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Supplier Report: 4/27/2018

Supplier Report 4/27/2018

IBM made national headlines again, not for their products or services, but for the methods they used to eliminate older workers. As the company’s transition to AI, blockchain, and cloud progresses – are they cutting too close to the bone?

Microsoft reported excellent earnings this week (35% net income increase) bolstered by their cloud efforts and LinkedIn acquisition.

Google is reportedly taking losses in their home device market, but they have managed to avoid public ire over their data collections methods. The company is rumored to be collecting more data than Facebook and yet they have avoided public backlash (but they are still dealing with the EU over their monopoly settlement).

Acquisitions

  • LinkedIn among Microsoft’s fastest growing businesses as $26B investment begins to pay off

    LinkedIn brought in more than $1.3 billion in revenue this quarter, up from $976 million in its first full quarter under the Microsoft umbrella. LinkedIn is still operating at a loss, mostly due to long-term costs associated with the acquisition, and that figure has declined every quarter since the deal closed.

    LinkedIn is part of Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes segment, which reported just over $9 billion in revenue for the quarter. LinkedIn accounted for about 14 percent of that segment’s revenue.

    https://www.geekwire.com/2018/linkedin-among-microsofts-fastest-growing-businesses-26b-investment-begins-pay-off/

Artificial Intelligence

  • IBM Security launches open-source AI

    The toolkit, called the Adversarial Robustness Toolbox, goes beyond the usual collection of attacks used to test an AI’s ability, Sridhar Muppidi, IBM Fellow, VP and CTO IBM Security told SC Media at RSA this week. The toolbox has been released on Github and is available for download.

    “So far, most libraries that have attempted to test or harden AI systems have only offered collections of attacks. While useful, developers and researchers still need to apply the appropriate defenses to actually improve their systems,” he said.

    The toolbox uses multiple attacks against an AI system and then the security team tasked with increasing the AI’s effectiveness can choose the most effective defense. The way it does is to try and trick an AI with intentionally modified external data. Muppidi said the data sent against the AI is made “fuzzy” causing the AI to misclassify the data.

    https://www.scmagazine.com/ibm-security-launches-open-source-ai/article/760190/

  • European Commission: “We Need to Invest €20 billion in AI”

    “AI is transforming our world. It presents new challenges that Europe should meet. The Commission is playing its part: today, we are giving a boost to researchers so that they can develop the next generation of AI technologies and applications, and to companies, so that they can embrace and incorporate them,” he added.

    Warning of a brain drain, the Commission said it will support business-education partnerships to attract and keep more AI talent in Europe, set up dedicated training schemes with financial support from the European Social Fund, and support digital skills, competencies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), entrepreneurship and creativity.

    https://www.cbronline.com/news/eu-multi-billion-ai-investment

Cloud

  • Microsoft’s Cloud Has Business Booming Again

    The company’s net income rose 35 percent from a year earlier, to $7.4 billion. Revenue rose 16 percent to $26.8 billion in the quarter, exceeding the Wall Street consensus forecast of nearly $25.8 billion.

    Microsoft’s earnings per share increased 36 percent to 95 cents a share, well above the analysts’ average estimate of 85 cents a share, compiled by Thomson Reuters.

    Since Satya Nadella became chief executive in 2014, the cloud portion of Microsoft’s revenue has soared from 3 percent to more than 21 percent this year, according to estimates by Credit Suisse.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/26/technology/microsoft-cloud-quarterly-report.html

Security

  • Who Has More of Your Personal Data Than Facebook? Try Google

    Google also is the biggest enabler of data harvesting, through the world’s two billion active Android mobile devices. Because Google’s Android OS helps companies gather data on us, then Google is also partly to blame when troves of that data are later used improperly, says Woodrow Hartzog, a professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University.

    A good example of this is the way Facebook has continuously harvested Android users’ call and text history. Facebook never got this level of access from Apple ’s iPhone, whose operating system is designed to permit less under-the-hood data collection. Android OS often allows apps to request rich data from users without accompanying warnings about how the data might be used.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-has-more-of-your-personal-data-than-facebook-try-google-1524398401?ns=prod/accounts-wsj

  • Advanced Hackers Infect X-Ray Machines In Healthcare Espionage

    The hacker group, dubbed Orangeworm, is mainly targeting American healthcare organizations, though there are a number of victims worldwide, including in Asia and Europe. But rather than do anything destructive, Orangeworm is likely using leverage on those medical devices – designed to process and view images from X-Ray and MRI machines – to learn more about them as part of an ongoing corporate espionage operation, Symantec said.

