This week seems to be all about the scrappy underdogs taking on the champs. Rocana wants to take a piece of splunk, Google (okay not so scrappy) wants a chunk of Amazon’s cloud business, and Amazon (also not an underdog) wants to take a bite out of Watson.
- IBM Watson Vs. Amazon: Machine Learning Systems Presage the Future
“Amazon offers a simplified platform for developers who want to start working with machine learning without a lot of stress or specialized tools or investment,” King, Principal Analyst at Pund-IT, toldDatamation. “Typically machine learning has required developers to have a lot of specialized training, and required businesses who want to use it to invest in software tools and specialized algorithms and the hardware to support extremely large data sets.”
- How IBM Spent $84 Billion in 12 Months
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/12/02/how-ibm-spent-84-billion-in-12-months.aspx
- IBM sets $1bn revenue goal for SoftLayer, says source
That’s an increase of about a quarter from the $700 million to $800 million in revenue the unit is expected to take in this year, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the financial information is still private. SoftLayer, which IBM acquired in 2013, had $335 million in sales the year before the acquisition.
- After Apple open sources it, IBM puts Swift programming in the cloud
Pay attention to this on based on conversations we had this week…The company is on-board to create enterprise apps for iOS devices and is already saving thousands of dollars in support costs by deploying Apple hardware within its own ranks. IBM says “we love swift here” so I’d expect the company to highlight additional Swift implementations in the future, helping Apple further its cause to make Swift a go-to language for modern app development.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/after-apple-open-sources-it-ibm-puts-swift-in-the-cloud/
Hewlett Packard Enterprises
- The market responded well to the HPE/Microsoft partnership…
Gartner predicts that IoT connected devices will represent 6.4M of the total devices connected to the internet in 2016. It is extremely similar to the same deal Microsoft cut with HPE’s arch competitor, Dell, back in October. HPE also serves as a conduit to Microsoft’s growing Azure cloud computing ecosystem. Analysts on the street covering shares of Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), are projecting a one-year target price of $15.153, according to Zacks Research.
http://waltonian.com/2015/12/hewlett-packard-enterprise-shares-rally-on-expanded/
- BT partners with HPE on Cloud services
British Telecom has partnered with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to allow the telco’s IP VPN customers to connect directly to HPE Helion Managed Cloud Services. BT’s service will use HPE’s Rapid Connect capability to bypass the public Internet when connecting to HPE Helion Managed Cloud Services.
http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/589846/bt-partners-hpe-cloud-services/
- HP Inc exits low cost Android tablets, to focus on high-end devices
HP’s new strategy is akin to that of Apple and Microsoft, which both offer more expensive, premium tablets. Dell has also scaled back its cheap tablet product line-up instead focusing on profitability. Dell says it wants to sell only premium tablets and hybrids with advanced features like hi-res screens and even 3D cameras.
http://www.streetwisejournal.com/hp-exits-low-cost-tablet-market/
Note: Hmmm… that sounds oddly similar to what I said on a certain podcast last week… - The Sad Story of HP Printers
At HP Printers, they were fully aware back in the late 1970s that the market was moving to go paperless, but spent the following decades in denial rather than in pivoting to take advantage of the opportunities that this move would create. Recent surveys indicate that a majority of firms will be paperless shortly, yet with four decades of warning, HP doesn’t appear ready.
HP Inc.’s numbers are out and they are getting pounded by the decline in printing supplies. As a result of this long-anticipated move, they now serve as a lesson of what not to do. They also showcase why so many dominant companies, even with lots of notice, don’t survive an industry event like the paperless office
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/unfiltered-opinion/the-sad-story-of-hp-printers.html
Other
- Microsoft Overtakes IBM as Most Buggy Software Vendor
“The reason so many Microsoft products are in the Top 20 lists this time is that both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge come bundled with Adobe Flash, adding the 35 Flash vulnerabilities listed in August to Windows 8 and upwards,” he said.
http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/microsoft-overtakes-ibm-most-buggy/
- Forrester: Google cloud business a concern for AWS, IBM
Google does not break out its cloud revenues separately when reporting results, but at a recent event, the firm said it thinks its cloud revenue will surpass its sales from online advertising in five years’ time. Its aim is to be referred to as a cloud company by 2020.
- So Larry Ellison wrote a book about Oracle…
I learned many important things from this book, but I found this quote to be most useful: “People — teachers, coaches, bosses — want you to conform to some standard of behavior they deem correct. They measure and reward you on how well you conform — arrive on time, dress appropriately, exhibit a properly deferential attitude — as opposed to how well you do your job. Programming liberated me from all that. I could work in the middle of the night. I could wear blue jeans and a T-shirt. I could ride my motorcycle to work. And I’d make more money if I could solve the problem faster and better than anyone else.”
http://www.gurufocus.com/news/375356/the-oracle-of-software-
- Startup Rocana wants to be everything Splunk is and more, bringing big data to DevOps
Years back, Omer Trajman, Eric Sammer, and Don Brown met while working together at Cloudera. They were early executives and field employees charged with helping customers understand Hadoop and how to use it to solve business problems. They did this, possibly, hundreds of times and, while they were able to help many business better understand Hadoop, they always seemed to hit a snag when it came to getting it into production.
The problem was that the operations team, the folks in the data center, didn’t know how to run it or weren’t able to. So, they started solving the operations problem as well. They screwed it up plenty of times, Trajman said, but they also got it right many times as well.
- Teradata restructures leadership, cuts co-president
Teradata (NYSE: TDC) said its board of directors moved Tuesday to dissolve its co-president management structure in light of the recent decision to exit the market applications business. The co-president position held by Hermann Wimmer has been terminated. The company has appointed Robert Fair as chief operating officer. Michael Koehler, CEO of the company, has additionally been named president.
- Why Dell Might Sell Quest Software & SonicWall
The rumors began flying Wednesday night that Dell is shopping its portfolio companies — Quest Software and SonicWall — to buyout firms KKR & Co LP, Thoma Bravo LLC and Vista Equity Partners Management LLC.
http://www.cmswire.com/information-management/why-dell-might-sell-quest-software-sonicwall/
Photo: Tim Swaan