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Editors note: Keysight Technologies offered up these predictions for 2020, from CTO Jay Alexander and Jeff Harris, who leads the companys global marketing.

New realms of measurement will grow in importance in 2020:Measurement basedtools of many kinds are key enablers for the technology-based products and solutions we incorporate into our daily lives, and it will transform as disruptive technologies come into play.

In 2020, advanced applications related to 5G, will explode, using higher frequencies and smaller geometries. To support this growth:

In 2020, the use of software in implementing technology will remain prevalent, especially in networking and position or navigation-based smartphone applications. As a result, software-on-software measurement will see a strong surge and therefore, so will emphasis on interoperability among software tool chains. New standards and certifications will be created, impacting development processes, as well as the marketing required to ensure consumers are aware of what a software-centric product can and cannot do.

In 2020 there will be a substantial rise in specialized processors, such as GPUs and chips, that implement Artificial Intelligence or AI architectures which determine how anetworkprocesses and routes information and maintains security, privacy, and integrity. Quantum computing and engineering will continue to be in an aggressive hype phase in 2020, but the ability to control, measure, and error-correct quantum systems as the number of qubits grows will be important from the start.

As measurement and operation of the computer blends, those interested in building practical quantum computers will require knowledge about measurement technologies and techniques before the quantum computing goes into the mainstream.

Data silos will be connected to extract development insights:Leading companies collect data but typically store it in functional silos: R&D design, pre-production validation, manufacturing, operations and services.

In 2020, companies will start connecting these silos of data using modern cloud architectures, such as private on-premises clusters, or public sites like AWS or Azure. With the data centrally available, teams will correlate performance through the development process, from early design to manufacturing to field deployment and close the loop back to design. The benefits for these teams include the rapid collection and reformatting of data, faster debugging of new product design, anticipation of manufacturing issues, and improved product quality.

To achieve these gains, teams will invest in a computing infrastructure, determine how to store the data, including file location and data structure, as well as choose analytic tools to select and process data to identify anomalies and trends. In addition, teams will change the way they work to shift attention to data-driven decisions.

5G and the Data Center:New 5G capabilities in 2020 will put pressure on networks, revealing new data center and network chokepoints.

Industrial IoT applications will increase access requests and mobile automotive IoT applications will stretch latency demands. Edge computing will become more important to process the increased access requests and meet stringent latency requirements.

Higher data speeds will place more demands for faster memory, faster data busses, and faster transceivers in the data center. Meeting the speed and flexibility demands will be one reason, but customer traceability through the network for application monetization will be the main driver to upgrade to the latest standards.

In 2020 we will see advanced design, test and monitoring capabilities that ensure networks and products deliver the performance and failsafe reliability expected. The industry will experience closer collaborations between chipset and product manufacturers, software companies, network carriers, cloud hosting companies and international standards organizations to build tomorrows networking infrastructures.

Challenges will Abound to get 5G to Maturity:5G represents technical evolution and revolution on many fronts creating new technical challenges that span many domains.

In 2020 the industry will move from a small group of early-movers who have commercialized initial 5G networks, to a global community in which multiple operators in every continent and in many countries will have commercial 5G networks.

The early adopters will add scale and those who launch in 2020 will quickly resolve issues in their initial deployments. Second-generation devices and base stations will be added to the market, and the standards will have another new release in 3GPPs Rel-16.

Key technical challenges for the industry in 2020 will be: ensuring performance in mid-band (3.5-5GHz) frequencies, moving mmWave to mobility, transition planning to a full Stand-Alone (SA) 5G network, and resolving architectural decomposition and standards for centralized RAN and Mobile-Edge computing (MEC).

The Internet of Things will become the Interaction of Things: IoT will rapidly move into the mainstreamwith widening commercial acceptance, increasing public-sector applications and accelerated industrial deployments

In 2020 we will see an increased level of smart experiences when the Internet of Things a collection of devices connected to the internet becomes the Interaction of Things a collection of things that are communicating and working effectively and efficiently with each other.

There will be powerful devices working with other powerful devices to act quickly and efficiently in the background independent of direct human intervention. Mission-critical applications, such as remote robotic surgery in the area of digital healthcare or autonomous driving in the area of smart mobility, will feel the impact of this shift.

While these applications will benefit from the Interaction of Things, new solutions will be developed to ensure they do not suffer from the Interference of Things, especially when communication failure and network disturbances can bring about devastating or life-threatening consequences.The same will be true of Industry 4.0 applications and smart city applications. Uptime will not be optional.