    “Due to the fact that the attacks attempted to keep infections active for long periods of time on these devices, it’s more likely the group are interested in learning how these devices operate. We have not collected any evidence to suggest the attackers have planned to perform any sabotage type activities at this time,” said Alan Neville, Symantec researcher.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2018/04/23/x-ray-machines-taken-over-by-healthcare-hackers/#6d775f9844c8

  • Cracking the Crypto War

    That public and private key pair can be used to encrypt and decrypt a secret PIN that each user’s device automatically generates upon activation. Think of it as an extra password to unlock the device. This secret PIN is stored on the device, and it’s protected by encrypting it with the vendor’s public key. Once this is done, no one can decode it and use the PIN to unlock the phone except the vendor, using that highly protected private key.

    So, say the FBI needs the contents of an iPhone. First the Feds have to actually get the device and the proper court authorization to access the information it contains—Ozzie’s system does not allow the authorities to remotely snatch information. With the phone in its possession, they could then access, through the lock screen, the encrypted PIN and send it to Apple. Armed with that information, Apple would send highly trusted employees into the vault where they could use the private key to unlock the PIN. Apple could then send that no-longer-secret PIN back to the government, who can use it to unlock the device.

    https://www.wired.com/story/crypto-war-clear-encryption/

Software/SaaS

  • Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

    The company told The Verge that it is “pausing” work on Allo, which was only launched as recently as September 2016, in order to put its resources into the adoption RCS (Rich Communication Services), a messaging standard that has the potential to tie together SMS and other chat apps. RCS isn’t new, and Google has been pushing it for some time, but now the company is rebranding it as “Chat” and putting all its efforts into getting operators on board.

    The new strategy will see almost the entire Allo team switch to Android Messages, according to The Verge.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/19/google-changes-its-messaging-strategy-again-goodbye-to-allo-double-down-on-rcs/

    Chat is Google’s next big fix for Android’s messaging mess

    Google’s plan this time around is much more complicated than just launching a new messaging app. To get it started, it has had to corral more than 50 carriers and nearly a dozen manufacturers into adopting a new standard. It had to ensure that Chat would work the same, everywhere, and that it would actually have a decent set of features. Oh, and all those companies are fierce competitors who distrust each other and Google.

    It is as close to the hardest, most winding road that I can imagine for fixing the messaging mess on Android. It’s also probably one of the only roads Google had left to try.

    https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/4/19/17252486/google-android-messages-chat-rcs-anil-sabharwal-imessage-texting

  • Amazon’s new blockchain service competes with similar products from Oracle and IBM

    “Some of the people that I talk to see blockchains as the foundation of a new monetary system and a way to facilitate international payments. Others see blockchains as a distributed ledger and immutable data source that can be applied to logistics, supply chain, land registration, crowdfunding and other use cases,” he wrote. “Either way, it’s clear that there are a lot of intriguing possibilities and we are working to help our customers use this technology more effectively.

    AWS Blockchain Templates give AWS users working on blockchain apps a faster way to set up Ethereum or Hyperledger Fabric networks. Its launch comes six months after Oracle unveiled its cloud service built on the open-source Hyperledger Fabric project during Oracle OpenWorld and about a year after IBM announced its own Hyperledger-based blockchain-as-a-service offering.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/22/amazons-new-blockchain-service-competes-with-similar-products-from-oracle-and-ibm/

Datacenter/Hardware

  • Why Facebook is following Apple and Google to build its own computer chips

    “Big tech companies realize that silicon and hardware is a key to differentiated experiences and services,” said Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “It’s kind of ironic, but hardware is driving software right now. The biggest reason is the simplification of software design tools and the incredible competitiveness of foundries like GlobalFoundries and TSMC” that actually manufacture the chips.

    https://siliconangle.com/blog/2018/04/19/report-facebook-wants-follow-apple-google-build-computer-chips-ai/

  • LG can’t meet Apple’s demand for iPhone OLED displays

    The Wall Street Journal reports that efforts to get LG Display’s OLED screens into the iPhone production line have hit manufacturing issues. Apple is reportedly divided on whether LG will be able to succeed as the second source of OLED displays for the iPhone.

    Analysts have been warning for months that Apple is in “urgent” need of finding another iPhone OLED supplier besides Samsung. Apple currently uses Samsung’s OLED displays for the company’s iPhone X model. The reliance on a single supplier means Samsung controls pricing on the displays that Apple is buying — and there’s no other alternative at the moment.

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/20/17261008/apple-iphone-x-lg-display-oled-supply-rumors
    This better explains why the company is looking to create their own screens moving forward.

