Supplier Report: 11/7/2015

sn_edisonbulb_JoshByers

IBM purchased another company named Gravitant this week.  It helps customers select cloud services from a variety of providers (and is a cloud service itself).  I know I keep saying this, but IBM is consistent with their purchases: Cloud, Analytics (Big Data), and IoT.  Now I want to see all the pieces put together.

And when you have it all together, then you break it apart.  HPE announced the departure of their CIO on the first official business day as Hewlett Packard Enterprises.  The market seems to be down on HPE at the moment, while their sister company HP Inc gained on their opening day despite concerns about the health of the PC and printer markets.

The Dell/EMC acquisition continues to befuddle me.  Rumor has it that Dell is looking to sell off $10B in assets (wise move) to pay down their massive debt.  They are also looking to rush a startup that EMC and VMWare (and GE) created called Pivotal to IPO to help generate additional funds.  So… Dell goes private and loves it, they are buying EMC and taking them private (presumably), but they are KEEPING VMWare public, and starting another company with the EMC asset and doing an IPO… that made my fingers hurt.

IBM

  • IBM’s Shopping Spree Continues As It Buys Cloud Brokerage Firm Gravitant

    With Gravitant, it gets cloud brokerage, which helps companies manage cloud purchases across multiple suppliers. IBM plans to fold the new bauble into its IBM Global Technology Services unit. In addition, IBM Cloud plans to add the capabilities to its growing SaaS catalogue.

    That’s like a two for one sale because Gravitant gets sold as an old fashioned service offering, and also as a SaaS product, which plays well into IBM’s overall strategy.

    http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/03/ibms-shopping-spree-continues-as-it-buys-cloud-brokerage-firm-gravitant/

  • The Mainframe Is a Vampire

    If you looked at the recent IBM numbers, which were pretty painful but in line with what generally happens when a company is adapting to a major industry change, you saw one bright light: their mainframe business was growing faster than the server segment in general is growing.

    In fact, with the massive growth of web services, it has been hard for the server segment to get out of the low single digits. But once you adjusted for currency fluctuations, mainframes (IBM’s System Z) were up a whopping 20 percent. That’d be impressive server growth in a good year, for what has been a really soft year for servers, 20 percent growth is outstanding.

    http://www.datamation.com/commentary/the-mainframe-is-a-vampire.html

  • Why the IBM – Weather Company purchase is a big deal (shameless plug: I cover this topic on the SourceCast podcast episode #3, which will go live tomorrow… so visit again!)

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-11-05/ibm-to-buy-weather-company-why-that-s-a-big-deal
  • IBM Watson is going to change how you think about the weather (Here is a non-video article that says similar (internet of) things)

    The focus at IBM is not so much in getting Watson involved in making better weather forecasts, but in putting the world’s most famous supercomputer to work in mining epic amounts of data in order to help businesses come up with actionable insights about the weather on both a real-time and long-term basis.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/11/05/ibm-watson-is-going-to-change-how-you-think-about-the-weather/

EMC/Dell

  • Pivotal IPO Could Make Dell-EMC Deal Even More Complicated

    As a reminder, EMC owns 80 percent of VMware, which is operated and traded as an independent company. When Dell agreed to buy EMC for $67 billion last month the deal included VMware, which Dell has said it wants to continue operating in the same fashion.

    Pivotal is itself a joint venture of EMC and VMware along with GE (which owns around 10 percent). The plan could call for EMC to sell about 20 percent of its ownership stake as an IPO, which is similar to what it did when it took VMware public in 2007, according to the re/code article.

    If this is true, it’s just another case of this deal getting ever more muddled with multiple layers of ownership, all pointing back to Dell, which if this closes is the ultimate decider here. Let’s not forget, however that EMC has a clause in its agreement that if it gets a better offer than the $67 billion that Dell offered it, it could take that deal.

    http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/03/pivotal-ipo-could-make-dell-emc-deal-even-more-complicated/

  • Dell planning to sell off $10 billion in assets (rumor)
    It is too early to say I called it, but keep watching for news like this…

    Reuters reports the PC vendor is planning this to reduce the heavy debt load it will be taking on to buy data storage company EMC for around £44 billion. In 2007, EMC sold 19 percent of VMware shares in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. A successful Pivotal IPO could potentially raise billions in new capital

    http://financialspots.com/2015/11/04/dell-planning-to-sell-off-10-billion-in-assets-rumour/

    Here is more information on the sell off providing possible asset targets:

    Unnamed sources told Reuters that Dell will take on about $49.5 billion after it completes the $67 billion acquisition of EMC and its federated companies sometime next year. Selling such assets as its Quest software business (for systems management), SonicWall (network security) and AppAssure (data backup) will help the company reduce the debt load, according to the sources.

    http://www.eweek.com/pc-hardware/dell-reportedly-to-sell-software-assets-to-ease-debt-from-emc-deal.html

Hewlett Packard (HPE & HPI)
Note: I suspect my coverage of HP Inc will dwindle with time, but for now, I will cover both companies.  

