Tag: Amazon

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Supplier Report: 8/20/2016

sn_service_Mike Wilson

While IBM is finding ways to keep itself alive (like a 7 year deal with WorkDay), it is also finding ways to keep people alive (see Japanese diagnostic article).

Oracle is trying to do good things for this world by opening a high school on its campus, but then they wipe out their karma by trying to sue google a third time over Java.

Microsoft bought a company from a 17-year-old kid, SalesForces bought a company called BeyondCore, and Cisco might eliminate 14,000 5,500 jobs.

IBM

  • IBM Inks Deal with Workday for Cloud Computing

    IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced Workday, a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, has adopted the IBM Cloud as part of a multi-year strategic partnership. IBM Cloud will become the foundation for Workday’s development and testing environment providing Workday with greater efficiency, flexibility, and global scale.

    http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2016/08/15/ibm-inks-deal-with-workday-for-cloud-computing/
    Why the Workday cloud deal is good for IBM in RTP

    IBM Cloud will become the foundation for Workday’s development and testing environment, and it’s a big, long-term win for IBM. Workday picked Big Blue over some competitors such as Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (where it already runs part of its business).

    As part of the arrangement, IBM’s platform-as-a-service cloud development tool, BlueMix, will supply many of the services Workday will require.

    http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/techflash/2016/08/why-the-workday-cloud-deal-is-good-for-ibm-in.html

  • IBM’s Watson Diagnosed Patient in Ten Minutes

    After months of physician-failed diagnosis, a super computer steps in and saves the life of a female patient from Japan, suffering from leukemia.

    IBM Watson Health has committed to developing a partnership between humanity and technology with the goal of transforming global health. With the ability to read 40 million documents in 15 seconds, IBM’s Watson –super computer powered with artificial intelligence- studied the patient’s medical records for ten minutes and was able to compare her type of cancer against 20 million oncological records, according to International Business Times.

    Physicians in Japan decided to try out IBM’s Watson on patients after all other treatment options had failed. The Watson revealed that the patient’s condition was another form of leukemia and required a different treatment from the one originally prescribed. So far, this is proving to be a life-saving approach.

    http://www.medicaltourismmag.com/ibms-watson-diagnosed-patient/

  • As census failure blame points at IBM, why we shouldn’t be surprised by its failings

    IBM has already been banned from being allowed to work with Queensland State departments after its A$1.25 billion payroll failure in 2013.

    The fact that IBM may be at fault in this particular software project should not come as a surprise. Firstly, software projects are generally hard and there is evidence that a majority will fail for a variety of reasons, but a principle one being failure to capture all of the requirements correctly. This certainly appears to be the cause in the poor preparation for the eCensus project.

    http://theconversation.com/as-census-failure-blame-points-at-ibm-why-we-shouldnt-be-surprised-by-its-failings-64038

  • CEO Ginni Rometty Tells Bloomberg Businessweek How IBM Plans to Compete With Google

    She told Chafkin that she views IBM as “the grown-up company” to the startup tech companies. She said people from Google and Facebook come to IBM because “they really want to have an impact on serious things.”

    In other words, you can work on an app at Google or you can help move jet planes around at IBM, Chafkin explained.

    https://www.thestreet.com/story/13675433/1/ceo-ginni-rometty-tells-bloomberg-businessweek-how-ibm-plans-to-compete-with-google.html
    sn_fellow_kids

Oracle

  • Oracle builds a high school on their campus

    Oracle knew it had to be part of this new way of teaching, modeled after Stanford’s school of design. “It’s not a production design or fashion design or interior design. Design thinking is a way to solve a problem,” Design Tech High School executive director Ken Montgomery said.

    Problems like global warming. “A lot of our programs and how we learn are done through projects. It’s not like you are sitting in a classroom getting a lecture, you’re doing a hands-on activity to help reinforce what you are learning in the classroom,” student Nick Dal Porto said.

    http://abc7news.com/education/oracle-to-build-high-school-on-its-campus-to-train-future-generation/1467973/

  • Can NetSuite Take Oracle to $10 Billion in SaaS Revenues?

    Oracle is already the number two player in ERP after SAP, but they have half the market share than the German software company. The Global ERP market is expected to reach $41.69 billion by 2020 and the only real competitors in this space are SAP and Oracle.

    Now that NetSuite has joined hands with Oracle, they have a real shot at closing the gap with the industry leader SAP.

    http://www.nasdaq.com/article/can-netsuite-take-oracle-to-10-billion-in-saas-revenues-cm664999

  • Oracle craves cloud companies

    Oracle follows a familiar pattern of either acquiring companies that bolster its existing market position in areas such as ERP or CRM, or buying firms that help it fill in gaps in the company’s broad portfolio, says Gartner analyst Chad Eschinger, who covers the company closely. In chronological order, CIO.com explores 10 key cloud deals Oracle has made over the years.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3107249/cloud-computing/10-acquisitions-driving-oracles-cloud-strategy.html

  • Oracle accuses Google of lying during Java copyright trial

    Oracle is now planning to appeal the verdict after already seeking a new trial, on the grounds that Google presented so little evidence during the trial to support its case that Oracle should win, despite the jury’s findings. Furthermore, the corporation hasn’t ruled out filing a new claim against Google’s Chrome OS, for infringing on its copyright in the desktop space. Despite the recent verdict, it doesn’t appear that this dispute will be going away any time soon.

    http://www.androidauthority.com/oracle-accuses-google-lying-710870/
    sn_your_couch

Microsoft

  • MIT and Microsoft unveil on-skin device controlling technology

    The fact is that “DuoSkin” is the name of the whole project and process, the tattoo just happens to be the physical vehicle for it. Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao, a Taiwan native, explains on a video how in her homeland “flash tattoos” are a highly popular and cheap way to express yourself, and how she wanted to capture that same essence to make a real breakthrough in wearable technologies.

