Apple

• After years of speculation and discussion by every tech-savvy person, Apple remained conspicuously silent about re-platforms of its 5G infrastructure, even as it continued to release and launch new iPhone models. Since its 2008 3G upgrade, Apple has not been in a hurry to upgrade its cellular standards. Even in the 4G era, Apple only briefly mentioned that iPads and iPhones could only meet certain speeds under optimal cellular conditions, partly due to its Intel modem use.
• In the last quarter of 2019, however, Apple communicated its re-platforms of its 5G infrastructure. The announcement dwelled on integrating the most advanced and compatible 5G chip in the market in all three iPhone releases in 2020.  
• Apple’s deployment of 5G connections is anticipated to take place between 2020 and 2022. According to reports, 5G connections will account for roughly 46% by 2025, globally. Between 2020 and 2021, it is expected that 5G connections will grow up to 14%. The mobile industry looks up to Apple’s deployment of this infrastructure to speed up adoption.

Walmart

• In the second quarter of 2020, Walmart Canada announced that it would be investing $3.5 billion to expand its Omni capacity to create “smarter stores” through new IT infrastructure. The new infrastructure would help the giant store build two new state-of-the-art distribution points and renovate over 100 stores in three years. Further, the multi-billion-dollar investment would improve online and in-store shopping experiences, making them simpler, faster, and more convenient for shoppers.
• Walmart’s billion-dollar investment in Canada is the latest tech investment that seeks to streamline operations in the giant outlet. In the past, Walmart has experimented with other IT infrastructure platforms such as blockchain, cashier-less stores, micro-fulfillment, and AI-driven optimizations. The new IT infrastructure will focus on four primary areas. These are; modernizing “smarter" stores, accelerating the omnichannel offering by improving pickup experience, building at least two new micro-fulfillment centers while renovating existing centers, and investing in technology to build up distribution center capabilities.
• The multi-billion-dollar Walmart Canada investment will be stretched over the next five years in a bid to generate more growth and make significant, yet simpler and faster online and offline shopping experiences for its customers.
•  "Millions of customers choose to shop with us in-store and online every day — and that's a tremendous honour," said Horacio Barbeito, President and CEO, Walmart Canada. He further added, "Today's significant investment will position us for future growth and make Walmart Canada even better for our associates and our customers. We are doubling down on our focus on the customer experience — not just to keep up but to lead and to be the very best in Canada."

CVS Health

• CVS Health, through a new IT infrastructure HealthHUBs, will help drive different consumer-centric health experiences by the end of 2021. At least 1,500 HealthHUBs are expected to be operational towards the last quarter of 2021.  
• "Our goal is to fundamentally transform the consumer health experience for the millions of Americans we interact with every day, while creating value for our patients, members, partners, and shareholders," said Larry J. Merlo, President, and Chief Executive Officer, CVS Health. "We have combined with Aetna to build a powerful and unique business model that will guide our journey to becoming the most consumer-centric health company."
• CVS Health is developing excellence centers for data and robotics to move to a hybrid cloud environment. Through this re-platform of its IT infrastructure, CVS Health will manage to cut costs and significantly reduce the time that would have been used to deploy new capabilities. Through its re-platforms, the company will also streamline its applications across the board, optimize their call centers with artificial intelligence, and apply advanced data and analytics to leverage and enhance workforce management tools.
• Through a robust IT infrastructure, the drug retailer will run transformational initiatives and protect its breadth of data while deploying data across the organization securely, to create a holistic view of the patient. The company communicated that its re-platforms would also provide insight that will improve communication with the patients to develop the next best action to improve a patient’s health.

Companies That Have Re-platformed Their IT Infrastructure

Amazon

• In mid-2020, Amazon’s fully managed integration service, AppFlow, was modified to enable Amazon’s customers to transfer data between AWS services and SaaS applications securely.
• The re-platform provides customers with the flexibility to choose comma-separated values (CSV), json, or parquet as the file format when moving data from the primary source of application to Amazon S3. The new IT infrastructure is supported on all source applications, except Google Analytics and Amplitude initially. These new options have enabled customers to integrate data easily transferred and ingested through AppFlow into their pipelines’ analytics without having to carry out any additional data format.
• Amazon has unearthed the value of SaaS applications as they are rapidly growing in importance. Thus, Amazon has started to include essential data when performing analytics to influence business decisions. Amazon AppFlow is now a fully managed integrated service to help customers transfer SaaS data to individual data lake securely.
• The new AppFlow not only supports new Salesforce integration but also helps customers save time and avoid any unnecessary interruptions to flow execution caused by the dire need to update the flow configuration. The automatic import of newly created Salesforce field also provides users with the ability to update and maintain records in destination systems up to date if corresponding records are deleted in Salesforce.

ExxonMobil

• In February 2019, ExxonMobil entered into a digital partnership with Microsoft to improve its Permian Basin operations, making these operations the largest-ever oil and gas acreage to apply cloud technology. Through this re-platforming, the company anticipates to generate billions in revenue and net cash flow in the new decade as the IT infrastructure promoted improvements in analyses and enhancements to operational efficiencies.
• In a press statement, the company’s Senior Vice President, Staale Gjervik, said “The combination of Microsoft’s technologies with our unique strengths in oilfield technologies, production efficiency and integration will help drive growth in the Permian and serve as a model for additional implementation across the US and abroad. The unconventional business is fast moving, complex and data rich, which makes it well suited for the application of digital technologies to strengthen our operations and help deliver greater value.”
• ExxonMobil’s partnership with Microsoft was initiated to improve the company’s analyses and enhance operational efficiencies at its Permian Basin acreage through an integrated cloud environment that securely and reliably gathers real-time data from oil field assets. Through Microsoft’s IT infrastructure such as Azure Data Lake, ExxonMobil now makes faster and concise decisions that have helped to reduce leakages by repairing response times and strengthen XTO’s voluntary actions to manage methane emissions.
• Through the Microsoft partnership, the US oil and gas industry leader has maximized technologies such as machine learning, the Internet of Things, and Dynamics 365 to improve its efficiency, including ExxonMobil’s subsidiary XTO Energy. The partnership has continued to improve the company’s capital efficiency and support output growth from the Permian operations.