  • Google is bleeding cash trying to take on Amazon in the smart home

    Because Nest was rolled back into Google proper earlier this year, Alphabet recast its quarterly earnings figures for 2017 to account for the fact that Nest revenues and losses would be moved from the “Other Bets” section of Alphabet’s business to the standard Google revenue line item. Comparing the differences in quarterly revenues and operating income, we can see that Nest made about $726 million in revenue, yet it ultimately contributed a $621 million loss to the “Other Bets” section throughout the year. In other words, Google spent more than half a billion dollars last year to establish Nest in sectors like security cameras, alarm systems, and video doorbells.

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/23/17272748/alphabet-google-q1-2018-earnings-nest-smart-home-amazon-competition

Other

  • IBM Could Go From Good To Great With This One Increasingly-Likely Change

    Forbes’ Peter Cohan is one of those doubters. He said in response to the company’s first quarter earnings, “Can IBM turn this around and become a company that persistently beats analyst expectations for revenue and profit growth and raises its forecasts? I don’t think so. That’s because it lacks a sustainable competitive advantage.” The reason for the missing competitive advantage? Cohan goes on to say “The right CEO can make a big difference — just look at how well Microsoft has done thanks to the successful cultural change managed by Satya Nadella. Until IBM gets a new one, it will lack a sustainable competitive advantage.”

    https://seekingalpha.com/article/4164267-ibm-go-good-great-one-increasingly-likely-change

  • How IBM quietly pushed out 20,000 older workers
  • Ajit Pai Is Intentionally Delaying His Net Neutrality Repeal and No One Knows Why

    The most popular theory is that ISPs and the FCC wanted more time to garner support for their effort to pass a bogus net neutrality law. A law they promise will “solve” the net neutrality feud once and for all, but whose real intention is to pre-empt tougher state laws, and block the FCC’s 2015 rules from being restored in the wake of a possible court loss.

    While it may seem like ISPs scored a major victory with last December’s vote at the FCC, that’s simply not the case. Given the FCC’s bizarre behavior during the repeal (ranging from ignoring comment fraud and identity theft during the public comment period to making up a DDOS attack), the repeal remains on some shaky legal ground courtesy of FCC ethical gaffes.

    https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wj793y/ajit-pai-net-neutrality-repeal-not-official-yet

Photo by Ryan Loughlin on Unsplash

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Supplier Report: 4/13/2018

Supply Report - 4/13 - this dog knows something

The Department of Defense’s huge cloud contract is still up for grabs and Amazon’s competitors are raising a stink about Amazon’s glaring advantage.  The government RFP requires their hosting service to be able to handle data designated as top secret. At the moment, AWS is the only cloud hosting service to be certified to host information at that level.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg survived over 600 questions from Congress during a 2-day session. Almost every news outlet summarized the effort as boring, but agreed that Zuckerberg likely resolved the company’s issues with the government.  He also made $3B while taking those questions.

IBM released a new “skinny mainframe” this week and Oracle helped to send a rival company’s CEO to jail (he did kind of deserve it).

Acquisitions

  • HPE acquires leading Microsoft Azure partner to bolster cloud play

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise has unveiled plans to acquire RedPixie, a cloud consultancy and application developer specialising in Microsoft Azure.

    Terms of the deal – of which financial details were not disclosed – will see the tech giant merge the partner into its Pointnext division, in a bid to expand capabilities across hybrid cloud.

    Headquartered in the UK, RedPixie specialises in cloud advisory services, as well as application development and migration offerings specific to moving workloads to the public cloud.

    https://www.reseller.co.nz/article/635989/hpe-acquires-leading-microsoft-azure-partner-bolster-cloud-play/

  • KPMG Acquires Microsoft Dynamics 365 Integrator Adoxio

    KPMG in Canada is acquiring Adoxio Business Solutions, a Microsoft Dynamics 365 integrator and gold-level partner. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close this month.

    Adoxio has 80 employees across Canada and in the United States, including offices in Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Regina and Redmond, Washington. The company serves roughly 300 customers worldwide, including Dynamics 365 clientele within multiple vertical markets — particularly public sector, regulatory, manufacturing, retail and energy.

    https://www.channele2e.com/investors/exits/kpmg-acquires-microsoft-dynamics-365-integrator-adoxio/

Artificial Intelligence

  • Artificial Intelligence Becoming Top Corporate Spending Priority

    “We expect market share will continue to shift among leading vendors given the infancy of the AI/machine learning market,” Huberty said.

    Chief information officers surveyed by Morgan Stanley on average expect their information technology spending to rise 5.8% this year.

    “This is the most bullish CIOs have ever been in overall IT budget growth in the past 10 years,” Huberty said.