    With this in mind, the “DuoSkin” technology relies on any graphic design software to create the tattoo, a regular printer to print the design on tattoo paper, a vinyl cutter to cut it out, and then gold leaf film to trace the tattoo once again for the final product. The user just haves to apply the metallic-looking design onto their skin like they would do with any other temporary tattoo: just a gentle rub and some damp cloth to turn your skin into a computer interface.

    http://theusbport.com/mit-microsoft-unveil-on-skin-device-controlling-technology/13020

  • Microsoft acquires Beam, will compete against Twitch

    How long has Beam been around for? Not long, with the company launching in January, with over 100,000 users joining the service in the last few months. Beam also won TechCrunch Distrupt’s $50,000 prize startup competition in May.

    Chad Gibson, a partner group program manager at Microsoft’s Xbox Live division said in a statement: “We at Xbox are excited about this convergence between playing and watching, and want to provide gamers with the freedom and choice to have great multiplayer experiences across all of Beam’s platforms. This acquisition will help gamers enjoy the games they want, with the people they want, and on the devices they want”.

    http://www.tweaktown.com/news/53397/microsoft-acquires-beam-compete-against-twitch/index.html

  • Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Buyout of LinkedIn Starting to Look Even Smarter

    LinkedIn finished with adjusted EBITDA of $292 million and non-GAAP net income of $153 million. Although a non-cash charge of $101 million led to a GAAP net loss of $119 million, that’s a one-time charge and LinkedIn appears poised to start reporting a GAAP net profit consistently. Some cost synergies brought about by the merger might help the company achieve profitability even sooner.

    Additionally, investors should note that MSFT might not even have contemplated a merger during LinkedIn’s better times — LinkedIn stock was already down 40% YTD before the deal was announced.

    That said, with a fast-growing top line as well as a rapidly expanding bottom line, there’s a solid chance LNKD might be able to pay for itself and Microsoft might not have to make another huge write-off a la Nokia, and it could avoid damaging investor confidence in Microsoft stock.

    http://investorplace.com/2016/08/microsoft-stock-msft-linkedin-buy-smarter/

Storage

  • New HPE releases bring enterprise-level storage to SMB market

    The Palo Alto, Calif.-based IT giant, which spun off from the original Hewlett-Packard Company last year, released two new storage solutions today – the flexible hybrid cloud-based StoreVirtual 3200 and solid-state drive (SSD) based MSA 2042 – specifically aimed at helping SMBs modernize their on-site infrastructure without breaking the bank.

    http://www.itbusiness.ca/news/new-hpe-releases-bring-enterprise-level-storage-to-smb-market/77816

Other

  • Cisco Reportedly Plans To Lay Off About 14,000 Employees, Or 20 Percent Of Its Workforce

    San Jose, California-based Cisco is expected to announce the cuts within the next few weeks, the report said, as the company transitions from its hardware roots into a software-centric organization.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cisco-layoffs_us_57b41185e4b0b42c38af4683
    IT professionals: Time to brace for more layoffs

    Chowdhry said he expects job cuts to rise drastically as more companies subscribe to “super cloud” services from the likes of Amazon and Microsoft . These services manage hardware, software, networks and databases and eliminate the need for workers to manage various technology layers, Chowdhry said.

    In January, Chowdhry estimated that layoffs in the tech industry would hit 330,000 this year. On Wednesday, he said he had raised his estimate to 370,000. Some other analysts said that forecast was too bleak.

    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/jobs/IT-professionals-Time-to-brace-for-more-layoffs/articleshow/53751028.cms?

  • Why Hewlett Packard Enterprise bought SGI

    So why would HPE, which split from HP last year and has since been spinning off units at a regular pace, suddenly be buying SGI? Particularly as it’s only a week since rumours began to swirl that HPE was itself about to be bought by private equity firms.

    The answer, it would seem, is to fully ground itself in the growing areas of big data, AI and HPC.

