Tag: EMC

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Supplier Report: 4/23/2016

sn_traffic_Khara Woods

Q1 earning reports seemed to set the tone for this week’s news.  IBM had another quarter of decline as did Microsoft and EMC.

HP Inc sold off troubled assets while EMC and Dell ponder what else they can sell to pay of their debt.

IBM

Microsoft

  • How Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella plans to beat Amazon in the cloud

    Where our differentiation lies: The first one is hybrid. Every server product of ours has cloud enrollment rights whether that be Windows Server or SQL Server,” he said, meaning that if you buy the software, you don’t need to pay for it again to use it on Microsoft’s cloud. That saves a company money.

    And he said, the reverse is true, too, that Microsoft’s cloud Azure works particularly well with all of the company’s own server products. This is “unique to Microsoft.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/how-microsoft-will-beat-amazon-in-the-cloud-2016-4

  • Microsoft Misses Profit Estimates With Slowing PC Market

    Microsoft devices and PC business were a mixed bag. The division – called “More Personal Computing” — grew only 1% to $9.5 billion. While the Surface device business grew 61% (primarily from the new Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book devices), the phone revenue declined 46%. Licensing the Windows operating system to PC makers declined 2%, but Microsoft pointed out that the decline was still better than the overall PC market. 2015 was one of the worst declines in PC sales ever and 2016 doesn’t look like it’s shaping up any better:Research firm Gartner said PC shipments declined 9.6% year-over-year for the first quarter. Microsoft said that Windows 10 is now active on more than 270 million devices.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2016/04/21/microsoft-misses-profit-estimates-with-slowing-pc-market/#5039969e1b42

  • Microsoft touts free stuff to lure server-leaning IT pros to its cloud

    To entice them to join, Microsoft is offering up Azure credits, free online training, free tech support and extended trials of Office 365 and its BYOD product, Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS)

    http://www.techrepublic.com/article/microsoft-touts-free-stuff-to-lure-server-leaning-it-pros-to-its-cloud/

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

  • OpenText Enters Into Definitive Agreement with HP Inc. to Acquire Certain Software Assets

    OpenText Corporation, a forerunner in enterprise information management, has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with HP Inc. to acquire certain parts of its customer experience software and service assets. The software assets, which OpenText Corporation has acquired includes HP Media Bin, a digital asset management solution, HP TeamSite, a multichannel digital experience management platform, HP Qfiniti, a workforce optimization platform, HP Optimost, HP Explore, and HP Aurasma.

    http://www.martechadvisor.com/news/opentext-enters-into-definitive-agreement-with-hp-inc-to-acquire-certain-software-assets/
    More:

    The company, a Canada-based content management company, expects to generate between $85 million and $95 million of revenue in the first year. If those numbers are correct, OpenText could make back the cost of the acquisition in just two years.

    http://www.ciodive.com/news/opentext-buys-bundle-of-hp-content-management-products-for-170m/417654/
    More:

    Interestingly these pieces weren’t included in the HPE part of the company during the split, where it would have made more sense. Perhaps that’s because HPI intended to sell these pieces all along, says Scott Liewehr, principal at Digital Clarity Group.

    “Why pair it with printers? In our view at DCG, we assumed this meant they’d be selling it off as soon as they could find a buyer. It’s been pretty public knowledge that HP has had buyer’s remorse from the Interwoven acquisition for quite some time,” Liewehr said.

    http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/18/opentext-acquires-hp-customer-experience-content-management-for-170-million/
    More:

    “TeamSite once held a dominant market position, but a series of poor decisions during the Autonomy era led to its demise. Staying ahead of innovative competitors requires more than just issuing press releases. But there are a number of large global enterprises still using TeamSite, and I’m sure the sales teams at Adobe, Sitecore, and Acquia are going to quickly capitalize on today’s news.”

    The news to sell the CX software to OpenText confirms the new HP Inc. had the plan to divest all along, according to Tony Byrne, founder of the Real Story Group.

    “It’s clearer HP was prepping these tools for ready divestment,” Byrne blogged today. “And today comes news that TeamSite, MediaBin, and Optimost have gone to rest at everyone’s favorite graveyard for unloved content technologies: OpenText.”

