How VMware is helping organisations around the world solve some of humanity’s biggest challenges
The world is now at a point where our action, or inaction, will have a very real impact on future generations. The scale of the challenge Earth’s 7.6 billion inhabitants face to ensure that our people and planet will prosper now and in the future is one that everybody must confront head-on.
Massive population growth has put increasing pressure on an already fragile ecosystem. We aim to provide education, healthcare, housing, food and safety for everyone on the planet, yet are stretching the resources available so thinly that scarcity amongst these is becoming more and more prevalent. Couple this with the impacts of climate change and it is estimated more than 100 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report says we have just 12 years before we do irreversible damage to our planet through climate change.
The challenges might be insurmountable, but we have never been better equipped than right now, to tackle the challenges that our planet faces. For us here at VMware, that’s helping our customers use technology as a force for good. Whether that’s Berliner Stadtreinigung making the city of Berlin a much cleaner, more sustainable place to live; Helse Nord providing cutting-edge healthcare technology for Norwegien residents; Schloß Schönbrunn preserving Austria’s royal history or Banca Popolare di Sondrio playing a key role in the economic prosperity of Sondrio.
Today, we have four technology superheroes that will help us bring about positive change in the world:
- Mobile – provides unprecedented reach
- Cloud – delivers previously unimaginable, infinite scale
- AI – enables us to mine massive amounts of data in real time and use those insights to create entirely new business models
- Edge/IoT – connects the physical and digital worlds in a way never before possible – bringing technology into every dimension of human progress
Alone these four extraordinary “superhero” technologies are powerful. Together, they are reshaping every aspect of society and have a transformative effect on quality of life around the world.
VMware is lucky enough to work with companies and organisations that are already doing amazing work around the world that we can draw inspiration from. Take The Christie as an example. The largest single cancer care centre in Europe, it delivers care to more than 44,000 patients a year and is a world pioneer in the treatment and research of cancer. Using VMware it has given clinicians much quicker, simpler and immediate access to patient data so that they can deliver the exceptional care patients rightly expect from a leading cancer care hospital. Elsewhere, Dubai Municipality is helping the Dubai government achieve its goal to be one of the top ten happiest cities in the world by 2021 by safeguarding the quality of urban life, environment and natural resources across the city. With a new mobile solution from VMware, it has improved the day-to-day running of the city, raising the happiness of Dubai’s residents.
These are just two examples of the fact technology can do extraordinary things, but it needs us to put it to good use. And this takes all of us. No generation has ever had more power than the one we are in now and no generation has had either a chance, or a need, to change things faster than ever before.
Change won’t happen overnight, and it won’t happen alone. It will take the collective impact of entire industries, as well as our own initiative, ingenuity, and collaboration on a much greater scale. At VMware, we are on a journey to put back more than we take because we believe that when the best of business is empowered by the best in technology, we will create a more innovative and equitable world.