    Cloud computing and security are the top priorities, followed by digital transformation initiatives, she said. AI and machine learning initiatives ranked sixth in the latest survey, up from No. 20 a year ago.

    https://www.investors.com/news/technology/artificial-intelligence-ai-spending/

Cloud

  • Don’t count on Amazon winning the $10 billion Defense Department deal — it’s still wide open

    U.S. Navy Commander Patrick Evans, a Department of Defense spokesperson, reiterated that the Pentagon’s process is “transparent” and will remain “a full and open competition.”

    “No companies were pre-selected. We have no favorites, and we want the best solution for the department,” Evans told CNBC.

    Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White also addressed speculation Thursday that Amazon was in the lead to take the lucrative defense contract.

    “The secretary has been very clear that we need to be good stewards of the American people’s money,” White said. “So, nothing is taken for granted and nothing is presumed. We will get a full, open and transparent competition, and this is the first of many competitions with respect to the cloud.”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/06/aws-not-close-to-winning-jedi-government-cloud-deal.html

  • Amazon’s Rivals Fear They Will Lose Out on Pentagon’s Cloud-Computing Contract

    One of the greatest advantages Amazon has is the Pentagon’s insistence that bidders provide a cloud that can handle unclassified, secret and top-secret data. Only Amazon so far has received government approvals to house its most highly classified data in the cloud, though representatives from other companies said they are making progress toward earning the same certification.

    Mr. Van Name said the Pentagon believes a number of companies, including Amazon, are qualified to produce what the Defense Department is demanding in the contract. The department also says companies could form a joint venture to meet the qualifications to win the award.

    Pentagon officials plan to offer the contract as a two-year base award, followed by options of five and three years, respectively, Mr. Van Name said. The department hopes to award the contract by the end of September.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazons-rivals-fear-they-will-lose-out-on-pentagons-cloud-computing-contract-1523534400?ns=prod/accounts-wsj

Security

  • Zuckerberg’s boring testimony is a big win for Facebook

    By the conclusion of the five hours of questioning, the senators themselves were admitting they hadn’t watched the day’s full testimony. Viewers at home had likely returned to their lives. Even the press corps’ eyes were glazing over. But Zuckerberg was prepared for the marathon. He maintained pace through the finish line. And he made it clear why marathons aren’t TV spectator sports.

    The question is no longer what revelations would come from Mr. Zuckerberg going to Washington. Tomorrow’s testimony is likely to go similarly. It’s whether Facebook can coherently execute on the data privacy promises it made leading up to today. This will be a “never-ending battle” as Zuckerberg said, dragging out over many years. And again, that’s in Facebook’s interest. Because in the meantime, everyone’s going back to scrolling their feeds.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/10/zzzuckerberg/

Datacenter/Hardware

  • IBM announces launch of ‘skinny’ mainframe

    The IBM z14 Model ZR1, launched today, is a cloud-ready system with a 19-inch server rack that can easily fit into any standard cloud centre or private cloud environment, a shift from the traditional, bulky pieces of hardware that can barely fit anywhere and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

    IBM says the new z14 offers 10 per cent more capacity and approximately 8 terabytes of memory, twice the amount compared to its predecessor, the z13 mainframe.

    https://www.computerdealernews.com/news/ibm-announces-skinny-mainframe/59330

Other

  • The CEO of one of Oracle’s rivals has been sentenced to 2 years of prison — and Oracle is ‘pleased’

    “Oracle is pleased that the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio accepted the guilty pleas of James Olding and Bernd Appleby, the principals of Terix, for their roles in misappropriating Oracle’s intellectual property and sentenced them both to prison for their criminal acts,” says Oracle spokesperson Deborah Hellinger.

    “Oracle takes violations of its intellectual property rights very seriously and, as demonstrated by Oracle’s lawsuits against Terix, Rimini Street and other IP violators, Oracle will not hesitate to go after those who do so. Oracle appreciates the fine work of the law enforcement officials whose efforts led to the criminal penalties assessed against Terix’s principals,” she said.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/bernd-appleby-ceo-of-oracle-rival-tetrix-computer-sentenced-to-24-months-in-prison-2018-4

Photo by Jennifer Regnier on Unsplash

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News You Can Use: 4/11/2018

The world can be crazy, we should try to be reasonable

  • China will ban people with poor ‘social credit’ from planes and trains

    With the social credit system, the Chinese government rates citizens based on things like criminal behavior and financial misdeeds, but also on what they buy, say, and do. Those with low “scores” have to deal with penalties and restrictions. China has been working towards rolling out a full version of the system by 2020, but some early versions of it are already in place.

    Previously, the Chinese government had focused on restricting the travel of people with massive amounts of debt, like LeEco and Faraday Future founder Jia Yueting, who made the Supreme People’s Court blacklist late last year.