  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise Loses CIO As It Charts New Course

    Ralph Loura, who had served as chief information officer of the enterprise business of HP for the past 15 months, has left the company. “I had an impact while there [and] I helped design the new op model for IT, and designed myself out of it because it was what the new company needed (move from a federated model with group CIOs, to a unified/centralized model with a single CIO),” he wrote to CRN.

    http://www.crn.com/news/channel-programs/300078699/hewlett-packard-enterprises-loses-cio-as-it-splits-from-the-former-hp.htm

  • Why JPMorgan Is Cautious On HP Inc (HPQ)

    The skeptical view taken by the firm comes on the back of PC data, which is hardly reassuring. Seagate and Western Digital both guided for a decline in HDD TAM for the fourth quarter. Intel reported a 19% YoY decline in its PC shipments for 3QFY15 worse than the 10% decline witnessed in 2QFY15. Desktops and Notebooks posted even worse numbers and there is scarcely anything notable that stirs confidence. While HDD companies see signs of stabilization, analysts at JPMorgan are far from convinced and expect more macro instability.

    http://www.businessfinancenews.com/25953-why-jpmorgan-is-cautious-on-hp-inc-hpq/

    However, On Monday, the stock market reacted like this (per USA Today):

    HPQ, which sells PCs and printers, soared 13%, to $13.83; HPE, responsible for commercial computer systems, software and services,  fell 1.6% $14.49. Both stocks are trading on the S&P 500.

Other

  • Why Billionaire Trader Stan Druckenmiller Believes In Amazon And Not IBM

    “We are in a bubble in what I would call short term behavior,” Druckenmiller said. To reinforce the point Druckenmiller gave a negative assessment of IBM, which he said has missed earnings only three times over the past nine years and is in the process of buying back billions in stock, and a bullish view on Amazon.com… the difference? While IBM is cutting R&D spending against a shrinking base of sales, Amazon has doubled that spending as a percentage of sales even as they’ve grown at double digit rates. “I love Amazon. They are investing on the future,” Druckenmiller said, before quipping, “Bezos is a serial monopolist.”

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2015/11/03/billionaire-trader-stan-druckenmiller-says-hes-long-growth-stocks-short-value-stocks/

  • Will NoSQL be the undoing of Oracle’s database reign?

    What’s most interesting in all this is how database popularity, broadly measured, compares with Gartner’s newly released Operational Database Magic Quadrant. TechRepublic contributor Janakiram MSV has captured five big takeaways from Gartner’s report, but here’s a sixth:The database vendors that embrace NoSQL are destined to be the long-term winners.

    Photo: DB-Engines
    Photo: DB-Engines

    http://www.techrepublic.com/article/will-nosql-be-the-undoing-of-oracles-database-reign/

  • Why Did Microsoft Corporation Paint Its Cloud Red?

    As part of the deal, Microsoft will feature Red Hat’s Linux as a “preferred” option for enterprise computing jobs on Azure. The deal comes in as a surprise for many as the companies have historically had differing stances on software patents and usage. Red Hat has always encouraged open-source softwares that can be distributed widely and can be modified. Microsoft, on the other hand, has been against it. Interesting to note is the fact that a separate technical team will be built from employees of both companies to solve the customer issues more efficiently.

    http://www.businessfinancenews.com/25978-why-did-microsoft-corporation-paint-its-cloud-red/

  • Teradata Plans to Sell Its $200 Million Marketing Application Business. Any Takers?

