Tag: IBM

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Supplier Report: 12/5/2015

sn_bridge_TimSwaan

This week seems to be all about the scrappy underdogs taking on the champs.  Rocana wants to take a piece of splunk, Google (okay not so scrappy) wants a chunk of Amazon’s cloud business, and Amazon (also not an underdog) wants to take a bite out of Watson.

Hewlett Packard Enterprises

  • The market responded well to the HPE/Microsoft partnership…

    Gartner predicts that IoT connected devices will represent 6.4M of the total devices connected to the internet in 2016. It is extremely similar to the same deal Microsoft cut with HPE’s arch competitor, Dell, back in October. HPE also serves as a conduit to Microsoft’s growing Azure cloud computing ecosystem. Analysts on the street covering shares of Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), are projecting a one-year target price of $15.153, according to Zacks Research.

    http://waltonian.com/2015/12/hewlett-packard-enterprise-shares-rally-on-expanded/

  • BT partners with HPE on Cloud services

    British Telecom has partnered with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to allow the telco’s IP VPN customers to connect directly to HPE Helion Managed Cloud Services. BT’s service will use HPE’s Rapid Connect capability to bypass the public Internet when connecting to HPE Helion Managed Cloud Services.

    http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/589846/bt-partners-hpe-cloud-services/

  • HP Inc exits low cost Android tablets, to focus on high-end devices

    HP’s new strategy is akin to that of Apple and Microsoft, which both offer more expensive, premium tablets. Dell has also scaled back its cheap tablet product line-up instead focusing on profitability. Dell says it wants to sell only premium tablets and hybrids with advanced features like hi-res screens and even 3D cameras.

    http://www.streetwisejournal.com/hp-exits-low-cost-tablet-market/
    Note: Hmmm… that sounds oddly similar to what I said on a certain podcast last week…

  • The Sad Story of HP Printers

    At HP Printers, they were fully aware back in the late 1970s that the market was moving to go paperless, but spent the following decades in denial rather than in pivoting to take advantage of the opportunities that this move would create. Recent surveys indicate that a majority of firms will be paperless shortly, yet with four decades of warning, HP doesn’t appear ready.

    HP Inc.’s numbers are out and they are getting pounded by the decline in printing supplies. As a result of this long-anticipated move, they now serve as a lesson of what not to do. They also showcase why so many dominant companies, even with lots of notice, don’t survive an industry event like the paperless office

    http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/unfiltered-opinion/the-sad-story-of-hp-printers.html

Other

  • Microsoft Overtakes IBM as Most Buggy Software Vendor

    “The reason so many Microsoft products are in the Top 20 lists this time is that both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge come bundled with Adobe Flash, adding the 35 Flash vulnerabilities listed in August to Windows 8 and upwards,” he said.

    http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/microsoft-overtakes-ibm-most-buggy/

  • Forrester: Google cloud business a concern for AWS, IBM

    Google does not break out its cloud revenues separately when reporting results, but at a recent event, the firm said it thinks its cloud revenue will surpass its sales from online advertising in five years’ time. Its aim is to be referred to as a cloud company by 2020.

    http://www.channelnomics.com/channelnomics-us/news/2437017/forrester-google-cloud-business-a-concern-for-aws-ibm

  • So Larry Ellison wrote a book about Oracle…

    I learned many important things from this book, but I found this quote to be most useful: “People — teachers, coaches, bosses — want you to conform to some standard of behavior they deem correct. They measure and reward you on how well you conform — arrive on time, dress appropriately, exhibit a properly deferential attitude — as opposed to how well you do your job. Programming liberated me from all that. I could work in the middle of the night. I could wear blue jeans and a T-shirt. I could ride my motorcycle to work. And I’d make more money if I could solve the problem faster and better than anyone else.”

    http://www.gurufocus.com/news/375356/the-oracle-of-software-

  • Startup Rocana wants to be everything Splunk is and more, bringing big data to DevOps

    Years back, Omer Trajman, Eric Sammer, and Don Brown met while working together at Cloudera. They were early executives and field employees charged with helping customers understand Hadoop and how to use it to solve business problems. They did this, possibly, hundreds of times and, while they were able to help many business better understand Hadoop, they always seemed to hit a snag when it came to getting it into production.