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/16/17130366/china-social-credit-travel-plane-train-tickets
    This is literally right out of Black Mirror:

  • Marques Brownlee, ‘the best technology reviewer on the planet,’ talks about the past four years and his plans beyond YouTube

    So, one of the biggest things about YouTube versus any other platform is the built-in audience and discovery tools. Before this was even a business for me, it was always kind of a fun hobby. People don’t think about SEO and keyword optimization and things like that as a hobby, but it was kind of fun for me to see how I can focus on making a better YouTube channel, and just get better at that personally.

    Now that it’s a business, obviously it’s expanded and it still grows as a YouTube channel, but yeah, we’ve gotten to the point where we think about other platforms, or other ways to own our own content. I think YouTube has been awesome for the years we’ve been on it, but we’re starting to think about other things now.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/marques-brownlee-mkbhd-youtube-interview-2018-3
    I am a big fan of MKBHD and I don’t normally get to mention him on my “professional” blogging.

  • Kids on the Internet: Why parenting must keep up with the digital revolution
  • Sheryl Sandberg defends Facebook’s data-hungry business model

    In the past, Facebook has faced criticism for product updates that alienated some users. But in each case, that criticism eventually dissipated. This time around, the company is under scrutiny for the fundamentals of its business model–which Sandberg resolutely defended. “We believe that we can operate our service with our current business model, continue to provide a free service all around the world, and protect people’s data, but we are going to have to earn that trust,” she said.

    Sandberg also had a message for her Wall Street viewers, whose increasingly negative outlook on the company had erased $50 billion in market value earlier in the week. “We’ve already said that we’re going to significantly impact our profitability, and we mean it,” she said. “And if we need to do more, we continue to do more. … We will make any investment we need to make.”

    https://www.fastcompany.com/40548425/sheryl-sandberg-defends-facebooks-data-hungry-business-model

  • Agile: Myths and Reality

    Agile development is elegantly simple and many agile fundamentals are spreading from engineering to marketing, sales, and finance teams, transformational consultants Sol Sender and Ben Edwards write in a Quartz at Work article. But, they caution, “much can and does go wrong at every level of the organization, from the individual team member all the way up to the CEO. Which is why most companies, despite their intentions to adopt agile methods, often end up working in a way that doesn’t look much like true agile at all.”

    Top executives have to be willing to cut through cultural barriers and unbind their teams from restraints that deter them from new achievements. They must accept that a successful transformation is a journey that may not always run smoothly.

    https://www.cio.com/article/3264466/leadership-management/agile-myths-and-reality.html

Photo by Victor Garcia on Unsplash

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Supplier Report: 3/30/2018

As Amazon continues to grow, the company is drawing the attention of President Trump. Trump’s issues with Amazon and Jeff Bezos are well documented, and there are reports that Trump is focused on finding ways to halt Amazon’s growth while the rest of the government is focused on regulating Facebook and Google.

Microsoft is undertaking a massive reorganization centered on cloud and AI. This push has resulted in long-time Windows lead Terry Myerson opting to leave the company.

IBM is currently undergoing another round of job eliminations. The full scope hasn’t been reported yet, but the focus seems to be around sales and services, leaving remaining employees to wonder how the company can support existing customers.

Oracle took a stock hit a few weeks ago, but they had a massive win against Google.  The Java fair-use case that has been going on for years has finally shifted back in Oracle’s favor.  The company could get a $9B settlement from Google.

Acquisitions

  • Unit of Taiwan’s Foxconn to Buy Los Angeles-Based Belkin

    A unit of Foxconn Technology Group has agreed to buy smartphone and electronics accessories maker Belkin International Inc. for $866 million.

    The move disclosed Tuesday comes as Taiwan-based Foxconn, known as the contract assembler of Apple Inc.’s iPhones, seeks to bolster its consumer-branded operations.

    Privately held Belkin also owns Linksys, a wireless router brand, and the Wemo brand of products that control home lights, monitor cameras and similar devices.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/unit-of-taiwans-foxconn-to-buy-los-angeles-based-belkin-1522151550
    I wonder if Trump is going to let this sale happen?

  • DOJ and AT&T Clash Over Impact on Consumers of a Time Warner Deal

    The Justice Department argued a post-merger AT&T would use Turner’s valuable channels to wring higher prices out of rival cable providers who need that programming for their packages. The government also argued AT&T would try to deter emerging online rivals who are offering pay-TV packages at cheaper prices.

