Tag: Infinidat

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Supplier Report: 5/14/2016

sn_train_tunnel_Stefan Kunze

This week IBM continues to tout the multi-function applications of Watson in medical, cybersecurity, and international areas, while their dance partner Apple woos SAP (who also has a relationship with IBM)… so three way dance?

VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger isn’t going anywhere if you were wondering, but many outlets did report he was on his way out.  But Oracle is definitely (maybe) out as the database of choice at Salesforce who is rumored to be favoring an open source platform.

HP Inc announced a venture funding unit. While sister company HPE’s CEO Meg Whitman once famously stated “we can’t buy all the start-ups”, HP Inc is trying to get a piece of the action.

IBM

  • IBM’s Watson is going to cybersecurity school

    Now IBM aims to accelerate the training process. This fall, it will begin working with students at universities including California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, Penn State, MIT, New York University and the University of Maryland at Baltimore County along with Canada’s universities of New Brunswick, Ottawa and Waterloo.

    Over the course of a year, the program aims to feed up to 15,000 new documents into Watson every month, including threat intelligence reports, cybercrime strategies, threat databases and materials from IBM’s own X-Force research library. X-Force represents 20 years of security research, including details on 8 million spam and phishing attacks and more than 100,000 documented vulnerabilities.

    http://www.computerworld.com/article/3067961/security/ibms-watson-is-going-to-cybersecurity-school.html

  • IBM’s Watson aims to make hospital stays suck a whole lot less

    Using feedback from parents and patients, Watson will help the hospital identify anxieties and provide on-demand reassurance and a more-personalized service to young patients, as well as reminding parents about follow-up appointments and aftercare. IBM envisions a variety of other potential applications including matching patients to clinical studies, monitoring admission patterns to help with bed planning and helping manage chronic illnesses through educational applications.

    http://www.cnet.com/news/ibms-watson-aims-to-make-being-in-hospital-suck-a-whole-lot-less/

  • IBM Cloud signs new enterprise deals

    IBM announced that Kimberly-Clark, maker of Kleenex and Huggies, has adopted IBM Cloud and IBM Watson Internet of Things (IoT) Platform to create intelligent facilities management app that helps clients better monitor and manage restrooms remotely, lowering costs and improving consumer experiences.

    Utilizing IBM Watson IoT Platform, facilities managers collect data and alerts from sensors integrated into restroom amenities, from soap dispensers to air fresheners, as well as non-amenities like entrance doors.

    http://www.infotechlead.com/cloud/ibm-cloud-signs-new-enterprise-deals-39844

  • Why IBM Is Excited About the ‘Special Partnership’ Between Apple, SAP

    Now that Apple has teamed up with SAP too, IBM’s consulting teams can work on an even broader range of mobile apps that link more closely to SAP’s widely used array of back-office systems, van Kralingen said.

    She describes these relationships as more “strategically intense and more open” than previous alliances, and suggests we brace for more.

    http://fortune.com/2016/05/06/why-ibm-is-excited-about-the-special-partnership-between-apple-sap/

  • IBM’s AI ‘Watson’ set to launch Korean version

    “Watson is already learning Korean through TV programs, movies and newspapers,” an IBM employee said. “We will be available to move up the process with the help of SK C&C.”

    IBM and SK C&C will develop a Korean application program interface (API) that will allow Watson to change natural language, data search, conversation and documents into Korean.

    http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2016/05/325_204396.html

  • Groupon is calling IBM patent trolls

    The lawsuit concerns IBM’s WebSphere Commerce platform, which Groupon said lets merchants send messages to customers with GPS-enabled devices based on their real-time locations and their use of social media.

    Groupon said the platform infringes a December 2010 patent, and argued it deserves royalties based on the “billions of dollars” of revenue that IBM has received through its infringement.