    Byrne said old Interwoven customers went through a sale to a “pathologically destructive” Autonomy, then went through an “ugly and litigious acquisition” by HP, then “calved off into near oblivion with the HP printer group.”

    http://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/hp-sells-cx-assets-to-opentext-for-170m/

Storage (EMC | Dell | NetApp | Infinidat )

  • Dell looking at higher debt mountain to buy EMC

    The WSJ reports the weakish quarterly results at Intel and the “poorly received debt sale by disk-drive maker Western Digital Corp. are building expectations of higher yields for Dell’s coming debt issuance.”

    sn_dell_emc_overlap_2
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/22/dell_looking_at_higher_debt_mountain_to_buy_emc/

  • EMC Q1 soft as orders slip

    The storage giant reported first quarter earnings of $603 million, or 14 cents a share on revenue of $5.5 billion, down 2 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 31 cents a share.

    Wall Street was looking for non-GAAP earnings of 33 cents a share on revenue of $5.6 billion.

    http://www.zdnet.com/article/emc-q1-soft-as-orders-slip/

  • VMware Shares Surge on Talk of Stock Buyback

    The stock repurchase is expected to take place after the EMC shareholder vote on the Dell deal, slated for May 12. By taking shares out of circulation, VMware hopes to increase their value.

    http://fortune.com/2016/04/20/vmware-shares-surge-on-talk-of-stock-buyback/
    More:
    VMware plans $1.2B buyback to ease Dell takeover

    VMware’s stock surged over 9% in after-hours trading Tuesday after the company reported solid quarterly results and said it would begin a $1.2 billion stock buyback. The repurchase is set to begin after EMC shareholders vote on the Dell acquisition, an event expected six weeks after Dell files its final SEC paperwork on the transaction.

    The buyback is good news to EMC shareholders because Dell’s parent company, Denali Holding Inc., is offering them $24.05 in cash, plus a tracking stock valued at 0.111 the value of VMware’s shares. By reacquiring its stock, VMware will reduce the number of shares outstanding for sale, likely increasing their market value.

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/vmware-plans-12b-buyback-to-ease-dell-takeover-2016-04-19

Oracle

  • Oracle? Who Might Be Eating Their Porridge?

    Why might I say something so harsh? Simple really, Oracle derives 52% of its revenues from maintenance. Those revenues have operating margins of 94%. The cloud accounts for 8% of revenues and has gross margins (gross not operating) of 48%. I really do think that at scale, cloud gross margins will be higher than today, but still lower than the operating margins reaped by “selling” maintenance contracts. To the extent that Oracle is replacing a revenue stream with 94% margins with one that has margins of 75% – hopefully. Needless to say, that is not the best of trades.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3965635-oracle-might-eating-porridge
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    One serious challenge that Oracle faces is flexibility. Most users perceive that Oracle’s pricing is draconian and its audits… well lots of users have been known to cheat here and there in order to achieve their budgets and lots of sales people aid and abet those kinds of things. In addition to the pricing, the inflexible “Ts&Cs” there is the subject of vendor lock-in. Oracle has loads of other things they want to sell users and if users choose the Oracle cloud and then want an in-memory database, their choice is Oracle Exadata and nothing else. No rewards for guessing what that means to the prices paid by users.

Other

  • Healthcare IT, Big Data Investments Surge in Q1

    Market researcher Mercom Capital Group reported that venture funding for healthcare IT and “digital health” soared 27 percent over the previous quarter during the first three months of this year. A total of 146 deals involving private equity and corporate venture capital generated quarterly investments totaling $1.4 billion, Mercom said. Investments totaled $1.1 billion in the previous quarter.

    http://www.datanami.com/2016/04/20/healthcare-big-data-investments-surge-q1/

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Supplier Report: 4/16/2016

 

sn_fruit_Jeffrey Betts

IBM continues to tout their involvement and goals in the healthcare arena. IBM CEO Ginni Rometty was a keynote speaker for the World Health Care Congress and reinforced their progress and aspirations in medical analysis reiterating that cognitive computing is the future of the field.

Seeking Alpha thinks that Oracle’s outlook is less bright due to their overall attitude towards cloud and what that means for their future against competitors.

