SourceCast: Episode 15: If you want it good, it takes time
Video: We Can Use Big Data to Make Ourselves Better
Supplier Report: 2/28/2015
IBM
- IBM Pumps $4 Billion Into Cloud and Mobile Initiatives (thank you Kevin, huge story with hundreds of similar posts this week)…
Among its new priorities, IBM has put particular emphasis on online, or cloud, services. It has said it invested $1.2 billion in data centers to augment those it acquired with SoftLayer Technologies in 2013. It also invested $1 billion to accelerate commercialization of its Watson data-analytics technology.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-pumps-4-billion-into-strategic-imperatives-1424959681
- WebSphere (IBM) offers 31% better performance over WebLogic (Oracle)
Enterprise IT vendor IBM today said its WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5.4 running on dual Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 v3 demonstrated 31 percent better performance on per core basis against 18800.76 SPECjEnterprise20101 EjOPS result from Oracle using WebLogic 12.1.3 Server running on Oracle Server X5-2 with dual Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 v3.
- Jim Cramer: Don’t write off IBM, but I like SalesForce better
TheStreet’s Jim Cramer says you can’t write off IBM because they’ve managed to reinvent themselves so many times. On Thursday the company announced it will spend $4 billion in 2015 on analytics, mobility, cloud computing and security. Cramer says IBM CEO Ginni Rometty is laying out a vision about the idea of social, mobile, media, and cloud computing becoming a larger part of the company. Right now it’s about 27 percent of the company and they want to take it to 40. But Cramer says if you take it to 40 it can’t be because the rest of IBM is doing so poorly. He says IBM is looking increasingly like an Accenture with a social/mobile component. Warren Buffett is a fan of IBM and while Cramer says he wouldn’t write IBM off, he certainly likes Salesforce a lot more than IBM
- IBM has out “mega-deal’ed” HP
In December IBM announced a $1bn (£644m) deal with German airline Lufthansa, a win with global comms company WPP for $1.25bn (£800m), and said it had scored undisclosed deals thought to be worth more than £500m with media org Thomson Reuters and Dutch bank ABN AMRO.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/26/hp_can_eat_ibms_dust_says_anlalyst_report/
- IBM Advances SoftLayer for Hybrid Cloud Growth
Connected to the initial $1.2 billion investment in cloud services that IBM announced in 2014, the new computing capacity broadens the company’s cloud footprint in both Australia and Canada, bringing the SoftLayer portfolio to local doorsteps. The new cloud centers are each the second of their kind to be opened in their respective countries, giving customers the option for in-country data redundancy.
http://www.eweek.com/cloud/ibm-advances-softlayer-for-hybrid-cloud-growth.html
Oracle
- Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff Bashed Oracle Corporation:
The recent slew of smack-talk between Oracle, SalesForce, EMC, and SAP is interesting…The salesforce.com CEO said that Oracle’s action showed desperation. After acquiring the customer service apps (RightNow), Oracle renamed it as ‘Service Cloud.’ He charged Oracle with not being able to implement its service cloud. On the other hand, Salesforce’s version was doing much better, according to Benioff.
- Oracle v. Oregon: Judge orders tech giant to keep hosting Medicaid enrollment
Oracle had signaled its intent to not renew its contract, which expires at the end of the month. Oregon sued the corporation, saying if Oracle walked away, thousands of Oregonians would be left in the lurch.
HP
- The Battle of Two Tech Giants (HP vs. IBM)
So where is the sunlight? The willingness of HP to act. Splitting your company into two pieces is a massive task. Recall what the EU wanted to do to Microsoft, and how that company reacted. But there are green shoots: The company’s guidance is weak, but we are still operating in a pre-split era, so operational performance isn’t the best barometer. Instead, the company has plenty of cash, and is making big moves: HP is said to be eyeing Aruba Networks as an acquisition and is shifting around its cloud leadership quickly after installing a new leader.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/26/who-wins-the-battle-of-the-disrupted-tech-giants-hp-or-ibm/
- HP scores large deal (billions) with Deutsche Bank
The 10 year deal, which mainly covers Deutsche Bank’s wholesale banking, will see HP provide dedicated data centre services with the aim of reducing infrastructure costs for the bank.
http://www.sharedserviceslink.com/news/deutsche-bank-and-hp-announce-multi-billion-dollar-agreement
- HP Separation to Cost $1.3 Billion in 2015
“Recall that we are separating into two Fortune 50 companies, I mean it’s sort of hard to imagine that there are two Fortune 50 companies embedded in HP,” Whitman said. “That has included an entire organizational design and selection process the IT strategy carve out financials and many other activities.”
http://www.datamation.com/data-center/hp-separation-to-cost-1.3-billion-in-2015.html
- HP reportedly mulling purchase of Aruba Networks
The move would give HP, which already offers its own “converged campus networking” gear, a bigger footprint in wireless mobile, a hot market, that could grow even hotter as more businesses and consumers use Wi-Fi to take some of the pressure off overloaded cellular networks. This acquisition would be reminiscent of Cisco’s purchase of Meraki a little over two years ago for $1.2 billion.
https://gigaom.com/2015/02/25/hp-reportedly-mulling-purchase-of-aruba-networks/
Other
- Splunk’s Value Is in the Clouds; Investors Should Take Profits Now
Cloud and big-data markets are driving profits higher for many software companies, but data analytics specialist Splunk (SPLK – Get Report) has struggled to grow its bottom line. While its revenue is growing at impressive rates, Splunk’s valuation remains a concern. And investors would be wise to take some of their profits off the table ahead of the company’s fourth-quarter results Thursday.
