and parking information on public networks with complete security. While IoV makes a variety of other smart services possible as well, reliable identification is indispensable for business applications such as electronic payment or applications in insurance and finance.As VIDs create reliable vehicle and passenger information, new forms of application have also been emerging. Take for example the cooperation between auto brands, banks, and insurers: VID has allowed for more flexible terms in car insurance and travel insurance policies that can better meet client demands. At the same time, the second generation of the VID standard has been released. It aims to quickly realize other forms of application such as used car trading by allowing for the exchange and sharing of car maintenance data. The current scope of applications includes the fields of insurance, IoT, supply chain, finance, and asset securitization.BiiLabs cuts out the middleman between owners and service providers with its digital wallet serviceTram Vo believes that the most important contribution of MOBI standards is implementation and integration of services. The mobility industry has a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars and is highly influential. To enable such an influential market to rapidly integrate various established technologies and communities, MOBI is now actively promoting mobiNET infrastructure and Citopia Applications Marketplace Platform. mobiNET aims to establish a B2B network between industries and encourage data interoperability and integration through open application programming interfaces (APIs), while the Citopia Platform provides a public trading model for different terminal software in the large and competitive market of telematics software, helping to make MOBI standards more widespread.The introduction of blockchain technology has been met with some resistance because it has not been as immediately successful commercially as other emerging technologies that have been able to quickly capture large amounts of revenue. Given this, Ballinger believes that while the technology does contain a very high potential for profitability, its main strength will derive from the interconnection and collaboration between communities to create killer applications in the industry. Tram Vo adds that she has seen government agencies around the world start to use blockchain for new applications. The South Korean government, for example, is already using it to issue digital driver's licenses and for highway toll payments. Nearly 100 related proposals and initiatives have also been popping up in different markets around the world, demonstrating a truly uplifting landscape for innovative applications of blockchain technology in the future.New startups are also investing in the MOBI standards in full swing. BiiLabs, a Taiwanese startup company, is reducing meaningless middleman fees by applying blockchain applications to mobility technology and driving behaviors. The company is already making a name for itself in China's charging station services, helping energy service providers and car brands create electronic wallets exclusively for charging stations and vehicle owners. The code-based car charging payment technology restores the simplicity of offline payments and improves convenience for both parties. With such collaborations between the private sector and the government, MOBI standards are aiming to become an important driver for change in the smart mobility industry.MOBI was established in 2018 as a nonprofit organization to set new standards for blockchain technology in the mobility market

The whole world is striding towards digitization and adopting smart technologies is the key strategy for sustainable development of manufacturers. Coretronic is an expert in the field of optoelectronics, as evidenced in the market share of its high-quality audiovisual products. However, the company not only seeks to continue advancing its optoelectronics business, but also develop unique advantages in the manufacturing sector.Smart systems have been deployed in its factories to enhance production yield and efficiency. What's more, these systems now work as solutions for smart factories, smart warehouses, industrial artificial intelligence (AI), fully-automated smart transportation, and private clouds in the industrial Internet of Things (IoT), in order to offer well-rounded assistance for manufacturers to successfully intelligentize and digitize their business.Eric Wu, president of Coretronic MEMS Corporation, stated that Coretronic decided to establish two subsidiaries, Coretronic MEMS Corporation and Coretronic Intelligent Logistics Solutions Corporation, in addition to Coretronic Intelligent Robotics Corporation to provide comprehensive smart solutions to manufacturers. The experience of these enterprises in the combination of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems has been leveraged to create a central control dashboard system that can maximize production efficiency with physical-virtual integration and cloud data.Wu further expressed that the smart manufacturing sector can be roughly categorized into four layers: sensing, communications, cloud, and applications. Sensing is what initiates the entire system, the first step, and is responsible for collecting the data of manufacturing equipment on site. Communications