Digital twins will move to the mainstream:Digital twins, or the concept of complete replicate simulation, are the nirvana of design engineers.

In 2020, we will see digital twins mature and move to the mainstream as a result of their ability to accelerate innovations. To fully realize the technologys benefits, companies will look for advanced design and test solutions that can seamlessly validate and optimize their virtual models and real-world siblings to ensure that their behaviors are identical.

2020 will not be the year of the autonomous vehicle. Active cruise control, yes. Full autonomy, we have a couple years to go.The quantity and sophistication of sensors deployed in vehicles will increase in 2020, but fully autonomous vehicles will require more ubiquitous 5G connectivity and more artificial intelligence. Here is where we see the industry on each of those areas:

The ratio of fleets sales with EV or HEV powertrain will grow from single-digit percentage ratio to double-digits in 2020 tripling the shipped units compared to last year.

The first C-V2X network will hit the streets in China, but they will be operating on an LTE-V network until 5G Release 16 evolves the standard.

The technical advances for sensors and in-car networks will continue to evolve on a fast pace, needing faster in-vehicle networks. In 2020, Gigabit Ethernet based in-car networks become a reality and significantly improved sensor technology enables artificial intelligence developers to hit new performance levels.

System level design, test and monitoring will experience a dramatic transformation:The connected world will force a shift in how performance, reliability, and integrity are evaluated.

In 2020, realizing the full potential of sensor systems connected to communication systems connected to mechanical systems will require new ways to test at the system level.

Today, there are available tests for radar antennas and a radar transceiver module. However, testing a multi-antenna radar system integrated into a car will require a different testing approach. The same is true for data centers, mission critical IoT networks, automobiles, and a wide range of new, complex, 5G-enabled applications.

In 2020, the electronics industry will emphasize system-level testing as the definitive, final step to assure end-to-end performance, integrity and reliability across the increasingly connected world.

Education will shift to prepare the next generation of engineers.Universities will adopt holistic, integrated, and multi-disciplinary curricula for engineering education.

Academia will tap into industry partnerships to keep up with the accelerating pace of technology and incorporate certification programs, industry-grade instrumentation and automation systems into teaching labs to train students on current, real-world applications.

To address IoT, Universities will combine methodology from basic electronics, networking, design engineering, cybersecurity, and embedded systems, while increasing emphasis on the impact of technology on society and the environment.

To address artificial intelligence, automation and robotics, Universities will mainstream currently niche topics such as cognitive science and mechatronics into required learning.

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New realms of measurement, connected data silos, and more in 2020 (Reader Forum) - RCR Wireless News

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Source code escrow agreements have long been accepted by software providers in traditional on-premises software sales. But how often do we see on-premises software licenses today? An overwhelming number of vital business functions are now offered through cloud applications, including software-as-a-service solutions.

When it comes to SaaS, the customer is often at a greater risk of losing access to the solution than it would be with traditional software, and yet the traditional source code escrow model is not sufficient to mitigate that risk. As tech transactions practitioners who negotiate SaaS agreements on a near-daily basis, we are seeing, in real time, a rapidly changing market in which SaaS customers are demanding source code escrow agreements, and a growing number of SaaS providers are capitulating.

So, how does it work, and how are the risks and costs allocated between the parties?

To understand the new escrow model, one needs understand the traditional on-premises escrow model. Source code escrow offers buyers a contingency plan in the event the provider goes out of business or no longer offers maintenance and support for certain software programs that buyers may consider mission critical to their businesses.

When a business becomes dependent on certain software to maintain operations, a source code escrow provision in its software license agreement (and separate three-party source code escrow agreement among the customer, provider and escrow agent) is considered an essential safety net for business continuity. This model has become so commonplace in the market that buyers expect it and, more often than not, software providers offer it up front, as a standard provision in their agreements. This leads to smoother negotiations and establishes trust between vendor and customer.

On-premises software operates in the customers own live environment, and the customers data is stored on its internal systems and backup systems. The softwares availability depends on the availability of the customers own system. If the software provider decides to discontinue the software, declares bankruptcy, or ceases operations, there is generally no immediate concern to the customer, because the software can continue to run on the customers system.

In such cases, the customer would invoke its rights under its traditional source code escrow agreement, obtain access to the source code and other materials and recreate (or engage a service provider to recreate) the development environment for the software, which would allow the customer to continue to use, maintain and update the software with little downtime, if any.