    In its announcement of the acquisition, HPE itself referenced SGI’s HPC and big data analytics credentials, with the executive VP and GM of the company’s enterprise group, Antonio Neri, saying: “At HPE, we are focused on empowering data-driven organisations. SGI’s innovative technologies and services, including its best-in-class big data analytics and [HPC] solutions, complement HPE’s proven data centre solutions.”

    http://www.itpro.co.uk/strategy/27085/why-hewlett-packard-enterprise-bought-sgi

  • Salesforce gobbles up analytics outfit BeyondCore (for undisclosed sum)

    BeyondCore touts its tight integration with Microsoft Office with its ‘BeyondCore Apps for Office’ solutions. It looks as though the firm will have a degree of autonomy post-completion, but it will be interesting to see what happens to this integration moving forward.

    http://www.computerweekly.com/microscope/news/450302595/Salesforce-gobbles-up-analytics-outfit-BeyondCore

  • Amazon Takes Shot At Microsoft And IBM With Its Latest Analytics Service

    Real-time stream analytics are certainly a big deal for customers running IoT, gaming, and AdTech solutions in the cloud. It provides an opportunity to query the never ending stream of data, which is always in motion. For example, with stream analytics, Uber can easily find out how many taxis crossed a specific tollgate in the last 10 minutes. Also known as fast data, real time streams are becoming an essential element of enterprise Big Data strategy.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2016/08/12/amazon-takes-shot-at-microsoft-and-ibm-with-its-latest-analytics-service/#410b9e823fd7

  • Will IBM Edge Trounce HPE Discover Again This Year?

    While IBM continues to execute on game changing unique technologies like Watson, its Open Power initiative, and its impressive move to turn infrastructure capability into a competitive advantage, HPE has failed to deliver on Moonshot, Memristor, and Itanium—its answer to IBM’s Power—is effectively a dead technology. In fact, most of HPE’s acquisitions since Whitman appear to be in some form of distress.

    http://techspective.net/2016/08/15/will-ibm-edge-trounce-hpe-discover-year/

Photo: Mike Wilson

Posted on

Supplier Report: 8/6/2016

Drowning

Yet another week where M&A dominates the news.

Verizon bought another company (Fleetmatics), SalesForce purchased Quip, and there are rumors that HPE might be up for sale (all of it or some of it). IBM is showing interest in purchasing point of sale company Revel.

IBM is also actually responsible for some technology news this week.  Their health AI systems are starting to target cancer symptoms as a means of early detection. They also maybe created an artificial neuron for super computers.

IBM

  • IBM IC detects cancer before symptoms appear

    “The societal impact of this research is that it could enable physicians to detect cancer early…when there are more possibilities of being cured,” Stolovitzky said. “We wanted this research to be in the area of cancer and also the area of detecting DNA and viruses like Zika. Everything reduces down to the same thing: being able to have a small and affordable diagnostic tool that can detect minute quantities of biomarker particles that tell physicians something about a person’s health.”scale of biology

    http://www.electronicsweekly.com/market-sectors/medical-electronics/ibm-ic-detects-cancer-before-symptoms-appear-2016-08/

  • IBM is reportedly in talks to buy point-of-sale software firm Revel Systems

    Bloomberg reports IBM (IBM) is in early talks to acquire Revel Systems, provider of an iPad-based point-of-sale (POS) hardware and software system for merchants.

    Revel competes with Square, PayPal (PYPL) , NCR (NCR) and others in the iPad POS market; its customers include Cinnabon, Chobani, and Popeyes. It has 750 employees, and was valued at more than $500 million in a $13.5 million 2015 funding round.

    https://www.thestreet.com/story/13660304/1/verizon-makes-a-telematics-acquisition-ibm-reportedly-mulls-a-retail-acquisition.html
    Is IBM Setting Up To Buy Revel Systems?

    With a Revel acquisition, IBM could theoretically refill a hole in its product line that has existed since the firm sold its point-of-sale business to Toshiba for $800 million in 2012. Revel, on the other hand, could possibly find itself with a soft exit from a market where funding rounds are getting fewer and further between.

    http://www.pymnts.com/news/point-of-sale/2016/ibm-acquire-revel-rumors/

  • IBM creates first-ever artificial neurons that behave like the real thing

    IBM researchers in Switzerland have created an artificial neuron that behaves just like the real thing. For the first time in history, artificial phase-change neurons have been grouped together (in a population of 500 synthesized in a lab) to process a neurological signal in more or less the same way that biological neurons transmit messages. They can be made exceptionally small and are similar in power and energy usage to biological neurons, and can even produce results with random variations, also just like biological neurons.

    http://inhabitat.com/ibm-creates-first-ever-artificial-neurons-that-behave-like-the-real-thing/

  • IBM’s Wager on Open Source Is Still Paying Off

    “It became apparent that open source could be the de facto standards we needed to be the engine to go out and drive things,” Moore said in his keynote at ApacheCon. “[The contributions] were bets; we didn’t know how this was going to come out, and we didn’t know if open source would grow, we knew there would be roadblocks and things we’d have to overcome along the way, but it had promise. We thought this would be the way of the future.”

    https://www.linux.com/news/ibms-wager-open-source-still-paying

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

  • Is Hewlett Packard Enterprise up for sale?

    As explained by author Kevin McLaughlin, “a buyout would allow HPE, currently the world’s largest seller of servers and storage systems, to streamline outside the glare of public scrutiny.”

    Following McLaughlin’s claims, shares in the company spiked seven percent on the stock exchange, yet closed around 3.5 percent as more details of the potential deal emerged.

