Tag: Google

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Supplier Report: 4/9/2016

There is alot of talk this week.

HPE’s Meg Whitman is talking about IBM’s Watson, EMC, and what you need to know about HPE’s success. Meanwhile, IBM is pushing out information about Watson this week.  Specifically, what cognitive uses might be in store for big blue’s poster child.  The storage industry is showing what happens to companies like NetApp with ever tightening margins.

IBM

  • IBM Watson CTO on What’s Ahead for Cognitive Computing

    “This notion of creating ideas and inspiring new thoughts and new ways of asking questions is critical to so many things people do in the professional world with this. We got exposed to a lot of demand in healthcare in particular, especially around treatments for things like cancer.” For a complex disease like cancer, particularly one where the literature base is of staggering volume, there is no way for healthcare providers to keep pace with the latest research. It is here that Watson shines, High says. For doctors to keep pace with what is being published, it would take them 160 hours each week, just to keep pace with what’s new. Ultimately, he says, for this field, Watson is looking for new patterns, solutions, and treatments, and serving as an engine for doctors

    http://www.nextplatform.com/2016/04/07/ibm-watson-cto-whats-ahead-cognitive-computing/

  • IBM partners with Pfizer to measure patents Parkinson’s symptoms in the home

    A series of sensors have been developed by the team to give them 24/7 data on the day-to-day impact of living with the disease, improving on the partial diagnosis doctors can achieve through only partial observation whilst also eliminating the subjective nature of the people’s own experiences.

    http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/04/07/ibm-partners-pfizer-measure-patents-parkinson-s-symptoms-home

  • IBM Combines Blockchain Technology With Artificial Intelligence To Virtually Turn Back Time

    One of the potential applications of the technology would be to create a register of IoT devices based on the blockchain, with artificial intelligence programs then used to perform automated self-diagnoses and more advanced functions, which could eventually lead to the ability of engineers and regulators to virtually rewind the clock to go back in time and see at what point a smart device failed and see exactly what went wrong.

    http://www.ibtimes.com/ibm-combines-blockchain-technology-artificial-intelligence-virtually-turn-back-time-2349130

  • IBM partners with DocuSign to drive trust in the cloud

    DocuSign is working with IBM Cloud – with a 47-data centre footprint – to provide customers with access to public, private, and hybrid cloud services. DocuSign’s APIs will also be available through Bluemix, which will be key to embedding eSignature and DTM functionalities within IBM’s Cloud platform.

    http://www.itproportal.com/2016/04/07/ibm-partners-with-docusign-to-drive-trust-in-the-cloud/

  • IBM Hires AOL Vet Bob Lord as Chief Digital Officer

    His experience on both the agency and technology side of advertising was likely a big selling point for IBM. Over the past few months, Big Blue’s been on a bit of a shopping spree, snapping up shops Aperto, ecx.io and Resource/Ammirati. The tech giant also owns The Weather Channel’s data and analytics assets.

    http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/ibm-hires-aol-vet-bob-lord-chief-digital-officer-170591

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

  • Meg Whitman tells IT leaders everything they need to know about HP Enterprise

    Yes. So if you think about new companies that are starting, they’re running their IT infrastructure completely differently, and so we have to figure out how we can remain relevant to these young companies. And I’ll give you a couple of good examples there in a minute. But the vast majority of the total available market is in legacy infrastructure. I mean by definition, if you’ve been around more than five years, you have a legacy infrastructure. I think there is a tremendous opportunity for us to help companies with legacy infrastructures migrate to a better place for them, to be able to compete with these new younger companies that maybe have an entirely different infrastructure.

    http://www.computerworld.in/interview/meg-whitman-tells-it-leaders-everything-they-need-know-about-hp-enterprise

  • Meg Whitman says IBM’s Watson is ‘not as far along’ as you might think

    Listen, they’re [IBM] doing some very interesting things. They’re buying healthcare companies and stuff, but listen, our Vertica platform is remarkable as is our Haven OnDemand platform. I put us up against Watson every day of the week here. We’re in a lot of customers where actually from a Watson perspectiveit’s not as far along in terms of real-world applications as you might imagine from the advertising.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/whitman-disses-ibms-watson-2016-4

  • EMC shrugs off HPE’s catty anti-merger ad campaign

    The copy on the advert continued: “In today’s business environment driven by rapid change, you can’t afford to miss a beat. Soon EMC and Dell will be forced to turn their attention to integrating two separate organisations with different product lines and services. Will this distraction take their focus off your business?”