    “IBM, a relic of once-great 20th Century technology firms, has now resorted to usurping the intellectual property of companies born this millennium,” Groupon said in its lawsuit.

    http://www.itnews.com.au/news/groupon-sues-ibm-over-alleged-patent-infringement-419300

Microsoft

  • Microsoft Acquires IoT Company Solair To Power Azure IoT Suite

    Microsoft Corporation has acquired Solair, an Italian company specialized in Internet of Things (IoT) services for the enterprise in a number of industries, including manufacturing, retail, food, and transportation. Solair’s IoT customization and deployment solutions, built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, are engineered to help businesses in any industry utilize IoT to run more efficiently and profitably.

    http://amigobulls.com/articles/microsoft-acquires-iot-company-solair-to-power-azure-iot-suite

  • Microsoft’s All-Time Revenue Just Topped $1 Trillion

    “You might expect a company to announce a milestone like this and bask in this incredible accomplishment — but not Microsoft. It chose to stay silent as it faces increased public scrutiny for holding $108.3 billion in earnings offshore (an incredible 41% of its all time profit) and its history of tax dodging at home in Washington State.”

    http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/05/microsoft-struts-into-the-1-trillion-club/

  • Microsoft is way behind in mobile, and here’s how it’s catching up

    But in mobile computing, the struggle is real, and Microsoft is an afterthought. Windows commands just 4 percent market share, way behind Google’s Android at 62 percent and Apple’s (AAPL) iOS at 28 percent, according to Net Market Share. Microsoft has grown its share slightly from 2.6 percent at the end of 2015.

    Improving Microsoft’s image as a serious mobile player won’t be easy. In July, just over a year after acquiring Nokia’s handset business for $7.2 billion, marking a head-first dive head into mobile phones, Microsoft wrote off the entire purchase and announced 7,800 layoffs, mostly in the phone division.

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/topstories/microsoft-is-way-behind-in-mobile-and-heres-how-its-catching-up/ar-BBsIXrj

Storage [EMC | Dell | Infinidat | NetApp]

  • INFINIDAT Reports 213% Year Over Year Sales Growth in Q1 2016

    “Our quarterly sales growth continues at a triple-digit pace and is a direct result of our expansion across sales channels and around the globe,” said Moshe Yanai, INFINIDAT Founder and CEO. “This growth also includes repeat sales from our existing customer base, proving our ability to deliver on the promise of a high performance, scalable and reliable storage solution. With the InfiniBox storage array, companies are finding that they can reduce their total cost of ownership and better utilize their most important asset — their information — for a greater competitive advantage.”

    http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160510006068/en/INFINIDAT-Reports-213-Year-Year-Sales-Growth

  • Dell Technologies must trim fat on ‘obese’ channel – analyst

    “Joe [Tucci, EMC’s CEO] has been very committed to the idea of a federation, whereas Michael was very careful not to mention a federation, but to talk about a ‘family’,” he said.

    “So there is a bit of an issue there. I have never liked the idea of a federation. By making it a ‘family’ there is a risk of problems in bringing them all together. Each division has its own CEO and they will have to work more closely together than they ever had in the past. There was one remarkable absence at EMC World – Pat Gelsinger [VMware’s CEO]. A lot of the other [EMC Federation CEOs] were not there, but VMware is the cash engine for funding this deal. For Pat not to be there was a little telling.”

    http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2457406/dell-technologies-must-trim-fat-on-obese-channel-analyst

  • The CEO of $25 billion VMware denies a report that he’s stepping down amid a huge leadership brain drain

    “I categorically deny it. EMC categorically denies it. And Dell categorically denies it. So there’s absolutely no merit or substance to the rumor whatsoever. And my intention is to stay here and Michael’s intention is to stay here, as well,” Gelsinger said, referring to Dell CEO Michael Dell, at the Jefferies Technology Conference held Wednesday.

    Also:

    Gelsinger’s remarks clear a lot of air around his job, which has long been rumored to be next in line to be canned, following a series of leadership departures at VMware. Just over the past few months, the company’s COO, CTO, and CFO have all left, in addition to a bunch of VP-level star executives. With Dell soon expected to merge with EMC, which owns 81% of VMware, it seemed only reasonable that the company’s entire management would get overhauled.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/vmware-ceo-pat-gelsinger-denies-rumors-of-him-stepping-down-2016-5

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

  • HP rolls out a new corporate venture unit

    In a brief meeting at Disrupt NY yesterday, Bolwell gave us a few details about HP Tech Ventures’ plans. The idea is to focus primarily on seed and Series A deals that serve HP Inc. strategically. The team will focus on five areas, including: 3D printing and the broader ecosystem that supports it; immersive experiences, including both augmented reality and virtual reality; smart machines, including home and commercial robots; and the Internet of Things.

    http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/10/hp-rolls-out-a-new-corporate-venture-unit/
    Note: This connects to Episode 22 of the Podcast, and Whiteman’s comments about not being able to buy up all the start-ups.