    According to Reuters, the firms are focused on acquiring certain software assets from the vendor, worth somewhere between $US6 billion and $US8 billion, rather than the entire company.

    http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/604318/hewlett-packard-enterprise-up-sale/
    HPE Reportedly Considers Going Private

    Reuters reported last week that sources familiar with the HPE private equity discussion said that buyout firms are focused on acquiring some software assets that HPE has been considering divesting, and that those are worth between $6 billion and $8 billion.

    The Reuters report added that the deal was for just the software assets and not the entire company. HPE’s software assets include technology gained in acquisitions such as Vertica Systems, Autonomy, and Mercury. The technologies include data analytics, cloud orchestration, and systems management. That group hasn’t been paying off as strongly as the company’s hardware business has.

    http://www.informationweek.com/software/hpe-reportedly-considers-going-private/d/d-id/1326467
    $40 billion buyout rumour persists as HPE cloud chief and storage boss leave company

    A number of key executives are to leave Hewlett Packard Enterprise, with the top-level departures coming at a time when rumours abound that the company is subject to a $40 billion takeover attempt.

    Head of Cloud Bill Hilf, along with Manish Goel, HPE’s storage boss, are set to leave the company for pastures new. However, the reshuffle did not stop there, with Robert Vriji, managing director of sales for the Americas also set to leave, as well as the high-profile retirement of Martin Fink, CTO and head of HP Labs. Fink will retire at the end of the year.

    http://www.cbronline.com/news/verticals/the-boardroom/40-billion-buyout-rumour-persists-as-hpe-cloud-chief-and-storage-boss-leave-company-4966767

  • PE Firms Looking to Acquire Hewlett Packard Enterprise Software Assets Worth $6B-$8B

    Private equity firms, including KKR NYSEKK, Apollo and Carlyle Group are seeking to acquire certain software assets from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, according to sources reported by Reuters on Friday. Earlier in the day, The Information reported those firms might make a bid for all of HPE.

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise declined comment on the report, while KKR, Apollo and Carlyle did not comment.

    http://www.benzinga.com/news/16/07/8282979/bemzingas-weekend-m-a-chatter

Storage

  • INFINIDAT Reports 60% Quarter Over Quarter Growth in Q2

    INFINIDAT continued to achieve significant sales traction in key vertical markets in Q2, reporting that 32 percent of sales was to leading firms in the finance sector, 28 percent was in technology, telecommunications and cloud services, and 24 percent was in healthcare and life sciences. INFINIDAT added several new customers in Q2, including BT (world-leading communications services provider), HMSA/Hawaii Medical Service Association (health insurer), Triple C (cloud services provider), and Credit Andorra (financial services).

    http://www.cso.com.au/mediareleases/27834/infinidat-reports-60-quarter-over-quarter-growth/

  • How Dell Raised $67 Billion for the Biggest Tech Deal Ever

    Some of Dell’s own potential banks balked early on, arguing that they simply could not sell enough junk bonds to finance the deal, and other lenders refused to participate if they could not easily resell some of the loans to other investors.

    Then Dell, Silver Lake and the bankers came up with an idea, pushed hard by Mr. Durban: Sell more high-rated loans and bonds, a questionable idea for a junk-rated company like Dell.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/06/business/dealbook/how-dell-pieced-together-67-billion-to-buy-emc.html

Other

  • Oracle’s Latest Purchase Opens the Door for More Pricey Tech Deals

    Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies like Salesforce, which deliver software over the Internet, are of particular interest because that sales delivery model is becoming more successful with corporate customers. Neeraj Agrawal, a general partner with Battery Ventures, estimates that SaaS—as hot as it’s been—still represents just 15% of current software market, but he suggests that won’t be the case for long.

    http://fortune.com/2016/07/29/oracle-netsuite-tech-mergers/

  • Verizon buys Fleetmatics for $2.4B in cash to step up in telematics

    More generally, the acquisition of Fleetmatics points to ways that Verizon is continuing to use its balance sheet to finance investments into newer areas to offset continuing declines in its core, legacy business of basic phone services. As that market has become increasingly commoditized and people turn to other, digitised forms of communication away from traditional voice services, Verizon is hoping to invest into newer areas to move beyond “dumb pipe” status to keep its margins up, and revenues growing.

    While its acquisition of AOL (and now Yahoo) will help Verizon scale up its media, advertising and content operations, Fleetmatics is pointing straight to Verizon’s ambitions in enterprise services, and specifically enterprise mobility.

    https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/01/verizon-buys-fleetmatics-for-2-4b-in-cash-to-step-up-in-telematics
    sn_ryback_fmm

  • Salesforce buys word processing app Quip for $750M

    It’s not clear why Quip — which was growing and in the enviable position of being very selective about taking funding from VCs — decided to sell up to Salesforce. But it’s an interesting turn in the ongoing consolidation that we’ve seen in the enterprise market, and how that is transforming the bigger companies that are doing the buying.

    https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/01/salesforce-buys-word-processing-app-quip-for-750m/

  • AWS prints money for Amazon, but can Microsoft, Google and IBM catch up?

    As revealed last week, the AWS division of Amazon reported 58 percent year-to-year growth to almost $US2.9 billion, supported by continued operating efficiency that enabled the business to reach $US718 million in operating profit.