    http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2453606/emc-shrugs-off-hpes-catty-anti-merger-ad-campaign

  • HP’s Whitman on investing in startups, particularly one Microsoft wanted to buy

    Some have warned Whitman that integrating with startups like Mesosphere could help them grow to $1 billion quickly and give HPE only a small percentage of the startup’s equity. While true, she believes that increasing HPE’s relevancy to CIOs will result in increased sales of more traditional Hewlett Packard Enterprise offerings.

    http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/blog/techflash/2016/04/hps-whitman-on-investing-in-startups-particularly.html

  • HPE Sells Controlling Stake In Mphasis To Blackstone For $825M

    Under the terms of the deal, Blackstone has agreed to purchase at least 84 percent of HPE’s stake in Mphasis for $6.51 per share, HPE said in its statement. Blackstone will then purchase the remaining 16 percent stake that’s permitted under Indian law and subject to the outcome of a mandatory tender offer between the signing and closing of the deal, HPE said.

    http://www.crn.com/news/managed-services/300080240/hpe-sells-controlling-stake-in-mphasis-to-blackstone-for-825m.htm

Microsoft

  • Microsoft Snags Oracle’s Main Man on Linux

    Here’s a really interesting tidbit for software geeks: Wim Coekaerts, a long-time Oracle veteran who helped transform that company into a Linux power, is now a corporate vice president at Microsoft. Coekaerts started at Microsoft in March as corporate vice president of enterprise open source, according to his Linkedin profile. The news of his job change was first reported by ZDNet. Fortune reached out to Coekaerts, Oracle, and Microsoft for comment and will update this story as needed.

    http://fortune.com/2016/04/01/microsoft-snags-oracles-linux-guru/

Oracle

  • Don’t Believe Everything You Read About Cloud Adoption
    Didn’t I say this last week?

    If companies such as Microsoft and Oracle are truly making huge inroads in enticing companies away from on-premise offerings, it will impact VMware’s earnings. VMware is the undisputed number one provider of the virtualization layer and is not offered as part of either the Microsoft or Oracle Cloud offerings. Going forward, if we see the cloud numbers from Oracle and Microsoft growing rapidly, but don’t see some kind of flattening or decline with VMware (and we haven’t so far), I’d suggest that means something is not quite adding up.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3963577-believe-everything-read-cloud-adoption

Storage ( EMC | Dell | Infinidat )

  • Infinidat adds predictive analytics to Infinibox OS. But what’s it mean?

    Infinidat’s array is a hybrid, employing disk for bulk data storage and flash (SATA SSDs) for caching data. There are, Broido believes, at this point in time, no good cost and performance reasons for adopting an all-flash array architecture or a flash storage tier, not when it wins bake-offs by customers against all-flash array vendors’ products. The 10:1 to 25:1 cost/GB differential between nearline disk drives and SATA SSDs is to prevent Infinidat replacing disk with flash.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/07/infinidat_infinibox_os_adding_predictive_analytics/

  • Here’s What Dell and EMC Corp. Are Selling off as Acquisition Nears

    EMC acquired California-based Documentum for $1.7 billion in 2003. Documentum’s software gives corporations a secure way to file and track documents. Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that the company generated $600 million in revenue and has profit margins of 30 percent or more.

    Additionally…

    SonicWALL, meanwhile, is a San Jose-based network security company that Dell acquired for about $1.2 billion in 2012. And Quest makes IT management software. It was acquired by Dell in 2012 for $2.36 billion.

    http://austininno.streetwise.co/2016/04/07/dell-emc-merger-selling-documentum-2-other-units-for-billions/

  • NetApp ain’t all that: Flashy figures show HPE left ’em for dust

    The disparity in revenues between HDS and EMC, Pure, IBM, HPE and NetApp is so great that HDS’ best hope may lie in acquiring an existing vendor. Ones that come to mind in the pure (no pun intended) all-flash area are Kaminario and Violin. Buying Nimble, Tegile or Tintri would bring in hybrid arrays which would muddy the waters of HDS’ existing integrated storage offerings from a marketing/product positioning perspective.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/01/extended_allflasharray_revenue_numbers/
    sn_storge_2016_04_07

Other

  • Google might adopt a key Apple technology in a big way

    Amid an ongoing legal battle with Oracle over the Android operating system, Google is considering a big shift towards Apple’s very popular Swift programming language, reports The Next Web. The report says Google is considering making Swift a “first-class” language choice for programmers making apps for Android.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/google-might-bring-swift-to-android-2016-4

  • Huge Opportunity in This ‘Future Predicting’ Sector

    Multinational consulting firm McKinsey says Big Data services can allow consumers to capture $600 billion in economic surplus. That’s probably why tech heavyweights IBM, Accenture, Oracle, Microsoft, EMC and Cisco have spent tens of billions of dollars building up their Big Data platforms.

    http://www.uncommonwisdomdaily.com/huge-opportunity-in-this-future-predicting-sector-22492

Photo: Ryan McGuire

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Supplier Report: 3/19/2016

sn_MexicanStandoff

I know this is going to come as a surprise to frequent readers… IBM bought another company. GASP! How could we have predicted such a move?