    The problem was that the operations team, the folks in the data center, didn’t know how to run it or weren’t able to. So, they started solving the operations problem as well. They screwed it up plenty of times, Trajman said, but they also got it right many times as well.

    http://www.techrepublic.com/article/startup-rocana-wants-to-be-everything-splunk-is-and-more-bringing-big-data-to-devops/

  • Teradata restructures leadership, cuts co-president

    Teradata (NYSE: TDC) said its board of directors moved Tuesday to dissolve its co-president management structure in light of the recent decision to exit the market applications business. The co-president position held by Hermann Wimmer has been terminated. The company has appointed Robert Fair as chief operating officer. Michael Koehler, CEO of the company, has additionally been named president.

    http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/blog/morning_call/2015/12/teradata-restructures-leadership-cuts-co-president.html

  • Why Dell Might Sell Quest Software & SonicWall

    The rumors began flying Wednesday night that Dell is shopping its portfolio companies — Quest Software and SonicWall — to buyout firms KKR & Co LP, Thoma Bravo LLC and Vista Equity Partners Management LLC.

    http://www.cmswire.com/information-management/why-dell-might-sell-quest-software-sonicwall/

Photo: Tim Swaan

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Supplier Report: 11/28/2015

sn_ferriswheel_AdriannaCalvo

Sometimes this supplier news cycle feels like this Ferris wheel, it keeps going around and around, but nothing is moving forward.  And that is to be expected during a holiday week, but there were a few interesting gems that stood out.

Dell continues to have issue with the EMC acquisition.  VMWare stockholders are not pleased with the financial engineering happening to make Virtuastream a reality… and they are starting to make demands.

HPI is having some growing pains in the printer market while sister company HPE is doing… ok (they found a new dance partner at Microsoft).

Big Blue had 17% growth in the security products market this year and Ginni is letting customers know what a grave threat hackers are.

IBM

  • IBM’s CEO On Hackers: ‘Cyber Crime Is The Greatest Threat To Every Company In The World’

    We believe that data is the phenomenon of our time. It is the world’s new natural resource. It is the new basis of competitive advantage, and it is transforming every profession and industry. If all of this is true – even inevitable – then cyber crime, by definition, is the greatest threat to every profession, every industry, every company in the world.”

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevemorgan/2015/11/24/ibms-ceo-on-hackers-cyber-crime-is-the-greatest-threat-to-every-company-in-the-world/

  • IBM: A Heavyweight in the IT Consulting Space

    IBM (IBM) is a global leader in the IT consulting space. It was founded in 1911 and is headquartered in New York. In 2012, Fortune ranked IBM as the second largest firm by number of employees and the fourth largest in terms of market cap. It was also rated the ninth most profitable firm and the 19th largest firm in terms of revenues. In the last few years, IBM shifted its focus on high-profit segments such a data analytics, business intelligence, cloud computing, and green solutions. It currently has a market cap of $133.8 billion.

    ibm_consulting_cap
    http://marketrealist.com/2015/11/ibm-heavyweight-consulting-space/

  • Why IBM spent billions buying technology it already had access to

    “A couple of clients talked to IBM about weather data. If you think of the insurance industry as one example, one client told us that a single hail storm in the middle of Phoenix one year, and a hail storm that lasted only a few hours, caused more than $20 million in damages,” Suh said.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/why-ibm-reall-spent-billions-buying-a-tech-they-already-had-accesss-to-2015-11

  • IBM’s Watson Won’t Be Predicting Eruptions Anytime Soon

    Unlike the weather analogy given in some of the articles reporting on IBM’s plans, geologic prediction isn’t going to be as easy as reading a bunch of sensors, because those sensors need to capture events going on deep underground. We might be able to add a pile of sensors at the surface, but in order to really understand (and then predict) the behavior of magmatic systems, those sensors will need to be put closer to the magma itself as it percolates kilometers underground. Throwing up a weather station, this is not.

    http://www.wired.com/2015/11/ibms-watson-wont-be-predicting-eruptions-anytime-soon/

Hewlett Packard Enterprises

HP Inc

EMC

  • Repercussions of the DELL-EMC Deal
    Investors are demanding:

    EMC and VMware should withdraw the joint venture of Virtustream, given that VMware’s price has fallen since the announcement. This is damaging the implied value of the proposed stock, which Dell will use to pay for the deal.

