I am trying something new this week by focusing on topical categories instead of sections categorized by supplier. Please let me know if you like it or don’t.
As there are changes with this blog, there are changes to IT suppliers…
EMC is officially no more, long live Dell Technologies? As expected, Dell has formally closed on the EMC acquisition and the timing could not be more ironic. While Dell becomes enormous, Hewlett Packard is ever shrinking. This week, HPE announced they are “spin-merging” their software division with Micro Focus.
This is the second spin-merge HPE is attempting this year (the other being the sell off of consulting services to CSC expected to close in March 2017).
While Dell grows and HPE shrinks, Google and IBM are trying to cure cancer.
Acquisitions
- HP Enterprise in $8.8B Software Deal With Micro Focus
The transaction is expected to be tax free to HP. Micro Focus will pay $2.5 billion in cash to HPE, while HPE shareholders will own 50.1 percent of the combined company that will operate under the name Micro Focus and be run by its executives. HP said it would pay $700 million in one-time costs related to the separation of the assets.
- Intel to spin out McAfee cybersecurity unit into new company
Intel will get $3.1 billion cash and retain a 49 percent stake in the new company. TPG, based in Fort Worth, Texas, will invest $1.1 billion in McAfee and own 51 percent of the company. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter next year.
- It’s official: Say hello to Dell Technologies, the juggernaut of enterprise tech
The deal creates the largest privately held tech company in the world, which is worth $74 billion and serves 98% of Fortune 500 companies, according to the announcement.
- Oracle buys cloud WMS provider LogFire
Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Oracle and Atlanta-based LogFire announced last year they had joined forces to create what they claimed to be the first-ever integrated transportation and warehouse suite tailored to the cloud. Logfire has been a player in the logistics industry’s migration from tailored, on-premise software installations to cloud-based applications that can be managed from remote locations. LogFire’s platform provides an integrated warehouse, inventory, and workforce management application.
http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20160908-oracle-buys-cloud-wms-provider-logfire/
- T. Rowe Price opposes Oracle’s $9.3B NetSuite acquisition
“In our view, the inherent conflicts of interest between NetSuite, the Ellison entities and Oracle are daunting and may be impossible to manage, ” T. Rowe wrote in the letter, sent to NetSuite’s board on Tuesday. “Therefore, subjecting this transaction — or any future versions of it — to the approval of the unaffiliated shareholders is essential.”
- Google will acquire Apigee for $625 million
Google announced today that it intends to purchase Apigee, an API management platform that went public last year, for $625 million or $17.40 a share.
The company, which helps customers build digital products with open APIs, has an impressive customer list including Walgreens, AT&T, Bechtel, Burberry, First Data and Live Nation.
https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/08/google-will-acquire-apigee-for-625-million/?ncid=rss
Artificial Intelligence
- Hospital to use IBM’s Watson for cancer care (Korea)
IBM Watson for Oncology, a cloud-based machine-learning platform, was designed to provide physicians with evidence-based medical treatment options. The supercomputer analyzes large volumes of medical information and references available to help doctors offer individualized, data-driven treatment options for cancer patients.
http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3023649
- Google is using AI to speed up cancer treatment
DeepMind recently announced a partnership with the Radiotherapy Department at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The department provides world-leading cancer treatment, but there’s one area in particular where Google’s AI could help speed up the process.
When it comes to certain types of cancer in areas like the head and neck doctors need to plan carefully to avoid damaging important organs and body parts. The process, called segmentation, can take four hours to complete. DeepMind says it can get that down to just one hour.
http://www.technobuffalo.com/2016/09/04/google-deepmind-ai-cancer-treatment/
- New IBM Linux servers custom-made for AI, deep learning and data centre efficiency
“NVIDIA NVLink provides tight integration between the POWER CPU and NVIDIA Pascal GPUs and improved GPU-to-GPU link bandwidth to accelerate time to insight for many of today’s most critical applications like advanced analytics, deep learning and AI.”
https://thestack.com/data-centre/2016/09/08/ibm-power-systems-s822lc-data-center-servers/
Cloud
- What to do when the cloud eats your hardware vendor
In the first quarter of 2016 Amazon reported that revenue for its Web Services division grew 64% from the same period a year earlier. Salesforce.com reported a 33% increase in revenues compared to a year earlier.