    Mr. Conrath highlighted Dish Network Corp.’s Sling TV, a new online-only TV package that competes against AT&T’s DirecTV Now streaming service, as proof of Time Warner’s importance. He said Turner chief John Martin warned a Sling TV executive the service would be “crap” if it didn’t carry Turner’s networks. (Mr. Conrath said Mr. Martin used a more profane word best kept out of the courtroom.) Sling TV today offers two basic $20-a-month TV packages, both of which carry Turner channels.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/doj-says-pay-tv-will-cost-more-if-at-t-buys-time-warner-1521746321

Artificial Intelligence

  • Apple and IBM Watson team for enterprise mobile machine learning

    In leveraging the new technology, customers can build machine learning models using IBM Watson (the company’s cloud-based AI platform for business) and train it with their own industry-specific data. This includes the ability to create different machine learning models, compare the results, and run automated experiments – identifying patterns and gaining insights, to reach decisions more quickly.

    Machine learning is implemented with IBM Watson’s visual modelling tools, such as PixieDust and Brunel, but there’s support for Jupyter notebooks with Python, R and Scala – plus the open-source RStudio. This is then converted to Apple’s Core ML to integrate it with Apple-compatible applications.

    One such application of machine learning enables iPhone cameras to access Watson’s image recognition capabilities. Users can identify and classify content, before analyzing it to extract detailed information. This capability could shake up workflows in the industrial, logistics, and healthcare sectors.

    https://internetofbusiness.com/apple-ibm-mobile-machine-learning/

  • IBM Could Be a Dark Horse in the Virtual Assistant Market

    Don’t expect IBM to launch a smart speaker, and don’t expect to be saying, “Hey, Watson.” The company is targeting enterprise customers with Watson Assistant instead of going after consumers directly. Watson Assistant can be used by companies and organizations to build industry-specific applications. It’s a white-label product, meaning that applications built on Watson Assistant will be branded and customized however the developing company chooses.

    IBM provided an example of how this could work in a post announcing the product:

    You’re on a business trip to Las Vegas. Upon landing at McCarran International Airport, Watson Assistant automatically checks into your hotel and your preferred rental car is not only ready, it has the hotel destination preprogrammed along with suggestions on where to get a latte while en-route. Nearing the hotel, the Watson Assistant in your car signals your arrival to the hotel and not only updates the room with your preferences for music, temperature and lighting, it synchs your smartphone, calendar and email with the in-room wall dashboard and checking you into the convention you’re attending.

    http://host.madison.com/business/investment/markets-and-stocks/ibm-could-be-a-dark-horse-in-the-virtual-assistant/article_a9b1a849-e6ad-53f5-b0ac-01f3b33f5903.html

  • Microsoft is launching a huge reorganization to focus on AI and the cloud

    The company is creating two new engineering divisions that it says will accelerate innovation and better serve its customers. One team will focus on the cloud and AI, the other on what it calls “experiences and devices.”

    The AI cloud: It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Microsoft has decided to lump together its cloud services with its AI research—combining the two is a big business, with Google, Amazon, and Chinese firms all providing stiff competition. This new division will also include its teams working on augmented- and mixed-reality technologies.

    Things people use: Microsoft’s new “experiences and devices” team will attempt to unify the way the firm is developing products for consumer and business users. It’ll include Microsoft’s mobile offerings, Windows, and its Microsoft 365 productivity suite.

    https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/610725/microsoft-is-doing-the-splits-to-focus-on-ai-and-the-cloud/
    Microsoft’s longtime Windows boss is leaving the company amid a huge executive reorganization

    As part of the reorganization, Rajesh Jha, the executive VP of Microsoft Office products, will expand his responsibilities to encompass Myerson’s role. Jha will become the leader of a group called Experiences and Devices, bringing Windows and Office together under a single banner.

    “The purpose of this team is to instill a unifying product ethos across our end-user experiences and devices,” Nadella said. “Computing experiences are evolving to include multiple senses and are no longer bound to one device at a time but increasingly spanning many as we move from home to work and on the go.”

    http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-terry-myerson-leaving-reorganization-2018-3

Cloud

  • Trump Attacks Amazon, Saying It Does Not Pay Enough Taxes

    Mr. Trump accused Amazon, one of the country’s most recognizable and successful brands, of putting thousands of local retailers out of business and said the company was using the United States Postal Service as its “Delivery Boy.”

    The president has lashed out publicly against the giant company and its chief executive, Jeff Bezos, on Twitter more than a dozen times since 2015. And privately, people close to him said, Mr. Trump repeatedly brings up his disdain for the company, often set off by his anger at negative stories in The Washington Post, which is owned by Mr. Bezos.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/us/politics/trump-amazon-taxes.html
    One area where Trump could really hurt Amazon

    The Washington Business Journal reported that the omnibus spending bill signed by Trump earlier this month contained a provision which requires the DoD to explain why awarding a contract that could run in excess of $10 billion to a single vendor is the best way to execute this plan.