technology then transmits such data to the back office. Nevertheless, the front office equipment produces massive amounts of data that could hugely burden the bandwidth and back office cloud platform. The Jupiter industrial equipment inspection solution is Coretronic MEMS Corporation's response to this challenge, based on its wealth of experience in the field. It can discern which equipment data is meaningful from the very first moment, thereby enhancing equipment effectiveness in the entire framework. The solution's MEMS vibration sensor is based on polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) multilayers technology, which brings a wide range of advantages in terms of performance: compactness, instrumental precision, and anti-interference ability against temperature and stress. Customers can gain access to an all-encompassing industrial AI solution by further combining the edge computing device and AI algorithms to effectively accomplish early warning and prognostic maintenance tasks of production lines.Furthermore, there are numerous production lines dedicated to precision finishing in Taiwan, which are heavily reliant on the skills of expert craftsmen to manufacture high precision products. Shortage of manpower, however, poses a great risk for the transmission of these techniques as expert craftsmen have no one to pass on their knowledge to. Coretronic MEMS Corporation has also found an answer for this problem by collaborating with customers and successfully internalizing the experience of expert craftsmen, turning it into a smart solution: built-in AI algorithms. Quantitative database indices help customers address staffing shortage and attain capacity expansion.With regard to intelligent robotics, the fully-autonomous mobile platform, comprised of an unmanned vehicle and autonomous mobile robot (AMR), is seen as a smart terminal essential to intelligentization in the industrial sector. Mac Chiang, general manager, Coretronic Intelligent Robotics Corporation, stated that the company's autonomous mobile robot (AMR) forklift and transporter is equipped with core technologies that encompass an interprocess communication (IPC) platform with in-built AI functions, 2D/3D simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) advanced navigation technology, AI-enabled image recognition, and a self-produced movement control and motor driver module. It is the optimal setup for a fully-automated smart transportation solution. With self-navigation functions, a 3D high precision map, and an accurate positioning of up to +/-10 mm, it is no longer necessary to manually install sensors, 2D positioning barcodes, or other outside equipment, allowing for more flexible planning of the production line.This AMR forklift and transporter can also automatically avoid obstacles. It intelligently stops whenever it encounters a human or an obstacle, waiting until the object is removed before automatically resuming motion to complete its task, fulfilling the requirements of unmanned systems. Furthermore, it can operate both indoors and outdoors without being affected by natural light rays, making it ideal for use by logistics and warehousing operators who need to work over large spaces. Coretronic's AMRs currently play an important role in the commercial operations of numerous Taiwanese manufacturers and logistics operators of various sectors. The AMR forklift, in particular, has been deployed by a large Tier 1 supplier of electronic vehicles in southern Taiwan. With the ability to judge whether there are any moving vehicles or humans, it journeys between the indoors of two big factories through the outdoors, even crossing streets on its own. It successfully saves factory staff efforts by autonomously transporting and stacking metal cages totaling up to 2 metric tons.In terms of business management, Coretronic has already set up enterprise resource planning (ERP), advanced planning and scheduling (APS), and product lifecycle management (PLM) systems to get exact information about the situation on site. Machine monitoring vibration censors, an equipment data network, and fully-autonomous mobile robots, among other OT terminal equipment have been deployed in factories. Recently, Coretronic has integrated these two system categories and by adding logistics into consideration, created a CiLS digital management platform that can single-handedly deal with people, machines, materials, regulations, and the environment. K.C. Yeh, Chief Digital Officer of Coretronic Intelligent Logistics Solutions Corporation, commented that this framework contains everything necessary, from the most basic edge computing and platform as service (PaaS) to the most advanced software as service (SaaS) and other cloud platforms, which enables the company to build the most adequate smart solution tailored to each manufacturer's actual needs. The company's AI technical team has already helped several Taiwanese semiconductor leaders build smart sensing devices that can obtain data from existent OT terminal equipment and integrate vertically with the IT system to form a platform for manufacturing monitoring and decision-making.Finally, K.C. Yeh said that the production processes and corporate workflows vary largely among manufacturers so there is a large demand for customizable manufacturing systems. Coretronic Intelligent Logistics Solutions Corporation has the ability to provide well-rounded, professional services whether in the deployment of smart technology for an entire new factory or the expansion and upgrade of an existent plant, making possible flexible system planning and assisting businesses to start their intelligentization and digitization with the right step.Eric Wu, president of Coretronic MEMS Corporation