    According to financial statements within the Teradata announcement, Marketing Applications revenue was down about 9% this year, which is surprising in a generally strong martech market but in line with the rest of Teradata’s business. Teradata told me separately that their marketing cloud business grew 22% year-on-year this quarter, suggesting that the decline came in the older, on-premise products and/or related services. As you may know, Teradata’s marketing applications business was a mashup of the original Teradata marketing products, developed over the past 20 years and largely on-premise, and the Aprimo cloud-based systems acquired for $525 million in 2010. The Aprimo group was dominant in the years immediately following the acquisition but control shifted back to the older Teradata team more recently. One bit of evidence: the Aprimo brand was dropped in 2013.

    http://customerthink.com/teradata-plans-to-sell-its-200-million-marketing-application-business-any-takers/

Photo: Josh Byers

Supplier Report: 7/25/2015

sn_STHug_KristinaAlexanderson

Mergers and acquisitions was a major news theme (again) this week.  IBM announced they were acquiring DB startup company Compose.  The HP/EMC rumors started up again, while Mr. Tucci expressed his desire to keep his company whole (not splitting off VMWare).   Speaking of HP –  they sold off a part of their troubled Autonomy business.

IBM

EMC

  • Why EMC has no plans to split itself up

    “Splitting this federation or spinning off VMware is not a good idea,” said EMC Joe Tucci during an earnings call with analysts Wednesday. “I firmly believe that we are better together. A lot better together.”

    http://fortune.com/2015/07/22/emc-earnings-split-up/

  • EMC’s turbulent trifecta temporarily ties Tucci to top table
    The person who wrote this headline must be so proud of themselves (oh… British publication, of course)

    “The companies that will be successful are the ones that are able to truly transform themselves. The board and management, we’re focussed on assuring and we are deeply engaged in making sure we have a very successful transformation. We have a number of options, really good options, and we have important next-generation winning technologies, great assets, and we have great people,” he continued. [The post also mentions the fabled HP/EMC merger]

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/23/tuccis_turbulent_trifecta/

  • EMC to cut jobs in Q4 2015 to reduce costs by $850M

    EMC will cut $50 million through tighter spending and job cuts in the fourth quarter of this year. The company will increase the size of cost savings in each quarter until it reaches an annual rate of $850 million starting in 2017 by reducing other expenses, as well, in part by canceling underperforming products and closing facilities.

    http://www.infotechlead.com/networking/emc-to-cut-jobs-in-q4-2015-to-reduce-costs-by-850-mn-32532

  • Big Changes in Store for Storage

    According to a recent outlook from Wikibon, we are on the cusp of a digital extinction event as today’s complex network storage architectures give way to more nimble server-side solutions. The firm predicts that within 10 years, 90 percent of storage revenues will flow toward server SAN or hyperscale server SAN solutions, marking a 150 percent annual growth rate from today’s current market estimate of about $1 billion. At best, traditional SAN and NAS may eke out meager existences within long-term data retention infrastructure in which the frequency of data access is low but metadata retrieval is fairly steady.

    http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/infrastructure/big-changes-in-store-for-storage.html

  • EMC Corp Sticking To Its Guns

    Right or wrong, EMC is committed to its path of evolving into a leading provider of “IT-as-a-service”. Likewise, the company remains committed to an operating structure that is going to continue to frustrate some investors, as it believes (correctly, in my view) that VMware (NYSE:VMW), Pivotal, and other components are vital to its future strategy.

    http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/emc-corporation-emc-sticking-to-its-guns-363253/

Hewlett Packard

Other

  • Dell is closely studying the EMC playbook

    “I think what [EMC CEO Joe] Tucci has done with VMWare is a good example of that, where you can take something that people don’t fully understand, buried in the portfolio, and unlock it while still having a partnership with the mothership,” said Durban, who sits on the Dell board of directors.

    http://fortune.com/2015/07/17/dell-is-closely-studying-the-emc-playbook/

  • Salesforce Positioned as a Leader in the 2015 Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation

    Salesforce [NYSE: CRM], the Customer Success Platform and world’s #1 CRM company, today announced that Gartner, Inc. has positioned Salesforce as a Leader in its July 2015 Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation (SFA). This is the ninth consecutive year that Salesforce has appeared in the Leaders quadrant.

    http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/salesforce-positioned-as-a-leader-in-the-2015-magic-quadrant-for-sales-force-automation-300117584.html

  • Splunk Named a Leader in 2015 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SIEM

