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Supplier Report: 7/18/2015

sn_WindUpBot_AndreaVallejos

Photo: Andrea Vallejos, Flickr

The press was focused on big data and the transformation of the classic IT companies from legacy business to the newer cloud/SaaS model.  Between IBM’s new tiny chip set, the ever increasing abilities of Watson, and the propagation of SoftLayer, IBM’s business model seems on track.  So on track that Seeking Alpha wonders if they should spin off their legacy consulting and software model.

Oracle seems to emulating IBM with their partnership with Xamarin. Meanwhile, EMC finalized their purchase of Virtustream and released an interesting blog on their own thoughts on big data.

IBM

Oracle

  • Oracle’s second largest workforce is in India

    “Of the 120,000 workforce we have globally, 31,000 are in India, making it the second largest after our employees’ strength in the US,” Oracle president Thomas Kurian told reporters at an event here.

    http://www.infotechlead.com/hr/oracles-second-largest-workforce-is-in-india-32271

  • Oracle Abandons Its Largest Copyright Damages Theory Against Rimini Street

    In a recent Court filing, in response to challenges raised by Rimini Street, Oracle abandoned its biggest damages theory of copyright infringement for its PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel-branded software products based on fair market value, measured by hypothetical license or income approach, to “streamline” the issues for trial. Accordingly, Oracle has withdrawn the $210 million damages associated with its fair market value theory. Oracle’s primary remaining copyright damages theory in the case is for lost profits, where Rimini Street asserts Oracle’s theory is without merit due to a complete lack of proof of causation.

    http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150716006624/en/Oracle-Abandons-Largest-Copyright-Damages-Theory-Rimini

  • ERP Cloud Could Be The Next Big Thing For Oracle Corporation

    Ebbeck noted that customers that have already adopted some cloud services from Oracle and would likely come back for ERP cloud. The other area of potential growth is among the existing on-premise install base. Ebbeck stated that ERP cloud simplifies the IT environments and eliminates the usually time-consuming and expensive on-premise software upgrades.

    http://investcorrectly.com/20150715/erp-cloud-next-big-thing-oracle-corporation-nyseorcl/

  • Oracle Teams Up with Xamarin for Expanding Cloud Business

    Oracle recently announced its partnership with California based software company, Xamarin in order to build its cloud platform. Xamarin, known for its mobile development platform for enterprises, will offer a software development kit for Oracle’s cloud-based mobile applications under the new deal.

    http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/181296/oracle-teams-up-with-xamarin-for-expanding-cloud-business

EMC

  • Understanding the Dimensions of Your Big Data Strategy

    One of the key differences between big data analytics and classic business intelligence is the way by which big data demands real-time decision making in applications to force a different decision in stride based on predictive modeling.  Modern third-platform applications rely on analytics to decide what to do now with machine data, personal information, geospatial information, and other criteria that are statistically significant in making a decision.  This requires the technology capability to integrate analytics and applications, but equally importantly, it requires business support to change business decisions in real-time based on analytics recommendations called by mission critical applications.  As such, business adoption relies on business analysis to identify key business moments that can be driven by analytics.

    https://infocus.emc.com/joe_dossantos/dont-pull-the-trunk-of-your-big-data-elephant/?cmp=soc-cor-glbl-us-sprinklr-TWITTER-Data%20Lakes-Big%20Data-EMCcorp-208668228

  • EMC Finalizes $1.2 Billion Virtustream Buy

    EMC  announced it has completed the acquisition of Virtustream. Virtustream represents a transformational element of EMC’s strategy to help customers move all applications to cloud-based IT environments. The all-cash transaction is expected to have no material impact to EMC financial results in 2015 and is expected to be additive to revenues and accretive to EPS in 2016. Operational details of the new EMC Federation business formed by Virtustream will be announced later this quarter.

    http://www.channelpartnersonline.com/news/2015/07/emc-finalizes-1-2-billion-virtustream-buy.aspx

 

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News you can use: 7/15/2015

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Photo: Thomas Hawk, Flickr

  • CEO Pay Has Risen 90 Times Faster Than Average Worker Pay Since The 1970s

    Defenders of outsized executive pay argue CEOs get what they deserve: that their performance justifies the huge outlays. But the paper doesn’t find much evidence for it, at least in the aggregate. Between 1978 and 2014, the stock market rose only about half as much as CEO pay did. And CEO pay has been rising across the board, both at companies that have been doing well and those that haven’t.

    http://www.fastcoexist.com/3048172/ceo-pay-has-risen-90-times-faster-than-average-worker-pay-since-the-1970s?partner=rss

  • Workday is creating a supply chain tool for the healthcare industry

    “Health care providers are dealing with a significant amount of complexity,” said Workday Vice President of Industry Strategy and Alliances John Webb. “New regulations, industry consolidation and a shifting patient relationship are changing the way they manage their organizations. With Workday, health care providers will have the people, financial and supply chain insights they need, all in one system built on a flexible foundation from which they can continually adapt and grow in a dynamic industry.