EMC’s future is looking lighter with new rumors that they are looking to sell off Documentum.

IBM

  • What to expect from IBM earnings

    IBM had a tough 2015 given the ongoing and heavily time consuming business model transition to cloud. Further, sluggish IT spending particularly on on-premise and data center hardware along with foreign exchange volatility remain added concerns.

    We believe that revenues will continue to be affected in the near term as the company is currently transitioning to higher-growth markets that are not yielding enough to offset declines in traditional segments. Also, intensifying competition in the industry is a major headwind.

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-to-expect-from-ibm-earnings-2016-04-14
    More:
    IBM: Revenue Will Be Hurt By Cloud Through 2018, Says Credit Suisse

    Credit Suisse’s Kulbinder Garcha reiterates an Underperform rating, and a $110 price target, projecting results in line with consensus on top and bottom line.

    But Garcha thinks the company will miss its $13.50 earnings goal this year, instead delivering instead $13.30, and “We believe top line won’t stabilize until 2018, with the commentary on Japan tax benefit adding confusion on the EPS guidance.”

    http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2016/04/13/ibm-revenue-will-be-hurt-by-cloud-through-2018-says-credit-suisse/

  • IBM CEO Ginni Rometty: “Cognitive Computing Is the Future of Healthcare”

    Importantly, Rometty said, “That invisible data will now be visible. And when you combine those together,” she said, transformative capabilities will be possible. To name just two examples, she noted that “Weather influences asthma. Exposure to crime influences your mental and physical health. This is why we’ve created the Watson cloud,” she noted, adding that “We’ve spent $4 billion to acquire Phytel, Explorys, Merge, Truven, plus the Apple Research Kit,” and other entities, to help fuel the acquisition and analytics of data as part of that broader process.

    http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/article/ibm-ceo-ginni-rometty-cognitive-computing-future-healthcare
    More:
    New IBM partnership will create the ultimate Cancer Advisor

    IBM and the American Cancer Society will launch a new partnership to combine IBM’s Big Blue cognitive computing platform (Watson) with the non-profit organisation’s cancer research and patient support services.

    Every year 1.6 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer, patients that require accurate information as quickly as possible. Kyu Rhee, the chief health officer of IBM, said: “Watson has read of oncology literature, but this phase is now about learning all the cancer advocacy literature and how to support cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers in their journey.”

    http://www.sourcingfocus.com/site/newsitem/9192/
    More:
    Rometty’s Keynote Speech at the World Health Care Congress:
    https://sn.joeylombardi.com/?p=1599

  • IBM Scores Server Chip Coup at Google

    These efforts over the past few years appear to finally be paying off. On April 6, Google announced that it was co-developing an open server architecture based on IBM’s upcoming POWER9 processors with fellow cloud computing company Rackspace. POWER is now completely supported across Google’s toolchain, allowing Google’s data centers to mix and match Intel’s x86 and IBM’s POWER processors.

    POWER9 isn’t due until 2017, but Intel should certainly be concerned.

    http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/12/ibm-scores-server-chip-coup-at-google.aspx

Storage [EMC | Dell | Infinidat ]

Microsoft

  • Microsoft just took a big stand against the government over user privacy

    Apple isn’t the only company that’s fighting with the government over user privacy these days. Via GeekWire, Microsoft has sued the United States Department of Justice and has asked a court to declare the government’s secrecy orders as unconstitutional. Microsoft says it objects to orders issued by the DOJ that say the company cannot inform customers when law enforcement officials are seeking access to customer information and data.

    http://bgr.com/2016/04/14/microsoft-vs-doj-secrecy-orders/

  • Microsoft and Facebook Say They Have No Gender Pay Gap

    “Today, for every $1 earned by men, our female employees in the U.S. earn 99.8 cents at the same job title and level,” wrote Kathleen Hogan, executive vice president of human resources for Microsoft in a post on the company’s site. She also shared information about the differences (or lack thereof) in compensation for minority employees, who actually slightly out-earned their white counterparts by 0.004 cents.

    http://fortune.com/2016/04/11/microsoft-facebook-equal-pay/

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

  • HPE the big dog in booming cloud infrastructure market

    HPE is currently the runaway market leader after selling $4.55bn (£3.2bn) of kit destined for public or private cloud environments last year, up 27 per cent on 2014.