    “Splunk is the only security provider to improve on completeness of vision in the Gartner 2015 SIEM Magic Quadrant which we believe serves as the latest evidence that Splunk remains at the forefront of solving advanced and emerging SIEM use cases,” said Haiyan Song, senior vice president of security markets, Splunk. “Splunk is growing well beyond the SIEM market rate, as an increasing number of companies recognize the value of taking an analytics-driven approach to security with Splunk as the nerve center. And with our recent acquisition of Caspida, Splunk is adding machine learning-based user behavioral analytics and extending our analytics-enabled SIEM to better detect advanced and insider threats.”

    https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/splunk-named-leader-2015-gartner-120000738.html

Photo: Kristina Alexanderson, Flickr

Supplier Report: 11/8/2014

Photo: The Atlantic

IBM

  1. The first output of the Apple and IBM deal:

    Apple enterprise users can now get direct product support through the enterprise partnership unveiled by IBM and Apple in July.

    http://www.eweek.com/mobile/first-fruits-of-apple-ibm-deal-applecare-for-enterprise-services.html

  2. IBM cloud services are gaining a stronger market hold:

    The latest global analysis from Synergy Research Group ranks IBM as the top hybrid and private cloud provider for the enterprise and positions the company among the top three providers in the cloud market for the third quarter of 2014.

    http://www.eweek.com/cloud/ibm-tracks-cloud-deals-to-top-ranking.html

  3. IBM Intelligent Cloud Security Portfolio:

    According to a new IBM study of nearly 150 Chief Information Security Information Officers (CISOs), while 85 percent say their organizations are now moving to cloud, almost half expect a major cloud provider to experience a security breach. Despite these concerns, critical workloads processing customer and sensitive data are still moving to the cloud.

    https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/45326.wss

  4. Can IBM before relevant again?
    This article kind of sums up the themes presented on this report the last month: IBM’s issues, the corporate break ups of Symantec and HP, and the growing cloud focus.  Good read.
    http://www.ecoustics.com/articles/ibm-relevant-sorting-biggest-basket/
  5. Korea is now getting an IBM cloud center (doesn’t say if it is under the SoftLayer umbrella)
    http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2014/11/07/2014110701265.html
  6. IBM cuts 50,000 jobs in India and will replace Global Services lead:
    Erich Clementi will be replaced as of Jan. 1 by Martin Jetter, who heads IBM’s operations in Japan.
    http://wraltechwire.com/as-ibm-reportedly-cuts-50-000-india-jobs-ceo-replaces-global-services-leader/14146112/

Oracle

  1. How did Larry Ellison make is fortune?

    IBM researcher Edward Codd inspired him with a research paper titled “A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks.” IBM didn’t see the potential in the product and essentially allowed Ellison and the co-founders of Software Development Laboratories, a forerunner to Oracle, to build the first commercial relational database system.

    http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/11/05/heres-how-the-second-richest-tech-geek-made-his-bi.aspx

HP

  1. HP is building a data driven operating system from scratch:
    http://sdtimes.com/hps-plan-new-operating-system-speed-less-energy/
  2. Lots of news about HP creating a smart watch (yawn)
    http://www.bidnessetc.com/28411-hp-teams-up-with-micheal-bastian-to-make-classy-wearables/
  3. Another heavy news cycle on HP’s 3D printer and scanner release that was covered last week.
    http://seekingalpha.com/article/2658555-3d-printing-revolutionary-industry-terrible-investment

Other

  1. A breakdown of the pressures EMC is facing to split.

    Greenlight Capital Inc., the $10 billion firm run by David Einhorn, today disclosed a new “medium-sized” stake in EMC. The hedge fund said Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based EMC is trading at a “sizable discount to the sum of its parts” because of its structure, where businesses ranging from enterprise storage, software virtualization and cloud infrastructure trade under the parent company.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-05/emc-gets-einhorn-investment-adding-to-activist-pressures.html

  2. Michael Dell continues to talk a big game since going private:

    Dell said HP’s move to split into two separate companies was to help shareholders, not customers. Concerning IBM, he said, “To be in the end-to-end solutions business you have to have both ends. Or else it’s the end. We think it’s very important to have the complete solution.”

    http://www.crn.com/news/data-center/300074692/michael-dell-slams-hp-ibm-as-dell-world-gets-under-way.htm

  3. Tableau’s CEO says company’s biggest issue is getting talent:
    https://gigaom.com/2014/11/06/tableau-ceo-says-the-companys-biggest-challenge-now-is-talent/