  • The OpenText – HP Deal: You’re Asking the Wrong Question

    It’s too early to answer all the questions we may have about the acquisition. For example, we don’t know TeamSite’s positioning against OpenText Web Experience Management (a.k.a. Vignette) and OpenText Web Site Management (a.k.a. RedDot). We will be finding that out in the coming weeks though.

    My goal here wasn’t to tell HP customers that this acquisition will put them in an ideal position. The goal was to compare the real life alternatives and determine whether this acquisition was a step in the right direction.

    Judging from what we know about OpenText today, I’d argue it was.

    http://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/the-opentext-hp-deal-youre-asking-the-wrong-question/

  • HP Inc’s five pillar vision
    Uh… I only count 4.
    http://www.dqindia.com/hp-incs-five-pillar-vision/
  • Assessing HP Inc. After The Split

    HPQ now faces hard times, with bad macro circumstances, overall marginality and revenues decrease. Right now, the company plans to reduce its costs by making significant job cuts in order to show somewhat bottom line growth. However, such measures are not about long-term strategy. If revenues of major segments continue to decrease, then the company would need something to change the way we see it today. This can be done by bringing in something new (distinguishing product item, or even product line). Otherwise, there’s a cause for concern.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3973627-assessing-hp-inc-split
    sn_HPI_q1_2016

Oracle

  • More information on the Google/Oracle Java lawsuit

    At issue is Google’s use of 37 so-called application program interfaces, or APIs, from Java in its Android mobile operating system. APIs are snippets of code that enable an app, website or program to work with other bits of software.

    When building Android, Google used Java APIs because programmers were familiar with the programming language, and many programs used it. Oracle says Google should have licensed the APIs from Java’s creator, Sun Microsystems Inc., which Oracle later acquired. Google says it acted under a doctrine allowing “fair use” of small amounts of copyright material.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/oracle-and-google-head-back-to-court-1462616948

  • Why Salesforce.com, Inc.’s Plan to Ditch Oracle Corporation is Brilliant

    Another advantage of PostgreSQL is a more seamless ability to distribute the technology across data centers than ORCL. This is increasingly important since the European Union is forcing U.S. companies to keep customer data in the country where that data was collected. CRM understands timely compliance with these standards could mean more business with European customers.

    That’d be real nice for CRM. In its last three fiscal years, revenue from Europe has remained stagnant as a percentage of revenue, languishing between 17% and 18% of total sales.

    But perhaps the most visible reason for Salesforce to make the shift from ORCL is the fact that the two companies are direct competitors, with Oracle aggressively branching out into the same sort of sales pipeline software offerings that made CRM famous.

    http://investorplace.com/2016/05/salesforce-crm-oracle-orcl/
    Also:
    Salesforce, inc. (CRM) AWS Deal Might Turn Out Into A Kind Of Merger Deal
    For those expecting Oracle to buy Salesforce… maybe not:

    He further mentioned that over this year, we could further expect other part of Salesforce’s infrastructure to be moved to AWS too. He stated that the IoT cloud would utilize Amazon’s Aurora database, and it is the perfect fit for IoT. The reason he mentioned was that this database has the flexibility of AWS’ offering, which has the ability to scale up and down according to the uncontrolled exponential growth.

    He expects that in the future, Salesforce might also shift its data centers towards certain geographies to AWS. This would be a win-win situation for both, would mean cost savings for the former while would be a marquee win for the latter.

    http://www.thecountrycaller.com/32328-salesforce-inc-nyse-crm-aws-deal-might-turn-out-into-a-kind-of-merger-deal-piper-jaffray/

Other

  • Top 2016 Cybersecurity Reports Out From AT&T, Cisco, Dell, Google, IBM, McAfee, Symantec And Verizon

    The IBM Security division produces their annual X-Force Cyber Security Intelligence Index Report based on operational data collected from thousands of devices monitored in over 100 countries. The report looks at the global cyber threatscape and which industries face the greatest risk. The 2016 report provides many valuable insights — including the fact that 60% of all attacks suffered by IBM customers were carried out by ‘insiders’.

