Category: Supplier Report

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Supplier Report: 3/26/2016

sn_firebreather_Donald Tong

It was not a peaceful week for IT suppliers.

Lawsuits are plentiful at the moment: IBM lost a case with Indiana, HPE is getting sued by Oracle, and EMC is suing Pure. Microsoft had to take down one of their AI experiments because users (very quickly) figured out a way to make it say inappropriate things on Twitter.

RedHat has good news… they are the first open source subscription company to hit $2 Billion in value.

IBM

  • Opportunity knocks for IBM customers, but will they answer?

    With IBM’s substantial workforce rebalancing and strategic business transformation ongoing, it is a perfect time to meet with IBM to conduct a personal assessment of their transformation and strategic direction by having them explain how these developments can benefit your organization.  This inquiry meeting can serve as the platform for a subsequent meeting to re-negotiate your current relationship across all of IBM’s business units (Hardware, Software, and Services), including any new spend initiatives.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3045285/it-strategy/opportunity-knocks-for-ibm-customers-but-will-they-answer.html

  • Indiana court: IBM breached contract, still due $50M

    The high court’s four other justices unanimously found Tuesday that IBM had breached its contract by failing to meet “timeliness metrics” and to “assist the State in achieving its policy objectives” – thus reversing a 2012 Marion County trial court finding – and said the state can seek damages. However, the justices also affirmed the trial court’s award of nearly $50 million to IBM in assignment and equipment fees.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/22/indiana-court-finds-ibm-breached-contract-but-due-/

  • IBM creating 250 cybersecurity jobs in New Brunswick over next three years

    New Brunswick is already home to a natural cybersecurity cluster that dates back 25 years, with the establishment of Canada’s first faculty of computer science in 1989. IBM’s Security QRadar analyzes data across an organization’s information technology infrastructure to identify potential security threats, acting as support for IBM’s 10 global security centres.

    http://www.cantechletter.com/2016/03/ibm-creating-250-cybersecurity-jobs-in-new-brunswick-over-next-three-years/

  • IBM Takes Stand Against Controversial North Carolina Law

    Big Blue, North Carolina’s largest employer, posted a statement on Thursday that expressed disappointment with the new law, which LBGT rights supporters widely view a setback. The law short-circuited a Charlotte ordinance that would have let transgender men who identify as women use the women’s bathroom.

    http://fortune.com/2016/03/24/ibm-north-carolina-transgender/

Microsoft

Oracle

  • Oracle Is Suing Hewlett-Packard for Selling Its Proprietary Updates

    Oracle says HP “falsely represented to customers that HP and Terix could lawfully provide Solaris Updates and other support services at a lower cost than Oracle, and then worked with Terix to improperly access and provide Oracle’s proprietary Solaris Updates to customers,” according to the suit.

    http://fortune.com/2016/03/23/oracle-suing-hewlett-packard/

  • Workday: An Oracle Slayer Or An Also-Ran Competitor?

    For several years now, dating back to at least 2012, before Workday even became a publicly traded company, Oracle’s management in general and Larry Ellison in particular have articulated strong negative sentiments regarding Workday and what it was trying to achieve. In those long-ago years, Workday had subscription revenues of less than $90 million while Oracle was selling more than $10 billion of software. And yet, here is a quote from the Oracle earnings press release that was issued at the end of its fiscal 2013 year (ended May 31), “Furthermore, in Q4, our HCM cloud alone generated more SaaS revenue and added more new Fusion HCM customers than Workday added HCM and ERP customers combined in their most recent quarter.” There are many, many things that might be said about a company with literally 100X more revenues comparing itself to an upstart that Workday was at that point. At this writing, Workday has grown something more than tenfold and Oracle has shrunk, but the rhetoric is still the same. If it wasn’t accurate all the way back then and hasn’t been accurate since that time, why should anyone choose to believe Oracle’s forecast for Workday at this point?

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3960035-workday-oracle-slayer-also-ran-competitor

Storage ( Dell | EMC )

Other

  • Red Hat Becomes World’s First Ever $2 billion Open Source Company

    Subscription revenue hit $480 million (£338m), up 18 percent year-over-year, accounting for around 88 percent of Red Hat’s total revenue. The growth in subscription revenues was seen by analysts as a particularly encouraging trend, indicating that Red Hat’s business is stabilizing and gaining more predictability.

    Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst said increased adoption of Red Hat’s hybrid cloud and open source technologies were chiefly responsible for the growth. He added that Red Hat closed the year with a record backlog, which Abhey Lamba of Mizuho Securities told The Wall Street Journal “is a good indication of its growing strategic importance.”

    http://www.techworm.net/2016/03/red-hat-becomes-worlds-first-ever-2-billion-open-source-company.html

  • Google Just Showed Up Amazon And IBM

    Now, Google has decided to commercialize pretty much all of this AND also to become a much bigger player in the cloud hosting business and software-as-a-service business. This is a truly massive shift. See, Amazon has the most mature virtual machine hosting platform with tons of services around it e.g., virtual private clouds, caches, proxies, DNS services, databases and so forth, but it does not have the machine learning know-how and services Google has. IBM has lots of natural language processing and computer vision services in its Watson Cloud product as well as hosting in its SoftLayer product, but it does not integrate them into one smooth platform like Google. This is because IBM has obtained much of its technology in that space from acquisitions.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3960633-google-just-showed-amazon-ibm

  • Docker, not production-ready? Not so, says Docker

    It seems safe to assume that Docker isn’t being used to containerize existing enterprise applications. Instead, developers are bringing in Docker for new application deployments, greenfield opportunities that aren’t dependent on yesterday’s infrastructure.

    http://www.infoworld.com/article/3046464/application-development/docker-not-production-ready-not-so-says-docker.html

Photo: Donald Tong

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Supplier Report: 3/19/2016

sn_MexicanStandoff

I know this is going to come as a surprise to frequent readers… IBM bought another company. GASP! How could we have predicted such a move?