    Lastly, institutional investors have asked for an adjustment to the tracking stock rights. Tracking stocks are an equity offering issued by the parent company (Dell) to sell the minority interest in one of its profitable divisions (VMware) to the public.

    http://marketrealist.com/2015/11/repercussions-dell-emc-deal/

  • EMC to take a majority stake in Virtustream – report

    Earlier this week Re/code reported that VMware and EMC shareholders have asked for Virtustream to be unwound, as it has been responsible for “further dragging down VMware shares”. Now, according to the Reuters report, which cited people familiar with the matter, EMC is going to take a majority stake in Virtustream and VMware would only have a minority share. This would mean EMC would assume Virtustream’s losses, the report said.

    http://www.channelnomics.com/channelnomics-us/news/2436845/emc-to-take-a-majority-stake-in-virtustream-report

Other

  • Where Are All The Enterprise Tech Buyers?

    With Dell/EMC/VMware busy in their own deal, the number of smaller enterprise tech acquisitions will shrink even further. CB Insights points out here that, “There have only been 45 $100M+ exits in the first three quarters of 2015, which puts it on track to be the first year with less than 70 $100M+ exits since 2010.”

    http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/22/where-are-all-the-enterprise-tech-buyers/

Photo: Adrianna Calvo

Posted on

Supplier Report: 11/21/2015

sn_balloons_Alexandre Perotto

Michael Dell made an interesting comment this week stating that he does not plan to sell of EMC products or split the company up.  It also doesn’t sound like he is going to sell of existing Dell assets either…makes you wonder how they are going to pay down that $49B in debt.

IBM wants you to use Watson to buy your children’s holiday gifts (and give them more information to learn about your own buying habits).  They are also quietly focusing on processor chip sets.

HPE is trying to make a few friends while the Splunk CEO says goodbye to his.

IBM

  • I was going to avoid posting this one, but there are so many articles about it:
    Watson can help you find Christmas gifts…

    The iOS app IBM Watson works by analysing millions of reviews, blogs and social media conversations on sites like Twitter to curate lists of the top trending products in gift categories such as toys, electronics, health and fitness.

    http://www.thestar.com.my/Tech/Tech-News/2015/11/20/IBM-Watson-app-identifies-trending-toys-and-gadgets-for-gift-giving-season/

  • Is It Time to Buy IBM, or Is Big Blue Cutting Too Deeply?

    The company has repurchased about 40% of its shares since 2005 and implemented numerous cost reduction efforts, including substantial layoffs in recent years, to grow earnings. For a while, these actions looked to be working. Diluted earnings per share nearly tripled from 2005 through 2013 and operating margins doubled to hit 20%. Even IBM’s stock was a winner, significantly outpacing the S&P 500 from 2005 through 2011.

    Gauging innovation and company culture is difficult, but a Web site called Glassdoor.com aggregates employee reviews for thousands of companies. As seen below, IBM ranks low in overall stars, the percentage of employees who would recommend the company to a friend, and the percentage of employees who approve of the CEO.

    sn_ibm-glassdoor-reviews
    http://www.thestreet.com/story/13369779/1/is-it-time-to-buy-ibm-or-is-big-blue-cutting-too-deeply.html

  • IBM Taps Nvidia Tesla GPUs to Speed Up Watson

    IBM said that by using the Nvidia Tesla K80 GPUs—the flagship offering of the Nvidia Tesla Computing Platform—coupled with Watson’s Power-based architecture, Watson’s retrieve and rank API capabilities increased by 1.7 times its normal speed. This speed-up can further improve the cost/performance of Watson’s cloud-based services, IBM said.

