IBM is banking on the cloud to drive future growth. For now, that shift is taking a toll, as fourth-quarter results and the 2015 profit forecast show. Bloomberg’s Alex Barinka and Bloomberg Intelligence’s Anurag Rana speak on “Bloomberg West.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Supplier Report: 1/24/2015
IBM
- UPDATE: IBM is denying reports that there will be massive layoffs:
http://www.fredericksburg.com/business/state_nation/ibm-denies-report-of-mass-layoffs/article_02482c6c-a5e6-11e4-b7c2-e7be3dff503d.html - As a follow-up to last week, IBM is getting hit with a massive reorg and layoffs: [This article really lays out some major issues the company is facing in a short and brutal method]
IBM is expected to go through a massive reorg next month that will reportedly see 26% of its 430,000-strong work force let go, or 111,800 people.
http://www.itworld.com/article/2875112/ibm-is-about-to-get-hit-with-a-massive-reorg-and-layoffs.html
- IBM lost a Federal bid protest:
http://washingtontechnology.com/blogs/editors-notebook/2015/01/ibm-booz-allen-protest-decision.aspx - More on the “reorg from hell”
http://betanews.com/2015/01/23/ibms-reorg-from-hell-launches-next-week/ - Will Rometty survive the reorg?
It is impossible to find an analysis of any industry that believes being late to market is an advantage. This is particularly true when the company that is late has no major features its competition does not. IBM cannot turn around its cloud initiatives. There are too many hurdles. Maybe the IBM board will take this into account as it evaluates Rometty. Why not replace a CEO who has already lost a key battle and created a loss from which the company cannot recover?
http://247wallst.com/technology-3/2015/01/21/can-ibm-ceo-ginni-rometty-survive/
Oracle
- CEO Larry Ellison on New Oracle Hardware Technique: ‘The way to compete is to have the lowest cost’
“Home-constructed systems can be high priced you have to do the integration and make it all perform collectively,” stated Ellison. “Our strategy has generally been to engineer all the layers – compute, storage, and networking – together, so you don’t have to. Having said that, we actually under no circumstances aimed at the lowest achievable purchase price with our tiered systems.”
- More on Oracle’s price war – specifically going after VMWare…
In his classic trash-talking style, Oracle CTO and founder Larry Ellison specifically slammed EMC (VMware’s parent company) during the presentation, claiming, “Our list price is less than half of their discount prices.” Then he laughed and made it clear. “We will negotiate and will discount prices” even more.
http://www.businessinsider.com/analyst-vmware-rips-out-oracle-for-sap-2015-1
HP
- There were hundreds of articles about HP releasing new business tablets. I am fairly “meh” on this news, but due to the volume of reporting:
http://www.wallstreetotc.com/hp-pro-slate-tablets-revealed-today/214674/
Other
- Microsoft’s Consent To Poaching Of Employee Brings Rapprochement With Salesforce
“I told him I wanted to hire one of his technologists as head of our infrastructure. What would be in it for Microsoft is the foundation of a partnership that would give us more kinds of ideas of things that we can do together. And he said okay. Now we’re learning about things that we could do with Microsoft’s file-management technologies and Office that we would never have known on our own”, the CEO said, according to Fortune.
Supplier Report: 1/17/2015
IBM
There is ALOT Of mainframe chatter this week from IBM.
- Softlayer’s IaaS standing up to Amazon’s AWS:
“IBM SoftLayer does some things well and some things cheaper,” Linthicum said. “And if people say, ‘should we consider them?’ I say ‘sure. Why not?’ If you need a bare-metal cloud, you don’t want to pay for network traffic, those sorts of things, they seem to rise to the top.”
- A counter-point to an article I shared last week: Don’t tell IBM the mainframe is dead…
It’s very likely true that companies relying on Linux, Java, and databases to support their cloud computing, analytical, and transactional workloads would experience higher levels of performance at a lower overall cost if they deployed a small number of IBM z13 systems, rather than a larger number of any vendor’s industry standard x86 offerings to do the same work.
http://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2015/01/16/ibm-says-mainframe-not-dead.aspx
- IBM is named a Hadoop leader:
“In a survey of more than 1,000 Big Data developers, analyst firm Evans Data Corp. found that IBM is the leading provider of Hadoop among developers, with more than 25 percent of respondents identifying IBM’s Hadoop as their principle distribution,” the company announced Tuesday. “The survey also focused on key growth areas such as machine learning and streaming analytics, where 18 percent of developers cited IBM InfoSphere Streams as their preferred application for machine learning, making it the second most popular choice in the category.”