    Takeaway: The healthcare industry was the one most frequently attacked, speeding straight past financial services and manufacturing

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevemorgan/2016/05/09/top-2016-cybersecurity-reports-out-from-att-cisco-dell-google-ibm-mcafee-symantec-and-verizon/#25c0dbdd3edb

  • For the First Time, India’s Very Own Operating System Indus Beats Apple, Microsoft
    What exact defines “beats”

    According to data from Counterpoint Research with ET, Indus OS had a 5.6% share of the total smartphone market during January-March. This is more than double of Apple’s iOS which was at no. 5 with 2.5% share.

    http://daily.bhaskar.com/news-tsf/TOP-operating-system-indus-more-popular-than-apple-microsoft-in-india-5319066-NOR.html

  • Salesforce just bought a startup for ‘tens of millions’ of dollars, adding to its buying spree

    According to Dow Jones Business News, Salesforce just acquired a data-automation startup called Implisit Insights for “tens of millions” of dollars, citing people familiar with the matter. Implisit, based in Israel, has raised $3.3 million in funding so far, according to CrunchBase.

    Implisit Insights is a software maker that helps sales people make faster and better decisions based on the data stored in its customer database. It could predict the best possible deals and identify those most at risk of losing, while providing recommended actions to improve the sales process, according to its website.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-buys-implisit-insights-2016-5

  • Google Has Raked In $21 Billion In Android Profit, Oracle Says

    Google has earned $21 billion in profit from more than 3 billion activations of Android-based smartphones, Oracle‘s (ORCL) lawyer said in opening arguments in the second trial pitting the database maker against the Internet search giant.

    http://www.investors.com/news/technology/google-has-raked-in-21b-in-android-profit-says-oracle/

  • Will Teradata Reverse Its Fortune with New CEO?

    Teradata aims to transform itself by means of a new CEO, the sale of its TMA business, and increased strategic initiatives in the cloud and IoT space. For the time being, the market is viewing the company’s fiscal 1Q16 results and Victor Lund’s appointment as new CEO positively.

    http://marketrealist.com/2016/05/will-teradata-reverse-fortune-new-ceo/

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Supplier Report: 4/30/2016

sn_lemons_Erol Ahmed

In supplier news, the press likes to make groupings of four (like Gartner’s magic quadrants). This week, the press calls EMC, IBM, Oracle, and HPE the 4 horsemen of the legacy IT apocalypse (clever title, but the article fails to make any new observations).  We also learn who the 4 major players are in the cloud space (there should be absolutely no surprises to readers of this blog)

When we look past these blocks of 4, we learn about blockchains, using DNA as a storage vehicle, and why healthcare is a major target for cybercrime.

IBM

  • Big Blue’s big blockchain bet

    So Friday’s announcement is that IBM has chosen “the good builds,” run a battery of tests, certified that the framework is secure, and is now widely distributing its version of the code to developers.

    The company also announced Friday that it was graduating its own cloud-based blockchain services from experimental to beta. In other words, IBM is offering to securely run a company’s blockchain network within its own ecosystem so developers can focus on creating applications for the tech.

    http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/29/ibm-announces-blockchain-services.html

  • Don’t Worry About IBM’s Mainframe Sales Collapse

    While sales of mainframe systems represent a relatively small portion of IBM’s total sales, once related hardware, software, and services are included, the mainframe accounts for a major part of IBM’s profits. Back in 2012, an analyst from Bernstein Research estimated that the mainframe ultimately accounted for a quarter of IBM’s revenue and nearly half of its profits. IBM’s business has changed since then, with the company undergoing a transformation, but the mainframe remains a key part of IBM.

    http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/27/dont-worry-about-ibms-mainframe-sales-collapse.aspx

Microsoft

  • Why Microsoft is buying 10 million strands of DNA

    “Today, the vast majority of digital data is stored on media that has a finite shelf life and periodically needs to be re-encoded. DNA is a promising storage media, as it has a known shelf life of several thousand years, offers a permanent storage format and can be read for continuously decreasing costs,” Emily M. Leproust, CEO of Twist Bioscience, said in a press release. “Our silicon-based DNA synthesis platform offers unmatched scale and product quality that vastly accelerates the ability to write DNA at a cost enabling data storage. We are thrilled to work with Microsoft, and University of Washington researchers, to address the growing challenge of digital data storage.”

