Wilfredo Sotolongo: “I never imagined that the most important catalyst of this digital transformation would be a virus”

Four years ago, we spoke with Wilfredo Sotolongo (Panama, 1963) in Orlando during the annual meeting of Lenovo, the company where he currently serves as senior vice president and client director of the infrastructure solutions group. Now we’re doing it again at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

People think this is a congress of mobile phone companies, or computer companies, but these companies also provide solutions and services, right?

Right, in reality it is a convention of technology and service companies, any use of technology to improve the development of a company, government, school… we apply it here. There are other cell phones, but they are not the size of this one. Even we, a Chinese company, do not have such a large space at the event in Shanghai as here.

How did Lenovo become the world’s largest PC company?

It was a battle that spanned more than a decade, innovation in technology and cunning in distribution and routes to market. If you look at Lenovo’s history in this area, you’ll realize that it played in the Chinese market, then bought IBM’s business, expanded internationally, learned to compete in the consumer business because IBM’s business was corporate. And we continue to fine-tune every step of the product development, manufacturing and distribution process.

What is HPCaaS technology (TruScale High Performance Computing as a Service) from Lenovo?

That’s three questions in one! At High Performance Computing we have the largest supercomputer in Spain, here in Barcelona. We are also in the process of installing the new generation, Mare Nostrum 5, in the coming months. We have shown that with high water cooling technology we are enabling things that could not be done before, be it genetics, health, climate and even covid 19 research. Truscale’s domain is a consumption-based service technology model. Instead of acquiring and integrating the technology itself, we acquire, prepare, install and manage it, freeing the client from these needs. The percentage of the market that consumes technology in this way is still small, but it is the fastest growing area. Clients mostly have the option of cloud or traditional, and they are looking for a third option and that’s it. It’s a model with economic characteristics similar to the cloud, but with roots in your data center and control over your data: data sovereignty.

Where is the data currently stored, in China, the United States…?

It depends on the service provider, everyone is migrating to an architecture that puts data in the country where the user is located.

What is the difference between a supercomputer and a quantum computer?

These are completely different technologies. Supercomputers are productive, they are real, they have been helping society for 50 years. It is a technological evolution of the basic, traditional computer concept. Quantum computers are not similar, there is no such thing as one and zero, everything is superimposed and can be one and zero at the same time, and the programming techniques are completely different. So far, very few systems have managed to be useful, because it has not been possible to maintain a quantum computer in a steady state where it does not make mistakes. When a cell can be zero and one at the same time, if you don’t control it well, it can introduce errors into the calculations.

Is Lenovo involved in this technology?

Not yet. We invest in innovation and new technologies, but not in something that will have an opportunity in five or ten years, but in technology that will have an opportunity in one to three years, maybe four years from now. Companies that have high-margin businesses, like IBM or the cloud people, have the money and patience to invest in something that won’t pay for itself in five or ten years.

Artificial intelligence is on everyone’s lips with tools like ChatGPT. What does Lenovo look like, is it a real breakthrough or a diversion to explore the creativity of the machine?

With ChatGPT, people learned about something that has been working for a long time. It’s impressive technology, but those of us who have lived in this world have known it was coming for years and have been preparing for it. Right now, my business is growing super fast in the field of artificial intelligence, we have real user cases in Arabia and the US, automotive and travel companies. Users who have figured out how to use this technology to enhance the human experience, whether it’s going on vacation or designing cars with amazing features. This is the truth, not a lie. The use of ChatGPT is experimental, but there are real uses for AI that are not.

A Coruña has been chosen as the seat of the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence. Why is it important to regulate this technology? What dangers can it carry?

It must be regulated within a basic framework. So far, no one has tried to do anything crazy with AI, not even within Lenovo. I’m more concerned about privacy and what malicious people can do to damage it and exploit our data. This happens every day today and I know Europe is the leading region in this area, but still people find ways to bypass security. That worries me more than AI, which are programs after all. AIs are not independent living beings, they are programs made by humans that do what humans tell them to do. If a man has bad intentions, you have to control the man.

Which of these emerging technologies will be more important in the coming years: 5G/6G, IoT, AI, virtual and augmented reality, blockchain…?

For us, the main ones are: AI, all use of neural network programming systems; and what we call edge computing, which is the umbrella for IoT and the intersection of both. For example, today when I entered the cell phone through the security arch, it recognized me and I went straight to the event, that’s the case edge computing combined with neural networks to recognize my face. That’s what we think will grow the fastest.

In Galicia, three universities have degrees in artificial intelligence. It is necessary?

Undoubtedly, because the programming model is different, the higher use cases are also different. It’s computers, it’s programming, it’s applications, the context in general is similar to the whole world of computing, but in a specific context, these are highly specialized technologies and will become even more so. The days when computers were dominated by one or two companies, Intel or IBM, are long gone. Now it will be a highly specialized technology, that’s why we invest in everything: Intel, IBM, ARM, Nvidia… they all move at different speeds. Nvidia, for example, has accelerated progress in the field of ​AI, but AMD lags far behind.

What makes the difference when building an information technology infrastructure?

Facilitate the consumption of technology. The technology comes from different companies and it is crucial to integrate them into the product that you want to use either your children or your company. In my field, we have hit the nail on the head in recent years, we have grown very fast and not only because of the pandemic, but also because of the progress we have made in offering technological solutions to customers that are superior to the competition. So what makes the difference is facilitating consumption and doing so in an open way. It is in our strategic interest to keep our industry open, because if we close it, it limits competition. We bet on Windows, Android, VMware in the area of ​​infrastructure, Microsoft, all the big ones, and thus give customers many options and freedom of movement.

How has the industry changed with the pandemic?

In four years, we have come a long way, both Lenovo and the industry. What I could not have imagined in May 2019 is that the most important catalyst for that transformation would be a virus. There are people who say that the pandemic was a disaster for humanity; There are others who say, yes, but humanity has responded in a way that has accelerated the transformation into a more flexible and malleable model, concepts that already existed in some advanced countries and now exist in all of them: mobility of resources, making it easier for some workers to move from one country to another, connect brains. What was theoretical yesterday is now production. For all of us affected by the pandemic, it was a bad experience, but if we look ahead and observe the behavior of the world in the last two years, it gives me hope, we have a more resilient society.