Tag: Google

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News You Can Use: 7/20/2016

sn_cat_Martina Misar-Tummeltshammer

  • How To Use A Mass Exodus At Your Company To Advance Your Career

    Taking on new or more challenging work. “If there are projects you would like to pitch in on because it would be rewarding or enhance your skill set, this could be a time to do that,” she says. And now you can make a strong case for why you’re up for the task.

    After all, you may have some more leverage than you did beforehand—at least of a certain sort. “If people are leaving,” Crawford says, “they kind of need all hands on deck. That would be one more positive way to get your fingers in more areas you may not have otherwise.”

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3061287/hit-the-ground-running/how-to-use-a-mass-exodus-at-your-company-to-advance-your-career

  • How To Stop Checking Email On Vacation

    If you’re finding it hard to refrain from email, set “unplugging goals,” suggests Gabby Burlacu, human capital management researcher at the software company SAP SuccessFactors. “Learning to completely unplug from work takes time and focus,” she says. “Finding hobbies or activities while you’re on vacation and making a commitment to solely focus on those while you are engaged in them can go a long way.”

    It can also be helpful if you sort email, says Webb. He takes 10 minutes a day, while he’s waiting at the airport or riding in a cab, to filter email into the folders he set up before he left: “Action Required,” “File,” and “Read Later.”

    “I don’t respond to messages while on vacation, unless I feel it’s imperative,” he says. “I simply process the emails for action upon my return.”

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3061451/how-to-stop-checking-email-on-vacation

  • Creative Office Design Won’t Make You Better At Your Job, But This Might

    Del Toro found this reassuring. The employee hadn’t asked permission to move the furniture, but the fact that she had done so anyway pointed to a feature of ViaSat’s work environment that no designer can account for directly—its culture, which prizes curiosity and the freedom to find alternative ways of doing things on your own initiative. That couch still sits by the window. It’s already the most popular space for people to meet. But del Toro won’t be surprised or perturbed if somebody six or 12 months from now moves it someplace else.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3061170/the-future-of-work/creative-office-design-wont-make-you-better-at-your-job-but-this-might
    sn_openoffice_everyonecanhear
    sn_somewheretohang

  • Tensions rise over LTE using Wi-Fi channels

    Unlicensed LTE is designed to give mobile operators more spectrum to work with as they try to serve subscribers in crowded places. Verizon, T-Mobile USA and other carriers have talked about rolling it out as soon as the end of this year.

    But some backers of Wi-Fi, including the Alliance, have said LTE-U could make it hard for wireless LAN users to get a packet in edgewise. Fans of the new technology, including Qualcomm, say it won’t add any more interference than a new Wi-Fi access point would.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3088987/tensions-rise-over-lte-using-wi-fi-channels.html

  • The Skills It Takes To Get Hired At Google, Facebook, Amazon, And More

    Four things: General cognitive ability . . . Not just raw [intelligence] but the ability to absorb information. Emergent leadership: The idea there being that when you see a problem, you step in and try to address it. Then you step out when you’re no longer needed. That willingness to give up power is really important. Cultural fit: We call it Googleyness, but it boils down to intellectual humility. You don’t have to be warm or fuzzy. You just have to be somebody who, when the facts show you’re wrong, can say that. Expertise in the job we’re gonna hire you for.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3061237/the-skills-it-takes-to-get-hired-at-google-facebook-amazon-and-more

Photo: Martina Misar-Tummeltshammer

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Supplier Report: 7/16/2016

sn_beach_JoshuaNess

The fight between Google, Microsoft, and AWS (with IBM and Oracle fighting for scraps) is the major news trend of the week.

Microsoft announced a partnership with GE that will introduce their Predix IoT engine into the Azure cloud. Meanwhile, Google’s Diane Greene says Google can beat AWS and Microsoft in almost any RFP because they know cloud the best.  Amazon said the origins of their cloud infrastructure was a reaction to legacy IT providers “not caring”, especially once the sale was inked.