    Worldwide Cloud infrastructure services expenditure grew 52.3 percent year on year in Q2 2016, with Canalys findings pitching AWS as the leading Cloud infrastructure services provider, accounting for 30.4 percent of total spend.

    http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/604414/aws-prints-money-amazon-can-microsoft-google-ibm-catch-up/

  • Is the End Near for Tableau Software Inc?

    Data visualization company, Tableau is scheduled to report second quarter earnings tonight, after the market closes. The stock is perpetually one of the most beaten down during earnings season. After Q4 earnings, shares dropped nearly 50%, only to drop an additional 10% following Q1 earnings. Early indications appear as if they are heading in the same direction ahead of tonight’s report. Just this week Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock to “hold” from “buy” on concerns of slow margin growth. For Tableau to stop the slow bleed, it will have to convince investors that this and future quarters can generate sustainable growth.

    http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/08/tableau-software-inc-data-shortsell-earnings/

  • Teradata: Could This Be The Start Of Something Big?

    At this point, TDC has more than $7.20/share in cash although 98% of the cash is offshore. It also has long-term debt of $552 million. The current enterprise value is $3.44 billion which produces an EV/S for the current year of 1.49X. Based on the company’s current projection, the free cash flow yield for TDC will be 8% or so. The company indicated that there is potential upside to the free cash flow estimate based on the year-ending profile of assets and liabilities, particularly A/R. The company has a P/E of 12X current year non-GAAP earnings. Stock-based comp is quite low at around 10% of reported non-GAAP earnings. The other adjusting items have to do with one-time charges related to the disposition of the company’s marketing assets business as well as reorganization costs. With those kind of valuation metrics, there is plenty of upside if the company’s efforts to re-invent itself are even marginally successful. With that level of valuation, the company presents a very attractive acquisition target to both strategic and private equity investors. In the wake of the company’s guidance for the next two quarters, I think downside exposure is very limited as well.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3994915-teradata-start-something-big
    Big Data acquisitions: All about the enterprise

    Why would Teradata execute a services play not just once, but twice? Ultimately, it would seem to come down to Enterprise sales. Implementing big data — and doing it successfully — is still hard, and experienced consulting shops/Systems Integrators (SIs) can make enterprise customers feel a lot more confident moving forward with it. That puts them in the perfect position to recommend tools and technologies. So, having a manageably small, but geographically distributed, services organization can be very helpful to Teradata indeed.

    http://www.zdnet.com/article/big-data-acquisitions-all-about-the-enterprise/

Photo: Phoebe Dill

Posted on

Supplier Report: 7/16/2016

sn_beach_JoshuaNess

The fight between Google, Microsoft, and AWS (with IBM and Oracle fighting for scraps) is the major news trend of the week.

Microsoft announced a partnership with GE that will introduce their Predix IoT engine into the Azure cloud. Meanwhile, Google’s Diane Greene says Google can beat AWS and Microsoft in almost any RFP because they know cloud the best.  Amazon said the origins of their cloud infrastructure was a reaction to legacy IT providers “not caring”, especially once the sale was inked.

While cloud was a major topic, HPE once again is making headlines for exploring the possibility of selling off some of their enterprise software (seriously… this again?).

IBM

  • Inside IBM’s New App-Building Training Ground

    While the New York garage is similar to the others IBM has in cities like Toronto, San Francisco, and London, IBM is specifically making an open pitch to blockchain developers. Blockchain is a technology made famous by bitcoin, which has a public digital ledger for every transaction performed that can be shared among a distributed network. Many companies are tinkering with blockchain because it could change the way digital transactions are performed. IBM says this is because it sees an increased need for training and leadership when it comes to this burgeoning technology. Financial services—along with multiple other industries—are trying to figure out ways they can use this new system (which was introduced to the world thanks to bitcoin), and implement it into their system. Many New York-based companies are trying to figure out what they can do. While there’s a blockchain focus in the New York garage, the space isn’t exclusively for that technology.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3061668/the-future-of-work/inside-ibms-new-app-building-training-ground

  • OpenText CEO Takes Aim at IBM Watson #OTEW

    “Our path on software is pure openness: open standards and open algorithms,” Barrenechea said. “IBM’s platform is closed. Our hardware is built open standard x86. You can chose your vendor, and you can choose your design. With IBM Watson, it’s closed. You use the Watson mainframe when you’re there.”

    http://www.cmswire.com/information-management/opentext-ceo-takes-aim-at-ibm-watson-otew/
    IBM Responds:

    Reached by CMSWire after Barrenechea’s comments, IBM Watson Chief Technology Officer Rob High said the cognitive APIs and services on the Watson platform are available to any developer who wants to build a Watson application.

    “These APIs are available to the public on our Watson Developer Cloud,” he said, “but we’re expanding to other platforms as well.”

  • Microsoft and IBM in a deal to push Surface devices to enterprises
    I wonder how IBM’s buddies at Apple feel about this… not well I imagine.

    For IBM, the deal is much like the one it struck with Apple in 2014 to develop apps for iPhones and iPads. IBM will acquire more enterprise software customers, and it won’t have to worry about supporting the hardware.