YCTek, the world biggest micro heat pipe manufacturer, has reached a formal patent license agreement with NeoGene Tech to adopt PWS (Print Wick Structuring) approach and MagicWick-Inside Technology Platform. Adopting such patented technology along with domestically-made fully automated production lines, YCTek is able to deliver ultra-thin vapor chamber devices with thickness of under 0.25mm in mass production.NeoGene Tech, a technology platform startup located in Guangzhou Science City in China has been devoted to revolutionizing the way of designing and fabricating ultra-thin vapor chambers devices for 5G mobile computing applications. It unveiled its PWS approach as well as MagicWick-Inside Technology Platform for this regard in third-quarter 2020.More and more heat is generated in compact devices, particularly in 5G mobile computing. Thermal management is emerging as a vital issue for all brands. Both micro heat pipe and vapor chamber are two-phase flow devices commonly used in electronics cooling, and ultra-thin vapor chamber devices are becoming necessary for smartphone and slim notebook applications. More and more smartphones adopt ultra-thin vapor chamber for thermal management, but the thickness is at above 0.3mm. The thickness of vapor chamber devices has to be as thin as possible but the size has to be as big as possible.For 5G smartphone applications, the thickness of the vapor chambers will be migrating down to 0.25mm and below. Large area is also needed in the device for effective heat dissipation. The trend of device thickness and sizes is becoming a very tough issue in making ultra-thin vapor chamber with the traditional copper mesh wick structure approach due to the limitation of capillary force and lack of production automation."NeoGene Tech's mission is to change the DNA of making wick structure as well as device itself. Optimal flow channels design and wick structure fabrication are becoming crucial means to make it easier to produce ultra-thin vapor chamber with better performances. The wick structure inside the vapor chamber, called MagicWick, can be made by using a magic paste material and automatic screen printing and sintering processes. So far, we have around 10 players, including major thermal module manufacturers in Taiwan, Japan, the US, and China, that have adopted such technology sampling MagicWick-Inside VC, "said Jeffrey Chen, CEO of NeoGene Tech."YCTek is a pioneer company that adopts PWS approach and MagicWick-Inside Technology Platform to develop and sample a variety of ultra-thin vapor chamber devices, and we have the advantage of being the first to move into fully-automated production. For manufacturing such ultra-thin VC devices, a fully automated production line adopting print wick structuring (PWS) and continuous diffusion bonding process has been built and had trial runs at YCTek's Zhongshan plant in Guangdong province in June, 2021. The number of operators in the labor-saving full production line is very limited. The production capacity of ultra-thin MagicWick-Inside VC in full production automation is initially two millions pieces per month and it will be ramping up to six million pieces per month by third-quarter 2022. Capital investment for exclusive production lines can be also arranged without limitation to fit customers' special requirements," said David Wang, chairman of YCTek.YCTek has implemented fully-automated productionPhoto: Company

Electric vehicles (EV) have been regarded as the mainstream of next-gen automobiles. According to the statistics by DIGITIMES Research, with a global annual growth rate of 19% in 2020, electric vehicles will hit the tens-of-millions scale by 2025. Global environmental awareness and new emerging technologies are the two driving forces behind this rapid growth. When it comes to technology, electric vehicles' power management has been a major industry focus in recent years. Therefore, FTEX's GaNFET powertrain solution, which extends driving range by 30%, has become the center of attention.Hailing from Canada, FTEX specializes in EV power management solutions. During its early years, the company focused on applications for e-scooters, e-bikes, and electric motorcycles. FTEX later expanded its product portfolio to include larger vehicles as its technology matured. FTEX's core products are smart dynamic motor drives built using GaNFET technology, which increase the range of today's batteries by 30%.FTEX's solution can be divided into two facets: hardware and software. The hardware increases vehicles' driving performance by improving the powertrain. The company pairs a GaNFET motor controller and a DC/DC converter, which allows the system to adjust its voltage dynamically, thus greatly increasing controller efficiency. In terms of software, FTEX uses its proprietary smart algorithm to control the DC/DC voltage output and the motor controller to continually reoptimize the powertrain in real time and increase efficiency, range and power. Furthermore, this