Category: Supplier Report

Big news coming out of this week is EMC.  It isn’t just VMWare that they were looking to move (which btw is 54% of their market value).  We also have some clear evidence that IBM is executing against the cloud and mobile strategy while HP still deals with the fallout of their bribe scandal and Autonomy purchase.

IBM:

1. IBM creating secure banking apps for Busan Bank:
   http://finchannel.com/index.php/technology/item/38986-busan-bank-selects-ibm-to-enhance-customer-experience-with-new-mobile-apps
   (Customer less interesting – although banking – but another step in their mobile platform reinvention)
2. And another article highlighting “Bluemix” – their platform as a service hosted on Softlayer:
   http://www.infotechlead.com/2014/09/25/ibm-bluemix-wins-new-customers-analytics-customer-engagement-25538
3. Softlayer going after Amazon cloud services:
   https://gigaom.com/2014/09/25/ibm-softlayer-woos-startups-running-amazon-web-services-rackspace/
4. IBM launches a watson b2b tool – which competes with some of their own existing tools (need to know more about this vs. Blueworks Live).
   http://www.mrweb.com/drno/news19743.htm

HP:

1. More information on last week’s note about on EMC/Vmare:
   http://www.bidnessetc.com/26229-cisco-not-interested-in-emc-corporation/
   Looks like HP and EMC (whole company) were in merger talks for 2 years but recently fell through.  Cisco is also not interested.
2. HP could face a 10-year ban on selling to the Canadian gov due to the Russian bribe scandal:
   http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/hp-faces-10-year-ban-as-canadian-governments-technology-supplier/article20774807/
3. U.S. judge scrutinizes HP shareholder deal in Autonomy case
   http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/26/hp-autonomy-lawsuit-idUSL2N0RQ33V20140926
4. HP is giving away SDS (software defined storage) software to drive usage:
   http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/555812/hp-gives-away-software-defined-storage-drive-adoption/

Oracle:

1. Oracle is still rumored to be interested in EMC… need to pay attention to this one.
2. Hurd wants to go after Microsoft’s cloud business (Microsoft? Very “meh” statement – M$ “Azure” platform isn’t setting the world on fire)
   http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/hurd-oracle-takes-on-microsoft-in-the-cloud/
3. A little more on why Ellison stepped down (not much is changing)
   http://www.techtimes.com/articles/15962/20140919/larry-ellison-oracle-ceo-no-more-heres-why-he-quit-and-what-he-will-do-now.htm
   (PS: He made $67M in Oracle’s fiscal 2014)

Other:

1. More on EMC:
   http://www.benchmarkmonitor.com/emc-nyseemc-likely-to-announce-a-major-change-in-the-coming-weeks/182917/
2. More information on the “bash” bug (impacts unix/linux/apple shells)
   http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/24/technology/security/bash-bug/

Career:

1. Improving yourself by understanding what traits you don’t like in others:
   http://qz.com/271074/how-to-stop-comparing-yourself-to-everyone-else-at-work/
2. Having owned a business, this is very sage advice that we can apply to our positions: When starting a partnership, have an exist strategy:
   http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237699
3. Getting more from difficult people by asking questions:
   http://www.dumblittleman.com/2014/09/secret-technique-get-want-difficult-people.html?utm_source=feedly

Article Count: 1014

The patterns displayed over the last 4 months continue. Cloud is a major focus for all of these companies.  All three are dealing bad deals biting them back.  Re-invention is looming for all of these companies and the IT field in general, the curiosity is how each organization plans to address that change and how that impacts, educates, and assists us.

IBM

1. IBM hiring more domestic workers over concerns of Obama administration backlash and visa issues:
   

   IBM’s ‘Jobs at IBM’ website currently lists about 6,750 jobs, of which nearly a third, 2,150, are in the US. India follows way behind at a little over 700, and China is third with about 650. More striking are the entry level positions. Of the total of 446 entry level positions open as on September 2, as many as 172, or nearly 40%, are in the US. In India, there are a mere five.

   http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/IBM-now-hires-more-in-US-than-India-amid-tax-visa-worries/articleshow/41830687.cms
   

2. Accenture going after IBM in product lifecycle management:
   http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/2014/09/04/why-accenture-thinks-it-can-rattle-ibm-in-plm/
3. How mobility is changing the enterprise (IBM white paper):
   http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/gbe03614usen/GBE03614USEN.PDF
4. SoftLayer’s “bare metal” (30 min deployments, rent by the hour) to the cloud:
   http://www.dbta.com/Editorial/News-Flashes/IBM-SoftLayer-Brings-Bare-Metal-to-the-Cloud-99095.aspx
5. IBM’s debt load: ($47.5B in debt, $18B matures in the next 3 years)
   http://seekingalpha.com/article/2456845-ibm-a-huge-debt-load

HP

1. HP introducing tools to monitor “shadow it” deployments. (Kev – this links into our conversation last week about cloud technology).
   http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2014/09/05/cisco-h-p-use-shadow-it-as-a-roadmap/
2. More background on the HP/Autonomy fight (this reads more like an angry divorce, but it gives insight into the mentality of HP when it comes to Autonomy and integration).
   http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2745522/Hewlett-Packard-ramps-fight-against-Autonomy-court-files.html

   Wait… there is a whole website dedicate to this case!
   http://autonomyaccounts.org/

   One more article with the highlights of the 90 pages (they cooked up imaginary deals):
   http://recode.net/2014/09/05/hp-lays-out-detailed-case-against-former-autonomy-execs/

3. HP’s focus on “new it” (basically their 5 year tech investment plan):
   http://marketrealist.com/2014/09/hps-multi-year-restructuring-plan-focuses-new-style/
4. HP’s prepping for the next round of server wars:
   http://thevarguy.com/computer-technology-hardware-solutions-and-news/082814/hp-gears-next-phase-server-war-embargo-1230-pm
5. Note: there are a bunch HP articles about the laptop power cord recall.  Doesn’t impact us, but since there were at least 60 mentions of it, I thought I should mention it (6 million power bricks are being recalled)
   http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/26/technology/hp-laptop-cord-recall/

Oracle

1. Oracle loses $1.3B appeal for SAP ruling:
   http://www.stockwisedaily.com/oracle-corporation-orcl-looses-appeal-to-restore-1-3b-verdict-in-sap-se-sap-case/235085/
2. Why Oracle will grow (they had bad quarter results)
   http://www.gurufocus.com/news/276146/heres-why-oracle-should-continue-getting-better-in-the-future

Other

1. Lenovo’s mean, lean, supply chain:
   http://www.ebnonline.com/author.asp?section_id=1084&doc_id=274642&itc=ebnonline_gnews

Career

1. I won’t call this an ibm item, but an IBM report is showing companies are using “citizen developers” to drive innovation (sound familiar team?)
   http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/33881/2/
2. Keeping conference calls on track: the # key rule:
   http://lifehacker.com/keep-conference-calls-on-target-with-the-pound-key-1629324850
   I don’t see this going over well in our office, but an interesting concept to discuss and explore
3. Cleaning your gadgets without ruining them:
   http://lifehacker.com/5875667/how-to-properly-clean-all-your-gadgets-without-ruining-them
   PS: Joey’s #1 rule of cube-guest-etiquette: “don’t touch the monitor!”