    http://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2015/workday-launches-finance-supply-chain-tool-for-healthcare/

  • 4 Surefire Ways to Grow Your Circle of Influence

    1. Do what you say. Nothing erodes personal credibility faster than a lack of trust. Building trust is fundamental to increasing your circle of influence. If you possess the skill to execute project A and the will to do so ethically, then others’ trust in you will increase. Just be consistent because once you break that trust it’s like taking a piece of paper, wrinkling it up and then trying to flatten it out again — it never actually returns to its original state.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248220?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=Feedly

  • LOGISTICS COSTS ARE UP, BUT SO ARE WAYS TO MANAGE THEM

    But the most prominent reason for rising supply chain management costs, researchers found, was transportation. According to the CSCMP, transportation costs increased by 3.6 percent last year due to larger shipment volumes, the emergence of same-day delivery models and the continuing adoption of eCommerce. These trends are forcing warehouse management strategies to change and have largely led to the adoption of warehouse management Software-as-a-Service solutions.

    http://www.pymnts.com/in-depth/2015/logistics-costs-are-up-but-so-are-ways-to-manage-them/

  • How I Broke Through My Own Mediocrity

    The mediocre entrepreneur doesn’t “Blink” in the Malcolm Gladwell sense. In Gladwell’s book he often talks about people who can form snap correct judgements in two or three seconds. My initial judgement when I meet or even see people is this: I hate you. And then I veer from that to too trusting. Finally, after I bounce back and forth, and through much trial and error, I end up somewhere in the middle. I also tend to drop people I can’t trust very quickly. I think the great entrepreneur can make snap judgements and be very successful with it. But that doesn’t work for most people.

    http://lifehacker.com/how-i-broke-through-my-own-mediocrity-1716887232

  • Small Cloud Providers Serve Supply Chain Management Market

    The SCM market is highly fragmented. The top 10 vendors have about 55% of the market, with the remainder split among 57 vendors. These 57 experienced average annual revenue growth of 9.6%, indicating strong demand for specialized offerings that are competitive with, and sometimes complementary to, the larger providers’ products.

    http://www.ebnonline.com/author.asp?section_id=1084&doc_id=278076

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Supplier Report: 7/11/2015

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Photo: JD Hancock, Flickr

IBM has created a microprocessor that has components the same size as a strand of DNA.  While IBM makes smaller chips, EMC has become a smaller company by selling off Syncplicity (a file sharing company).

Reports are coming out that Oracle is bullying customers with usage breach notices due to their missed performance goals last quarter.   Speaking of performance goals, looks like cloud costs are going up (Microsoft and IBM are raising prices in certain areas) – is the race to the bottom over?

IBM

  • IBM Just Created the World’s Smallest, Most Powerful Chip; Here’s Why You Should Care

    At the most basic level, IBM’s processor, which it worked on with GlobalFoundries, Samsung, and the State University of New York (SUNY), has far smaller transistors than any other processor on the planet. That means that when the chip eventually appears in future smartphones, computers, and other pieces of technology, those gadgets will be faster and more energy-efficient.

    https://www.yahoo.com/tech/ibm-just-created-the-worlds-smallest-most-123665085589.html

  • There are ALOT of articles about this chip.  For instance:
    The Best Thing About IBM’s Super-Chip? It’s Not From Intel
    http://www.wired.com/2015/07/ibm-seven-nanometer-chip/
  • IBM prepares software to better read an ‘intelligent grid’

    Enter Opus, which is meant to merge IBM’s long history of expertise in analytics with utility know-how into a single picture meant to project supply and demand — all with the goal of wasting less energy and helping to realize a more distributed reality that does not impair reliability or undermine industry profits.

    http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060021311

  • IBM Rolls Out Docker-Based Container Services
    This is a follow-up to a post from a few weeks back:

    Containers give developers the flexibility to build once and move applications without the need to rewrite or redeploy their code. IBM Containers, based on Docker and built on Bluemix, IBM’s platform-as-a-service, are intended to provide a more efficient environment that enables faster integration and access to analytics, big data and security services. Enterprises will now be able to use the combination of IBM, Docker, Cloud Foundry, and OpenStack to create a new generation of portable distributed applications.

    http://www.dbta.com/Editorial/News-Flashes/IBM-Rolls-Out-Docker-Based-Container-Services-105040.aspx

  • IBM Named a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays

    This inclusion comes a month after IBM was identified as the number one worldwide solid-state array vendor in unit shipments and petabytes of data delivered for 2014 in Gartner’s Market Share Analysis: SSDs and Solid-State Arrays Worldwide Report for 2014, by Joseph Unsworth and John Monroe, published May 1, 2015.2 In 2014 IBM sold more than 2,100 FlashSystems, totaling more than 62 petabytes (PB) of storage capacity, according to IBM.