IBM purchased Optevia, a British CRM integration company that is based in the UK. Their focus has historically been government-based CRM configurations… so this is a very specific acquisition and I am curious to see how this asset will play globally.

Microsoft is trying to play nice and win friends, and that means the (formerly) mean kid on the block is giving away free cake SQL seats. HPE and Dell are looking to sell off a few unwanted assets (and by assets I mean whole companies).

Apple is taking business away from Amazon and giving it to Google.  Microsoft and Amazon are teaming up to go after Oracle (on hosting and software).  IBM’s Watson is under attack from one of its founders.

IBM

  • Is the Latest Acquisition by IBM a Game Changer?

    The addition of Optevia is likely to benefit IBM considering the fact that its current SaaS CRM products lack focus on public sector entities right now. Optevia, being a specialist in the field will provide IBM with much needed diversification and potential growth in its cloud portfolio.

    http://www.businessfinancenews.com/28272-is-the-latest-acquisition-by-ibm-a-game-changer/
    Related:
    IBM buys CRM SaaS firm – no, not Salesforce

    It’s an interesting purchase. Consulting giant Accenture last year bought Salesforce partners Tquila and Cloud Sherpas, also on G-Cloud. Salesforce, of course, is the fastest-growing and best known of the CRM-as-a-service lot.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/18/ibm_buys_microsoft_dynamics_crm_partner/

  • IBM is battling hard to save Vodafone’s $1-billion outsourcing deal

    “Even if IBM does retain most of the contract, the renewed deal will come at the cost of margins. They are being forced to fight on price as well,” said one of the sources. As of now, Vodafone hands out $190-200 million of annual business to IBM.

    http://www.businessinsider.in/IBM-is-battling-hard-to-save-Vodafones-1-billion-outsourcing-deal/articleshow/51424229.cms

  • IBM Board Paid Itself $4.9 Million

    IBM’s board members are A.J.P. Belda, W.R. Brody, K.I. Chenault, M.L. Eskew, D.N. Farr, A. Gorsky, S.A. Jackson, A.N. Liveris, W.J. McNerney Jr., J.W. Owens, J.E. Spero, S. Taurel and P. Voser.

    http://247wallst.com/technology-3/2016/03/11/ibm-board-paid-itself-4-9-million/

  • Watch out Watson, Google’s DeepMind is getting smarter…

    For AI researchers and Go aficionados, it is as big a moment as 1997, when Garry Kasparov lost a chess match to Deep Blue, a supercomputer built by IBM. It is much harder to program a computer to play Go than chess—the sheer number of options in every move makes the sort of “brute-force” approach adopted by IBM unfeasible. But DeepMind has managed it. After the match its program, called AlphaGo, was awarded the top professional rank by the Korean Baduk Association (“baduk” being the Korean word for Go.) And it has entered the world rankings in 4th place (see chart).

    http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21694883-alphagos-masters-taught-it-game-electrifying-match-shows-what

  • IBM quietly built the world’s largest digital agency — here’s how it got there (good summary of all of their marketing moves)

    Unlike the competition, iX isn’t trying to ‘bolt on digital’. IBM is not alone in recognizing the business requirements for digital transformation agencies. France-based advertising-agency holding group Publicis Groupe, for example, bought US-based digital-marketing consultancy Sapient for $3.7 billion in 2014, creating what it called the “largest and most advanced” platform focused exclusively on digital transformation.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/ibm-quietly-built-the-worlds-largest-digital-agency-heres-how-it-got-there-2016-3

  • IBM server sales surge, closes in on leaders HPE, Dell

    Strong growth for IBM’s Power systems and double-digit growth for its z System mainframes have seen IBM record 8.9% server revenue growth in Q4 of 2015, helping it close the gap slightly leaders HPE and Dell. IBM saw its market share rise from 13.7% in Q4, 2014 to 14.1% according to the latest figures from IDC. However, its growth spurt wasn’t enough to oust the incumbents from their top spots, with Dell also recording growth – at 5.3% – which enabled it to hold on to its 16.7% market share, while HPE declined 2.1% but still holds the lead with 24.9% market share, down from 26.8% a year ago.

    https://datacenternews.asia/story/ibm-server-sales-surge-closes-leaders-hpe-dell/

Microsoft

  • Microsoft offering free SQL Server licenses to help customers “break free from Oracle”

    Microsoft has decided to offer free SQL Server licenses for its customers to help with migrating away from Oracle database software. It’s positioning this sale as an opportunity to “break free from Oracle”. This offer is only available to Software Assurance subscribers, which is an enterprise licensing agreement that Microsoft offers to large customers.

    http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-offering-free-sql-server-licenses-to-help-customers-break-free-from-oracle
    But what is the maintenance impact year-over-year? 🙂

  • Microsoft loves open source? Only when it’s convenient

    But while this has been going on, you’re not hearing about another part of Microsoft. Simultaneous with the Eclipse and SQL Server announcements, Microsoft announced it had successfully extracted patent licenses out of Wistron of Taiwan for its use of Android and out of Rakuten of Japan for use of Linux and Android. Though there’s been something of a lull in patent aggression lately, it has a long history and generates a significant revenue stream.