    Dell and Cisco were a distant second and third place on 10.6 and 9.6 per cent market share respectively, compared with HPE’s 15.7 per cent, with EMC and IBM rounding out the top five.

    http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2454094/hpe-the-big-dog-in-booming-cloud-infrastructure-market
    However:
    Dell-EMC set to snatch HPE’s crown in $29bn cloud market

    After Dell completes its acquisition of EMC, the merged company looks set to outstrip Hewlett Packard Enterprise as the top earner in cloud IT infrastructure.

    Dell’s and EMC’s combined cloud IT infrastructure revenues for 2015 total $5.3bn, ahead of HP Enterprise’s $4.5bn, according to IDC’s latest vendor revenue figures.

    http://www.zdnet.com/article/dell-emc-set-to-snatch-hpes-crown-in-29bn-cloud-market/

Oracle

  • Oracle’s Rite Of Passage Has Come

    Microsoft and Amazon’s AWS have both been taking steps to snatch business away from Oracle. Of the “Cloud Fource” or “Cloud 4ce” companies (names I’ve coined for the top four players in the cloud space comprising Amazon, IBM, Microsoft and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL)), Microsoft and Amazon are taking important steps to wean the world away from Oracle database systems.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3964707-oracles-rite-passage-come
    sn_MSsql_sa

Other

  • Box: It Makes No Sense For Us To Build Data Centers When IBM Can Do It At Scale

    “Some parts of our architecture have been on AWS over the years,” Levie said in response to TechWeekEurope’s question. “There was already a lot of familiarity with the platform. The partnership we announced with IBM last June encompasses a lot of things as well as cloud. “We had a bit of headway because of previous work with AWS, but we have a much more significant partnership with IBM.

    http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/cloud/box-zones-cloud-data-centres-189947

  • Yes, Badlock bug was shamelessly hyped, but the threat is real

    In a nutshell, Badlock refers to a defect in a security component contained in just about every version of the Windows and Linux operating systems. Known as the Distributed Computing Environment/Remote Procedure Call (DCE/RPC), it’s used by administrators around the world to access the most valuable asset on any Windows network—the Active Directory, which acts as a network’s digital security guard, allowing, for instance, an organization’s CFO to log in to an accounting server, while locking out the janitor or the groundskeeper. Because Active Directories enforce security policies and contain password data and other crucial credentials, they are almost always the first asset hackers access once they gain a limited foothold into a targeted network.

    http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/04/yes-badlock-bug-was-shamelessly-hyped-but-the-threat-is-real/

Posted on

Supplier Report: 3/26/2016

sn_firebreather_Donald Tong

It was not a peaceful week for IT suppliers.

Lawsuits are plentiful at the moment: IBM lost a case with Indiana, HPE is getting sued by Oracle, and EMC is suing Pure. Microsoft had to take down one of their AI experiments because users (very quickly) figured out a way to make it say inappropriate things on Twitter.

RedHat has good news… they are the first open source subscription company to hit $2 Billion in value.

IBM

  • Opportunity knocks for IBM customers, but will they answer?

    With IBM’s substantial workforce rebalancing and strategic business transformation ongoing, it is a perfect time to meet with IBM to conduct a personal assessment of their transformation and strategic direction by having them explain how these developments can benefit your organization.  This inquiry meeting can serve as the platform for a subsequent meeting to re-negotiate your current relationship across all of IBM’s business units (Hardware, Software, and Services), including any new spend initiatives.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3045285/it-strategy/opportunity-knocks-for-ibm-customers-but-will-they-answer.html

  • Indiana court: IBM breached contract, still due $50M

    The high court’s four other justices unanimously found Tuesday that IBM had breached its contract by failing to meet “timeliness metrics” and to “assist the State in achieving its policy objectives” – thus reversing a 2012 Marion County trial court finding – and said the state can seek damages. However, the justices also affirmed the trial court’s award of nearly $50 million to IBM in assignment and equipment fees.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/22/indiana-court-finds-ibm-breached-contract-but-due-/