software can monitor electric vehicles' environment variables, such as battery health and temperature, which boosts stability and increases battery life.This integration of hardware and software allows FTEX to offer excellent power management solutions for electric vehicle industry players. In the future, the company plans to fortify its software-oriented groundwork. Through continuous data collection and machine learning, FTEX will be able to fine-tune its ability to modulate battery power and use the full range of motor power. Through this, FTEX can optimize motor performance for a much greater range of speeds and torques. Currently, FTEX has integrated its proprietary technologies into one solution and released its Dynamic Drive. This product can be applied to many types of electric vehicles, and is seamlessly linked to the software platform that FTEX specially designed for OEM businesses, providing an optimized end-user experience.In recent years, investment in the electric vehicle market by businesses in Taiwan has been accelerating. According to FTEX, with strong technology capabilities, these businesses are sure to have a promising future in this market. FTEX products can further increase the value of these businesses. Presently, FTEX divides the applications of its products into 100V and 600V solutions. The company's ultimate vision is to offer more solutions that boost vehicle performance, and to become the go-to third-party technology provider for electric vehicle manufacturers seeking better power management solutions. FTEX is actively opening up the Taiwanese market. The company hopes to collaborate with manufacturers interested in entering the electric vehicle market to develop market-ready products. By combining the technical capabilities of Canada and Taiwan, we will seize the coming EV business opportunities.Operation team of FTEXPhoto: Company

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic rampaged the world. Many countries were on high alert and prohibited people from going outdoors freely. Such measures effectively controlled the virus, but it took a heavy toll on the economic development around the world. The retail and food services industry was one of the industries that borne the biggest brunt of the pandemic. CEO at DataVan, Kris Hsu, stated that although the restrictions imposed reduced in-store consumption revenue within the retail and food services industry, they also led to new business opportunities.In addition to delivery and take away services that have seen enormous growth for the past year, many business owners are gradually introducing contactless unmanned stores and facial recognition security systems. This is all in the hopes of driving the business transformation through the power of new technologies.Hsu further stated that amid the pandemic that has been spreading for over a year, the greatest change to the retail and food service industry is that food delivery services became the dominant business model. Under this model, there will inevitably be fewer store personnel. To maintain normal operation with limited manpower, remote monitoring became an important trend in IT systems within the retail and food service industry. Management systems that have remote monitoring functions can monitor point of sale (POS) status directly from the back-end, enabling sufficient understanding of data from each store branch to optimize management efficiency.In addition to POS remote monitoring, another trend in the retail industry is unmanned stores. Take the most well-known Amazon GO for example; after its launch in 2018, although its concept was well acclaimed, integration in the market was limited. This changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon now allows retailers to use its core technology called "Just Walk Out" by licensing the technology to build more unmanned stores. Hsu admitted that Taiwan has yet to accept unmanned stores. Most consumers still prefer to use services that require store personnel. In spite of this, we can still implement relevant concepts such as self-service counters where store clerks only provide assistance when consumers face technical issues. Some large business owners have already tried to integrate remote monitoring and self-service counters in Taiwan's retail industry to seize the opportunity to transform their businesses amid the pandemic.As business owners are changing business models, they are also cooperating to curb the spread of the virus. According to Hsu, although we may be able to control the pandemic, humans will still need to co-exist with the virus. The retail and food service industry therefore has the responsibility to provide safe consumption and working environments for consumers and workers. To curb the spread more effectively, he suggests that business owners should make use of the power of new technologies. For instance, install temperature detection and facial recognition platforms at the entrance of shopping malls or restaurants. Businesses should aim to accurately detect the identity and temperature of those entering the building without causing inconvenience to the customers.In order to meet the business needs of retail and food business owners amid the pandemic, DataVan launched a series of solutions. When it comes to POS management systems, the Company launched the cloud software platform—DataVan Central. This