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-microsoft-is-buying-10-million-strands-of-dna/

  • Microsoft and Google Set to End All Legal Proceedings Against Each Other

    This formal announcement came just two days after the European Union levied a formal antitrust complaint against Android, but according to the statement given to Recode both companies said that their deal about this collaboration was still in progress. But this isn’t the first time Microsoft and Google have entered a collaboration agreement to end these legal complaints against each other. The two companies ended a legal battle over Android patents last year.

    http://wccftech.com/microsoft-google-legal-proceedings/

Oracle

  • Oracle Buys Textura

    Textura’s cloud services process $3.4 billion in payments for over 6,000 projects each month, helping keep projects on time and under budget while reducing risk for developers, contractors and subcontractors. Textura offers its cloud services in a consumption model preferred by the engineering and construction industry whereby the companies involved pay based on project activity. Further, usage of Textura’s cloud services creates a network effect that benefits all participants as more than 85,000 general and subcontractors are connected to the platform.

    http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/158589/
    More:

    In 2014, Textura and Allin became the target of famous short seller Andrew Left of Citron Research. (Citron and Left will forever be known as for taking down Valeant, though he’s had plenty of other targets, like Mobileye.)

    In Left’s classic style, Citron issued a scathing report on Textura filled with words like “fraud” and “fraudulent.” Left took issue with things like how the company was reporting revenue and how it was predicting its profit trajectory.

    Citron also called out Allin for not disclosing a previous CEO role he had at a company called Patron Systems a decade ago. Patron’s business at the time was based around a proposed deal to buy security company Trustwave, but the purchase never happened, Allin resigned, and Patron went bankrupt a few years later, reports Crain’s Chicago Business editor John Pletz.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-buys-textura-founder-gains-58-million-2016-4

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise: Wanna walk the plank voluntarily? You got it

    Around a quarter of the 780 ITO staff earmarked for redundancy were supposed to leave at the end of this month but company insiders told us not all of those plans were followed through.

    One told us, “A fair few people about have been ‘spared’ from the current redundancies. Lots of messing them about though, [some were] told they were going [in April] and then told last week that actually they weren’t.”

    The earliest termination date is 31 July (last day at work would be 29 July) but staff that volunteer to leave need to have everything signed and sealed by mid-May.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/27/hpe_voluntary_redundancy_track_opened

Storage [EMC |Dell |Infinidat]

  • EMC Faces Growing Competition from Flash Storage Providers

    EMC’s Information Infrastructure segment’s revenues fell by 6% YoY to $3.8 billion whereas revenues from RSA and Information Storage fell by 8.1% and 5.9% YoY, respectively. Revenues from EMC’s Enterprise Content division also fell by 2.9% YoY.

    Revenues for EMC were impacted due to sluggish demand for traditional data storage products. As shown in the above chart, VMware’s (VMW) revenues rose by 4.8% YoY to $1,583 billion in 1Q16. EMC’s Pivotal segment reported revenues of $83 million, a massive increase of 56% YoY.

    http://marketrealist.com/2016/04/emc-faces-growing-competition-flash-storage-providers/

  • Exclusive: VMware Cloud Chief Exits

    Fathers’s exit is not a huge surprise given that the company’s cloud efforts have been in flux for more than a year. That picture got even fuzzier in October when Dell and VMware parent company EMC disclosed their planned $67 billion merger. There was significant overlap in the three companies’ cloud strategies that muddied the waters further.

    http://fortune.com/2016/04/27/exclusive-vmware-cloud-chief-exits/

  • Leading Cloud Provider Triple C Selects INFINIDAT to Expand Operations and Speed Customer Transitions to the Cloud

    “INFINIDAT’s storage solutions enable us to achieve significant financial savings, along with increased capacity to address dramatically expanding storage volumes and customers’ availability requirements,” said Erez Rozenbaum, director of cloud engineering at Triple C. “The major challenge for cloud-based storage is how to handle data at scale. With InfiniBox, we can meet the highest SLA business objectives set by the company for both private and public cloud services.”

    http://www.cso.com.au/mediareleases/27190/leading-cloud-provider-triple-c-selects-infinidat/

Other

  • Former Aprimo to be Sold

    The buyer is an affiliate of Marlin Equity Partners. Teradata has been negotiating the sale of the unit since late last year as it shifts emphasis. You can view the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by clicking here.

    Aprimo was founded in Indianapolis by Bill Godfrey.

    Teradata acquired Aprimo in 2011 for $525 million. At the time, Teradata touted the move for the cloud-based company as a “milestone” event and it led to the launch of its new applications business unit that has been managed in Indy.

    In 2013, it transitioned from the name Aprimo to Teradata Applications.