    The IBM custom software will take advantage of unique Surface features, Microsoft said. The applications will revolve around analytics, reporting, employee productivity, management and forecasting.

    http://www.itworld.com/article/3094383/microsoft-and-ibm-in-a-deal-to-push-surface-devices-to-enterprises.html

Microsoft

  • Microsoft wins landmark data storage case

    A unanimous decision from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Microsoft did not have to turn over documents from an email account stored in an Irish data center despite a 2013 warrant.

    “We have little trouble concluding that execution of the Warrant would constitute an unlawful extraterritorial application of [the U.S. authority],” wrote Circuit Judge Susan L. Carney in the official opinion.

    http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/287763-microsoft-wins-landmark-data-storage-case

  • Yes, Windows 10 subscriptions are coming, at least for enterprise

    Beginning this fall, Microsoft will offer Windows 10 Enterprise E3, a special enterprise tier of Windows 10 that will cost $7 per user per month. Yusuf Mehdi, the corporate vice president of the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft, said cloud providers would now be able to offer three premier Microsoft services on a subscription basis: Microsoft’s Azure, Office 365, and now Windows 10.

    “For the price of a cup of coffee and a donut per day, you can get enterprise-class security on a per-user subscription basis,” Mehdi said onstage at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, Canada. “If you’re a cloud provider, this is now phenomenal.”

    I love the “cup of coffee” line… it is a total diversion tactic.
    machoman_cream
    http://www.pcworld.com/article/3094785/windows/yes-windows-10-subscriptions-are-coming-at-least-for-enterprise.html

  • Instant Analysis: GE Brings Its Predix Industrial Software to Microsoft’s Cloud

    Predix is one of GE’s major investments in the Internet of Things, and it allows companies to manage and analyze industrial equipment (jet engines, factory machines, etc.) to improve their efficiency and reduce downtime.

    “Bringing Predix to Azure means those same customers will now have access to additional capabilities such as natural language technology, artificial intelligence, advanced data visualization and enterprise application integration,” Microsoft and GE said in a press release.

    The companies said Predix will also be integrated with Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite, Cortana Intelligence Suite, Office 365, and other services, so that Predix customers can access industrial data in their business software.

    http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/12/instant-analysis-ge-brings-its-predix-industrial-s.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004

  • Kevin Turner’s departure from Microsoft generates cries of happiness from employees

    Microsoft’s Executive Vice President for its Windows and Devices group also received negative opinions from some of its employees. Over 60% of the employees believe Turner was fired, although that wasn’t the case, and a mini-poll shows that 93 out of 95 of them felt “crazy happy” about this. Only two seemed to feel “crying sad”. Turner was known for being pretty rough, similar to ex-CEO Steve Ballmer, who was also known for being quick to throw anger around, especially as Turner was brought in whilst Ballmer was at the throne.

    http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2464435/microsoft-employees-have-almighty-bitchfest-over-executives-turner-and-myerson

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

Oracle

  • Oracle’s $9B Lawsuit with Google Sees New Development

    Per media reports, last Wednesday Oracle appealed to the San Francisco U.S. District Court to reconsider the verdict. The filing stated that “Google’s financial rewards are as ‘conspicuous’ as they come, and unprecedented in the case law.” Oracle claims that Google has gained over $42 billion from Android powered by its Java APIs and therefore demanded a share of its profit.

    However, Google had earlier defended itself saying that the Java code was free and open and there have been no copyright infringements. In fact, Google’s stance was also supported by a majority of the Java programming community (including most of Silicon Valley) which believed that a decision in Oracle’s favor could prove detrimental to innovation as programmers use open source APIs across various interfaces for developing codes.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/oracles-9b-lawsuit-google-sees-150603905.html

Storage (EMC | Dell )

  • John Byrne becomes president of Dell and EMC unified global channel

    John Byrne an ex Advanced 3D, ATI, AMD executive has just got promoted again at Dell. He is now president of the Dell and EMC global channel. Mike Magee and Fudo have known John Byrne for close to two decades, but now is not the time for kiss and tell.

    This is a huge success for Byrne who started at Dell as global vice president of Sales Strategy and Operations in July 2015, then got promoted to be global vice president of Sales Strategy, Operations and Channels at Dell in October.

    http://www.fudzilla.com/news/41103-john-byrne-is-president-dell-and-emc-global-channel

Other

  • AWS says tech legacy vendors ‘don’t care’ about enterprise customers

    In contrast, he accused legacy IT vendors of “extortionist techniques” to hit that revenue, saying: “They forced you to pay upfront even if you are not going to use [what you buy].”

    Amazon went on to reference a stream of enterprise customers using its software, after UK MD, Gavin Jackson, recognised that many in the audience were not serious AWS users, but people interested in hearing more of what the company has to offer their businesses.

    While AWS claims to have more than one million customers worldwide, and the largest number of start-ups (including behemoths like Spotify and Netflix) on its books, it wants more enterprise customers to start using its platform.

    http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/leadership/cloud-essentials/6145/aws-says-tech-legacy-vendors-don-t-care-about-enterprise-customers

  • Google cloud boss Diane Greene: We’re winning against AWS and Microsoft

    “We can actually win an RFP pretty much every time against AWS or Azure. Our growth is great,” Greene told attendees of the Fortune Brainstorm Tech show in Aspen, Colorado on Monday.