While cloud was a major topic, HPE once again is making headlines for exploring the possibility of selling off some of their enterprise software (seriously… this again?).

IBM

  • Inside IBM’s New App-Building Training Ground

    While the New York garage is similar to the others IBM has in cities like Toronto, San Francisco, and London, IBM is specifically making an open pitch to blockchain developers. Blockchain is a technology made famous by bitcoin, which has a public digital ledger for every transaction performed that can be shared among a distributed network. Many companies are tinkering with blockchain because it could change the way digital transactions are performed. IBM says this is because it sees an increased need for training and leadership when it comes to this burgeoning technology. Financial services—along with multiple other industries—are trying to figure out ways they can use this new system (which was introduced to the world thanks to bitcoin), and implement it into their system. Many New York-based companies are trying to figure out what they can do. While there’s a blockchain focus in the New York garage, the space isn’t exclusively for that technology.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3061668/the-future-of-work/inside-ibms-new-app-building-training-ground

  • OpenText CEO Takes Aim at IBM Watson #OTEW

    “Our path on software is pure openness: open standards and open algorithms,” Barrenechea said. “IBM’s platform is closed. Our hardware is built open standard x86. You can chose your vendor, and you can choose your design. With IBM Watson, it’s closed. You use the Watson mainframe when you’re there.”

    http://www.cmswire.com/information-management/opentext-ceo-takes-aim-at-ibm-watson-otew/
    IBM Responds:

    Reached by CMSWire after Barrenechea’s comments, IBM Watson Chief Technology Officer Rob High said the cognitive APIs and services on the Watson platform are available to any developer who wants to build a Watson application.

    “These APIs are available to the public on our Watson Developer Cloud,” he said, “but we’re expanding to other platforms as well.”

  • Microsoft and IBM in a deal to push Surface devices to enterprises
    I wonder how IBM’s buddies at Apple feel about this… not well I imagine.

    For IBM, the deal is much like the one it struck with Apple in 2014 to develop apps for iPhones and iPads. IBM will acquire more enterprise software customers, and it won’t have to worry about supporting the hardware.

    The IBM custom software will take advantage of unique Surface features, Microsoft said. The applications will revolve around analytics, reporting, employee productivity, management and forecasting.

    http://www.itworld.com/article/3094383/microsoft-and-ibm-in-a-deal-to-push-surface-devices-to-enterprises.html

Microsoft

  • Microsoft wins landmark data storage case

    A unanimous decision from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Microsoft did not have to turn over documents from an email account stored in an Irish data center despite a 2013 warrant.

    “We have little trouble concluding that execution of the Warrant would constitute an unlawful extraterritorial application of [the U.S. authority],” wrote Circuit Judge Susan L. Carney in the official opinion.

    http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/287763-microsoft-wins-landmark-data-storage-case

  • Yes, Windows 10 subscriptions are coming, at least for enterprise

    Beginning this fall, Microsoft will offer Windows 10 Enterprise E3, a special enterprise tier of Windows 10 that will cost $7 per user per month. Yusuf Mehdi, the corporate vice president of the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft, said cloud providers would now be able to offer three premier Microsoft services on a subscription basis: Microsoft’s Azure, Office 365, and now Windows 10.

    “For the price of a cup of coffee and a donut per day, you can get enterprise-class security on a per-user subscription basis,” Mehdi said onstage at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, Canada. “If you’re a cloud provider, this is now phenomenal.”

    I love the “cup of coffee” line… it is a total diversion tactic.
    machoman_cream
    http://www.pcworld.com/article/3094785/windows/yes-windows-10-subscriptions-are-coming-at-least-for-enterprise.html

  • Instant Analysis: GE Brings Its Predix Industrial Software to Microsoft’s Cloud

    Predix is one of GE’s major investments in the Internet of Things, and it allows companies to manage and analyze industrial equipment (jet engines, factory machines, etc.) to improve their efficiency and reduce downtime.

