InformationWeek: Cognizant CEO Makes the Case for the U.S. to Invest in Internet-Connected Infrastructure

“Our world is being transformed by a new, often invisible, reality,” writes Francisco D’Souza. “Entire industries have been revolutionized by the transformative forces of digitization enabled by new consumer-oriented technologies—namely, social, mobile, analytics and the cloud, or what we call the SMAC Stack.”

According to D’Souza, just as building highways and a national communications system were national priorities in the last century, it’s time to contemplate how the U.S. can modernize its national infrastructure to meet today’s needs and collectively extend the U.S.’s competitive edge well into the 21st century. As described in a new report from Business Roundtable, “Catalyst for Growth: America's Hybrid Infrastructure,” this means building “hybrid infrastructures” that combine physical foundations (roadways, buildings, electrical systems) with SMAC-based information technology (the Internet, sensor networks and tags).

“Connecting physical infrastructure to the Internet is a logical next step in cloud computing,” adds D’Souza. “IT services have been heading steadily to the cloud, but in the future, companies will begin moving more critical business processes there to seize the competitive high ground. Cloud-enabled process standardization renders key tasks more repeatable, efficient and accurate, thereby allowing capital expenditure and human resources to be focused on activities that are truly market-differentiating.”

D’Souza observes that it will require business and government to cooperate on the development of a national strategy to make the best use of investments in building private, public or hybrid cloud infrastructure. Such a strategy, he writes, will need to unite stakeholders around several key areas: Collaborative investment, commitment and strategic decision-making; policy reform; enlarged talent pool of individuals trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); data privacy and security.

“Hybrid infrastructures offer benefits for nearly every U.S. industry, from healthcare, to education, to defense,” writes D’Souza. “By working together, business and government can unlock these benefits, enabling sustained economic growth, job creation and quality of life—and maintain the U.S. leadership position on the global stage.”

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