    “We have the best infrastructure, our own network backbone, our own fiber, a very cost-effective data centers, very automated.”

    http://www.businessinsider.com/google-cloud-boss-on-aws-and-microsoft-2016-7

  • Why Teradata Corporation Fell 11.5% in June

    Plenty of stocks plunged on the outcome of the Brexit vote, but Teradata suffered more than most. The U.K. has been a solid growth market for Teradata’s data and analytics products in recent quarters, so the prospect of slower orders from that hamstrung economy can be scary to Teradata investors.

    Then, analyst firm CLSA posted a report, explaining that a low-cost bulk storage product known as Amazon Redshift is growing much faster than its traditional rivals. The data warehousing package more than tripled its revenue in 2015 while Teradata and other traditional providers posted shrinking sales.

    That one-two punch lowered Teradata shares more than 14% in just two days.

    http://www.pantagraph.com/business/investment/markets-and-stocks/why-teradata-corporation-fell-in-june/article_417c9709-6078-570f-a7b7-48355263a7ec.html

Photo: Joshua Ness

Posted on

Supplier Report: 6/25/2016

sn_rose_Craig Dennis

“Sell, Sell, Sell!” is the theme of the week. Dell is selling off Quest and SonicWall while HP Inc finishes the job they started in April and sold off their Extreme platform to OpenText.

Microsoft bought a text app company named Wand while RedHat purchased 3scale.

We also look at IBM’s purchases over the last 6 months and go deeper into understanding their future direction.

IBM

  • What Do IBM’s Acquisitions over The Past Six Months Indicate?

    International Business Machines has acquired nine companies in the last six months. The acquisitions indicate that the company is focused on rebuilding its business around digital marketing, Software as a Service (SaaS) verticals and business intelligence verticals

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/06/22/what-do-ibms-acquisitions-over-the-past-six-months-indicate/#19252dafe44a

  • Inside IBM’s plan to become a cloud broker and even resell AWS, Microsoft Azure

    While cloudMatrix is a cloud broker, the term is a bit of a misnomer. CloudMatrix is priced as a subscription based on the number of virtual machines used. What IBM is really going for is to be the proverbial one pane of glass for IT infrastructure with a financial engine to gauge costs on the fly. CloudMatrix supports AWS, Azure and SoftLayer on the cloud side and VMware vCloud Director and vRealize. OpenStack and Google Cloud Platform will be added in the months to come.

    http://www.zdnet.com/article/inside-ibms-plan-to-become-a-cloud-broker-and-even-resell-aws-microsoft-azure/

  • IBM unveils serverless-computing, simplifies IoT app development

    IBM has unveiled its new Bluemix OpenWhisk, allowing developers to build feature-rich, intuitive applications which easily connect to the Internet of Things and tap into advanced services such as cognitive and analytics without the need to deploy and manage extra infrastructure. Bluemix OpenWhisk has been positioned as a serverless computing platform that leverages Docker and features new user interface updates that claims to drive efficiency for developers.

    http://techseen.com/2016/06/22/ibm-serverless-computing-iot-app/

  • IBM Named a Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service
    Oh how I love press releases…

    “We believe IBM’s recognition in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service report is due to the strength and reach of our resiliency services portfolio, and the results our clients are experiencing on a daily basis,” said Laurence Guihard-Joly, General Manager, IBM Resiliency Services. “Given the range of risks surrounding businesses today, we are dedicated to continue delivering the most advanced, secure solutions in the industry so clients – no matter how hybrid their IT environments are – can focus first and foremost on keeping their businesses up and running for long term growth.”

    http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ibm-named-a-leader-in-gartner-magic-quadrant-for-disaster-recovery-as-a-service-300287917.html

  • IBM promises 200 petaflop supercomputer

    The US is clearly embarrassed the Chinese Sunway TiahuLight system is leading the supercomputer arms race. Now the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory has announced that is having a new IBM system, named Summit, delivered in early 2018 that will now be capable of 200 peak petaflops.

    That would make it almost twice as fast as TaihuLight. The Summit will be based around IBM Power9 and Nvidia Volta GPUs. Summit use only about 3,400 nodes. Each node will have “over half a terabyte” of coherent memory (HBM + DDR4), plus 800GB of non-volatile RAM that serves as a burst buffer or extended memory.

    http://www.fudzilla.com/news/40970-ibm-promises-200-petaflop-supercomputer

Microsoft

  • Microsoft buys Wand to improve chat capabilities

    The Wand team will be joining Bing’s engineering and platform group, Corporate Vice President David Ku wrote in a post announcing the deal Thursday. The company’s team members will be working primarily on Microsoft’s push to enable the creation of intelligent chatbots and virtual assistants.