    “Bringing Predix to Azure means those same customers will now have access to additional capabilities such as natural language technology, artificial intelligence, advanced data visualization and enterprise application integration,” Microsoft and GE said in a press release.

    The companies said Predix will also be integrated with Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite, Cortana Intelligence Suite, Office 365, and other services, so that Predix customers can access industrial data in their business software.

    http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/12/instant-analysis-ge-brings-its-predix-industrial-s.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004

  • Kevin Turner’s departure from Microsoft generates cries of happiness from employees

    Microsoft’s Executive Vice President for its Windows and Devices group also received negative opinions from some of its employees. Over 60% of the employees believe Turner was fired, although that wasn’t the case, and a mini-poll shows that 93 out of 95 of them felt “crazy happy” about this. Only two seemed to feel “crying sad”. Turner was known for being pretty rough, similar to ex-CEO Steve Ballmer, who was also known for being quick to throw anger around, especially as Turner was brought in whilst Ballmer was at the throne.

    http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2464435/microsoft-employees-have-almighty-bitchfest-over-executives-turner-and-myerson

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

Oracle

  • Oracle’s $9B Lawsuit with Google Sees New Development

    Per media reports, last Wednesday Oracle appealed to the San Francisco U.S. District Court to reconsider the verdict. The filing stated that “Google’s financial rewards are as ‘conspicuous’ as they come, and unprecedented in the case law.” Oracle claims that Google has gained over $42 billion from Android powered by its Java APIs and therefore demanded a share of its profit.

    However, Google had earlier defended itself saying that the Java code was free and open and there have been no copyright infringements. In fact, Google’s stance was also supported by a majority of the Java programming community (including most of Silicon Valley) which believed that a decision in Oracle’s favor could prove detrimental to innovation as programmers use open source APIs across various interfaces for developing codes.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/oracles-9b-lawsuit-google-sees-150603905.html

Storage (EMC | Dell )

  • John Byrne becomes president of Dell and EMC unified global channel

    John Byrne an ex Advanced 3D, ATI, AMD executive has just got promoted again at Dell. He is now president of the Dell and EMC global channel. Mike Magee and Fudo have known John Byrne for close to two decades, but now is not the time for kiss and tell.

    This is a huge success for Byrne who started at Dell as global vice president of Sales Strategy and Operations in July 2015, then got promoted to be global vice president of Sales Strategy, Operations and Channels at Dell in October.

    http://www.fudzilla.com/news/41103-john-byrne-is-president-dell-and-emc-global-channel

Other

  • AWS says tech legacy vendors ‘don’t care’ about enterprise customers

    In contrast, he accused legacy IT vendors of “extortionist techniques” to hit that revenue, saying: “They forced you to pay upfront even if you are not going to use [what you buy].”

    Amazon went on to reference a stream of enterprise customers using its software, after UK MD, Gavin Jackson, recognised that many in the audience were not serious AWS users, but people interested in hearing more of what the company has to offer their businesses.

    While AWS claims to have more than one million customers worldwide, and the largest number of start-ups (including behemoths like Spotify and Netflix) on its books, it wants more enterprise customers to start using its platform.

    http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/leadership/cloud-essentials/6145/aws-says-tech-legacy-vendors-don-t-care-about-enterprise-customers

  • Google cloud boss Diane Greene: We’re winning against AWS and Microsoft

    “We can actually win an RFP pretty much every time against AWS or Azure. Our growth is great,” Greene told attendees of the Fortune Brainstorm Tech show in Aspen, Colorado on Monday.

    “We have the best infrastructure, our own network backbone, our own fiber, a very cost-effective data centers, very automated.”

    http://www.businessinsider.com/google-cloud-boss-on-aws-and-microsoft-2016-7

  • Why Teradata Corporation Fell 11.5% in June

    Plenty of stocks plunged on the outcome of the Brexit vote, but Teradata suffered more than most. The U.K. has been a solid growth market for Teradata’s data and analytics products in recent quarters, so the prospect of slower orders from that hamstrung economy can be scary to Teradata investors.

