Metaverse: The future is here!
We get some opinions from tech industry experts on the Metaverse, including Lenovo, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Plumm and Investment Mastery.
The tech industry has grown massively in response to the pandemic over the last few years to match the demands of the public. During this surge of new technology, a hot topic rose to the top: The Metaverse!
Ken Wong, President of Lenovo Solutions and Services Group says “The pandemic challenged us all to adapt to new ways of work, forcing organizations of all sizes to evolve at an exponential pace. The metaverse presents businesses with new opportunities but also more complex technological challenges, such as the need for more computing power, better-integrated hardware, and simpler and more flexible IT solutions.”
He makes an excellent point as the industry has grown so much that there are some issues with infrastructure as a result. There are many ways that businesses can prepare for this change without it being a major investment.
“Though the metaverse has yet to be ubiquitous, organizations can get a head start with improving productivity at work. They do not have to invest significantly more capital to achieve that. Everything-as-a-service or pay-as-you-go models offer the flexibility, cost efficiency, and scalability to adapt to each company’s unique circumstance,” added Wong.
He continues to say, “We are just scratching the surface of the metaverse, not to mention the new economics of Web 3.0. For now, the metaverse opens up a world of possibilities for businesses, which according to our research, almost half of employees are willing to participate in. To grasp it, companies need to identify new ways to make the most of their technologies. And Lenovo’s everything-as-a-service offerings can help organizations unleash their full potential.”
When asked for his opinion on this new creation, Moussa Zaghdoud, EVP Cloud at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, points out that “The metaverse is not a new concept. Back in the 2000s, Second Life was an early metaverse system. However, the big difference this time will come from massive digitalization across all domains of society such as healthcare, education, smart cities, retail, and more.
The digitalization and verticalization put together need to have virtual spaces, where people will find the services they need as if there were physically present. This will make the Metaverse useful and relevant for solving concrete problems, moving away from the pure entertainment purpose, and reaching more business needs. The take-off of the metaverse will not happen without super easy user experience to ensure mass adoption which doesn’t only appeal to techies.”
The argument of when the Metaverse was first created is an interesting one, as mentioned in the editorial, the original version dates back to the 1992 Novel ‘Snow Crash’. Though some are still waiting in anticipation for the high-tech future we’re all imagining others have the opinion that it has already arrived.
Marcus de Maria, CEO of Investment Mastery comments “The metaverse is predicted to boom in 2022, we will see our ‘real’ worlds and ‘digital’ worlds collide, so seamlessly that in some cases we won’t know what is real and what is digital. It is a virtual world or a 3D version of the internet.”
He continues by saying “We already have a digital shadow and the more time you spend online, and the less stringently you protect your data, the more detailed it’s likely to be. The metaverse just takes that to the next level. There are different levels to this but in the idealized metaverse, you would wear a virtual reality (VR) headset and be represented in a digital world by a 3D avatar. Then, the 3D world is your oyster, so to speak. You can go around doing all the stuff you can do in the real world but in a virtual reality setting.”
For businesses, he states that “It’s not a guarantee that investing in the Metaverse is a sure thing by any means, but any technology which makes communication between humans easier is likely to gain traction, and it has already started.”
Finally, Asim Amin, CEO, and Founder of Plumm states “I truly believe that the future is not near, but already here. I recently bought the Oculus, and I was honestly mind blown. The experience was so immersive.”
He goes on to point out how this space could be used not just for business or play but also the health industry saying “Just imagine speaking to a therapist in your safe space, with your therapist sitting right across you. I mean you could even be sitting on top of a mountain if you wanted to or by oceans or so on. Group therapy is also such a powerful tool and the metaverse will provide an opportunity for you to connect with so many people easily. It’s still early days, but for me, this is 100% where the future is.”
The possibilities are endless and each day new uses for the Metaverse are being revealed by industry leaders and the public.
This article is from our monthly magazine content, February 2022. To get a first look at all this content, please download our magazine upon release here. Tell us your thoughts on the Metaverse: [email protected]