    In 2013, Amazon Web Services won a $600 million contract from the CIA.

    And with signs pointing to Amazon having the upper hand in winning a potentially massive contract from the DoD, Clifton sees this as an area where Trump could hit back against Amazon.

    “Of all the stories we read [on Wednesday], however, we saw very little attention paid to the one area where Trump could actually hurt Amazon – cloud computing contracts,” Clifton writes. “Tech companies have been fuming at the possibility of Amazon being the sole company awarded a multi-year cloud services contract at DoD. Congress was forced to intervene in the recent omnibus.”

    https://sports.yahoo.com/one-area-trump-really-hurt-amazon-164512213.html

  • Oracle Opens The Doors To Massive Austin Campus Entirely Focused On Driving Cloud Solutions

    Oracle said the campus could ultimately support up to 10,000 workers, some of whom will live in a neighboring apartment building the company is constructing.

    From the campus, Oracle will launch its Next Generation Contact Center, a customer support operation which looks to enhance the customer experience by leveraging Oracle Sales Cloud to drive the sales process.

    A new Oracle Cloud Solution Hub will also be set up at the Austin campus.

    The hubs—three more will operate at other Oracle sites across the country—showcase Oracle cloud projects in the works or already deployed in the field for customers. Engineers will be available to demonstrate Oracle’s next-gen solutions, from AI to virtual reality to bots.

    https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/300101086/oracle-opens-the-doors-to-massive-austin-campus-entirely-focused-on-driving-cloud-solutions.htm

  • Microsoft will be worth $1T within year: Morgan Stanley

    Other tech heavyweights still hold a lead over Microsoft. Apple is worth $861 billion, while Amazon’s market cap is $739 billion. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, fell to $709 billion during Monday’s trading session.

    “Strong positioning for ramping public cloud adoption, large distribution channels and installed customer base, and improving margins support a path to $50 billion in [earnings before interest and taxes] and a $1 trillion market cap for [Microsoft],” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note to clients.

    https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/microsoft-will-be-worth-1t-within-year-morgan-stanley

Security

  • Apple’s Tim Cook calls for tougher regulation of personal data

    In a discussion at the China Development Forum, Tim Cook said that tougher, “well-crafted” regulation of personal data is likely “necessary” in the wake of Facebook’s crisis. The ability to learn “every intimate detail of your life” through your internet history and contacts “shouldn’t exist,” Cook said.

    He argued that Apple had been concerned about just this sort of privacy breach for a long time. It saw that were giving up info without understanding what they were doing, and that companies were creating profiles that would leave people “incredibly offended” when they learned the truth. This has happened “more than once,” Cook added.

    https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/24/tim-cook-calls-for-tougher-regulation-of-personal-data/

  • President signs overseas data access bill into law

    The House of Representatives has approved a piece of legislation (PDF) that makes it easier for law enforcement to get access to info even if it’s stored in other countries. Officially known as Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, the set of regulations was part of the 2,000-page Omnibus Spending Bill the president has just signed. CLOUD was created to replace the current rules for cross-border access to data, which require requests for info to be ratified by the Senate and vetted by the DOJ. The new rules give the DOJ the power to obtain data US-based tech companies stored overseas, such as the Outlook emails Microsoft stores in Ireland. It also allows the agency to forge agreements with foreign governments seeking data from US tech corporations even without approval from Congress or the courts.

    https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/24/cloud-act-law/

  • Facebook has been collecting call history and SMS data from Android devices

    While the recent prompts make it clear, Ars Technica points out the troubling aspect that Facebook has been doing this for years, during a time when Android permissions were a lot less strict. Google changed Android permissions to make them more clear and granular, but developers could bypass this and continue accessing call and SMS data until Google deprecated the old Android API in October.

    Facebook has responded to the findings, but the company appears to suggest it’s normal for apps to access your phone call history when you upload contacts to social apps. “The most important part of apps and services that help you make connections is to make it easy to find the people you want to connect with,” says a Facebook spokesperson, in response to a query from Ars Technica. “So, the first time you sign in on your phone to a messaging or social app, it’s a widely used practice to begin by uploading your phone contacts.”

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/25/17160944/facebook-call-history-sms-data-collection-android

Software/SaaS

  • Oracle Wins Court Ruling Against Google in Multibillion-Dollar Copyright Case

    The court ruled Tuesday that Google’s use of Oracle’s Java programming technology wasn’t “fair,” a reversal of fortune in a case that dates back to 2010, when Oracle alleged Google’s Android smartphone operating system infringed copyrights related to Oracle’s Java platform. Oracle has sought as much as $9 billion in damages previously. Oracle general counsel Dorian Daley said in an interview that “the value has gone up,” though the company hasn’t come up with an updated number.

