Accenture - Experts & Thought Leaders

DigiCert, a major provider of digital trust, announced the speaker lineup for its World Quantum Readiness Day event, set to take place virtually on September 10, 2025. The event will bring together top voices in quantum computing, cryptography, and cybersecurity to provide actionable guidance on preparing for the quantum era. “Quantum computing is reshaping the foundation of digital security, and it’s essential that organisations understand and prepare for this next chapter,” said Amit Sinha, CEO of DigiCert. “We are honoured to welcome such a distinguished group of experts to help advance industry understanding and readiness for a quantum future.” Quantum preparedness World Quantum Readiness Day was created to urge organisations to assess their quantum preparedness, accelerate PQC adoption, and equip themselves against future threats. This year’s event will give attendees the knowledge they need to build a roadmap to become quantum-ready.  Guest panelists for World Quantum Readiness Day 2025 include: Dr. Taher Elgamal, Cryptographer, Entrepreneur, and the “Father of SSL,” Partner at Evolution Equity Partners Dr. Lily Chen, Mathematician and NIST Fellow, NIST Panos Kampanakis, Principal Security Engineer, AWS Richard Kisley, Chief Engineer, IBM HSM Jeff Stapleton, PQC Researcher, Wells Fargo and X9F4 Cybersecurity & Cryptography Chair   William Whyte, Sr. Director, Technical Standards, Qualcomm Tom Patterson, Managing Director for Emerging Technology Security, Accenture Colin Soutar, Global Quantum Cyber Readiness Lead, Deloitte Martin Reilly, Digital Identity Offering Manager, DXC Technologies Dr. Jim Goodman, CTO and Co-founder, Crypto4A Konstantinos Karagiannis, Director of Quantum Computing Services, Protiviti; Host of The Post-Quantum World podcast Blair Canavan, Director, Alliances - PKI & PQC Portfolio, Thales  Luke Valenta, Research Engineer, Cloudflare The event will be hosted by John Furrier, Cofounder & CEO of SiliconANGLE, with DigiCert moderators and speakers including Dr. Amit Sinha, CEO; Lakshmi Hanspal, CTrO; Deepika Chauhan, CPO; Jeremy Rowley, SVP and Digital Trust Strategist; Tim Hollebeek, VP of Industry Standards; Kevin Hilscher, Sr. Director of Product Management; Corey Bonnell, Industry Development Strategist; and Shane Kelly, Principal Crypto Architect.  Post-quantum cryptography DigiCert again will be honoring the winner and finalists of the 2025 Quantum Readiness Awards, which recognise organisations that have taken bold steps to become quantum-ready. These pioneers exemplify excellence in planning, executing, and advocating for post-quantum cryptography (PQC) adoption. Winners will be announced on September 25, 2025. Deadline to submit nominations is 11:59 p.m. PT on August 29, 2025. 

Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, announced a suite of enhanced AI solutions at its European Summit in Paris, reinforcing its dedication to supporting the region’s businesses growth by capturing the emerging AI opportunities.  The expanded offerings, from AI-optimised tools to intelligent industrial solutions, demonstrate Alibaba Cloud’s long-term commitment to delivering cutting-edge cloud technologies that help European customers across diverse industries—including luxury fashion, automotive, and healthcare—to innovate and scale globally.  AI-powered tools and solutions “For years, Alibaba Cloud has been a trusted partner to pioneering European enterprises across industries, including automotive, luxury fashion, retail, and healthcare,” said Selina Yuan, President of International Business, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.  “Today’s service enhancements reflect our continued commitment to the European market, facilitating businesses in the region with AI-powered tools and solutions to stay competitive in the evolving AI era.” Enhanced AI platform and security key for high-version Alibaba Cloud’s large-scale deep learning and intelligent computing capabilities with enhanced efficiency Alibaba Cloud has announced the upgrade of PAI (Platform for AI), its advanced AI computing and development platform in the Frankfurt Region.  This upgrade enables customers in Europe to harness Alibaba Cloud’s large-scale deep learning and intelligent computing capabilities with enhanced efficiency and scalability that can cater to customers' increasing computing demand for critical AI workloads.  Powered by PAI AI Scheduler, Alibaba Cloud’s proprietary cloud-native scheduling engine, the upgraded platform optimises the intelligent integration of diverse computing resources. It offers flexible resource scheduling, real-time task adjustments, and automatic fault recovery, achieving an impressive effective compute utilisation rate exceeding 96%. Safety, reliability, and security for AI tasks Threat defence is also executed via real-time prevention of outer attacks, including malicious prompts To meet growing demand on safety, reliability, and security for AI tasks, Alibaba Cloud launched AI Guardrails, a comprehensive solution designed to ensure compliance and security across diverse AI deployments—from pre-trained models to AI agents—delivering essential end-to-end protection for any AI workflow. Alibaba Cloud's AI Guardrails, available through its Singapore region, provides robust, multi-layered security for AI systems for global customers, allowing users to effortlessly verify text, images, files, audio, and video content with a single request. Threat defence is also implemented through real-time prevention of external attacks, including malicious prompts, harmful file uploads, and suspicious URLs.  Luxury industry and logistics keys tailored for European clients Harnessing key trends in the luxury industry surrounding consumer mindset, channel evolvement and curation: Alibaba Cloud and Accenture have jointly launched an AI-powered industry solution to help luxury fashion brands deliver seamless omnichannel and hyper-personalised experiences. Through combining the power of Alibaba Cloud’s cutting-edge AI technology and infrastructure with Accenture’s global strategy, consulting, technology and deep industry capabilities - the solution enables luxury brands to transform in five core areas: customer engagement, channel experience, operational excellence, sustainability, and data analytics. The full-stack “technology + service” solution, leverages best-of-breed innovation in Cloud and AI to accelerate new pathways to profitable growth. Alibaba Cloud’s scalable infrastructure and models Alibaba Cloud has partnered with Cainiao, Alibaba Group’s logistics arm, to introduce a supply chain solution Alibaba Cloud has partnered with Cainiao, Alibaba Group’s logistics arm, to introduce an intelligent supply chain solution designed for European businesses, with a focus on the sports and industrial manufacturing sectors. This collaboration leverages Alibaba Cloud’s scalable infrastructure and Qwen foundation models alongside Cainiao’s smart logistics capabilities to deliver comprehensive supply chain optimisation. The solution encompasses warehouse automation, AI-enhanced inventory management, and intelligent scheduling across logistics robotics systems. For instance, one European logistics company implemented this solution to streamline its operations, achieving a 25% improvement in operational efficiency and a 22% reduction in operating costs—demonstrating the tangible benefits of this innovation. Supporting European firms in global and digital talent growth Both parties will co-develop academic programs and training in AI, cloud computing, and digital innovation Alibaba Cloud continues to serve as a strategic partner for European companies looking to grow internationally, including in Asia. Swedish video commerce pioneer Bambuser is leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s ApsaraVideo Live to bring its interactive shopping solutions to the Chinese market, enabling brands to adopt live commerce, digital clienteling, and shoppable videos and chats to meet the unique demands of the Chinese e-commerce market. Alibaba Cloud has also partnered with Brest Business School (BBS), a pioneering French institution in business education, to drive AI talent development, with a focus on advancing AI innovation, digital transformation, and cross-border collaboration. Together, both parties will co-develop academic programs and training in AI, cloud computing, and digital innovation, while also collaborating on digital transformation projects—including consulting, planning, and implementation services for enterprises. SAP’s enterprise resource planning solutions The partnership will organise study tours to promote details exchange and foster innovation Additionally, the partnership will organise study tours to promote knowledge exchange and foster innovation. This collaboration reflects a shared vision to equip students, professionals, and organisations with future-ready digital skills, while strengthening academic-industry ties between Europe and Asia. Alibaba Cloud has been a trusted cloud service provider for European businesses for years. In June, Alibaba Cloud announced a collaboration with SAP to offer SAP’s enterprise resource planning solutions to customers in China and then gradually to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. BMW’s next-generation intelligent vehicles In March, BMW and Alibaba announced an expanded strategic partnership in China, accelerating the integration of Alibaba’s Qwen models into BMW’s next-generation intelligent vehicles, marking a significant step forward in AI-driven mobility.  In May last year, LVMH expanded its global partnership with Alibaba to drive luxury experience for another five years, leveraging Alibaba’s cloud technologies, through AI-powered innovations in retail and on-line with Tmall.