    http://www.finchannel.com/index.php/technology/item/46327-ibm-named-a-leader-in-gartner-s-magic-quadrant-for-solid-state-arrays

Oracle

  • Oracle ‘breach notice’ bullies enterprise clients into cloud service, consultant claims

    If Oracle thinks the customer is really abusing the terms, it whips out the “breach notice,” which warns a customer that they are in violation and must stop using all Oracle software in 30 days. That’s risky, because it allows the customer to walk away from its Oracle contracts.

    http://thestack.com/oracle-breach-notice-cloud-services-100715
    More on the subject:
    http://www.businessinsider.com/oracles-cloud-sales-2015-7?r=UK

  • Oracle Pursuing ‘Generational’ Change In IT, Cantor Says

    Oracle conceives this “push of IT resources into the cloud as a ‘generational change’ that only comes along once every 20–25 years,” the analysts at Cantor explain. This is why management is working hard in expanding the cloud business. However, the experts believe this change will be particularly complicated for Oracle, given that it “continues to offer on-premise solutions,” and holds a broad portfolio of solutions across a wide array of product categories. Therefore, the company “does not want to provide a particular timeframe for when the headwind from the transition is over,” the analysts explain, but management is “unrelenting in its view that the shift to the cloud is positive for the long-term economics of Oracle’s business model.”

    http://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/15/07/5661493/oracle-pursuing-generational-change-in-it-cantor-says

Hewlett Packard

EMC

  • EMC offloads file-sharing business

    EMC has sold off its file-sharing arm Syncplicity just three years after it snapped the business up, claiming the technology is no longer core to its portfolio. Private investment firm Skyview Capital has bought the business from EMC, although the latter will retain “a financial interest” in the company, although it did not disclose exactly what that would be.

    http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2417109/emc-offloads-file-sharing-business

Other

  • Surprise! The cost of cloud is about to rise

    However, one change could cost some customers big time. In the past, a customer using an entry-level Virtual Server Instance in SoftLayer paid $35 per 5TB of outbound bandwidth. That rate is now $35 per 250GB. The charge for 5TB of outbound bandwidth now $615. That’s a hefty raise, which a source close to IBM confirmed, adding that most SoftLayer customers will likely see their costs decline. SoftLayer, unlike its rivals, does not charge for data transfer within its own private network even between zones.

    http://fortune.com/2015/07/06/cost-of-cloud-rising/

  • Why Salesforce.com Keeps Picking on SAP

    Long-term, these German ambitions look like an effort to properly diversify. Roughly 68% of Salesforce revenue is sourced in the United States versus 18.3% from all of Europe. By contrast, no territory accounts for more than a third of SAP revenue. Oracle is not quite as diversified, but it still gets less than half of its revenue from the U.S. market.

    http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/070815/why-salesforcecom-keeps-picking-sap-crm-orcl-sap.aspx

  • The worst CRM in the word is… not salesforce.
    IT IS EXCEL.  People need to stop using excel for contact management lists.
    http://www.business2community.com/sales-management/%E2%80%8Band-the-worst-crm-in-the-world-ishint-it-is-not-salesforce-01268557
  • Drought of data scientists hurting business

    Alec Gardner said, “Organisations that consider appointing a data scientist or a team of data analysts may find that they can derive much deeper and more varied insights from their data. This will let them recommend improvements in areas of the business such as supply chain and logistics, product or service development, or customer acquisition.

    http://idm.net.au/article/0010529-drought-data-scientists-hurting-business

  • Jim Whitehurst – Red Hat Summit 2015 – Keynote:
  • Is OpenStack ready for primetime?

    OpenStack was introduced in 2010 as a project of NASA, who dropped out in 2013, and Rackspace. In 2011 Ubuntu adopted OpenStack and became the first “vendor” to integrate with the platform. In 2012 Red Hat began a project to integrate with OpenStack and introduced commercial support by July 2013. Over time many other organisations have joined the foundation as sponsors and contributors. Recently released OpenStack Kilo (version 11) has approximately 400 new features and was the product of almost 1500 contributors.  However, there is a downside to the open source model: lots of developers with lots of ideas about what should be included breeds complexity.

    http://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2015/jul/07/openstack-ready-prime-time/

  • Splunk Buys Security Startup Caspida For $190M

    Like everyone, Splunk has watched the growing number of breaches over the last year, and its customers have been asking for better security detection tools to help battle these threats, many of which use with compromised credentials. This kind of attack is difficult to detect with conventional security techniques looking for signatures or rules. If someone comes in through the front door using valid credentials, there are no rules or patterns. They look like a valid user, Song explained.

    http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/09/splunk-buys-security-startup-caspida-for-190m/?ncid=rss