platform can remotely monitor POS status and troubleshoot issues. In addition, store personnel do not need to close the register at the end of a business day via POS machines, they can do it via the cloud. This boosts management efficiency; thus, POS is more in line with actual business requirements.As for COVID-19 prevention, DataVan's Facelook X1 integrated contactless temperature detection and facial recognition technologies. Hsu stated that Facelook X1 has features such as quick facial recognition, accurate temperature detection and is easy and fast to install. Facelook X1 has been well acclaimed by many enterprises since its launch. Compared to similar products on the market, Facelook X1's greatest feature is that it integrates AI algorithms that enable smart learning. Its facial recognition capabilities can maintain a high accuracy rate - 99.25% - even if a person is wearing a mask. In addition, the system can also detect those who are not wearing a mask and immediately send alert signals to lower the risk of infection.Furthermore, with great expandability capabilities, Facelook X1's applications allow for more flexibility. For example, it can be integrated into 2D scanners and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) modules to detect ID cards, Health Insurance cards, membership cards, tickets, etc. This satisfies the diverse requirements of business owners and brings forth more application scenarios.Hsu suggested that there is opportunity in every crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed brought immense challenges to different industries, but it is also an opportunity for businesses to transform themselves. DataVan's all-round solutions can assist enterprises to adjust their business models, helping them seize new business opportunities during the pandemic.CEO at DataVan, Kris Hsu, said that although the restrictions imposed reduced in-store consumption revenue within the retail and food services industry, they also led to new business opportunities.

In the post-pandemic era, many countries are still facing multiple challenges in production and manufacturing, including labor and material shortages, rise in labor costs, halts in production and manufacturing as anti-pandemic prevention measures, lags in supply chain procurement, among others. The current automated mechanical production lines can no longer keep up with the market's competition, forcing manufacturers to actively seek solutions to tackle the challenges of this ever-changing environment. Through the gradual popularization and development of 5G technology, the integration of edge computing, 5G, and AI will have the greatest impact in the digitization of smart factories. It will also become one of the growth drivers in the servers market.Chenbro stated that 5G technology has features such as high bandwidth, low latency and the ability to connect a large amount of data. In the future, by establishing a 5G private network in a factory, massive amount of data can be sent from factory machines and production lines to the edge computing server via a 5G network for preliminary interpretation. The data will then be standardized for further analysis and processing. An edge computing server, when integrated with a cloud data center, can also perform AI deduction. It can analyze big data through AI deep learning. Furthermore, the AI analysis can allow decision makers take more accurate and faster decisions, improving the production efficiency and capabilities of factories. This architecture can be applied to different smart factory scenarios such as AOI inspection, preventive maintenance, robotic arms, and automated guided vehicles (AGV) to support manufacturers in their upgrading and transformation processes towards smart manufacturing.The manufacturing industry is widely diverse. It includes technology sectors such as electronics, semiconductors, aerospace, and machineries. It also includes traditional sectors such as textiles, footwear, pulp and paper, petrochemicals, steel, and cement. Manufacturing environments are usually high in temperature and humidity, and filled with dust. In order to maintain high computing performance, servers need to have high stability and must be able to adapt to harsh environments to meet operating requirements. Equipped with strong hardware technical support, Chenbro provides excellent heat dissipation, verified testing, and complete electromechanical integration services. The company also combines modularized product design capabilities to assist clients and provide them with high flexibility when configuring the hardware framework of a server. This is all to meet the needs of manufacturers' complex operating environments.Chenbro provides comprehensive server and storage device solutions that meet high-stability and high-performance computing requirements. These solutions include barebone server products, high-density storage solutions, compact server chassis, tower server chassis, diversified options in all-flash storage arrays, and the edge computing server chassis series that has received much market attention recently.IDC stated that edge computing is a distributed computing architecture. It connects cloud-centered/traditional data centers with terminal equipment and serves as an intermediary. Edge computing servers can be divided into two types. The first type is a standard