    The appeals court ruling, if it stands, could have a broad impact on the software industry by limiting the “fair-use” defense in copyright cases. That could make it more costly and technically complex for developers to use Java and other copyrighted software to create new products, legal and industry experts said.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/oracle-wins-court-ruling-against-google-in-long-running-copyright-case-1522164091?mg=prod/accounts-wsj

  • Google Is Working on Blockchain Technology, Too

    The search company is developing its own distributed ledger blockchain software to verify transactions within its cloud services. According to Bloomberg’s sources, Google will use the technology internally as well as provide a white-label version that other companies can run on their own servers. These sources said that Google has looked at the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger blockchain software. But it’s unknown whether the company will ultimately choose that open source software or something else.

    It’s also unknown precisely how Google might be planning to use blockchain. But Cointelegraph reported that the company filed a patent application for a tamper-proof auditing system based on the technology.

    https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/google-working-blockchain-technology/2018/03/

Datacenter/Hardware

  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise to move HQ to San Jose

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise is moving from Palo Alto to San Jose. The company will relocate 1,000 employees to a 220,000-square-foot space in late 2018. HPE was spun-off from Hewlett-Packard in 2015 and is focused on servers and storage.

    This news comes months after HPE announced a different plan in which the company was moving to Santa Clara, where Aruba Networks, a company it previously acquired, is headquartered.

    HPE is going to occupy six floors in San Jose’s America Center, which is located near a forthcoming Berryessa BART station.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/28/hewlett-packard-enterprise-to-move-hq-to-san-jose/

Other

  • Mark Zuckerberg won’t lose his job any time soon

    As chairman of the board, Zuckerberg controls 87 percent of Facebook voting shares. Even if the remaining eight board members wanted to kick him out, they don’t have the power to do so, unless Zuckerberg decides to play along and vote himself out.

    This consolidation of power didn’t happen by accident. In December 2015, Zuckerberg pledged to give away 99 percent of his Facebook shares — valued at $45 billion at the time — to fund the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a charitable organization he founded with his wife. In order to do this without reducing Zuckerberg’s majority on the board, Facebook took a page of out the Google founders’ handbook. It introduced a new type of non-voting stock, Class C, that split every share for every stockholder into three distinct shares. A share worth $100 was transformed into three $33 shares, two of which were Class C, meaning they didn’t carry any voting rights.

    https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/29/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-job-security/

  • SoftBank Group and Saudi Arabia plan to spend $200 billion building the world’s biggest solar power plant

    According to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the Saudi Arabian project is about 100 times larger than the next biggest proposed development, the 2 gigawatt Solar Choice Bulli Creek PV in Australia, which is expected to be completed by 2023.

    During an event with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in New York City on Tuesday, Son said the project will create 100,000 jobs, triple Saudi Arabia’s electricity generation capacity and save $40 billion in power costs. Saudi Arabia is the largest crude exporter in the world, but the kingdom is currently trying to diversify its economy beyond oil. Last month, the government awarded ACWA Power a $302 million deal to build Saudi Arabia’s first utility-scale renewable energy plant.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/28/softbank-group-and-saudi-arabia-plan-to-spend-200-billion-building-the-worlds-biggest-solar-power-plant/

  • Stop us if you’ve heard this one: Job cuts at IBM

    So far there is no word on the number of people who have been let go, and no Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices from IBM have been filed in New York or California. However, multiple posts from both groups suggest a significant portion of the sales staff has been axed.

    “Sales is getting hit hard especially over 50. My achievement was good, but now they are eliminating the territory,” says another person whose job was cut.

    “They are guessing it could be 20-30 per cent of sales force.”

    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/29/ibm_layoffs/
    IBMers in TSS: How WILL we support customers after these latest job cuts?

    The document revealed staff are worried about the headcount that will be left to provide support to customers. In it, one ECC rep said he had “raised a concern that the proposed redundancies, in addition to attrition in the hardware domain, posed a significant business risk”. This was “noted” by IBM, it added.

    IBMers have told us of individual teams being obliterated with, in some cases, more than half of the personnel set to leave. One told us: “I am being dumped on the scrap heap” by the latest cost cutting in the support unit.

    “The out-of-hours support is being compromised to save money. IBM customers are paying for a service that will be depleted,” our source added.

    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/27/ibm_tss/
    I keep saying this, but I do not understand why the company keeps going after services and consulting bids when they are cutting into those exact groups.

Photo by Elijah O’Donell on Unsplash