    Then, analyst firm CLSA posted a report, explaining that a low-cost bulk storage product known as Amazon Redshift is growing much faster than its traditional rivals. The data warehousing package more than tripled its revenue in 2015 while Teradata and other traditional providers posted shrinking sales.

    That one-two punch lowered Teradata shares more than 14% in just two days.

    http://www.pantagraph.com/business/investment/markets-and-stocks/why-teradata-corporation-fell-in-june/article_417c9709-6078-570f-a7b7-48355263a7ec.html

Photo: Joshua Ness

Posted on

Supplier Report: 7/9/2016

sn_sparkle_Matt Hoffman

Nothing Earth-shattering occurred this week in IT supplier news, but that did give the news media time to collect their thoughts on the last few weeks of massive news stories.

One interesting tidbit is news that IBM formed a new company with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to address medical supply chain costs.

There is also a follow-up to a news item from this week’s podcast regarding a potential open source fork in Java EE.

IBM

  • Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation versus International Business Machines Corporation Head to Head Compare

    Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation has a substantially higher fundamental rating then International Business Machines Corporation which has an impact on the head-to-head comparison. The CML Star Rating is an objective, quantifiable measure of a company’s operating and financial condition. The rating is computed by measuring numerous elements of the company’s current financial data and their associated changes over time.

    http://news.cmlviz.com/2016/07/08/cognizant-technology-solutions-corporation-and-international-business-machines-corporation-head-to-head-compare.html
    sn_cog_ibm_compare_2016

  • Healthcare Supply Chain to Get the Watson Treatment

    The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and IBM announced on Thursday the formation of an independent company, Pensiamo, to tackle one of healthcare’s fastest-growing expenses, supply chain costs.

    Under pressure to control costs, a vital element of the move to value-based care, providers need to understand costs down to individual patients the companies said.

    http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/healthcare-supply-chain-get-watson-treatment

  • IBM to hire Microsoft veteran Karan Bajwa

    Karan Bajwa was instrumental in establishing Microsoft’s Azure and Office 365 business in India. IBM aims to enhance transformational deals in India with the appointment of Karan Bajwa. Earlier, Karan Bajwa had a stint with IBM and was based out of Singapore.

    http://www.infotechlead.com/hr/ibm-hire-microsoft-veteran-karan-bajwa-40890

  • Better Buy: HP vs. IBM

    HP is overly reliant on PCs and printers, both dying industries in their current form. HP’s innovative tablets and 3D printers should give shareholders some hope, but there remain too many uncertainties and obstacles to overcome. Second, IBM’s migration into cloud, AI, and IoT analytics sales offers limitless upside, as each category is further along the growth curve than HP’s tablets or 3D printers. Investor patience is necessary in either case, but IBM will reward that patience before HP manages to.

    http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/04/better-buy-hp-vs-ibm.aspx

Microsoft

  • Jhonsa: Microsoft’s Latest Moves Ought to Make SAP and Oracle a Little Nervous

    On Wednesday, the company said it’s doubling down on its business app efforts by putting all of its apps into one product line, launching new business apps and integrating the products with other Microsoft offerings, including the widely-used Office 365.

    While the solution isn’t going to eat SAP and Oracle’s lunch, it should make the enterprise software giants a little nervous, as it leaves Microsoft well-positioned to add to recent share gains.

    https://www.thestreet.com/story/13631263/1/jhonsa-microsoft-rsquo-s-latest-moves-ought-to-make-sap-and-oracle-a-little-nervous.html

  • Microsoft leadership shake-up as veteran exec departs

    Microsoft on Thursday announced a shake-up in its top ranks, including the departure of longtime chief operating officer Kevin Turner for a new job.

    Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said that five executives will divide the duties held by Turner, who played a pivotal role over the past decade as Microsoft shifted from packaged software to programs offered as services in the internet cloud to a gamut of connected devices.