server deployed at the edge of a network. The second is a specified server designed according to different scenarios at the edge of a network. The IDC predicted that as there are more diverse scenarios in the applications of edge computing at the data-generation end, the demand for edge computing servers that have specific external sizes, low-energy-consumption capabilities, broad working temperature, and other specified designs, will see accelerating growth to adapt to complex and diverse deployment environments. Many edge computing devices must be built in a limited space; therefore, Chenbro uses small-sized chassis to meet the requirements of edge computing deployment. Chenbro's edge computing servers combine high-performance computing, sufficient storage and network kits in a shallow-depth and small-sized chassis for flexible applications in the deployment of edge computing devices.Edge computing servers have become indispensable in smart factories. Currently, small industrial computers or smart machine boxes are used as edge gateways on the market. Edge computing platforms require a certain level of performance to reach an instant response; therefore, in applications, edge computing platforms are paired with edge computing servers to serve as edge computing servers. Chenbro indicated that the integration of emerging technologies - edge computing, 5G, and AI - will further boost the development of smart manufacturing. In the future, the edge computing server market will witness a rapid expansion. Chenbro will continue to navigate the field of 5G, AI, and edge computing. In addition to OEM and ODM services, the Company also provides OTS standard products to system integration companies and channel partners. In the advent of the 5G era, Chenbro hopes to retain its competitive edge in the market thanks to its AI and edge computing server products.Chenbro's edge computing server solutions boost smart manufacturing AIoT deployment

Smart manufacturing has been the most important trend in the manufacturing industry in recent years. Compared to the focus on individual equipment efficiency in traditional production lines, smart manufacturing focuses more on overall solutions. However, JPC believes that industrial systems are not only complex because of multiple brands coexisting on the market, but also require much higher system stability than other industries. Therefore, when building industrial manufacturing systems, special attention must be paid to the compatibility between communication protocols of different brands and the quality of first-line equipment and components, so that the system can meet the needs of clients.In the face of increasing competition and difficulty recruiting workers due to Taiwan's sub-replacement fertility levels, transitioning to smart manufacturing through new technology and new ideas has become essential for the sustainable survival of the manufacturing industry. However, the fact that manufacturing systems involve a massive range of components and that smart manufacturing is a novel concept means that for companies, the transitioning task is a daunting effort with no apparent starting point.In response, JPC stated that it has an extensive record in the industry and that its main business is to provide connectors and related parts and components. However, the company has also established itself in the fields of cloud networking, Internet of things (IoT) systems, and new energy vehicles (NEV). Especially for industrial manufacturing IoT systems, not only does the company have a comprehensive product line and IoT team, but its factories have also accumulated considerable experience in smart manufacturing. These two factors define the company as a system designer in service to manufacturers. JPC can help clients identify process pain points and create the most optimized systems.JPC pointed out that the topology of industrial IoT networks can be divided into the three layers: Device Layer (Control Layer), Communication Layer (SCADA Layer) and Application Layer (Cloud Layer), with each layer having corresponding components and products. First, the Device Layer is comprised of various sensors in charge of detecting operational data from first-line equipment. Second, the Communication Layer is responsible for aggregating the detected data and sending it to the processing system higher up in the topology. Lastly, the Application Layer will then store and analyze the data it has received to help managers accurately control and monitor the manufacturing status and to set production strategies accordingly.JPC already has a complete product line for components and devices used in industrial IoT networks. At present, Modbus and Ethernet are still the mainstream communication standard in industrial equipment, while NB-IoT, UWB, and other wireless communication technologies are also becoming increasingly common in manufacturing. In this regard, JPC offers high-quality solutions. The company is also an authorized dealer of Yamaha, a major Japanese brand, for products related to the hallmark equipment of automated factories - robotic arms. These products make JPC able to provide a one-stop shop for manufacturers.In addition to possessing comprehensive solutions for industrial IoT networks, JPC is also actively collaborating with other companies, pointing out that such cross-field cooperation has