- Mainframe with Mobile focus:
The z13 also claims to be the first system to make practical real-time encryption of all mobile transactions at any scale and the first mainframe system with embedded analytics to offer real-time insights on all transactions. The latter capability helps drive real-time fraud Relevant Products/Services detection on business transactions by delivering “on the fly” analytic insights that IBM said are 17 times faster than comparable competitive systems.
http://www.cio-today.com/article/index.php?story_id=03200113GNCW
- IBM ranks first in registered patents (again)
http://www.newsobserver.com/2015/01/12/4471247/ibm-ranks-first-in-us-patents.html?sp=/99/104/
Oracle
- The man to watch at Oracle:
Kurian’s sway within Oracle, as evidenced by the dynamic in these meetings as well as his growing responsibilities, has some current and former company executives convinced that he will one day succeed Ellison and run the technology company, which has a market cap of about $190bn. Even after Ellison named Hurd and Catz as co-CEOs in September, insiders said they believed Kurian was the man to watch at Oracle. One senior Oracle executive said that after Hurd and Catz were promoted, top executives worried about keeping Kurian motivated and happy. He continued to report directly to Ellison, now executive chairman of the board, along with Hurd, Catz and two others.
http://www.gulf-times.com/opinion/189/details/423074/the-man-to-watch-at-oracle
HP
- HP cloud chief doesn’t fear AWS:
AWS believes everything eventually is going to be public cloud, and HP strongly believes that the world is hybrid,” Roger Levy, vice president of technical operations for HP Public Cloud, told CRN at the time.
- PC sales still struggling Lenovo and HP are topping it:
http://www.eweek.com/pc-hardware/lenovo-hp-top-shrinking-pc-market-idc-gartner-say.html
Supplier Report: 1/10/2015
IBM
- Could major layoffs be looming for IBM?
I find this interesting after reading last week that IBM acknowledged that the deep staff cuts and wholesale moves to international labor hurt their reputation and skill base.According to The Register, IBM will swap its present computer software/hardware/solutions structure into extra granular units (Investigation, Sales & Delivery, Systems, Worldwide Technologies Services, Cloud, Watson, Security, Commerce, Analytics).
http://www.finditwestvalley.com/technology/could-big-ibm-layoffs-be-in-the-pipeline-h46339.html
- Bloomberg confirms the organizational shift (but no mention of massive layoffs).
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) named Robert LeBlanc as senior vice president of IBM Cloud, a dedicated unit being created to speed up the company’s development of its cloud-computing business, according to a person familiar with the matter.
- Dayhill group to resell and configure Emptoris contract module
http://www.pressreleaserocket.net/dayhuff-group-to-resell-and-implement-ibm-emptoris-contract-management-suite/29170/Dayhill group’s website: http://www.dayhillgroup.com/ (Based in PA)
- Drawing millennials to IBM mainframes
“We have hired in some smart, younger people to work on our [IBM] z Series systems, but many times they take the job just because they need one,” said one 50-something IT manager with a large New York City bank. “Too often their attitude is, ‘I’ll do my do time here and move on to something I am more interested in.’ That sort of turnover can be frustrating when you are trying to build a team.”
- SoftLayer builds center in Germany – who is experiencing massive cloud growth
http://siliconangle.com/blog/2015/01/08/ibm-bids-for-exploding-german-cloud-market-with-local-data-center/
Oracle
- Thomas Kurian is new Oracle president
The appointment of Kurian, 48, comes in the wake of Larry Ellison moving over from the role of chief executive officer (CEO) of the $38-billion software, solutions and hardware company to that of executive chairman, having handed the reins of the company to Safra Catz and Mark Hurd. The Indian spokesperson of Oracle confirmed the elevation but declined to comment further.
- Oracle’s Data Domination
Oracle Corporation has in over a year, gone through extensive acquisitions, Responsys, Comendium, Eloqua, Bluekai – to have a well-evolved cloud-based marketing platform in Data Cloud. Therefore, Oracle Corporations intention of building marketing solutions around its data-driven acquisitions will position it as a leader in this segment. As most technology companies begin to recognize ‘big data’ as the way forward and engage in different verticals of data analytics.
http://www.opptrends.com/2015/01/oracle-corporation-nyseorcl-data-domination/
HP
- Why the PC isn’t quite dead yet…
I am going to take this a step further to get on my soapbox about computing. I don’t get why people think desktop machines should go away. For work purposes, when you expect people to go home and log back in, sure a laptop is a good solution (unless you buy cheap clients and access a remote desktop). But for home use – I prefer a desktop. I have a tablet for my mobile computing. I want a nice monitor and a proper keyboard and decent place to sit when I sit down to work. I rarely use the laptop screen (unless it is a 2nd screen) and I need a real keyboard.
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/computers/ces-2015-why-the-pc-isnt-quite-dead-yet-20150107-12jvmn.html - Another example of HP failing to deliver on a services contract (covered the initial dispute a few weeks ago):
Gov. Chris Christie’s administration is getting a $7.5 million refund from the information technology company hired nearly nine years ago to develop a massive software program intended to run New Jersey’s multi-billion-dollar network of social service programs, a state spokeswoman confirmed tonight.
