Hardcore prediction: Can these changes in smart cities happen in the future?

On April 20, the National Development and Reform Commission held a press conference, at which the scope of "new infrastructure" was clarified for the first time, including information infrastructure, integrated infrastructure and innovative infrastructure. From the perspective of integrated infrastructure, my country is currently stepping up efforts to deploy smart city construction paths.

On April 23, in the program "New Numbers: Decoding the "New Infrastructure"" jointly launched by the China Big Data Industry Ecological Alliance and the China Open Source Software Promotion Alliance, CCID Think Tank, CCID Consultants and other institutions, Sugon Cloud, as a pioneer in smart city construction, released the "Smart City Trend Forecast" from the perspective of technological evolution, looking forward to the future development direction of my country's smart city construction.

As the main direction of urban development in the information age, smart city construction has been explored in China for more than ten years and is showing an accelerating development trend. However, smart city construction is an open and complex giant system, and its development level is closely related to information infrastructure construction, people's livelihood services and experience, lean urban governance and other elements. Yuan Wei, assistant to the president of Sugon Cloud Computing Group Co., Ltd., said that according to the actual needs of urban development, the construction process of smart cities is entering the "refined stage". In order to clarify the development context of the new stage, Sugon Cloud has made the following predictions on the future trend of smart cities from the perspective of smart city builders.

First, smart city construction will shift from technology-driven to rigid demand-driven.

The early stage of smart city development is inseparable from the driving force of cutting-edge technology. After more than ten years of technological accumulation, the urban information infrastructure system has become more complete. In the later stage, the improvement of big data systems, urban data accumulation, data sharing mechanisms, etc. need to be driven by demand, and the early smart city construction results and technological development results should be truly applied to actual work. Rigid demand drive will continue to spur the improvement of urban intelligence level.

Second, the construction of smart cities will shift from being led by the government or limited participants to being led by multiple parties.

According to the "Current Status and Future Trends of Smart City Development in China" released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in September 2019, my country's smart city construction was mainly led by the government in the early stages, but in 2019, it gradually showed a trend of government-led, city-based, enterprise-assisted and jointly promoted. Sugon believes that with the deepening of smart city construction, the deep integration of government, city, enterprise, small and medium-sized solution providers will become more and more common, and all parties will jointly mobilize the public to participate widely and jointly build a mutually integrated industrial chain and a three-dimensional ecosystem.

Third, the construction of smart cities will shift from relying on "source innovation" to relying on continuous "flow innovation".

Source innovation is innovation from 0 to 1, but for large-scale systematic projects such as smart city construction, innovation and optimization of models and processes are particularly important. Sugon believes that continuous innovation centered on talent, top-level planning support, and innovation investment will become the driving force for the development of smart cities. Smart city builders should focus on uniting upstream and downstream partners to meet the explosive service needs through "flow innovation".

Fourth, the construction of smart cities will rely more on the technology system and the overall layout of new infrastructure.

The development of smart cities places higher demands on intelligence, and the complexity of models is gradually increasing, which requires a more comprehensive and integrated technical system, such as computing power integration, urban cloud centers or urban cloud brains. In the future, a complete set of "cloud + big data + AI" new generation information systems that serve urban management needs will be the mainstream form of the overall layout of emerging urban infrastructure.

Fifth, “adapting to local conditions and deploying strategies” will become the norm in future smart city construction.

In the "Research Report on the Development of New Smart Cities" released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in October 2019, it was pointed out that "characteristics are becoming the core idea for promoting digital industrialization in various places." At present, the construction of smart cities is showing a trend of multi-level progress at the provincial, municipal and county levels. A number of "small but fine" digital industry breakthroughs can also win a place in the national digital industry map. Sugon believes that as industrial characteristics are reflected in the construction of smart cities, the concept of adapting measures to local conditions and strategic deployment is becoming more and more important; in the intelligent era, advantageous industries under the blessing of intelligence will replace traditional city labels such as "city flowers" and "celebrity" and become the new business card of the city.

Sixth, the importance of information security in smart city construction is more prominent.

According to the "Top Ten Predictions for Global Smart Cities in 2019" released by IDC, in 2019, the security risks of the original system will hinder the application of new technologies in 30% of China's third- to fifth-tier cities, and the connection between new and old systems will also bring greater security risks. Sugon believes that while smart city construction brings convenient services to the public, the importance of security is self-evident due to the large number of participating entities. City managers, competent departments and participants in the construction and operation of smart cities should pay special attention to information security issues. Information security is a "strategic focus" in the construction of smart cities.

As a builder of smart cities, a shaper and practitioner of China's city cloud brand, Sugon has continuously improved its technology empowerment while focusing on operational capabilities in the construction and deployment of city clouds, and has closely followed policy trends to emphasize the development of a smart ecosystem. In recent years, Sugon City Cloud has been constantly seeking continuous innovation in models and processes to better serve diverse and personalized industries and users, promote industrial intelligence, and help the digital economy move forward.