Because there is little or no threat of immediate, substantial business interruption, traditional source code escrow agreements often contain release conditions that require some time to pass before the escrow agent is permitted to release the materials to the customer (e.g., the provider must cease operations for a period of 60 days or more).

With SaaS, on the other hand, the software code, infrastructure, data and storage exist in a production environment outside of the customers premises. The availability of the software often depends not only on the SaaS provider, but on its third-party hosting/cloud providers. Outages, and inaccessibility to data, lasting mere minutes could result in substantial business interruption for the customer. In such a scenario, a traditional source code escrow agreement is of little or no use to the customer.

Instead, what is required is a far broader scope of escrow materials and services to aid the customer in case of an outage, including a copy of the customers data stored in a secure back up data center, back up hosting, highly detailed documentation containing build instructions for recreating (or engaging a third-party vendor to recreate) the application and production environment, and, of course, the source code and object code.

Recognizing this issue, source code escrow service providers now offer SaaS risk management services. These escrow providers have created programs to ensure SaaS application continuity and data accessibility, by offering capabilities such as copying the SaaS application (and all of the customers data) to a second server located at a secure data center, and even hosting a standby recovery environment on which to seamlessly run the application in the case of mission critical applications where the customer cannot afford even a few minutes of downtime. This concept isnt new; escrow companies have offered SaaS escrow services for over a decade.

SaaS providers, however, have resisted the inclusion of escrow provisions in their subscription agreements, though the tide appears to be turning recently. SaaS providers had previously taken the position that they made no continuity guarantees and have relied upon business continuity and disaster recovery policies to assuage customers (even though such business continuity and disaster recovery policies often apply to the providers business, not the customers business).

However, as businesses are becoming more sophisticated about cloud solutions, and more experienced in onboarding SaaS applications, we are seeing more demand for SaaS escrow provisions in subscription agreements.

There are many things to consider in negotiating SaaS escrow provisions. The scope of the escrow materials is an important issue, because the customer wants the deposited materials to include everything necessary to reproduce the development environment and run the application, and yet it is not always clear what that means. The level of detail that providers may have to give in their documentation to enable the customer or a third party to recompile the executable code may be far above and beyond what the provider typically states in its customer-facing documentation, which could lead to extra costs incurred by the provider.

In some cases, to fully transition the solution to another environment, the customer may need access to third-party ancillary software or data sources that support the SaaS application, and providers must consider whether it is even within the providers rights or ability to place into escrow.

Customers tend to want to use escrow service providers who can maintain mirrored applications that can be instantaneously activated and hosted by the escrow agent, the customer or the customers third-party service provider effectively serving as a business continuity site. Such escrow programs can be expensive, so the issue of cost allocation is another point of negotiation in SaaS escrow provisions as they become more prevalent in the market.

In addition, one of the biggest points of contention between providers and customers with respect to SaaS escrow is the escrow-release conditions. As discussed above, under the traditional software model the release of source code generally requires the vendor to cease all operations for a significant time period (e.g. 30-60 days), file a petition in bankruptcy or any other proceeding relating to insolvency, liquidation or assignment for the benefit of creditors, or officially discontinue the software and/or support for it.

With respect to the SaaS escrow model, savvy customers understand the need for release conditions addressing the urgency associated with downtime. However, providers do not want to release their applications and all of the intellectual property related thereto so easily.

Therefore, SaaS escrow release conditions often dovetail with the applicable service-level agreements. If an SLA provides for reasonable remedies for short periods of unplanned downtime, then the SaaS provider can argue that the escrow should only be triggered by longer periods of unplanned downtime or chronic failures.

Although there are several points of negotiation in these SaaS escrow provisions, providers are more and more frequently accepting the reality of SaaS escrow, including them in their form subscription agreements to appeal to prospective customers wary of business continuity risks.

From the customers standpoint, they must assess (1) whether the application is mission critical; (2) the cost from both a financial and reputational perspective of going down; (3) the availability of substitute applications; (4) the transition time to a substitute application; and (5) the stability and reliability of the vendor.

Even as SaaS escrow provisions become customary in vendor agreements, the question of their effectiveness remains. While the escrow can give customers comfort when taking on the risk of onboarding an SaaS solution, the actual, practical transitioning of the application, data center and hosting environment in the event of a release condition may be more catastrophic than the downtime itself. Its time for customers to make sure they cover their SaaS.

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