Elizabeth Warren is going after large IT companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon and stating her desire to break them up if elected President.
As IT establishes itself as one of the primary drivers of the US economy (and THE major competitive advantage over foreign countries), can a 70-year-old politician really understand what these proposed “monopoly busters” would do to the US innovation engine?
Meanwhile, Facebook is handing politicians like Warren a narrative to break up the company with their inability to get privacy under control (while continuing to make a profit) and as Amazon grows (unchecked) in almost every major market.
Acquisitions
Cloud
- Microsoft Azure Is Catching Up to Amazon AWS
Brad Zelnick referred to the RightScale 2019 State of the Cloud Report from Flexera, which is based on a survey of 786 technical professionals in a note to investors.
The report said that overall Azure adoption grew from 45% to 52% to narrow the gap with AWS. As a result, the report said, Azure adoption has now reached 85% of AWS adoption, up from 70% last year.
“Azure continues to catch up with AWS overall especially among enterprises, where Azure adoption increases slightly from 58% to 60%, while AWS adoption in this group is relatively flat at 67%. This puts Azure with 89% of the AWS adoption based on the overall number of respondents using each cloud,” the Cloud Report said, noting that Google maintains its third-place position, increasing slightly from 18% to 19% adoption.
https://www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/azure-closing-the-gap-with-aws-14885053
- Democrats to push to reinstate repealed ‘net neutrality’ rules
Democrats in the U.S. Congress plan to unveil legislation on Wednesday to reinstate “net neutrality” rules that were repealed by the Trump administration in December 2017, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
Pelosi told lawmakers in a letter that House Democrats, who won control of the chamber in the November 2018 elections, would work with their colleagues in the U.S. Senate to pass the “Save The Internet Act.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-internet-idUSKCN1QL1W0
- SAP’s restructuring – Hunger Games, Game of Thrones or both?
It seems that SAP has determined that it cannot realistically compete with AWS, Google and Microsoft for cloud platform offerings and is, therefore, scaling those back. That’s one easy way to unload staff and should be of no surprise to anyone in particular. Even though SAP touts a cloud platform, it never figures in any of the surveys of runners and riders. And despite the obvious allure as evidenced by AWS numbers (and Microsoft’s recent rocketing performance) SAP isn’t going to fight battles it can’t win. However, that still leaves the problem of engineering for each of those choices. That’s BIG engineering work that requires a considerable resource for very little obvious payback other than protecting existing application investments.
Also
From what I can gather, SAP started its program in Germany, including at its Walldorf HQ, offering early retirement to some of the ABAP ‘greybeards.’ In addition, employees are being offered the opportunity to apply for one of the 3,000 openings elsewhere. This is where I get my Hunger Games metaphor. 4.5 down with 3 up is a competitive environment.
https://diginomica.com/saps-restructuring-hunger-games-game-of-thrones-or-both/
Looks like SAP is letting go of several Hana and development subject matter experts…not good.
Security
- Do You Trust Your VPN? Are You Sure?
The CEO of one top VPN company, Silicon Valley–based AnchorFree, told me in a phone interview that he suspects one of his top rivals is secretly based in China—which would raise a red flag for many privacy advocates because of the Chinese government’s aggressive surveillance regime. An executive for that rival, ExpressVPN, insisted that isn’t true, though he wouldn’t disclose where the owners are actually based or even who they are. (The company is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.) He argued the secrecy is actually a virtue because governments can’t apply pressure to ExpressVPN’s principals to give up user data if they don’t know who, or even where, those principals are. Indeed, many VPN users consider offshore providers preferable to U.S.-based firms.
Also…
How about the VPN that gets the best reviews? Ah, but there are dozens of review sites, their findings often conflict, and their criteria aren’t always transparent. Two of the more reputable tech sites that review VPNs, PCMag and CNET, both give Panama-based NordVPN the top spot, citing its speed, ease of use, and privacy features. But two others, Wirecutter and Tom’s Guide, found NordVPN slow and buggy. And, like ExpressVPN, NordVPN goes to great lengths to obscure its ownership. As Tom’s Guide notes, it’s a subsidiary of a Panama-based holding company called Tefincom S.A., which appears to be a shell company. (As with ExpressVPN, there are potential justifications for that anonymity.)
https://slate.com/technology/2019/02/best-vpn-companies-trust-privacy.html
- Facebook only cares about privacy because it has to
Zuckerberg also talks about how ephemeral content (posts that don’t last forever) are key to Facebook’s evolution. That should come as no surprise given the rise of Instagram Stories, which now has over 500 million daily active users. That’s more than double of Snapchat — you know, the app Facebook essentially ripped off to create Stories. Zuckerberg says this doesn’t mean the News Feed is going away anytime soon, but it does raise the question: How does Facebook plan to turn its privacy-focused strategy into cash? Again, that’s a question that Zuckerberg doesn’t seem to have an answer for at the moment. Presumably, Facebook will still need to make money. And you have to wonder, if you’re not giving up your privacy, what will you have to give up for the company to turn a profit?
https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/07/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-privacy-focused-strategy/
Why Facebook’s pivot to privacy could backfire
My view is that if you accept that Facebook’s News Feed and other feed-based products will eventually fade away, as they have already begun to do in North America, Facebook will need to transform its business completely. Rallying around privacy, encryption, and ephemeral messages — while buying time to build out new businesses around commerce and payments — seems to be as good an idea as any.