    Yes, that’s right: With one face, Microsoft wants us to forgive and forget the “cancer” comments, the dirty tricks, and the standards fixing. Even as the body of SCO lays slightly warm following the Redmond-financed fight against Linux, Microsoft wants us to overlook more than a decade of hostility and accept it as a full-status community member because it showed up with code, cash, and compliments. But with the other face, Microsoft wants members of the Android and Linux communities where it claims membership to pay up crates of cash for patent licenses or face destructive litigation.

    http://www.infoworld.com/article/3042699/open-source-tools/microsoft-loves-open-source-only-when-its-convenient.html

  • What Is Sony’s Incentive To Play Nice With Microsoft For PS4-Xbox One Crossplay?
    I know it is odd to have a gaming item on here, but since we are talking about Microsoft’s embrace of open source and the fact that Sony is kicking their butts in the console market, this is a public relations move…

    For Microsoft to suddenly say “hey guys, don’t worry, you can play all your favorite multiplatform games with your friends on PS4 if you buy an Xbox” helps Microsoft, who is behind, but not Sony, who is ahead. But of course Sony has to agree to this partnership for it to exist at all. If they don’t, Microsoft gets to say “Sony, why are you standing in the way of progress?” but I’m not sure Sony has an adequate reason to agree to this partnership outside of “being nice.” They’re in the lead by a mile, so why let Xbox One get a foothold to try and close the gap by opening up their 35 million PS4 owners as potential playmates for XB1 owners?

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/03/15/what-is-sonys-incentive-to-play-nice-with-microsoft-for-ps4-xbox-one-crossplay/#e6671632fd31

Dell | EMC

  • Dell plans sale of non-core assets to reduce EMC buy debt

    The document is bullish on the synergies that will flow from Dell and EMC merging. But it also points out that Dell will soon have US$59.1bn of debt, which will mean it won’t be flush with cash for the next little while. The document says Denali Holding Inc (DHI), the company that owns Dell, “… has an objective of reducing its indebtedness in the first 18-24 months after completion of the merger and achieving an investment grade credit rating for such indebtedness. The cash necessary to achieve that objective is expected to come from divestitures of non-core businesses of the DHI Group, including EMC, cash flows from operations of the DHI Group and cash generated by reductions in the working capital needed to operate the DHI Group.”

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/15/dell_plans_sale_of_noncore_assets_to_reduce_emc_buy_debt/

  • Dell Aims To Grab Share From Cisco, HPE, Juniper With Aggressive New Rebate

    The Round Rock, Texas-based company introduced a 15 percent back-end rebate that effectively more than doubles similar existing rebates and encourages partners to take market share from Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks, according to Cheryl Cook, Dell’s vice president of global channels and alliances.

    http://www.crn.com/news/networking/300080014/dell-aims-to-grab-share-from-cisco-hpe-juniper-with-aggressive-new-rebate.htm

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

Oracle

  • Microsoft attacks Oracle with SQL Server 2016 ‘free’ licences

    Microsoft is attempting to lure companies to SQL Server 2016 by offering ‘free licences,’ but there is a catch, as customers need to be part of Microsoft’s Software Assurance licencing scheme.This initiative is directed at those organisations which are running applications or workloads on non-Microsoft commercial relational database management systems and offers free SQL Server licences and help to migrate applications. When we look at the web page where the company has detailed the launch, we are able to see what it is planning to do with the free licences.

    http://theusbport.com/microsoft-attacks-oracle-sql-server-2016-free-licences/6189

  • Oracle Earnings: Can Rising Cloud Make Up For Legacy Fall?

    “The stock is down 1.1% since (fiscal 2016’s second-quarter) earnings, outperforming the S&P 500, down 4.0%, given the general rotation out of growth stocks into more value names like Oracle,” wrote Nomura analyst Frederick Grieb in a research note Thursday. “While metrics for cloud revenue growth have been solid, investors remain concerned by what the potential cost will be to the legacy business, as well as the potential impact to margins during the transition.”

    http://www.investors.com/news/technology/can-oracle-puff-up-cloud-faster-than-losing-legacy-software-wind/

  • Oracle Corporation: Cloud Growth a Stark Warning for Its Rivals

    The highlight of the entire earnings call was the remarkable growth in the cloud business. Revenue from cloud solutions, which includes both software-as-a-service (SaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS), grew by 57% year-over-year (YoY) to $583 million. Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle, commenting on the revenue growth from cloud services stated: “This dramatic revenue increase drove our non-GAAP SaaS and PaaS gross margins up to 51% in Q3 as compared with 43% in Q2. Our cloud business is now in a hyper-growth phase.”

    http://www.businessfinancenews.com/28233-oracle-corporation-cloud-growth-a-stark-warning-for-its-rivals/
    Related:
    Larry Ellison explains why Microsoft and Amazon are going for Oracle’s throat

    Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise Corporate VP Takeshi Numoto tells Business Insider that its offer has generated a lot of excitement among Oracle customers: “The level of frustration I’ve seen in their customers has been very high.”

    Meanwhile, at the very moment Ellison was downplaying Amazon, the company had issued a press release announcing that, during the beta phase alone, it had already moved 1,000 databases to AWS.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/larry-ellison-on-microsoft-amazon-offers-2016-3

  • Oracle says Oregon is obstructing its pursuit of information

    Oracle claims that Senior Vice President Ken Glueck and Brian Shipley, Gov. Kate Brown’s then-chief of staff, reached a deal late last year to settle all litigation. Oracle would drop its suits and give the state $25 million worth of products and services. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has said only she has the authority to settle the lawsuits, not the governor.

    http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/health-care-inc/2016/03/oracle-says-oregon-is-obstructing-its-pursuit-of.html

Other

  • Former Executive on IBM’s Watson to Start Own A.I. Firm

    But for Mr. Pratt, leaving to start Noodle meant being able to build a new analytics and A.I. business from the ground up. The company will be based in San Francisco and Bangalore, relying on teams around the world to handle workloads.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/business/dealbook/former-head-of-ibms-watson-unit-to-start-own-ai-firm.html?_r=0

  • Check Out Amazon’s New Secret Weapon for Winning the Cloud Computing Wars

    AWS vice president Adam Selipsky told The Wall Street Journal that “many hundreds” of companies have used an earlier version of the new tool to migrate more than 1,000 databases. “You can clearly see that we’re now getting into the meat of enterprise adoption of the cloud,” he told The Journal.

