Rumors dominated the news again this week with talk that Oracle could buy Splunk and (once again) that HP could be purchasing EMC. IBM actually went out and bought ANOTHER company called Blue Box to add to their OpenStack offerings (this is a major trend developing).
IBM also scored new long term business while HP finally settles on past mistakes.
IBM
- IBM buys another company: IBM acquired Blue Box to retain its dominance in the hybrid cloud space
IBM said that the inclusion of Blue Box to its services portfolio will strengthen its OpenStack lineup with a remotely managed OpenStack offering. Clients can now integrate cloud-based applications and on-premise systems into OpenStack-managed clouds, thus simplifying the deployment of workloads across hybrid cloud environments.
http://marketrealist.com/2015/06/ibm-continues-acquisition-spree-blue-box/?source=google
- IBM’s Expanding Margins: Overly Aggressive Cost Cutting Or Change In Business Mix
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3253235-ibms-expanding-margins-overly-aggressive-cost-cutting-or-change-in-business-mix - We Need Only Three Hadoops, And Maybe Three Systems
We are also starting to think that IBM, which is trying to revitalize and open up its Power chip architecture, might be better served if it would anoint one of the larger Hadoop distros as its preferred stack and to get it all tuned up to run on Power-based servers. Such an approach is probably necessary to take on Intel in the datacenter, which was the really the point of IBM selling off its System x server division to Lenovo Group last fall.
http://www.theplatform.net/2015/06/11/we-need-only-three-hadoops-and-maybe-three-systems/
- IBM signs 5-year IT services deal with Citizens Bank
IBM will be using a hybrid IT approach to optimize the bank’s existing IT infrastructure. IBM will be integrating automation and predictive analytics technologies to standardize and streamline many of its internal IT systems and processes.
http://www.infotechlead.com/bpo/ibm-signs-5-year-it-services-deal-with-citizens-bank-31037
- Doctor Evidence to Supply IBM Watson Health with Cancer Research Data
Doctor Evidence will contribute 2 million additional data points from highly structured, peer-reviewed content, including thousands of clinical papers, conference proceedings, abstracts on remissions, patient survival cases, epidemiology, and drug label data from the U.S. and Europe. This medical information will be added to Watson’s existing corpus of health data that includes content from partners such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Cancer.gov, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among others.
http://hitconsultant.net/2015/06/11/doctor-evidence-ibm-watson-health-cancer-data/
- IBM introduces SuperVessel open access cloud service
IBM has introduced SuperVessel, an open access cloud service created by Beijing’s IBM Research and IBM Systems Labs. The system is available to all developers who want to participate in the OpenPOWER ecosystem. The cloud acts as a virtual R&D engine for the creation, testing and pilot of emerging applications including deep analytics, machine learning and the Internet of Things.
http://www.telecompaper.com/news/ibm-introduces-supervessel-open-access-cloud-service–1086689
Oracle
- Does An Oracle-Splunk Merger Make Sense? Wall Street Split
He says that Splunk’s highly differentiated big data processing software is in high demand and thus wouldn’t be surprised if multiple large tech companies were bidding to acquire the firm. However, he’s skeptical of whether Splunk executives would see now as the correct time to sell, since they have a “very robust growth outlook ahead of them.”
Hewlett Packard Enterprises
- HP Abandons Medellin Global Center and Has No One to Blame But Itself
With triumphant platitudes and self-congratulatory praise, Hewlett-Packard made history by opening a US$14 million global services captive in Medellin, Colombia back in 2012. Plans called for employing over 1,000 professionals, with the center positioned to become the backbone for HP’s regional back-office, HR and call center operations.Three years later and the entire project is being dissolved to the utter dismay of staunch supporters in Medellin and Bogota who bent over backwards to “seduce” (the word local media used at the time) HP into selecting Medellin during a highly competitive, global selection process where several other geographies were considered.
http://www.nearshoreamericas.com/hp-kills-medellin-global-services-center-blame/
- HP pays big bucks to settle class-action lawsuit over botched deal
HP said June 9 that its insurance would pay the $100 million settlement fund to resolve the lawsuit from a Dutch pension fund PGGM Vermogensbeheer B.V. The lawsuit stems from an impairment charge after HP purchased the software company Autonomy.
EMC
- HP will stomp EMC’s disks into the dust, babble storage mystics
Networked storage array revenues are shrinking while server-SAN and hyper-scale storage revenues grow strongly, IDC said in its latest worldwide disk storage tracker. Total worldwide disk storage revenues in the first 2015 quarter were almost $8.8bn, up 6.8 per cent year-over-year, with 28.3EB shipped, which was 41.1 per cent higher year-on-year.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/08/hp_overtake_emc_in_disk_storage_revenues_says_idc/
- We think HP will buy EMC, says analyst
“While management’s messaging around the size of M&A in HP Enterprise continues to refer to Aruba as a benchmark (~$3bn), CEO Meg Whitman explained that from an academic perspective, technology hardware is an industry that should consolidate due to declining revenues and slowing growth rates. This sounds like EMC CEO Joe Tucci’s answer. Have they been talking? We think so. Pro forma financial leverage is manageable at a $32-$33 takeout price (less than 3x net debt/EBITDA). There are so many reasons this makes sense.”
http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2411970/we-think-hp-will-buy-emc-says-analyst
Other
- Mainframe Developer Workforce Shortage Seen Ahead
The latest survey, slated for release Wednesday morning, found that 39% of the respondents, who come from 10,000-employee-plus companies based worldwide, have no plans to address coming mainframe developer shortages. Yet more than 80% acknowledge that mainframes will remain a key business asset to handle ongoing operations and the growing amounts of Big Data.