December 20178 In MY ViewBY JERRY MCGLYNN, CIO, SPECIALIZED BICYCLE COMPONENTSAt the Crossroads of Sports and TechnologyIt would be great if you could draw a picture of the current technology landscape in the Sports domain; any recent technology-news or facts that you found out very promising or revolutionizing to this space?The current sports technology landscape is a place where a company like Specialized can have a meaningful dialog that helps riders accomplish their goals, as well as connecting riders with each other into goal oriented communities. Five years ago this was not possible, but advances in hardware and software are evolving the landscape at an incredibly fast rate. Technology will continue to evolve the space and will soon be considered "table stakes" in addition to delivering great physical products.How do you see the benefits of cloud computing for the Sports sector, and how have you embraced it?I see the adoption of cloud technology as well as the increased use of open APIs to be huge catalysts for the entire sports industry. The advances in both areas has enabled that meaningful dialog to take place and allow that dialog to branch into whatever direction the rider feels is important to them. The open nature of these platforms has allowed companies to experiment quickly and move solutions out to the market. However, a plethora of options now requires riders to become more knowledgeable about what solutions are important to them and what items are fancy distractions.According to you how has Big Data revolutionized sport in unpredictable ways?I believe the real revolution is about to come. So far most metrics/analysis solutions have come in the form of memorialized replays of a previous event. These are nice to share with friends, but the novelty can get old when compared with a technology that provides actionable feedback everything you use it. What I see coming, and what excites me is the merger between onboard technology and data science to help a rider achieve their personal goals. Coupled with cloud technology, your coach and data science analyst can all reside in different cities and still provide relevant critiques of performances and areas for improvement.The whole world is talking about IoT nowadays where everything is connected and talks to one another. Despite the fact, very less is known or is put to practice, Jerry McGlynn
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