Article Count: 741

Supplier Report: 11/01/2014

Photo: Tim Parkinson, Flickr

IBM

  1. Another week, another IBM partnership.  IBM is shacking up with Twitter to help customers determine market trends for their business (ala Watson).
    http://www.mrweb.com/drno/news19954.htm
    This does make a lot of sense actually. 
  2. IBM also partnering with TenCent Cloud – they are based in China and the focus would be on small and medium sized business as well as the healthcare industry.  Looks like TenCent will have IBM SaaS offerings:
    http://www.sys-con.com/node/3220985
    Note: TenCent provides internet to a billion people
  3. A good summary of the partnerships IBM has made in the last 2 months (if you haven’t been reading this report).
    http://www.businessinsider.com/ibm-ceo-ginni-rometty-does-have-a-vision-2014-10
  4. After all the news last week about their buyback program, IBM is buying back another/additional $5B in stock:
    http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/10/28/4272139/ibm-boosts-buyback-plan-by-5-billion.html?
  5. How IBM is going after Amazon’s cloud (nice view of their current product mix):
    http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/software-platforms/ibm-cloud-services-take-on-amazon-redshift/d/d-id/1317011
  6. IBM offering 0% leasing on Power7+ and Power8 Iron (24 months):
    http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh102714-story10.html

Oracle

  1. Comparing Oracle, Adobe, and SalesForce (a little stock heavy, but still interesting):
    http://seekingalpha.com/article/2624965-comparing-americas-3-largest-application-software-companies
  2. Predicting Oracle’s future acquisitions:

    Oracle announced the acquisition of TOA Technologies. TOA Technologies provides SaaS-based offerings focused on field service requests. Through the tools, companies cannot only monitor real-time field service requests but also schedule representatives and then use business analytics to monitor and view inventories and predict service windows. The solution helps them optimize their field service staff and operations. Oracle plans to integrate TOA’s offerings with their Service Cloud and Oracle ERP cloud solutions to help organizations deliver higher operational efficiency and improved customer satisfaction levels.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/2612245-oracles-future-cloud-acquisitions-some-predictions

HP

  1. Massive amount of coverage over HP’s Sprout 3D printer system (it is $1900)
    http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-10-29/hp-unveils-sprout-a-cheaper-faster-3-d-printing-system 

    I am very “meh” about the coverage on this product.  While I see many applications for 3D printing, I think it is too soon for this product to be the boost that HP needs (especially when the company splits).  Here is a little more on the technology:
    http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/571371/20141031/hp-sprout-keyboard-free-mouse-3d-desktop.htm

  2. HP vs IBM – who has the better recovery plan? (Hint: For investors – it is IBM)
    http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/10/28/ibm-vs-hewlett-packard-which-company-has-the-bette.aspx
  3. HP is looking to dump a Chinese networking company they own:
    http://thevarguy.com/information-technology-merger-and-acquistion-news/102714/report-hp-looking-offload-china-networking-busines

Other

  1. Former IBM CEO (Louis Gerstner) on how global markets and e-Commerce will impact the life insurance market (holds true for other business areas as well):
    http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2014/10/29/ex-ibm-chief-insurers-must-adapt-or-face-the-conse
  2. How Microsoft is beating IBM at enterprise business:

    IBM’s software, service and hardware revenue is too dependent on UNIX, and because IBM’s proprietary OS is shrinking in market share, the market for middleware will likely shrink in response.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/2600605-how-microsoft-pushed-ibm-out-of-the-enterprise

  3. Tableau gaining a name in data analysis market:
    http://news.investors.com/investing-stock-spotlight/102714-723623-tableau-software-thrives-amid-booming-demand-for-software.htm
  4. Michael Dell thinks Dell with thrive on their competitor’s “chaos”:

    “I feel like Dell is doing the same thing as all of the other providers… except they entered the market fairly late,” said David Chou, CIO of the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

    I think that is all you need to say…
    http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2014/10/31/michael-dell-sees-advantage-in-rivals-chaos-and-confusion/

  5. SalesForce making an even bigger push into Healthcare industry:

    Now Salesforce aims to bring in $1 billion in yearly revenues in coming years – about a fifth of its current annual sales – from health contracts, two people briefed on its plans told Reuters. The company expects to make such inroads despite entrenched competition and its own false starts in the sector, these sources said.

    http://www.orthospinenews.com/salesforce-to-make-big-push-into-healthcare-industry

  6. Spanning has been purchased by EMC:
    This company does a cloud backup service for SalesForce and the Google Apps products.
    http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20141028006023/en/Spanning-Acquired-EMC-Corporation