IBM purchased Optevia, a British CRM integration company that is based in the UK. Their focus has historically been government-based CRM configurations… so this is a very specific acquisition and I am curious to see how this asset will play globally.

Microsoft is trying to play nice and win friends, and that means the (formerly) mean kid on the block is giving away free cake SQL seats. HPE and Dell are looking to sell off a few unwanted assets (and by assets I mean whole companies).

Apple is taking business away from Amazon and giving it to Google.  Microsoft and Amazon are teaming up to go after Oracle (on hosting and software).  IBM’s Watson is under attack from one of its founders.

IBM

  • Is the Latest Acquisition by IBM a Game Changer?

    The addition of Optevia is likely to benefit IBM considering the fact that its current SaaS CRM products lack focus on public sector entities right now. Optevia, being a specialist in the field will provide IBM with much needed diversification and potential growth in its cloud portfolio.

    http://www.businessfinancenews.com/28272-is-the-latest-acquisition-by-ibm-a-game-changer/
    Related:
    IBM buys CRM SaaS firm – no, not Salesforce

    It’s an interesting purchase. Consulting giant Accenture last year bought Salesforce partners Tquila and Cloud Sherpas, also on G-Cloud. Salesforce, of course, is the fastest-growing and best known of the CRM-as-a-service lot.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/18/ibm_buys_microsoft_dynamics_crm_partner/

  • IBM is battling hard to save Vodafone’s $1-billion outsourcing deal

    “Even if IBM does retain most of the contract, the renewed deal will come at the cost of margins. They are being forced to fight on price as well,” said one of the sources. As of now, Vodafone hands out $190-200 million of annual business to IBM.

    http://www.businessinsider.in/IBM-is-battling-hard-to-save-Vodafones-1-billion-outsourcing-deal/articleshow/51424229.cms

  • IBM Board Paid Itself $4.9 Million

    IBM’s board members are A.J.P. Belda, W.R. Brody, K.I. Chenault, M.L. Eskew, D.N. Farr, A. Gorsky, S.A. Jackson, A.N. Liveris, W.J. McNerney Jr., J.W. Owens, J.E. Spero, S. Taurel and P. Voser.

    http://247wallst.com/technology-3/2016/03/11/ibm-board-paid-itself-4-9-million/

  • Watch out Watson, Google’s DeepMind is getting smarter…

    For AI researchers and Go aficionados, it is as big a moment as 1997, when Garry Kasparov lost a chess match to Deep Blue, a supercomputer built by IBM. It is much harder to program a computer to play Go than chess—the sheer number of options in every move makes the sort of “brute-force” approach adopted by IBM unfeasible. But DeepMind has managed it. After the match its program, called AlphaGo, was awarded the top professional rank by the Korean Baduk Association (“baduk” being the Korean word for Go.) And it has entered the world rankings in 4th place (see chart).

    http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21694883-alphagos-masters-taught-it-game-electrifying-match-shows-what

  • IBM quietly built the world’s largest digital agency — here’s how it got there (good summary of all of their marketing moves)

    Unlike the competition, iX isn’t trying to ‘bolt on digital’. IBM is not alone in recognizing the business requirements for digital transformation agencies. France-based advertising-agency holding group Publicis Groupe, for example, bought US-based digital-marketing consultancy Sapient for $3.7 billion in 2014, creating what it called the “largest and most advanced” platform focused exclusively on digital transformation.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/ibm-quietly-built-the-worlds-largest-digital-agency-heres-how-it-got-there-2016-3

  • IBM server sales surge, closes in on leaders HPE, Dell

    Strong growth for IBM’s Power systems and double-digit growth for its z System mainframes have seen IBM record 8.9% server revenue growth in Q4 of 2015, helping it close the gap slightly leaders HPE and Dell. IBM saw its market share rise from 13.7% in Q4, 2014 to 14.1% according to the latest figures from IDC. However, its growth spurt wasn’t enough to oust the incumbents from their top spots, with Dell also recording growth – at 5.3% – which enabled it to hold on to its 16.7% market share, while HPE declined 2.1% but still holds the lead with 24.9% market share, down from 26.8% a year ago.