    Last week, Microsoft said the next version of its own database program would include a similar tool. But Amazon’s head start and experience should continue to pay off, according to Hottovy.

    http://www.thestreet.com/story/13495642/1/amazon-adds-to-appeal-of-its-cloud-computing-platform.html

  • Apple Signs On With Google, Cuts Spending With AWS

    Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, which last November hired VMware co-founder and former CEO Diane Greene to lead its cloud business, is said to be aggressively forming partnerships and swinging deals to bring in large enterprise customers. Last month, Google signed up Spotify, which runs part of its streaming music service on AWS, as a cloud customer.

    http://www.crn.com/news/cloud/300080062/cloud-makes-for-strange-bedfellows-apple-signs-on-with-google-cuts-spending-with-aws.htm

  • Tableau Acquires HyPer in a Quest to Enhance Database Computing

    Tableau Software has announced the acquisition of HyPer, which is a high-performance database system. HyPer was initially developed as a research project in Technical University of Munich (TUM). Tableau plans to start a research and development center in Munich with the help of key personnel, and expand its research work on high-performance computing. The idea is to integrate HyPer’s technology into Tableau’s products. This will help its customers with faster transaction processing, and in improving the analytics results generated by its own software.

    http://www.martechadvisor.com/news/tableau-acquires-hyper-in-a-quest-to-enhance-database-computing/

Posted on

Supplier Report: 3/12/2016

sn_oldbuilding_Andrew Amistad

This week we dive deeper into IBM’s staff reductions and look at how the street is reacting to the cuts. IBM is also helping Hilton cut jobs (potentially) in the future with a Watson powered concierge.

HPE CEO Meg Whitman is saying quite a few things in the press this week… such as Dell is “doubling down on old technology” and why “Entitled Millennials” save HPE money.

EMC better watch their backs… upstart competitor Infinidat is growing quickly and moving into their back yard.

IBM

  • Follow Up: IBM Job Cuts Affect 14,000 Workers, Analyst Firm Estimates

    To arrive at the headcount job cut estimate, Bernstein took IBM’s historical cost to cut one employee — $70,000 — and evaluated it based on a $1 billion gain that IBM has realized in conjunction with a settlement with the Japanese Tax Authority. The settlement was reported in the company’s 10-K report, filed February 23. Bernstein noted that IBM’s guidance for 2016 already includes the $1 billion Japanese Tax Authority settlement. Divide $1 billion by 70,000 and you get a little more than 14,000 employees to be cut.

    http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/ibm-job-cuts-affect-14000-workers-analyst-firm-estimates/d/d-id/1324633
    What the IBM Layoffs Look Like

    Many of those commentors are not buying the “workforce rebalancing” spin, or at least, think only a small number of the layoffs are motivated by the need to adjust the company’s skill sets. Instead, they believe the majority of the layoffs are a matter of “workforce relocating,” specifically, out of the U.S. to India, Brazil, Costa Rica, and other countries with cheaper labor costs.

    http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-careers/is-this-months-ibm-layoff-for-rebalancing-or-is-it-really-for-offshoring
    Laid-off IBM Employees Urged by Marc Benioff to Join Salesforce

    Cloud-based Customer Relationship Management solutions provider Salesforce is urging laid-off IBM employees to join their team. Marc Benioff has sent in invitation from his Twitter account reading, “Salesforce opens its hands to help @IBM and any laid off workers send us your cv.”

    http://www.thehostingnews.com/laid-off-ibm-employees-urged-by-marc-benioff-to-join-salesforce.html

  • Seeking Alpha: All Is Lost At IBM
    As a reminder, Seeking Alpha has demonstrated an anti-IBM bias since I started reporting on this blog…

    IBM bulls may note that the company is pruning deadwood, and that it’s avoiding higher payouts for pensions that are already hurting the balance sheet. But good technology companies don’t treat people as disposable parts.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3956919-lost-ibm

  • KPMG Announces Agreement With IBM Watson To Help Deliver Cognitive-powered Insights

    “KPMG’s use of IBM Watson technology will help advance our team’s ability to analyze and act on the core financial and operational data so central to the health of organizations and the capital markets.  In addition to the unprecedented possibilities for enhancing quality, the potential for cognitive and related technologies to help us pursue new business offerings is extraordinary.”

    http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2016/Mar/8/kpmg-announces-agreement-with-ibm-watson-to-help-deliver-cognitive-powered-insights/

  • Hilton Hotels Teams Up With IBM For New Robot Concierge Connie

    Named after the hotel chain’s founder, Conrad Hilton, Connie is a 2.5-foot-tall Aldebaran Nao robot equipped with IBM Watson and WayBlazer intelligence. As a result, it is capable of answering dozens of routine questions that are usually asked to front desk officers like where to dine, arrangement of tours and which transportation to use.

    http://www.techtimes.com/articles/139844/20160310/hilton-hotels-teams-up-with-ibm-for-new-robot-concierge-connie.htm

Storage: Dell | EMC | Infinidat

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

  • ‘They’re doubling down on old technology’ – Whitman takes dig at Dell-EMC

    “We have taken very different strategies in this environment – there’s no question,” she said. “And so we decided to get smaller while they got bigger. We decided to lean into new technology while they’re doubling down on old technology in a cost-takeout play. They levered up while we de-levered. And we are super-focused on being fast and nimble for our customers. So both strategies may work. I happen to like our hand better than the Dell-EMC hand.”

    http://www.channelnomics.eu/channelnomics-eu/news/2449969/theyre-doubling-down-on-old-technology-whitman-takes-dig-at-dell-emc
    Dell/EMC Merger: Position Defense and Why HP Is Upset

    Much of what Whitman says lacks anything solid behind it, making it clear that she’s got the political promise thing down. But, at some point, it might be nice to see one of the “amazing innovations” supposedly coming out of the company. Dell won’t be able to adequately defend against the HP FUD until the deal is settled. Until it has more than one marginally good quarter under its belt, it might be wise to hold back a bit on the rocks.

    http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/unfiltered-opinion/dellemc-merger-position-defense-and-why-hp-is-upset.html

  • Why HPE Beats HP Inc.