Zuckerberg nods weakly to a belief in the continuing importance of the News Feed in his post. But over the past year, he also moved top News Feed talent to parts of the company that he needs to grow faster: Adam Mosseri to Instagram; designer Geoff Teehan to the blockchain division, and so on. These moves, coupled with the decline of original sharing in the News Feed in North America, lead me to believe that Zuckerberg — ever paranoid about the company’s long-term survival — feels pressure to start building lifeboats.
https://www.theverge.com/interface/2019/3/8/18255480/facebook-pivot-privacy-mark-zuckerberg-pr-stunt
Software/SaaS
- Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon and Facebook
The proposal — which comes on the same day Ms. Warren will hold a rally in Long Island City, the Queens neighborhood that was to be home to a major new Amazon campus — calls for the appointment of regulators who would “unwind tech mergers that illegally undermine competition,” as well as legislation that would prohibit platforms from both offering a marketplace for commerce and participating in that marketplace.
Ms. Warren’s plan would also force the rollback of some acquisitions by technological giants, the campaign said, including Facebook’s deals for WhatsApp and Instagram, Amazon’s addition of Whole Foods, and Google’s purchase of Waze. Companies would be barred from transferring or sharing users’ data with third parties. Dual entities, such as Amazon Marketplace and AmazonBasics, would be split apart.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-amazon.html
Elizabeth Warren Wants To Break Up Amazon, Google And Facebook; But Does Her Plan Make Any Sense?
But I fear that nearly all of these plans to “break up” big tech actually make that harder. It doesn’t open up new opportunities for a protocol-based approach, and simply assumes that the world will always be managed by giant platform companies — just slightly smaller, and highly regulated, ones. And that might actually lead us to a much worse future, one that is still controlled by more centralized systems, rather than more decentralized, distributed protocols where the users have power.
The internet is a constant challenge with lots of new upstarts hoping to disrupt the big guys. And sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. We should be wary of companies with too much power abusing that position to block competition. And I’m certainly open to looking at specific situations where it’s alleged that these companies are blocking competitors, but a general position that says breaking up the internet giants seems more opportunistic and headline-grabbing than realistic.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190308/10591041767/elizabeth-warren-wants-to-break-up-amazon-google-facebook-does-her-plan-make-any-sense.shtml
Other
- Amazon’s joint healthcare organization is called ‘Haven’
Haven, the website says, is a nonprofit that aims to make primary care easier to access, make prescription drugs more affordable and insurance benefits easier to understand. When the partners first announced the endeavor, they said they want to accomplish those goals with the help of technology. That hasn’t changed: they explained that they’re looking at new ways to use data and technology to better the healthcare system.
The organization will start with addressing the healthcare needs of 1.2 million Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase workers in the US. Ultimately, the partners intend to use whatever they learn from that initial period and the solutions they come up with to improve the system for everyone.
https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/07/amazon-joint-healthcare-organization-haven/
- Amazon to close all of its 87 pop-up stores in the US beginning in April
“Across our Amazon network, we regularly evaluate our businesses to ensure we’re making thoughtful decisions around how we can best serve our customers,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. “After much review, we came to the decision to discontinue our pop-up kiosk program, and are instead expanding Amazon Books and Amazon 4-star, where we provide a more comprehensive customer experience and broader selection.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/06/amazon-to-close-all-of-its-pop-up-stores-in-the-us.html
- Amazon’s HQ2 deal isn’t looking great for Arlington County
The contract doesn’t require Amazon to provide construction workers with a living wage, what would typically be called a project labor agreement, and it doesn’t ask Amazon to contribute to Arlington’s affordable housing trust fund. Housing fund requests are typically made after a company comes back to Arlington with more specific development plans.
All Amazon needs to do in Arlington is hit office space requirements. It must occupy 64,000 square feet of office space by the end of July 2020, 252,800 square feet by 2021, and 5.576 million by 2034. As Amazon hits its office space goals, it will receive partial payment of the $23 million.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/5/18252093/amazons-hq2-deal-arlington-county-living-wage-affordable-housing
Photo by Toby Yang on Unsplash