Meanwhile, global storage revenues declined 32% between 2007 and 2015 and server revenues dropped 13%, according to research firm Forrester. The trend is clear: Cloud revenues are up, on-premises hardware revenues are down.
- Box and IBM just rolled out the first product they built together since making last year’s blockbuster deal
On Tuesday, Box rolled out a new product called Box Relay which helps users custom build workflows so they can automate and track their whole work process.
For example, a salesperson may have a work process that involves four or five steps, including approvals from the sales manager, finance and legal departments. Instead of having to pull up different documents through multiple software apps, Box Relay allows the user to automate everything within Box.
http://www.businessinsider.com/box-and-ibm-first-product-built-together-since-partnership-2016-9
- Is Microsoft building a Slack killer?
A few months ago, rumors circulated that Microsoft considered buying the cloud-based team collaboration tool Slack for a generous $8 billion. Overpaying again, it seems, as Slack’s last known valuation was $2.8 billion.
Now it seems that Microsoft has decided to build rather than buy, using its own Skype messaging service as the basis for a new product. According to the site MSPoweruser, Microsoft is coming for the Slack market with a product called Skype Teams.
Datacenter
- HPE sues high-flying ex-exec after defection to EMC
In a complaint [PDF] filed to the Delaware State Chancery Court, HPE alleges that KC Choi, the departed Vice President of Global Solutions Architecture, violated a 12-month non-compete agreement when he fled to EMC just before its acquisition by Dell.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/06/hpe_sues_former_exec_over_dell_defection/
- The New Dell Stops Trying To Be The Old IBM
Both IBM and HPE are willing to shrink their supply chains in exchange for focus and the prospect of higher profits in the datacenter. Dell, for its part, is still clinging to clients and wants to have leverage in the supply chain (particularly with processor, memory, and storage suppliers) that it believes it will not have if it exits the PC business. We will be able to tell who is right with this. If HPE starts losing share to the new Dell Technologies in servers and storage, and is able to extract more profits, too, then Dell is right. Time will tell.
http://www.nextplatform.com/2016/09/08/new-dell-stops-trying-old-ibm/
Software/SaaS
- Microsoft Dethrones Salesforce As Top SaaS Provider
The worldwide software-as-service (SaaS) market grew by 33 per cent in the second quarter of 2016 and Microsoft’s SaaS business experienced significant growth as well. So much so, it has overtaken Salesforce as the number one enterprise SaaS provider, according to Synergy Research Group.
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/09/microsoft-dethrones-salesforce-as-top-saas-provider/
- OpenOffice could shutter due to lack of volunteer developers
From Joey:
Alot of people are talking about OpenOffice support shutting down, but the headline is misleading. OpenOffice became part of Oracle as part of the Java acquisition. Oracle hasn’t done much to support the product over the years, and the opensource support groups forked the community.OpenOffice is alive and thriving in the form of LibreOffice. The only reason I am mentioning this is because this is a great example of what happens when a for-profit company like Oracle takes over an open-source project.
Other
- Microsoft’s tin ear for privacy
Another potential privacy danger is more hidden than Cortana, buried deep in Windows 10 — what’s called telemetry data. Telemetry gathers detailed information from every Windows PC, laptop and device about how Windows 10 is being used. So it tracks, for example, what software is installed on the system, what crashes occur, when and how they occur, and more. And there’s no way to turn that off, unless you use the enterprise edition of Windows 10 and your IT department essentially flips the “off” switch.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3117343/data-privacy/microsoft-s-tin-ear-for-privacy.html
Photo: Khusen Rustamov