Other
- Why does the SalesForce CEO love FitBit? **cough**big data collection **cough**
http://www.businessinsider.com/marc-benioff-obsessed-with-fitbit-and-big-data-2015-1
This my fair readers is going to be a major issue for our world in the next 3 years. The price of these things are going to drop to under 20 bucks. We are going to give these things away and the need to collect and make the data meaningful is going to be massive. This is the future – and I want to get ahead of it now. - Splunk and the analytics boom…
Article paints the company as small and scrappy taking on the big players. Need to understand their services in comparison to the mix. See if they put their money where their image is.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2805075-splunk-offers-an-opportunity-to-join-the-upcoming-big-data-analytics-boom
Supplier Report: 1/3/2015
IBM
- How does EMC rank against IBM and other storage products:
(EMC grew, IBM shrank)IBM has had a tough year, with a decline in revenues from the sale of external disk storage systems. Factory revenues fell by 12% over the prior year period to $1.8 billion through the first three quarters of 2014. As a result, its share fell from 11.6% last year to 10.4% in the comparable current year period. Furthermore, its revenues in the total disk storage systems market (internal plus external storage) declined by over 10% to $2.6 billion. Weakness in IBM’s standalone external storage systems was partially attributable to the termination of the IBM-NetApp deal in May this year.
- SoftLayer launches three international data centers during the holidays
…opened data centers in Tokyo and Mexico City on Dec. 22 and Frankfurt on Dec. 29. The three data centers represented the next step in IBM’s $1.2 billion investment to expand globally. They follow recent openings of SoftLayer data centers in Melbourne, Australia and Paris in October.
- Covered this a few weeks ago, but it is getting more press: IBM is the worst run company of 2014
One of the company’s biggest problems in recent years was also largely self-induced — IBM wanted to simultaneously grow the lower margin cloud business and raise adjusted earnings to $20 per share by 2015. Following the company’s recent poor quarter, however, IBM said it would ditch that goal.
http://247wallst.com/investing/2015/01/01/ibm-is-americas-worst-run-company-for-2014/
- IBM, HP, and Oracle have the oldest workforces in tech: (Alarmist headline, the median age is in the 30s – but interesting data)
Among big companies, the only ones that sneak in under 30 are LinkedIn and Salesforce, each with a median employee age of 29, Facebook, at 28, and AOL, at 27. In the data, gathered throughout 2014, HP employees topped the list, at 39, while IBM and Oracle were next in line, both with median ages of 38, followed by Dell and Monster.com at 37; and Sony Electronics at 36.
- IBM needs to spend cash not return it
Follow-up from a post from last week, I totally agree with this.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/12/31/ibm-needs-to-spend-cash-not-return-it/?_r=0
Oracle
- Oracle Is Getting Ahead Of The Competition When It Comes To Data
Not many people predicted that Oracle would buy Datalogix; in fact many thought that Facebook might scoop them up. Despite all the data Facebook has on consumers, they are a customer of Datalogix. It clearly signals a shift in direction for Oracle and draws some comparisons to LinkedIn’s acquisition of Bizo. Companies are looking for ways to combine targeting and attribution with data being the common component and the marketing cloud suites are seeking ways to address this.
- Interesting post on banking RFP in India with Oracle (their tech supports many banks in India)
http://www.brecorder.com/articles-a-letters/187/1257311/
HP
- Same EMC article in the IBM section, but here is how HP performed:
HP was the only other large company which gained share in the external storage market. Its share increased from 9.3% through the first three quarters last year to 9.6% this year, as its revenues grew by 1% to $1.6 billion. Similarly, the company’s revenues in the total disk storage systems market (which includes internal storage as well) also increased by 1% to $3.7 billion. HP’s revenues remained nearly flat over the prior year period due to higher demand in the mid-range market. However, HP gained share due to a comparatively higher decline faced by competing storage companies. HP’s management projects growth in enterprise storage segments such as converged storage, software-defined networks and cloud infrastructure, where the company can potentially excel in the coming quarters.
- Interesting: Palm might be making a comback…
HP sold off their Palm assets: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102305770 to a Chinese company (Alcatel Onetouch). - Not related to us, but an interesting data point. HP’s 14-inch chromebook is one of Amazon’s top holiday sellers. I think it is an indicator of where the future of tech is going.
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/577650/20141231/hp-laptop-chromebook-14-amazon.htm
Other
- Is Splunk on solid financial footing?
Splunk’s products, including Splunk Enterprise and Hunk, help these companies collect, index, and search, explore, monitor and analyze data regardless of format or source. They’re specifically tailored to parse data produced by software applications and electronic devices, including data on transactions, customer and user activities, and security threats. As a result, Splunk products aim to provide businesses with an ability to analyze data to find ways to improve service, increase sales, cut costs, and prevent hackers.
From an investment perspective:
Value investors will likely want to steer clear Splunk, but growth investors may want to think long term. Data is growing exponentially, so the need for data-driven business intelligence isn’t likely to fall. That may suggest that the investments Splunk is making today, may eventually translate into investor friendly profit. If so, then Splunk could prove to be a good fit for investors willing to accept a bit of risk in portfolios.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/12/30/is-splunk-on-solid-financial-ground.aspx