IBM
- Intel finally has a challenger in the server market: IBM
I would really like to hear IBM’s perspective of why they dumped out some of their hardware and server market, yet continue to dabble in other areas.Now, as the investor group Motley Fool notes, OpenPOWER is a threat to Intel in the Chinese server market because the government has been actively pushing homegrown solutions over foreign technology, and many of the Foundation members like Tyan are from China.This means Chinese companies can build locally sourced Power servers and even Power chips, which would be more agreeable to the Chinese, even if the technology ultimately did originate in the U.S. The OpenPOWER servers use IBM designed CPUs and motherboards as well as Nvidia GPU technology for compute acceleration.
http://www.itworld.com/article/2903063/intel-finally-has-a-challenger-in-the-server-market-ibm.html
Bonus: How does NVidia play into all of this?
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/unfiltered-opinion/could-nvidia-be-the-key-to-ibms-effort-to-take-on-intel.html - IBM acquires Alchemy API (follow-up from 3 weeks ago )
http://marketrealist.com/2015/03/ibm-adds-alchemyapi-acquisition-portfolio/ - IBM is spending $70B to retire $45B in shares (share buy-back):
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3029656-ibm-spends-70-billion-to-retire-45-billion-worth-of-shares - IBM scores an outsourcing deal with the UK department of health:
As per the IT deal, IBM will modernize the system by providing increased mobile access and new self-service capabilities making the system more efficient and accessible. The workforce management tool serves 1.4 million employees in the U.K
http://www.infotechlead.com/bpo/ibm-inks-it-outsourcing-deal-with-health-department-in-england-29035
More details – it is a 5 year deal to do electronic staff records (ESR)
https://www.business-cloud.com/articles/news/ibm-solve-14-people-hrm-headache-nhs - IBM to open customer centers for software-defined network simulation
The network is the long pole in the tent as you virtualize hybrid data centers and need to do things like interconnect internal resources” with applications running on multiple cloud providers such as Amazon, IBM/Softlayer and [Microsoft] Azure,” said Rick Qualman, IBM vice-president of network an communications services. The increasingly complex environment, with hybrid data centers on the back end and a mobile workforce and clientele on the front end, requires a flexible, automated network that can respond faster to rapid changes in demand.
- IBM SoftLayer adds configurable Block Storage and File Storage options for Cloud Servers
http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2401480/ibm-softlayer-adds-configurable-block-storage-and-file-storage-options-for-cloud-servers - IBM i Skills Shortage: Now You See It, Now You Don’t
CEO Mike Lawrie was blaming a lack of IBM i skilled professionals for a revenue shortfall at Computer Sciences Corp, the volume on this topic has been turned up considerably. That’s good. This is a discussion that needs to be heard. In the just-released IBM i Marketplace Survey, half the respondents listed IBM i skills depletion as a top concern. Much of this discussion is defined by whether a shortage exists or whether companies are doing a poor job with workforce management.
Oracle
- Oracle Primed To Leverage New Cloud Solutions, Says Cantor Fitzgerald
Analysts Brian White and Isabel Zhu wrote, “Just over a year ago, Oracle held its first Cloud Forum for analysts, and the progress made across its cloud portfolio is nothing short of remarkable, in our view. Yesterday’s event only furthered our enthusiasm for Oracle’s cloud initiatives, which we find the most aggressive of any of the large, global IT vendors in our coverage universe, and we believe Oracle has the highest probability of success.”
- Oracle Making Progress Taking On Workday In Cloud
“We came away incrementally more positive after Oracle HCM World, given our conversations with customers and SIs,” he wrote. “Interest in (Oracle’s) Fusion HCM (cloud product) has picked up over the last six months, with a key Oracle SI partner indicating that Oracle added approximately 580 Fusion HCM customers following the Release 8 product, with maybe one-third, or 150-200, live over the past two quarters.”
http://news.investors.com/technology/032715-745417-oracle-catching-up-in-cloud-hr-software.htm
HP
- HP nearing deal to sell off Chinese unit:
Tsinghua Unigroup had been competing with other bidders for the business, which is worth roughly $5 billion in total, including China Huaxin Post and Telecommunication Economy Development Center, people familiar with the matter said.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/h-p-nears-deal-to-sell-control-of-chinese-unit-2015-03-26-231032726
- HP stock is oversold:
But making Hewlett-Packard Co an even more interesting and timely stock to look at, is the fact that in trading on Thursday, shares of HPQ entered into oversold territory, changing hands as low as $31.57 per share. We define oversold territory using the Relative Strength Index, or RSI, which is a technical analysis indicator used to measure momentum on a scale of zero to 100. A stock is considered to be oversold if the RSI reading falls below 30.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dividendchannel/2015/03/26/hewlett-packard-is-oversold-2/
- HP cuts 77 jobs in Houston
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/technology/article/More-local-job-cuts-at-HP-6153841.php
Other
- Dell is bringing in former Cisco and IBM employees at their C-Level
Rory P. Read and Paul Pérez to key executive positions on its Commercial Sales and Enterprise Solutions leadership teams.
- Why Yelp and Salesforce Want Tech Companies to Boycott Indiana
Yelp and Salesforce are urging tech and other companies to avoid Indiana and other states that have passed so-called “religious freedom” laws that basically allow businesses to discriminate against other people if they claim it’s part of their religion. Human rights groups have accused states with similar laws of aiming to discriminate against the LGBT community.
http://dcinno.streetwise.co/2015/03/27/yelp-and-salesforce-urge-tech-companies-to-boycott-indiana/
- Tableau upgrades to version 9
http://insidebigdata.com/2015/03/27/tableau-9-0-brings-interactive-speed-and-enriched-flow-to-data-analytics/