    https://datacenternews.asia/story/ibm-server-sales-surge-closes-leaders-hpe-dell/

Microsoft

  • Microsoft offering free SQL Server licenses to help customers “break free from Oracle”

    Microsoft has decided to offer free SQL Server licenses for its customers to help with migrating away from Oracle database software. It’s positioning this sale as an opportunity to “break free from Oracle”. This offer is only available to Software Assurance subscribers, which is an enterprise licensing agreement that Microsoft offers to large customers.

    http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-offering-free-sql-server-licenses-to-help-customers-break-free-from-oracle
    But what is the maintenance impact year-over-year? 🙂

  • Microsoft loves open source? Only when it’s convenient

    But while this has been going on, you’re not hearing about another part of Microsoft. Simultaneous with the Eclipse and SQL Server announcements, Microsoft announced it had successfully extracted patent licenses out of Wistron of Taiwan for its use of Android and out of Rakuten of Japan for use of Linux and Android. Though there’s been something of a lull in patent aggression lately, it has a long history and generates a significant revenue stream.

    Yes, that’s right: With one face, Microsoft wants us to forgive and forget the “cancer” comments, the dirty tricks, and the standards fixing. Even as the body of SCO lays slightly warm following the Redmond-financed fight against Linux, Microsoft wants us to overlook more than a decade of hostility and accept it as a full-status community member because it showed up with code, cash, and compliments. But with the other face, Microsoft wants members of the Android and Linux communities where it claims membership to pay up crates of cash for patent licenses or face destructive litigation.

    http://www.infoworld.com/article/3042699/open-source-tools/microsoft-loves-open-source-only-when-its-convenient.html

  • What Is Sony’s Incentive To Play Nice With Microsoft For PS4-Xbox One Crossplay?
    I know it is odd to have a gaming item on here, but since we are talking about Microsoft’s embrace of open source and the fact that Sony is kicking their butts in the console market, this is a public relations move…

    For Microsoft to suddenly say “hey guys, don’t worry, you can play all your favorite multiplatform games with your friends on PS4 if you buy an Xbox” helps Microsoft, who is behind, but not Sony, who is ahead. But of course Sony has to agree to this partnership for it to exist at all. If they don’t, Microsoft gets to say “Sony, why are you standing in the way of progress?” but I’m not sure Sony has an adequate reason to agree to this partnership outside of “being nice.” They’re in the lead by a mile, so why let Xbox One get a foothold to try and close the gap by opening up their 35 million PS4 owners as potential playmates for XB1 owners?

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/03/15/what-is-sonys-incentive-to-play-nice-with-microsoft-for-ps4-xbox-one-crossplay/#e6671632fd31

Dell | EMC

  • Dell plans sale of non-core assets to reduce EMC buy debt

    The document is bullish on the synergies that will flow from Dell and EMC merging. But it also points out that Dell will soon have US$59.1bn of debt, which will mean it won’t be flush with cash for the next little while. The document says Denali Holding Inc (DHI), the company that owns Dell, “… has an objective of reducing its indebtedness in the first 18-24 months after completion of the merger and achieving an investment grade credit rating for such indebtedness. The cash necessary to achieve that objective is expected to come from divestitures of non-core businesses of the DHI Group, including EMC, cash flows from operations of the DHI Group and cash generated by reductions in the working capital needed to operate the DHI Group.”

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/15/dell_plans_sale_of_noncore_assets_to_reduce_emc_buy_debt/

  • Dell Aims To Grab Share From Cisco, HPE, Juniper With Aggressive New Rebate

    The Round Rock, Texas-based company introduced a 15 percent back-end rebate that effectively more than doubles similar existing rebates and encourages partners to take market share from Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks, according to Cheryl Cook, Dell’s vice president of global channels and alliances.

    http://www.crn.com/news/networking/300080014/dell-aims-to-grab-share-from-cisco-hpe-juniper-with-aggressive-new-rebate.htm

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

Oracle

  • Microsoft attacks Oracle with SQL Server 2016 ‘free’ licences

    Microsoft is attempting to lure companies to SQL Server 2016 by offering ‘free licences,’ but there is a catch, as customers need to be part of Microsoft’s Software Assurance licencing scheme.This initiative is directed at those organisations which are running applications or workloads on non-Microsoft commercial relational database management systems and offers free SQL Server licences and help to migrate applications. When we look at the web page where the company has detailed the launch, we are able to see what it is planning to do with the free licences.

    http://theusbport.com/microsoft-attacks-oracle-sql-server-2016-free-licences/6189

  • Oracle Earnings: Can Rising Cloud Make Up For Legacy Fall?