    But, there is another factor, perhaps more important. HPE has retained the growing business segments of the old HPQ, while HP Inc. has retained the declining business segments, as discussed in a previous piece here.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2016/03/04/why-hpe-beats-hp-inc/#46a81e8f2ae7

  • Why Meg Whitman Relies On ‘Entitled’ 22-Year-Olds For Advice

    Whitman says “entitled is too strong a word” to define new graduates, but even that isn’t so bad. In fact, the impatience of today’s youth is useful at a $50 billion sales corporation like Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “They refuse to work on things that do not matter,” she says. She receives emails frequently from young hires complaining that a project they are working on isn’t going anywhere. That’s surprising, but it’s also useful. “You would be surprised how many projects we’ve killed because a 22-year-old says, ‘That’s stupid,’ ” Whitman told the audience. “It’s a little annoying honestly.”

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/03/07/why-meg-whitman-relies-on-entitled-22-year-olds-for-advice/#286b0d8e3870

Microsoft

  • Satya Nadella’s Bold Plan To Future-Proof Microsoft: Embrace Apple iOS, Android And Now Linux

    Nadella’s strategy is to get Microsoft apps and services out there, anywhere, even if it means cozying up to rivals like Apple and Android or, now, the open-source Linux OS. Nadella has little choice. Personal computing is increasingly moving to mobile devices, where Windows badly trails iOS and Android. Businesses, meanwhile, have embraced Linux. The operating system itself is free, so users need only pay for service and maintenance costs.

    http://www.ibtimes.com/satya-nadellas-bold-plan-future-proof-microsoft-embrace-apple-ios-android-now-linux-2332620

  • Microsoft releases SQL database software for rival Linux system

    Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadellais trying to boost Microsoft’s sales of databases, which help companies store and analyze data. Its goal is to take customers from top vendor Oracle, whose share of the market was twice that of Microsoft’s in 2014, according to IDC. Adding a Linux database also lets Microsoft target the most complicated, high-performance systems, and helps the company sell more to existing customers that use more than one operating system, Nadella said.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/03/08/microsoft-releases-sql-database-software-for-rival-linux-system/

  • Microsoft Corporation Backs Out From Slack Acquisition

    It is widely believed by many that $8 billion was not enough for the acquisition. With increasing revenues, the app has gained great popularity among enterprise users and it is expected to add several new features that will put it in direct competition with Skype. Hence, it is speculated that even if Microsoft would have offered $8 billion, Slack would not have immediately agreed on the acquisition.

    http://www.businessfinancenews.com/28101-microsoft-corporation-backs-out-from-slack-acquisition/

Other

  • HPE, Dell and IBM losing ground to ODMs

    But none of the top players could match the expansion rate of Gartner’s ‘Others’ category, a collection of unspecified players sitting outside the top five. This includes Quanta and Wistron, two Taiwanese ODMs that have found success selling their boxes into hyperscale datacentres from the likes of Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Those outside the top five saw revenues beef up 18.9 per cent to $4.75bn (£3.35bn) and shipments swell 16 per cent to 1.26 million in Q4.

    http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2450283/hpe-dell-and-ibm-losing-ground-to-odms

  • Better Buy: IBM vs. Oracle

    With two wins against IBM’s lone victory, Oracle takes the cake. But it’s a tarnished crown, and both tech giants have a lot to prove right now. The big caveat here is that IBM took the growth title which could point to future victories in other areas, too. But my Tarot cards are in for repairs today, so I can’t tell for sure how all of that will work out over the next few years.

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/fool/article/Better-Buy-IBM-vs-Oracle-6881787.php

  • Microsoft, Salesforce Among Winners as ’3rd Platform’ Replaces IT, Says CLSA

    3rd Platform technologies (mobile, cloud, analytics, social business) are growing 13% while 2nd Platform (client-server and first-generation internet technologies) is declining 5%. The gap between them is increasing by a factor of 7x […] The 1st Platform was hardware-centric (you were a DEC or an IBM shop) and the machines dictated IT choices. The 2nd Platform was focused on software (companies would characterize themselves as SAP or Oracle shops). The 3rd Platform is services-centric – Platform as a Service. The megaplatforms where apps will run are at the center of the wave – this includes Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Salesforce, Amazon, IBM and SAP are seven – but there will be consolidation around a smaller number of leaders.

    http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2016/03/07/microsoft-red-hat-splunk-salesforce-benefit-as-3rd-platform-replaces-it-says-clsa/

Photo: Andrew Amistad

Posted on

Supplier Report: 3/5/2016

sn_globes_Lena Bell

IBM is like an elevator at the moment… going both up and down.  The company announced job cuts and job growth. IBM’s transformation is becoming more tangible as we can see the humans being impacted (10,000 jobs eliminated in GTS) and growth in others (Watson, Explorys, BI).

We can also see changes at EMC and Dell.  The companies announced their combined leadership team post-acquisition as well as some changes in leadership for VMWare.

After HP INC’s bad news last week, the stock market offers some hope to Hewlett Packard Enterprise.  Oracle’s hopes of being a solid #2 in the cloud space is evaporating with SAP coming on strong.

IBM

  • Explorys added 80 people after IBM deal, expects more growth

    Explorys has added about 80 new positions since it was acquired by IBM last May. Now the health care data analytics software company employs about 220 people.

    That number is still growing: Explorys had 48 open positions as of Feb. 24, the vast majority of which will be based in Northeast Ohio. The company plans to hire at least 80 people this year, according to CEO Stephen McHale.

    http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20160228/NEWS/160229846/explorys-added-80-people-after-ibm-deal-expects-more-growth

  • IBM Cuts Jobs In ‘Workforce Rebalancing’

    On March 2, he said he began getting hundreds of emails and hundreds of Facebook messages from employees that the layoff had begun. He said the messages conveyed that cuts were hitting GTS and the Global Business Services group, with some additional reports of cuts from the software group and the cloud business. The reports of cuts are coming from workers in the US, France, and the UK. Conrad said he expects to hear more about international layoffs next week, including some from Australia.