    Turner will remain at Microsoft to aid with the transition through this month, then leave to become chief executive officer at global financial firm Citadel Securities, according to Nadella.

    https://www.yahoo.com/tech/microsoft-leadership-shake-veteran-exec-departs-171217916.html
    Microsoft’s Nadella Reshapes Top Management as Turner Leaves

    Other executives already reporting to Nadella will take on parts of Turner’s job, with Chris Capossela leading worldwide marketing, Kurt DelBene leading IT and Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood taking over the sales and marketing team’s finance group, which had been separate.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-07/microsoft-s-nadella-reshapes-management-team-as-turner-leaves

  • Microsoft’s biggest acquisitions: from disaster to so-so

    Most recently, that meant buying LinkedIn in a shocker of a $26.2 billion deal that also ranks as Microsoft’s biggest ever. Before that, Microsoft made huge purchases in the form of Nokia, “Minecraft” developer Mojang, Skype, and lots of others.

    Some of them added valuable new business software to Microsoft’s portfolio. Some of them flamed out, big-time. At least once, a police raid was involved.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/microsofts-biggest-acquisitions-ever-2016-7

  • Microsoft challenges Google Hangouts with free ‘Skype Meetings’ service
    When are we going to see Skype and Lync merge so enterprise users have access to these features?

    Microsoft today released a new free tool called Skype Meetings that allows small businesses and others to have audio and video meetings, challenging Google Hangouts and other free videoconference services.

    Skype Meetings is for businesses that do not already have an Office 365 subscription and is basically a light version of Skype for Business. The program allows virtual meetings of up to 10 people initially and three people after the first 60 days. Skype for Business can support as many as 250 people in a meeting.

    http://www.geekwire.com/2016/skype-meetings/

Storage (EMC | Dell )

  • EMC-Dell deal gets thumbs-up from key shareholder group

    EMC Corp. picked up an important endorsement for its proposed merger with Dell this week when the proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis advised EMC shareholders to vote in favor of the deal.

    Glass Lewis is a powerful voice among shareholders, as the second-largest proxy advisory firm in the world. It provides guidance to its clients, large institutional investors managing more than $25 trillion in assets, on how they should vote on corporate governance issues.

    http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2016/07/07/emc-dell-deal-gets-thumbs-up-from-key-shareholder.html

Oracle

  • Java EE followers devise plan to seize control from Oracle

    The main reason behind this split according to Java EE advocates is Oracle’s perceived disinterest in the platform. According to them, lack of support from Oracle will leave them with no option but to move forward with their own improvements.

    Java EE 8 with HTTP 2.0 and HTML5 support is reportedly being readied for June 2017 release. But the Java EE advocates say that Oracle will miss this date. So they have formed two groups to enhance Java EE on their own, outside of the jurisdiction of Oracle and the formal JCP (Java Community Process).

    The two groups are Java EE Guardians and MicroProfile.io, will work independently from Oracle and will build extensions to accommodate microservices in Java EE. Red Hat and IBM have joined in as contributors to MicroProfile.io. Payara, which has built a drop-in replacement for the open-source GlassFish Java EE application server that Oracle has reduced its attention to, is participating as well.

    http://www.techworm.net/2016/07/java-ee-followers-devise-plan-seize-control-oracle.html

Other

  • Inside Google And Microsoft’s Race To Catch Amazon In The Trillion-Dollar Cloud

    Google did not have the DNA to create a giant new operation focused solely on selling technology services to other businesses.

    That’s why Greene’s name kept coming up. As Google came to terms with the opportunity, Page asked her to take over the company’s cloud computing efforts. She demurred. Soon enough, other executives and fellow board members followed up with her. It was finally Urs Hölzle, one of Google’s earliest engineers and the man most responsible for building Google’s computing infrastructure, who persuaded Greene to take the job, as the two of them walked their dogs together in the Stanford hills.