  • IBM creating 250 cybersecurity jobs in New Brunswick over next three years

    New Brunswick is already home to a natural cybersecurity cluster that dates back 25 years, with the establishment of Canada’s first faculty of computer science in 1989. IBM’s Security QRadar analyzes data across an organization’s information technology infrastructure to identify potential security threats, acting as support for IBM’s 10 global security centres.

    http://www.cantechletter.com/2016/03/ibm-creating-250-cybersecurity-jobs-in-new-brunswick-over-next-three-years/

  • IBM Takes Stand Against Controversial North Carolina Law

    Big Blue, North Carolina’s largest employer, posted a statement on Thursday that expressed disappointment with the new law, which LBGT rights supporters widely view a setback. The law short-circuited a Charlotte ordinance that would have let transgender men who identify as women use the women’s bathroom.

    http://fortune.com/2016/03/24/ibm-north-carolina-transgender/

Microsoft

Oracle

  • Oracle Is Suing Hewlett-Packard for Selling Its Proprietary Updates

    Oracle says HP “falsely represented to customers that HP and Terix could lawfully provide Solaris Updates and other support services at a lower cost than Oracle, and then worked with Terix to improperly access and provide Oracle’s proprietary Solaris Updates to customers,” according to the suit.

    http://fortune.com/2016/03/23/oracle-suing-hewlett-packard/

  • Workday: An Oracle Slayer Or An Also-Ran Competitor?

    For several years now, dating back to at least 2012, before Workday even became a publicly traded company, Oracle’s management in general and Larry Ellison in particular have articulated strong negative sentiments regarding Workday and what it was trying to achieve. In those long-ago years, Workday had subscription revenues of less than $90 million while Oracle was selling more than $10 billion of software. And yet, here is a quote from the Oracle earnings press release that was issued at the end of its fiscal 2013 year (ended May 31), “Furthermore, in Q4, our HCM cloud alone generated more SaaS revenue and added more new Fusion HCM customers than Workday added HCM and ERP customers combined in their most recent quarter.” There are many, many things that might be said about a company with literally 100X more revenues comparing itself to an upstart that Workday was at that point. At this writing, Workday has grown something more than tenfold and Oracle has shrunk, but the rhetoric is still the same. If it wasn’t accurate all the way back then and hasn’t been accurate since that time, why should anyone choose to believe Oracle’s forecast for Workday at this point?

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3960035-workday-oracle-slayer-also-ran-competitor

Storage ( Dell | EMC )

Other

  • Red Hat Becomes World’s First Ever $2 billion Open Source Company

    Subscription revenue hit $480 million (£338m), up 18 percent year-over-year, accounting for around 88 percent of Red Hat’s total revenue. The growth in subscription revenues was seen by analysts as a particularly encouraging trend, indicating that Red Hat’s business is stabilizing and gaining more predictability.

    Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst said increased adoption of Red Hat’s hybrid cloud and open source technologies were chiefly responsible for the growth. He added that Red Hat closed the year with a record backlog, which Abhey Lamba of Mizuho Securities told The Wall Street Journal “is a good indication of its growing strategic importance.”

    http://www.techworm.net/2016/03/red-hat-becomes-worlds-first-ever-2-billion-open-source-company.html

  • Google Just Showed Up Amazon And IBM

    Now, Google has decided to commercialize pretty much all of this AND also to become a much bigger player in the cloud hosting business and software-as-a-service business. This is a truly massive shift. See, Amazon has the most mature virtual machine hosting platform with tons of services around it e.g., virtual private clouds, caches, proxies, DNS services, databases and so forth, but it does not have the machine learning know-how and services Google has. IBM has lots of natural language processing and computer vision services in its Watson Cloud product as well as hosting in its SoftLayer product, but it does not integrate them into one smooth platform like Google. This is because IBM has obtained much of its technology in that space from acquisitions.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3960633-google-just-showed-amazon-ibm

  • Docker, not production-ready? Not so, says Docker

    It seems safe to assume that Docker isn’t being used to containerize existing enterprise applications. Instead, developers are bringing in Docker for new application deployments, greenfield opportunities that aren’t dependent on yesterday’s infrastructure.

    http://www.infoworld.com/article/3046464/application-development/docker-not-production-ready-not-so-says-docker.html

Photo: Donald Tong