- Gartner BI Magic Quadrant 2015 Spots Market Turmoil
“Business-centric platforms such as Tableau Software, Qlik, and other emerging vendors have a more narrow set of capabilities, but are used more broadly for a range of BI and analytics functions — including reporting, for which they are not optimal… — primarily because they are easy to use and deploy,” Gartner writes in its report. In contrast, companies using more conventional, IT-centric platforms (such as Cognos or BusinessObjects) that have a broad range of BI capabilities say they apply them to narrow use-cases.
Supplier Report: 1/30/2015
IBM
Even though IBM has refuted reports of a massive layoff, reports continue to come in. Something to keep an eye on.
[Note: The blogger who broke the story still maintains that major reductions (10k) have started]
- Follow-up from last week: IBM Staff reductions much smaller than first reported:
“IBM does not comment on rumours, even ridiculous or baseless ones,” the company said in an email to Reuters. “If anyone had checked information readily available from our public earnings statements, or had simply asked us, they would know that IBM has already announced the company has just taken a $600-million charge for workforce rebalancing. This equates to several thousand people, a small fraction of what’s been reported.”
http://www.itworldcanada.com/article/big-blue-layoffs-much-smaller-than-reported-ibm/101320
- IBM to introduce 12 new apple apps:
The apps will include functions for new industries like health care, energy and utilities, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said on the company’s earnings call Tuesday. New customers include Florida’s Miami-Dade County and teen retailer American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (AEO)
- IBM workforce rebalance may hit Indian staffers hard (potentially 5k employees):
According to multiple sources at IBM India, “The appraisal period is just getting over and the fear is that the number of employees who may be asked to leave this year could be higher than last year.” They added: “However, we don’t see any other metrics beyond the regular performance evaluation one for these exits.”
Oracle
- Is Ellison overpaid?
Another scenario of investor shenanigans…Jackson said that in their view, even if PGGM and Railways Pension do not own a massive stake in Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) between the both of them, they are representing the majority of shareholders in the company which may have these issues with the way the software company is run. She said that they could have partnered with other substantial shareholders, but PGGM and Railways Pension are the groups which have been consistently been bringing up these issues in the past years.
- Oracle stock remains strong:
Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) dropped slightly amid mild profit booking and the last known price was $43.9 per share. The price decreased by -0.29 points or -0.66% which made the investors to buy on weakness. For the latest trading session, the net money flow was recorded at $19.39 million. The total upticks were valued at $78.32 million and the total downticks aggregated to $58.93 million, thereby putting the up/down ratio at 1.33, implying that stock remains inherently strong. The counter has seen a change in the share price of -0.66% on a weekly basis.In a big block trade which occurred today, the total uptick value was $27.18 million and the total downtick value was $13.89, resulting in an up/down ratio of 1.96. The net money flow for the block trade was calculated to be $13.3 million.
http://stafforddaily.com/oracle-corporation-witness-large-inflow-of-money/322095/
HP
- HP reveals more about what happens after the split…
It appears that Whitman got first dibs when it came to assembling her team for HP Enterprise. Roles for CFO, general counsel and chief marketing officer have yet to be filled at HP inc
- More of the executive structure of the two companies:
http://www.crn.com/news/channel-programs/300075496/hp-names-top-executive-lineup-for-its-two-new-fortune-50-companies.htm
Other
- Now that Lenovo bagged IBM’s X86 server business, what now?
Company is looking at going after the storage market…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/26/with_ibm_x86_bagged_how_does_lenovo_view_the_storage_market/ - Microsoft going after Tableau and other BI companies by offering free tools
The market for business intelligence and analytics software is projected to expand to $21.4 billion in 2018 from $14.8 billion in 2014, according to IDC, as companies look for ways to easily gain insights for reams of data being collected from other business applications, websites, mobile devices and sensors. The new Power BI will be able to pull data from all of those sources.
The Supply Chain: 12/29/2014
- How Pratt & Whitney selects suppliers in their supply chain:
A prospective supplier needs to know two things to be considered as a P&W supplier, Albertelli says. First, she advises that manufacturing processes would-be suppliers have traditionally done by hand – welding, for example – need to be automated as much as possible. Second, a company should have the flexibility to understand that it might not be the only provider of a part, which can be important if a company needs to invest in new equipment, such as robots.
http://www.onlineamd.com/becoming-tier-supplier-pratt-whitney-122614.aspx
- Why BI is key for (manufacturing) supply chain during the holidays:
Clearly applicable to our own usage as well…
http://smartdatacollective.com/sian-davies/287241/why-manufacturing-industry-needs-business-intelligence-badly-christmas-story - The top IT Health Mergers of 2014:
This post can fit in a few places, but it showed up in my procurement feed, so it will go on this post. Lots of familiar names on the list…
http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/Top-2014-Health-IT-Mergers-and-Acquisitions-49497-1.html - Companies not auditing their suppliers for corruption and ethics violations (61% surveyed):
businesses need to dive deeper than their first tier of suppliers, to make sure their suppliers’ suppliers are driving through their systems the desired ethical and social policies, he said. “It is more difficult to get information on the second line because companies concentrate on that first line” of suppliers, said Mr. Chamberlain. “They’ve got to get first tier to do it.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2014/12/23/companies-turning-a-blind-eye-to-supply-chains/