    There was one wrinkle: Greene was busy with a new, secretive startup called Bebop, which was developing tech to power easy-to-use business-software applications. So in November of last year, Google acquired Bebop for $380 million and named Greene the head of Google Cloud Platform, giving her the reins to build a salesforce and revamp a unit that spent $10 billion on growth in 2015. The appointment thrust Greene into an unusual role: As an Alphabet board member, she is, in some sense, Page’s boss. As head of cloud computing, she works for Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who reports to Page.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2016/07/06/trillion-dollar-race-for-the-cloud/#3f38ebc06080

Photo: Matt Hoffman

Posted on

News You Can Use: 6/22/2016

sn_horses_Isabella Jusková

  • Cable and telecom companies just lost a huge court battle on net neutrality

    The court verdict puts to rest — for now — a key question: Whether the Internet represents a vital communications platform that deserves to be regulated with the same scrutiny as the common networks of the past, such as the telephone system. Writing for the court, Judges David Tatel and Sri Srinivasan held that despite advances in technology, the underlying importance of the Internet to everyday communications and commerce makes it more similar to the phone system than not. Today, for example, consumers are accustomed to using not just the email accounts that their broadband provider gave them, but also using third-party services such as Gmail as well as Netflix, Amazon and Uber.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/06/14/the-fcc-just-won-a-sweeping-victory-on-net-neutrality-in-federal-court/

  • What’s going on with IT hiring?

    CompTIA, an industry group, said about 96,000 IT jobs were lost last month across all industries, not just the technology sector. That figure includes the impact of the approximately 37,000 telecommunications jobs sidelined by the Verizon strike, which was settled this month. But it was a rough month, by some estimates.

    Analysts have been generally cautious this year about IT hiring trends. Although the unemployment rate for IT professionals is about half the national average of 4.7%, said CompTIA, some analysts use terms ranging from “modest” to “pre-recession” to describe IT hiring.

    http://www.computerworld.com/article/3080825/it-careers/what-s-going-on-with-it-hiring.html?nsdr=true

  • The Psychology of Solitude: Being Alone Can Maximize Productivity, with Scott Barry Kaufman
  • 4 Steps to Avoid ‘Death by Meeting’

    Whether your meetings are derailed by the shiny object syndrome, or you get stuck in the weeds, the only person who can save you is you! That’s why, when I’m facilitating team events, I make sure that our agendas include business items as well as elements relevant to the team. That way, we weave in learning with business needs, giving team members an opportunity to practice and apply the skills they are learning.

    What often happens, when a team gets stuck in the weeds or off track, is that team members start making eye contact with me: raising an eyebrow, in effect begging me to, “Get us out of here — we are stuck!” It always strikes me that it’s me, the guest facilitator, who is asked to save the day.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/275194

  • Doth thou protest too much?

    Many will applaud this effort to reign in what is seen as an out of control protest process. After all, the protest rate has grown some 45 percent during a period of time that total federal spending has dropped 25 percent. In 2001 there were about 700 individual protests filed with the GAO; in 2015 that number was over 2,500. Interestingly, of those protests on which GAO ultimately ruled, its “sustain rate” had dropped to 12 percent—from 18 percent just a few years earlier and 22 percent in 2001.

    https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2016/06/03/insights-soloway-bid-protests.aspx

  • How Google killed Nest and why acquisitions fail

    I think the real problem is that when most companies do an acquisition they treat it almost like you and I would buy a car. They focus on the price and closing the deal after becoming interested in the firm’s products and/or services. But you don’t buy people, and a firm without the employees who made it a success is a failure in the making and worth a fraction of its assessed value. Part of the real cost of the acquisition is critical employee retention, and retention packages do a poor job of making people want to stay.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3082033/mergers-acquisitions/how-google-killed-nest-and-why-acquisitions-fail.html

  • Verizon to bid $3B for Yahoo’s core Internet business
    First Verizon buys AOL, and now they are looking into buying Yahoo. Verizon is where all of your old embarrasing email addresses like (mustang_guy_1972_xx@yahoo.com) go to die. 
    http://www.cio.com/article/3080025/verizon-to-bid-3b-for-yahoo-s-core-internet-business.html

Photo: Isabella Jusková