    Also:

    Job cuts are nothing new for IBM. The company was rumored to have engaged in a gigantic job-cut effort in early 2015, too, though no actual numbers were ever confirmed. IBM reduced its 2014 workforce by 12%, from 431,212 in 2013 to 379,592 in 2014, according to numbers provided in its 10-K report.

    http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/software-platforms/ibm-cuts-jobs-in-workforce-rebalancing/d/d-id/1324561

  • IBM Plans to Sell ~$150M Worth of Lenovo Stock

    Specifically, IBM will offer 182 million Lenovo shares with a price range of HK$6.26 – HK$6.42. The price is a 6.4 percent discount to Lenovo’s last closing price.

    http://www.streetinsider.com/Insider+Trades/IBM+(IBM)+Plans+to+Sell+~$150M+Worth+of+Lenovo+Stock/11380301.html

  • IBM Creates Breach Response Team With Resilient Systems Acquisition
    Last week it was a rumor, this week it is reality…

    IBM said it plans to use Resilient and its roughly 100 staff – among them security expert Bruce Schneier – as the cornerstone of a new unit called X-Force Incident Response Services, which is to help organisations plan for, manage and respond to cyberattacks, drawing on the skills of about 3,000 consultants and security researchers worldwide.

    http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/security/ibm-breach-response-resilient-acquisition-187098

  • IBM’s Watson Provides Brainpower to Turner

    “This solution addresses one of the timeless objectives of marketing leaders—infusing new levels of data and science into advertising decisions,” said Adam Steinberg, VP, IBM Cognitive Business Solutions. “Armed with deep, fact-based recommendations, Turner will hone the precision of every advertising recommendation, and in turn, lift the impact of the customers who place advertising on Turner’s award-winning programming.”

    http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/currency/ibms-watson-provides-brainpower-turner/154189

  • Buffett Did Not Call IBM A Mistake
    I wasn’t going to cover this, but there are so many posts saying Buffett called IBM a mistake.

    If there was anything of value said about IBM, it was that Buffett still thinks it will be worth more in 10 years than it is worth today and that he generally believes the turnaround effort will pan out. It’s worth noting that Charlie Munger, his erstwhile partner, isn’t particularly convinced of that outcome, though it sounds like he’s a far cry from saying IBM was a mistake, too.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3940386-buffett-call-ibm-mistake

  • Did IBM Just Go ‘Full Patent Troll’?

    In the suit, IBM accuses Groupon’s website and app of using technology built by Prodigy to display content, specifically ads, as well as client tracking technology that monitors “service selections while the client is shopping and then use that information when the client decides to make a purchase,”according to PC World.

    http://chicagoinno.streetwise.co/2016/03/03/ibm-lawsuit-patent-trolls-groupon-over-prodigy-ip/

Dell | EMC

  • VMware leadership changes continue as Dell-EMC deal looms

    VMware announced Tuesday that its Chief Operating Officer Carl Eschenbach will resign. According to a Fortune report, Eschenbach is moving to become a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital. VMware representatives said Eschenbach’s duties will be distributed among several executives. Zane Rowe, EMC’s CFO, took the reins as VMware’s financial lead Tuesday. CFO Jonathan Chadwick, also co-COO, left VMware at the end of January, the same time the company announced plans to cut 800 jobs by the end of March or mid-April.

    http://www.ciodive.com/news/vmware-leadership-changes-continue-as-dell-emc-deal-looms/414844/

  • Michael Dell unveils leadership line-up for merged Dell-EMC

    • Jeremy Burton, chief marketing officer
    • Jeff Clarke, vice chairman of operations and client solutions
    • Howard Elias and Rory Read, co-chief integration officers
    • David Goulden, president of Enterprise Systems Group
    • Marius Haas, chief commercial officer
    • Steve Price, chief human resources officer
    • Karen Quintos, chief customer officer
    • Rich Rothberg, general counsel
    • John Swainson, president of Dell Software
    • Tom Sweet, chief financial officer
    • Suresh Vaswani, president of Dell Services

    http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2449287/michael-dell-unveils-leadership-line-up-for-merged-dell-emc

  • EU clears Dell’s purchase of EMC

HP Inc | Hewlett Packard Enterprise

  • Why HP Is Suffering A Slow Death

    The first mistake was extreme outsourcing, which was supposed to cut cost and limit corporate size. But instead it ended up giving old HPQ’s advantage away to Asian PC and printer makes, piece-by-piece.

    Then came a string of bad acquisitions– in an attempt to fight ‘the last war’ in a number of segments of the technology industry — which drained Hewlett-Packard’s resources. The purchase of Compaq Computer in 2001 was supposed to provide HP with a scale advantage in the PC market and allow it to compete effectively against Dell Computer, IBM, and all sorts of emerging Asian competitors. The purchase of near-bankrupt Palm in 2010 was supposed to help the company enter the fast growing mobile devices market, which began to replace PCs. And the acquisition of enterprise software maker Autonomy in 2011 (at a hefty price of $10.3 billion) pitted the company against three major competitors – Salesforce.com, Oracle, and IBM.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2016/02/27/why-hp-is-suffering-a-slow-death/#1ece80ca44c2

  • HP Enterprise rises on reassuring demand

    The Silicon Valley company, reporting its first quarterly results since it split in November from printer and personal computer maker HP Inc., on Thursday said net income in its first fiscal quarter fell 52%, including restructuring costs. Revenue declined 2.5%. Excluding the effects of a stronger dollar, however, the company said revenue rose 4%–the third consecutive quarter of growth on a constant currency basis–and both revenue and adjusted profit beat Wall Street expectations.

