The Fourth Element

Today, we know that digital business transformation occurs at the intersection of four factors: Moore’s Law, Metcalfe’s Law, Bandwidth Law, and Corona Flu. Put differently. We’re talking about using the combined powers of computing, connectivity, cloud, and social distancing.

They're not physics laws or natural laws, but they're trends that have become very important in the digitization era.

Moore's Law: In 1965, Gordon Moore, who co-founded Intel, made a prediction that has set the pace for our modern digital revolution until now. Gordon Moore extrapolated that computing would dramatically increase in power with a decrease in relative cost at an exponential rate. Our computing devices are not getting faster at the rate they once were, even though computer chips have become more powerful.

Metcalfe's Law: Metcalfe's Law attributed to Robert Metcalfe, who invented Ethernet and founded 3Com, simply states that a network's value, especially for large networks, such as smartphones or Facebook users, is the square of the number of nodes in the network.

The increasing value of networks starting with two telephones to five telephones and today, billions of phones- you begin to see the value for every one of the users as square the number of other users on the same network.

Bandwidth Law: Bandwidth Law attributed to George Gilder, is an observation that bandwidth speed grows at least three times faster than the computing power. While computing power doubles every eighteen months, communication speed doubles every six months and has allowed for widespread reliance on cloud computing.

Corona Flu: the current crisis that we witnessed enforces the social distancing, which accelerates the digital transformation. The new obligations push the adoption curve of digital habits such as video conferences and working from home.

This crisis will pass (inshallah), and we will witness many more positive social, economic, and technological developments all over the world.

References

Metcalfe Law, Bandwidth (computing), Moore’s Law; en.wikipedia.org