    It’s a natural fit for Wand, which had been working since 2013 on apps that let users chat with one another and add outside information from sources like Yelp. Users could share music and let other people access their smart home devices using Wand, too.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3085151/microsoft-buys-wand-to-improve-chat-capabilities.html

  • Psst, want to flog a turkey like LinkedIn? Well, phone up Microsoft

    In that sense, the purchase of LinkedIn reminds one of Microsoft’s acquisition in September 2013 of the mobile phone assets of Nokia, the Finnish telecoms giant. That deal was masterminded (if that is the right word) by Nadella’s predecessor, Steve Ballmer, and likewise represented a desperate attempt to rectify an earlier strategic blunder, namely Microsoft’s failure to spot the smartphone revolution that had been launched by Apple in 2007. The Nokia venture turned out to be an unmitigated disaster and led to Microsoft writing off a loss of $7.9bn in July last year.

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/19/microsoft-linkedin-acquisition-social-networking-expensive-turkey
    Also:

    Acquiring LinkedIn would have provided Salesforce with a vast amount of data on users all around the world. This would have helped Salesforce develop tools and enabled customers to finalize sales deals. Users’ profiles on LinkedIn provide an insight into a range of information, including users’ skills, responsibilities in previous jobs, and contact details.

    sn_sf_threat
    http://marketrealist.com/2016/06/microsoft-make-linkedin-offer-thwart-salesforces-bid/

  • Microsoft is marketing software to help state governments keep track of legal marijuana

    To do this, Microsoft is partnering with Kind a company who built software to track legal marijuana from “seed to sale” for local and state government agencies. Kind’s government solutions department says their mission is to help the cannabis industry to transact safely; transact securely, and stay in compliance with the rules and regulations governing marijuana-related businesses. Microsoft will leverage their cloud platform Azure to facilitate and expand the services, and will be actively marketing it in states where marijuana is legal at some level. Microsoft will not be working with Kind’s Kiosk division or any point of sale services — this is strictly for government agencies.

    http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-marketing-software-help-state-governments-keep-track-legal-marijuana

  • Is It Time For Microsoft To Rebrand?

    But I’m not suggesting that the Microsoft brand go away completely. It does seem, though, that its role should change. Instead of serving as the corporate moniker and the lead brand for the company, Microsoft could be used as a product or category brand and a business unit name. Just as Google’s leaders adopted Alphabet as the parent company name and transitioned the Google brand away from entities “far afield” from its main Internet products, perhaps it’s time for Nadella to limit the use of the Microsoft and adopt a new name for his company.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/deniselyohn/2016/06/22/is-it-time-for-microsoft-to-rebrand/#243311d16e89

Oracle

Storage [EMC | Dell | Infinidat]

  • Dell sells data analytics unit to Francisco Partners, Elliott

    Private equity players Francisco Partners and Elliott Management have signed a definitive agreement to snap up all shares in Dell Software Group for $US2 billion, according to newswire Reuters. Terms of the deal will see the combined entity take control of both Quest and SonicWall, which provide business software to more than 180,000 customers across the world.

    http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/dell-sells-data-analytics-unit-to-francisco-partners-elliott
    Is Dell cutting too deep?

    In March, Dell sold its consultancy arm to NTT Data for $3 billion. This latest sale sees it dispose of the bulk of its software division including security to Francisco Partners and Elliot Management. The two big assets in this sale are Quest and SonicWALL. Nobody is speaking publicly about what Dell will get but Reuters has cited an insider putting the deal at over $2 billion. If that number is accurate it represents a loss for Dell who paid $2.4 billion just for Quest in 2012.

    http://www.enterprisetimes.co.uk/2016/06/22/dell-cutting-deep/

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

  • Open Text to buy customer communications assets from HP for $315 million US

    The transaction includes HP Extream, HP Output Management, HP TeleForm and HP LiquidOffice – collectively used to manage customer communications.

    Open Text said the purchase will help it expand its range of customer communications management products and services.

    It estimates the acquired HP businesses will generate between $110 million and $125 million US of annualized revenue.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/open-text-buy-communications-assets-hp-1.3644994

  • HP Inc. Plans to Use Gains From Divestiture to Invest in Print

    The company’s move will reduce revenue in the supplies category, including items like ink cartridges and toner, by about $450 million over two quarters, Chief Financial Officer Catherine Lesjak said Tuesday on a conference call with analysts. HP Inc. will gain about $285 million from the divestiture of its Marketing Optimization assets. The company said it will pay back the investment over three years.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-21/hp-inc-plans-to-use-gains-from-divestiture-to-invest-in-print

Other

  • Amazon Web Services Expanding With Artificial Intelligence

    On June 15, Smola reported he would be joining Amazon to lead its artificial intelligence initiatives mostly focused within the firm’s cloud machine learning platform business. With this effort, Amazon will be increasing its competitiveness in the infrastructure as a service artificial intelligence market. Current competitors are Microsoft Azure, IBM SmartCloud and Google Compute Engine, all offering different variations of artificial intelligence technology.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-services-expanding-artificial-intelligence-192956493.html

  • Red Hat to Acquire API Management Leader 3scale

    3scale complements our existing middleware product portfolio and Red Hat OpenShift by enabling companies to create and publish APIs with tools such as Red Hat JBoss Fuse, and then manage and drive adoption of those APIs once they have been published.

    https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/red-hat-acquire-api-management-leader-3scale