DigiCert, Inc., one of the global provider of digital trust, announces a record-breaking Q4 for FY2025, closing at 104% of target net new annual contract value (NNACV), 25% higher than the largest NNACV quarter in the company’s history. The company exceeded expectations for the second half of the fiscal year, fueled by demand for quantum-ready security solutions and an integrated digital trust platform that unifies PKI and authoritative DNS into a single offering.  “Our record results highlight the increasing need for digital trust in a rapidly evolving security landscape,” said Amit Sinha, CEO of DigiCert. “Organisations worldwide are embracing our DigiCert ONE platform to centralise and simplify digital trust management. By securing the entire digital footprint—from authentication and encryption to DNS—our solutions help enterprises reduce risk, eliminate outages, and improve operational efficiency.”  Between January 2024 and February 2025, DigiCert saw a 67% increase in the number of customers who purchased both a certificate and at least one DigiCert ONE solution, demonstrating the rising demand for an integrated, end-to-end digital trust platform.  Notable business landmarks for FY2025 As part of its growth strategy, DigiCert completed its acquisition of Vercara In FY2025, DigiCert delivered significant business milestones and product innovation, reinforcing its leadership in digital trust. The company closed a record-breaking fourth quarter at 104% of target NNACV, the largest in its history, and exceeded expectations for the second half of the year, closing at 102% of the total ACV plan. As part of its growth strategy, DigiCert completed its acquisition of Vercara, expanding its digital trust capabilities to include UltraDNS and strengthening its ability to provide comprehensive security solutions to enterprises worldwide. DigiCert strengthened its executive team with key appointments, including Chief Trust Officer Lakshmi Hanspal and Chief Marketing Officer Atri Chatterjee. The company also welcomed Dr. Taher Elgamal, the widely recognised “father of SSL,” as a strategic advisor. World quantum readiness day Further reinforcing its leadership in advancing digital trust and quantum readiness, DigiCert hosted the inaugural World Quantum Readiness Day, a global initiative aimed at raising awareness and accelerating action toward post-quantum preparedness. The event attracted nearly 4,000 registrants and featured industry luminaries, including Dr. Peter Shor, Dr. Taher Elgamal, Dr. Bob Sutor, and experts from Google, Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, Cisco, and NIST. DigiCert advanced its technology leadership in FY2025 through continued innovation and investment in future-ready solutions, such as the newly-launched DigiCert ONE platform. The company filed 81 new patent applications during the year, including nine for AI/ML-specific technologies, 10 focused on post-quantum cryptography, and four advancing content authentication. Upcoming products and innovation DigiCert introduced DigiCert® Device Trust Manager, a comprehensive, lifecycle-based IoT security solution DigiCert introduced DigiCert® Device Trust Manager, a comprehensive, lifecycle-based IoT security solution that enables device manufacturers to secure connected devices at scale—from production through decommissioning. As the number of connected devices is projected to reach 56 Billion, Device Trust Manager addresses the growing complexity of compliance, data integrity, and operational risk by delivering end-to-end visibility, automated provisioning, and real-time monitoring. Additionally, DigiCert began offering Common Mark Certificates (CMCs) to address the increasing need for verifiable indicators of online trust. These globally recognised digital trust marks help organisations demonstrate compliance, build consumer confidence, and protect brand integrity. DigiCert is currently the only provider in the market to offer both Common Mark Certificates and Verified Mark Certificates, underscoring its leadership in shaping the future of digital trust.