long become a necessity due to manufacturing systems being comprised of technologies from multiple fields. The Company has been working with FSP Group and Coretronic, among other strategic partners, in forming a smart technology 5G task force. Such extensive and strategic partnership has already given rise to many successful case stories.For example, the UWB sensors recently developed by JPC. By combining the ultra-wide band (UWB) technology and the Company's strong product development capabilities, JPC was able to create a sensor with high-precision positioning capability that can be used to locate and track the objects on a 2D or 3D plane. Unlike other object positioning systems that only function indoors, the Company's UWB sensors can be used outdoors with a detection range of up to 500 meters. JPC worked with the client to integrate UWB sensors and AI technology into their logistics operation and unmanned factory systems. The intelligent system can assist logistic companies to accurately grasp the location and route of the goods, and to effectively dispatch vehicles to optimize the efficiency of warehousing operations.While this is only a single example, it nonetheless demonstrates JPC's strong capabilities in smart manufacturing planning and integration. JPC added that their high-quality products ensure the stability and performance of its systems. With a diverse product portfolio, excellent customer relations, strategic partnerships, and integration expertise, these four key strengths have allowed JPC to stand out from traditional parts and components suppliers and successfully transition into a comprehensive solution provider for smart manufacturing systems. The Company pointed out that in the era of smart manufacturing, clients do not need isolated equipment and technology, but a customized solution that can accurately solve the client's pain points and increase their efficiency. JPC can design the most optimal infrastructure tailored to the needs of clients and assist them with the digital upgrade of their company despite resource constraints, helping clients become more competitive in the increasingly harsh ecosystem of the industry.JPC successfully transitions into a comprehensive solution provider for smart manufacturing systems

With the rise of the 5G smart manufacturing trend, the volume of equipment in factories is expanding and processes are continuously being refined, which has led to an increasing demand for power and more complex power system architecture. It is becoming more and more difficult for industrial customers to rely on a single power supplier to meet the diverse power supply needs of their factories in a stable manner, which may pose a potential problem for the progress of factory smartization.At this moment, FSP, which has always had multiple advantages such as comprehensive product lines, one-stop ordering, and high-mix low-volume (HMLV) shipment capabilities, can undoubtedly provide industrial customers and SIs with the greatest stability.Early deployment of high wattage power supplies solving industry's urgent needs in timely mannerAccording to Chu Ting-Chuan, senior manager of FSP's Product Marketing Division, FSP has accumulated decades of experience and knowledge in power supply development, and has developed thousands of standard products to date. With this foundation combined with micro-customization services, they were able to position themselves early in the field of smart manufacturing to meet the needs of industrial customers with a wide range of power solutions.In the early days, factories were based on automated production and PLCs alone were sufficient to meet computing power requirements. Now, as industries move toward Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing, edge computing needs are also starting to be integrated. With more and more Edge Boxes and AI Boxes installed, it has caused the power demand for computing units to surge from 10-20 watts to over 150 watts. Despite the increase in demand, it has not yet reached such a large volume as several Kilowatts, which means it would not attract power supply manufacturers to invest in the development of corresponding standard products, creating a demand gap as a result.Fortunately, FSP has long been committed to meeting the HMLV demand, and the minimum order quantity (MOQ) threshold is relatively low. In addition, the company has business relationship with more than 70% of the domestic industrial computer companies and has a good understanding of the product iteration trend in the industrial sector. Therefore, FSP made planning in advance and developed high wattage power adapters, Flex ATX power supplies, and CRPS/Slim redundant power supplies, in order to meet the urgent needs of their customers in a timely manner.To date, FSP has provided external adapters for up to 330W, and as for internal power supplies, they provide Flex ATX power supplies up to 850W (a supply of the same size is suitable for 100W-500W) and redundant power supplies up to 3,000W (CRPS Redundant between 550W-2,400W have the same physical dimensions; and Slim Redundant between 80W-2,000W have the same height and width dimensions). It is clear that FSP not only has a complete range of products that is rarely seen in the industry, but also allows high and low wattage products to share the same size specifications as much as possible, which