    “The stock is down 1.1% since (fiscal 2016’s second-quarter) earnings, outperforming the S&P 500, down 4.0%, given the general rotation out of growth stocks into more value names like Oracle,” wrote Nomura analyst Frederick Grieb in a research note Thursday. “While metrics for cloud revenue growth have been solid, investors remain concerned by what the potential cost will be to the legacy business, as well as the potential impact to margins during the transition.”

    http://www.investors.com/news/technology/can-oracle-puff-up-cloud-faster-than-losing-legacy-software-wind/

  • Oracle Corporation: Cloud Growth a Stark Warning for Its Rivals

    The highlight of the entire earnings call was the remarkable growth in the cloud business. Revenue from cloud solutions, which includes both software-as-a-service (SaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS), grew by 57% year-over-year (YoY) to $583 million. Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle, commenting on the revenue growth from cloud services stated: “This dramatic revenue increase drove our non-GAAP SaaS and PaaS gross margins up to 51% in Q3 as compared with 43% in Q2. Our cloud business is now in a hyper-growth phase.”

    http://www.businessfinancenews.com/28233-oracle-corporation-cloud-growth-a-stark-warning-for-its-rivals/
    Related:
    Larry Ellison explains why Microsoft and Amazon are going for Oracle’s throat

    Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise Corporate VP Takeshi Numoto tells Business Insider that its offer has generated a lot of excitement among Oracle customers: “The level of frustration I’ve seen in their customers has been very high.”

    Meanwhile, at the very moment Ellison was downplaying Amazon, the company had issued a press release announcing that, during the beta phase alone, it had already moved 1,000 databases to AWS.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/larry-ellison-on-microsoft-amazon-offers-2016-3

  • Oracle says Oregon is obstructing its pursuit of information

    Oracle claims that Senior Vice President Ken Glueck and Brian Shipley, Gov. Kate Brown’s then-chief of staff, reached a deal late last year to settle all litigation. Oracle would drop its suits and give the state $25 million worth of products and services. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has said only she has the authority to settle the lawsuits, not the governor.

    http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/health-care-inc/2016/03/oracle-says-oregon-is-obstructing-its-pursuit-of.html

Other

  • Former Executive on IBM’s Watson to Start Own A.I. Firm

    But for Mr. Pratt, leaving to start Noodle meant being able to build a new analytics and A.I. business from the ground up. The company will be based in San Francisco and Bangalore, relying on teams around the world to handle workloads.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/business/dealbook/former-head-of-ibms-watson-unit-to-start-own-ai-firm.html?_r=0

  • Check Out Amazon’s New Secret Weapon for Winning the Cloud Computing Wars

    AWS vice president Adam Selipsky told The Wall Street Journal that “many hundreds” of companies have used an earlier version of the new tool to migrate more than 1,000 databases. “You can clearly see that we’re now getting into the meat of enterprise adoption of the cloud,” he told The Journal.

    Last week, Microsoft said the next version of its own database program would include a similar tool. But Amazon’s head start and experience should continue to pay off, according to Hottovy.

    http://www.thestreet.com/story/13495642/1/amazon-adds-to-appeal-of-its-cloud-computing-platform.html

  • Apple Signs On With Google, Cuts Spending With AWS

    Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, which last November hired VMware co-founder and former CEO Diane Greene to lead its cloud business, is said to be aggressively forming partnerships and swinging deals to bring in large enterprise customers. Last month, Google signed up Spotify, which runs part of its streaming music service on AWS, as a cloud customer.

    http://www.crn.com/news/cloud/300080062/cloud-makes-for-strange-bedfellows-apple-signs-on-with-google-cuts-spending-with-aws.htm

  • Tableau Acquires HyPer in a Quest to Enhance Database Computing

    Tableau Software has announced the acquisition of HyPer, which is a high-performance database system. HyPer was initially developed as a research project in Technical University of Munich (TUM). Tableau plans to start a research and development center in Munich with the help of key personnel, and expand its research work on high-performance computing. The idea is to integrate HyPer’s technology into Tableau’s products. This will help its customers with faster transaction processing, and in improving the analytics results generated by its own software.

    http://www.martechadvisor.com/news/tableau-acquires-hyper-in-a-quest-to-enhance-database-computing/