    http://www.eweek.com/database/ibm-taps-nvidia-tesla-gpus-to-speed-up-watson.html

  • IBM Announces Strategic Collaboration With Xilinx To Take On Intel

    The two companies have signed a private multi-year agreement through OpenPOWER Foundation, which will enable Xilinx programmable chips known as FPGAs to work with IBM’s Power processors and hence promote the IBM product. The move will also help develop open acceleration infrastructure, software and middleware, high performance computing (HPC), network functions virtualization (NFV) and big data analytics.

    http://www.businessfinancenews.com/26258-ibm-announces-strategic-collaboration-with-xilinx-to-take-on-intel/

EMC/Dell

  • Dells says there will be no EMC sell-off

    “The portfolios of products are highly complementary. There are some overlaps in storage, but Dell product lines and EMC storage product lines are somewhat different. We are going from seven to nine [product lines], which is not a problem, and we’ll continue to enhance them.”

    http://www.fudzilla.com/news/39265-dells-says-there-will-be-no-emc-sell-off

  • How VMWare and EMC could dictate Dell’s federal future

    This report reinforces what is already known: This merger has very little to do with Dell’s federal business. EMC and VMWare provide an almost infinitesimally small contribution to Dell’s contract mix and offer Dell no compelling reason to retain the services side it inherited when it bought Perot Systems in 2009.

    What it does go onto reveal is that while Dell adds virtually nothing to its federal services offering with the merger and likely wouldn’t affect a decision to spinoff, it does open Dell up to broader federal market opportunity to sell products and solutions.

    http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/fedbiz_daily/2015/11/how-vmware-and-emc-could-dictate-dell-s-federal.html

  • Dell-EMC deal will ‘set back innovation,’ Sun co-founder Vinod Khosla says

    EMC and Dell merging is a really good financial move for Michael, but it will set back innovation and distract from innovation,” said Khosla, now a prominent venture capitalist, in an onstage interview at the Structure conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.

    Asked about the future for old-line technology companies like Cisco, IBM and Dell, Khosla was pessimistic. In his view, only about half of those tech titans will stick around in the future. What’s more, he said, innovation from those companies has been seriously lacking.

    http://www.pcworld.com/article/3006519/dell-emc-deal-will-set-back-innovation-sun-cofounder-vinod-khosla-says.html

Hewlett Packard Enterprises

  • Microsoft And HPE Team Up, Announce CPM Offerings

    The tech giants announced the availability of their Cloud Productivity and Mobility Solution Offerings (CPM), which will create transformational consulting services and business applications for Windows 10. In particular, CPM will provide consulting services for Windows 10, new cloud and mobility consulting services and industry-specific vertical applications.

    http://www.econotimes.com/Microsoft-And-HP-Team-Up-Announce-CPM-Offerings-118600
    This is interesting: HPE is the business arm moving away from the desktop experience, yet they get the consulting partnership instead of HP Inc who is building machines with Windows 10.

  • HP Enterprise, Intel come together to deliver IoT solutions

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s IoT solutions combined with the Intel IoT Platform and product portfolio will deliver new products that will sit at the edge and collect, process, as well as analyse data from sensors and devices. These new systems are designed to sit outside of the traditional data centre and will feature Intel Core” i5 and Intel Atom. processors.

    http://www.firstpost.com/business/hp-enterprise-intel-come-together-to-deliver-iot-solutions-2511608.html

  • HP Enterprise launches all-flash datacentre storage

    HP Enterprise claimed the new line-up can improve Oracle workload database performance by up to 75 per cent without the need for companies to switch architecture, making it a flexible addition to a company’s network. Additionally, HP Enterprise said the new tools will cost half the amount of some unnamed rival products, making them an attractive option for businesses wanting to make the move to all-flash arrays without high outlays.

    http://www.itpro.co.uk/server/25607/hp-enterprise-launches-all-flash-datacentre-storage

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