helps customers to reduce internal management costs by eliminating the need for platform replacement. In addition, the product life cycle is more than 10 years, which is sufficient to ensure the stability of the factory's power structure.Micro-customization support to meet diverse demand modesChu Ting-Chuan emphasized that in the 5G smart manufacturing era, FSP's power supply products are expected to bring many unique advantages to customers. Firstly, FSP has the ability to meet IEC 61010 safety requirements, and can provide comprehensive power supply solutions. Secondly, FSP can provide micro-customization services to meet customers' needs, such as adjusting cable lengths, configuring specific connectors, adding specific communication interfaces, increasing surge protection, etc., and all of these needs can be met quickly.In addition, FSP has a close collaboration with many industrial computer manufacturers, so they can have access to the industrial equipment development trend in advance and develop new products to meet the trend. For example, FSP was the first to introduce power supplies that meet the new IEC 62368 safety standard and the 80 PLUS certification.More importantly, the abundant experience of FSP has enabled them to foresee that the power supply needs of smart factories will become more complex in the future, and there will be different input/output voltage forms, unlike the past when only AC input was available, where the possible integration with telecommunications power sources means that new 48Vdc input requirements may arise. In this regard, FSP has developed a product strategy that is most beneficial to their customers, confirming that the "input voltage will not be changed". By using a fixed hardware platform, different inputs can be supported through making only software configuration changes, which will allow customers to quickly meet their power supply needs for different environments.Furthermore, with an eye on the cloud and 5G development, FSP has developed the Open Frame Power Supply (OFP) early on, launching 65W-250W products for the 2"x4" architecture specification and 65W-450W products for the 3"x5" architecture specification. In addition to providing a wide range of wattage options, FSP also offers a variety of output voltage options such as 5V, 12V, 18V, 19V, 24V, and 54V. Inheriting its past strengths in car charger design, FSP also aims to develop 600W and 700W AGV/AMR chargers to meet the needs of AGV and AMR factories.Winning favor of major IPC manufacturers with comprehensive products and efficient servicesMost major international industrial computer manufacturers are customers of FSP, which gives FSP the opportunity to follow the pace of its customers and expand its deployment for smart manufacturing applications.Many major industrial computer manufacturers use FSP's power supplies in different sections of their automated factories, such as workshops, central control systems, and cloud, as well as various applications such as Panel, Gateway, and AGV. FSP was able to win the favor of a certain customer when the same production line required multiple PSUs, each with different power and form factor conditions, but FSP was able to provide comprehensive solutions, coupled with a low MOQ threshold and high ODM flexibility.Lai Chun-Hung, senior manager of FSP's Pan-Asia Pacific Business Division, said that Advantech's smart factory solutions span from data acquisition, edge computing, central control, and smart decision-making, each of which requires different power supply products, including adapters, Flex ATX/ATX built-in power supplies, and redundant power supplies. With a range from as low as 30W-40W to as high as 1,000W-2,000W, there were many matching problems, which required necessary adjustment for power supply products. Therefore, Advantech chose to work closely with FSP, because FSP can offer a full range of products that can easily meet compatibility requirements. Secondly, the professional team of PMs, FAEs, and RDs at FSP was able to quickly solve a wide range of micro-customization problems within a week.ADLINK's product portfolio covers smart manufacturing (such as smart monitoring of process water and power consumption, AI object identification and behavior analysis, real-time data collection and management, real-time equipment monitoring and fault prediction, AI optical inspection, equipment networking solutions), transportation and logistics (AMR), and control center (visual dashboard monitoring). All of which use FSP power supplies, including 300W-1,000W ATX and 100W-500W Flex ATX. ADLINK's choice was mainly due to FSP's high product line coverage and the high efficiency of micro-customization.Overall, smart manufacturing involves multiple fields and cross-disciplinary cooperation is inevitable. FSP has formed a smart 5G task force with a number of strategic partners, including ADLINK, Chenbro, Coretronic, and JPC. Such extensive and strategic partnership has already given rise to many successful case stories. The ability to provide one-stop service, comprehensive product lines, micro-customization, high product reliability, and technical expertise to help solve compatibility issues are the key advantages that have won FSP the favor of many industrial customers.Chu Ting-Chuan (from right to left), Joey Cheng and Lai Chun-Hung - managing executives of FSP