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hp-enterprise-rises-on-reassuring-demand-2016-03-03

Oracle

  • Oracle CEO Safra Catz advises ‘don’t eat dog food’

    Larry is fond of saying we should eat our own dog food. First of all, don’t eat dog food. It’s bad for you. It’s dangerous. We eat our own cooking. That’s correct. We have to eat our own cooking. You know why? Because the entire scale of our business is to the point where I cannot meet the demands of all our customers unless I transform myself, meaning Oracle.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-ceo-advises-dont-eat-dog-food-2016-2

  • Oracle Corporation Falls Victim to Hubris as SAP Overtakes Its Cloud Business

    Not only has SAP outperformed Oracle recently, but since Bill McDermott took the CEO reigns in February 2010, SAP stock has increased 77%, outpacing Oracle which is up about 60% over the same period.

    SAP beating Oracle in the cloud, it is doing so by taking a page out of Oracle’s own playbook — making savvy acquisitions. Over the past five years, the software giant has spent $16 billion acquiring SuccessFactors, Ariba, and most recently, Concur Technologies, a travel and expense software provider. All three company’s solutions already do or will run on HANA, SAP’s application server that includes an in-memory database management solution.

    http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/01/oracle-corporation-falls-victim-to-hubris-as-sap-o.aspx

Other

Photo: Lena Bell

Posted on

Supplier Report: 2/27/2016

sn_vulture_Мартин Тасев

IBM is making friends again. During their InterConnect conference, they announced a new partnership with VMWare, introducing their products on IBM’s cloud services. They also renewed their partnership with Apple, helping the company make progress towards enterprise customers.

Dell is making progress on their acquisition of EMC. The FTC finally approved the merger and the banks lending Dell the money are shopping around portions of the loans (which is seen as a good sign).

HP Inc had a very bad week. PC sales are down over 10% (blaming Windows 10), the stock is down, and they announced an additional 1800 job eliminations.

IBM

  • IBM makes major strategic alliance with VMware

    VMware and IBM have had a reseller agreement in place until now, with today’s announcement being the first strategic partnership between the two technology firms. It marries together the infrastructure management capabilities of VMware’s products with IBM’s real estate to create a hybrid cloud infrastructure solution that should benefit both companies.

    http://www.computerdealernews.com/news/ibm-makes-major-strategic-alliance-with-vmware/46665
    VMware undermines its own public cloud with IBM arrangement

    It’s easy to see how this is good for IBM, since it brings the large base of VMware shops to IBM’s cloud. But it’s not totally ideal for VMware. With this agreement VMware makes it easy for its customers to use IBM’s cloud rather than its own. However, the arrangement continues to rely on VMware products under the hood so VMware still has a role to play.

    http://www.fiercecio.com/story/vmware-undermines-its-own-public-cloud-ibm-arrangement/2016-02-22

  • IBM poised to gobble Resilient Systems, says report

    The vendor, which helps firms respond to cyber attacks, touched down in Europe a year ago when it went by the name CO3 Systems, and counts Nebulas and NTT Com Security among its UK partners.

    Citing two sources with knowledge of the deal, the report said IBM is buying the Massachusetts-based outfit, with one of the two sources putting the acquisition price at more than $100m.

    http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2448320/ibm-poised-to-gobble-resilient-systems-says-report

  • Through Machine Learning, IBM Braintrust Sees Better Days Ahead

    John Kelly, IBM’s senior vice president of cognitive solutions and research said most of that $2 trillion will come from eliminating waste in supply chain, research and development, and other processes across industries.

    And, in healthcare, a market that’s becoming a big priority for IBM as evidenced by a $4 billion string of acquisitions, there is a lot of waste from missed diagnoses, lack of drug efficacy, and staffing. “We think $200 billion of that is addressable by cognitive solutions,” Kelly said.

    http://fortune.com/2016/02/25/ibm-sees-better-days-ahead/

  • IBM: It’s Not All Gloom

    Big Blues’ “blues” are well documented recently. Questions about the CEO being overpaid and the company’s ability to produce miracles are all too common. While we agree that IBM and technology companies in general have to answer the “what next” question emphatically, the stock isn’t without its own set of positives.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3914406-ibm-gloom

  • Will Watson Health Cloud Pay off for International Business Machines Corp.?

    By 2020 healthcare analytics will be a $21 billion market. And IBM will dominate this market due to Watson. The opportunity of Watson, however, spans beyond healthcare analytics and into Big Data as a whole.

    While this is a much more crowded market, it is growing at an annualized rate of 26.5% through 2018, at which point it will be valued at $41.5 billion. Combined, this is a massive market opportunity that can add to IBM’s data, cloud and engagement businesses. Last year, these businesses accounted for 35% of total revenue according to Morgan Stanley, and grew 17% compared to 2014.

    http://investorplace.com/2016/02/ibm-stock-watson-health-cloud/

  • IBM Cements Security Standing With Redoubled Check Point Alliance

    By combining forces, IBM and Check Point aim to thwart what the United Nations estimates is the $445 billion cybercrime underworld. Check Point’s and IBM Security’s researchers will be free to cross company borders to discuss threat data. And several Check Point applications will be folded into IBM technology, Check Point’s vice president of security services, Avi Rembaum, told IBD. The alliance redoubles an 18-year relationship between IBM and Check Point.

    http://www.investors.com/news/technology/ibm-cements-security-standing-with-redoubled-check-point-alliance/

  • H.I.G. Capital Acquires Portfolio of Compensation Assets from IBM

    Todd Ofenloch, Managing Director at H.I.G., added, “We believe as a standalone, focused business with the resources to grow and expand the product offering, Salary.com is capable of furthering its leading market position and compelling potential customers to select its solutions over competitive offerings or continuing to utilize in-house options.”

    http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160224005213/en/H.I.G.-Capital-Acquires-Portfolio-Compensation-Assets-IBM

Microsoft

  • Here’s What Steve Ballmer Thinks About Microsoft and Satya Nadella

    Ballmer did tell BI that he spoke to the company’s CFO Amy Hood each quarter and acknowledged meeting with Nadella four or five times a year “to brainstorm something or just as a shareholder, we’ll sit down and chat.” But, he was clear to point out, because he’s not a board member or an employee, the company cannot share any information with him that is not shared with other shareholders.

    http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/20/heres-what-steve-ballmer-thinks-about-microsoft-an.aspx

  • Microsoft Buys Xamarin To Help Developers Create Cross-Platform Apps

    Microsoft has acquired Xamarin, a cross-platform mobile app development platform provider, which will help developers create apps will easily work across iOS, Android and Windows mobile operating systems. This is part of Microsoft’s efforts to woo developers into making apps for the Windows 10 Mobile platform. Here’s what you need to know.

