The big news this week is SalesForce potentially being up for sale. There were hundreds of articles discussing potential buyers with IBM, Oracle, HP, and Microsoft being the only viable contenders.
Speaking of Oracle and HP, outside of the Saleforce news, there wasn’t much new information posted (same recycled stories). Sometimes you are looking for the sizzle and the steak, so focus was shifted to other suppliers this week like EMC and Red Hat.
IBM
- Apple and IBM are looking to get iPads in the hands of the elderly:
The collaboration calls for Apple to provide iPads and IBM to deliver apps and analytics software to connect millions of Japanese seniors with services, healthcare, community and their families under the national Post Office Watch service. IBM will write software that alerts Post Office Watch customers to take their medicine, provide them with exercise and diet information and assist with tasks such as grocery shopping.
- IBM introduces new quantum computing chip:
IBM’s new chip is the first to integrate the basic devices needed to build a quantum computer, known as qubits, into a 2-D grid. Researchers think one of the best routes to making a practical quantum computer would involve creating grids of hundreds or thousands of qubits working together. The circuits of IBM’s chip are made from metals that become superconducting when cooled to extremely low temperatures. The chip operates at only a fraction of a degree above absolute zero.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/537041/ibm-shows-off-a-quantum-computing-chip/
- IBM boosts divident by 18%
The increase will cost the company an extra $197.7 million a quarter and brings the dividend yield to about 3%.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-boosts-quarterly-dividend-18-1430232709
- Cloud is not a high margin business:
AWS, which many thought was running at break-even or possibly at a loss, turns out to be for Amazon a $5 billion business generating a third of the company’s total profits. That’s good, right? Not if it establishes a benchmark for typical-to-good cloud service provider performance. In fact it suggests that some companies — IBM especially — are going to have a very difficult time finding success in the cloud.
http://betanews.com/2015/04/28/aws-shows-cloud-is-not-a-high-margin-business/
- Interesting “what if” post of IBM buying TCS…
It’s simple – make a move on the largest, most aggressive and dynamic of the Indian-heritage providers: TCS. Together, they would crush the market across all aspects of delivery, all verticals, all technologies because their individual forays in the As-a-Service world could play off each other and get scale even quicker. They would have skill at massive scale and could undercut the competition on key deals – almost at will – if they needed to.
EMC
- EMC says very few companies are ready for a digital future:
Leaders admit to limits on current ability to make use of data: 30% are able to act upon their information in real time; nearly 50% admit to not knowing how to get value from their data; 24% consider themselves “very good” at turning data into useful insights and information
Other
- The Lenovo CTO says the IBM desktop deal was a still good move (10 years later)
Lenovo went from being a stealthy Chinese computer maker whose presence went largely unnoticed outside of Morrisville to being a Triangle power player with locations in both Morrisville and Research Triangle Park – touching everything from PCs to servers to mobile phones. And much of that growth has happened in the past two years, particularly in 2014 when the buy of IBM’s server division nearly doubled the Triangle headcount to 3,500, bringing with it the need for the new enterprise campus.
- SalesForce takeover rumors continue – IBM and Oracle both said to be interested…
In addition, aside from its consulting business, “IBM doesn’t have a big portfolio of future invention that will carry it forward, so an acquisition is logical,” he added. If it does turn out to be IBM, Oracle “will make a play in its own defense, and while we’re at it HP will join the fray for similar reasons,” Pombriant predicted.
- Microsoft, Red Hat and VMware commercial cloud is cheaper than OpenStack
The Cloud Price Index showed that VMware, Red Hat and Microsoft all offer a better total cost of ownership (TCO) than OpenStack distributors.
- Will There Ever Be Another Red Hat?
Levine argued two things: The Open Source model captures less value than the proprietary model and that entrepreneurs should focus on building products on cloud-based infrastructure. His argument was essentially that there will never be another Red Hat because entrepreneurs should realize that Red Hat’s model is the wrong way of making money from open source.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danwoods/2015/04/28/will-there-ever-be-another-red-hat/
- Per our conversation Mr. Spoons – How to build your analytics talent bench:
“Even with increases in useful data over the past two years, our survey suggests that companies might be getting less effective at using analytical insights to guide strategy, despite increases in investment in analytics technology,” according to the 2014 study which queried some 2,719 analytics professionals, business executives, managers and subject matter experts from around the world.
http://www.itworldcanada.com/article/how-to-build-your-analytics-talent-bench/374251