    Through the Xamarin platform, developers can develop, test and deliver mobile apps to any device. Xamarin had already works with the Visual Studio development environment and this acquisition will provide even more integration. With Xamarin now a part of the Microsoft family, Visual Studio developers can use a singe shared C# codebase to build native apps on iOS, Android and Windows. This would be welcome news for developers that are interested in building cross-platform native apps.

    http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/02/microsoft-buys-xamarin-to-help-developers-create-cross-platform-apps/

Dell | EMC

  • Dell-EMC Merger Gets FTC Approval, Remains On Track To Close

    IT behemoth Dell and data storage giant EMC announced this week that the waiting period for U.S. antitrust regulations regarding the proposed Dell-EMC merger had expired.  In addition to the U.S. FTC, both parties are on course to get the required EU approval at the end of the month.  Moreover, Chinese authorities are also likely to approve the merger despite the possible impact it might have on Huawei, the current market leader in the data storage space in China. With this regulatory hurdle crossed, Dell can now proceed with the merger pending approval from EMC EMC +1.97% shareholders.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/02/25/dell-emc-merger-gets-ftc-approval-remains-on-track-to-close/#2bb6f9796743

  • Banks backing Dell’s EMC deal hit reset button

    The banks underwriting the deal, including Credit Suisse, are in the process of selling the most senior portion of loans — about $7 billion — to other banks and are several weeks behind schedule. But there’s enough interest that the bank group is increasing the offering to as much as $9 billion.

    http://nypost.com/2016/02/26/banks-backing-dells-emc-deal-hit-reset-button/

Oracle

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

  • HP Sales Down on Weak Printer, PC Revenue

    The Palo Alto, Calif., company said earnings from continuing operations declined 16% in the first fiscal quarter ended in January, while revenue fell 12% from the year-earlier period. Total printing revenue declined 17%, with revenue from ink and other supplies down 14% and hardware unit sales off 20%. HP’s PC revenue declined 13% in the first quarter.

    http://ww2.cfo.com/technology/2016/02/hp-sales-weak-printer-pc-revenue/
    HP Inc blames Windows 10 for drop in PC sales

    “I still believe [Windows 10 is] a tremendous operating system,” Weisler told investors on conference call this week, transcribed by Seeking Alpha. However, he added: “We have not yet seen the anticipated Windows 10 stimulation of demand that we would have hoped for, and we’re carefully monitoring any sort of price developments that could further weaken demand.”

    And Wiesler’s claims are supported by a Gartner report last month that found a lack of Windows 10 uptake at the end of 2015 contributed to a year-on-year drop of 8.3 per cent in the PC market.

    http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-hardware/hp-hp-inc/26108/hp-inc-blames-windows-10-for-drop-in-pc-sales

  • HP wants to “reinvent computing” with a phone called Elite x3

    One feature in particular has the company especially excited – Windows Continuum. This technology allows the smartphone operating system to turn into a desktop operating system (on a larger display) once the smartphone is plugged in to a larger display.

    http://www.slashgear.com/hp-wants-to-reinvent-computing-with-a-phone-called-elite-x3-21427943/
    TechCrunch doesn’t seem to think it will be successful…
    HP Announces Yet Another Mobile Product That Will Fail

    An industry report published earlier last week pegs Windows Phone with only a 1.1% worldwide marketshare in the fourth quarter of 2015. That’s down from 2.2% from 2014 levels. Worse yet, Microsoft’s Windows Phone shipments dropped 57% in the most recent quarter over the previous year. The company only sold 4.5 million Lumia devices compared to 10.5 million from the same time last year.

    Essentially, HP built and announced its first modern smartphone on a platform that most indicators say is dying.

    http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/21/hp-announces-yet-another-mobile-product-that-will-fail

  • HP Inc to cut another 1800 jobs this year

    “This move is basically HP Inc embracing the tough pricing environment and shifting their focus to building their portfolio,” says Shannon Cross, an analyst for Cross Research.

    http://www.crn.com.au/News/415634,hp-inc-to-cut-another-1800-jobs-this-year.aspx

Other

  • Verizon and Splunk are teaming up to deliver threat protection

    Verizon has enhanced its flagship Managed Security Services platform by integrating analytics from Splunk Enterprise Security solutions. The combination of Verizon’s platform and Splunk software facilitates the ingestion of data for enrichment with Verizon’s massive amount of threat context data that can be analyzed and correlated to provide more actionable security intelligence to enterprises. Verizon’s ability to manage risks is further enhanced by the visibility gained from owning and operating one of the largest global IP networks. Processing more than one million security events daily places Verizon into the unique position of being able to deliver exceptional insights into how cybercriminals attack and breach organizations.

    http://www.channelpartnersonline.com/news/2016/02/verizon-splunk-partner-to-deliver-more-threat-protection.aspx

  • Data analytics provider Splunk’s revenue forecast beats estimates

    Splunk, whose customers include Tesco Plc and the U.S. Department of State, forecast revenue of about $880 million for the year ending January 2017, well above the average analyst estimate of $650.8 million.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/splunk-results-idUSL3N1646EH

Photo: Мартин Тасев