    Teradata says either party can terminate the purchase agreement if the acquisition is not complete by October 22.

    http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/story/31823283/former-aprimo-to-be-sold-for-90-million

  • AWS, Google, Microsoft and IBM pull away from pack in race for cloud market share

    “This is a market that is so big and is growing so rapidly that companies can be growing by 10-30% per year and might feel good about themselves and yet they’d still be losing market share,” said John Dinsdale, Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group. “The big question for them is whether or not they are building a sustainable and profitable business. This can be done by focusing on specific regions or specific services, but the bulk of the market demands huge scale, a broad footprint, very deep pockets and a long-term corporate focus.”

    http://www.businesscloudnews.com/2016/04/29/aws-google-microsoft-and-ibm-pull-away-from-pack-in-race-for-cloud-market-share/
    sn_cloudgrowth

  • Why cybercriminals attack healthcare more than any other industry

    [Health records] typically contain credit card data, email addresses, social security numbers, employment information and medical history records – much of which will remain valid for years, if not decades. Cyberthieves are using that data to launch spear-phishing attacks, commit fraud and steal medical identities.

    https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/04/26/why-cybercriminals-attack-healthcare-more-than-any-other-industry/

  • EMC, IBM, HP Enterprise, and Oracle: Four Horses Of The Legacy Tech Apocalypse

    The cloud computing “wars” are “entering a new phase,” and it will hurt traditional IT vendors such as SAP, Oracle and IBM, according to a report published in April by JP Morgan analysts Mark Murphy, Doug Anmuth, Sterling Auty, Rod Hall, and Philip Cusick.

    Their survey of more than 207 chief information officers at companies with an annual budget of at least $600 million found that Microsoft will remain the dominant IT vendor ahead of Amazon, IBM and others. JP Morgan believes that Microsoft will be the only vendor not to lose market share as the so-called public cloud grows at a 20% annual rate through 2021.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2016/04/25/emc-ibm-hp-enterprise-and-oracle-four-horses-of-the-legacy-tech-apocalypse/#7556fe4a542d

Photo: Erol Ahmed

Posted on

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

Posted on

Supplier Report: 3/12/2016

sn_oldbuilding_Andrew Amistad

This week we dive deeper into IBM’s staff reductions and look at how the street is reacting to the cuts. IBM is also helping Hilton cut jobs (potentially) in the future with a Watson powered concierge.

HPE CEO Meg Whitman is saying quite a few things in the press this week… such as Dell is “doubling down on old technology” and why “Entitled Millennials” save HPE money.

EMC better watch their backs… upstart competitor Infinidat is growing quickly and moving into their back yard.

IBM

  • Follow Up: IBM Job Cuts Affect 14,000 Workers, Analyst Firm Estimates

    To arrive at the headcount job cut estimate, Bernstein took IBM’s historical cost to cut one employee — $70,000 — and evaluated it based on a $1 billion gain that IBM has realized in conjunction with a settlement with the Japanese Tax Authority. The settlement was reported in the company’s 10-K report, filed February 23. Bernstein noted that IBM’s guidance for 2016 already includes the $1 billion Japanese Tax Authority settlement. Divide $1 billion by 70,000 and you get a little more than 14,000 employees to be cut.

    http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/ibm-job-cuts-affect-14000-workers-analyst-firm-estimates/d/d-id/1324633
    What the IBM Layoffs Look Like

    Many of those commentors are not buying the “workforce rebalancing” spin, or at least, think only a small number of the layoffs are motivated by the need to adjust the company’s skill sets. Instead, they believe the majority of the layoffs are a matter of “workforce relocating,” specifically, out of the U.S. to India, Brazil, Costa Rica, and other countries with cheaper labor costs.

    http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-careers/is-this-months-ibm-layoff-for-rebalancing-or-is-it-really-for-offshoring
    Laid-off IBM Employees Urged by Marc Benioff to Join Salesforce

    Cloud-based Customer Relationship Management solutions provider Salesforce is urging laid-off IBM employees to join their team. Marc Benioff has sent in invitation from his Twitter account reading, “Salesforce opens its hands to help @IBM and any laid off workers send us your cv.”

    http://www.thehostingnews.com/laid-off-ibm-employees-urged-by-marc-benioff-to-join-salesforce.html

  • Seeking Alpha: All Is Lost At IBM
    As a reminder, Seeking Alpha has demonstrated an anti-IBM bias since I started reporting on this blog…

    IBM bulls may note that the company is pruning deadwood, and that it’s avoiding higher payouts for pensions that are already hurting the balance sheet. But good technology companies don’t treat people as disposable parts.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3956919-lost-ibm

  • KPMG Announces Agreement With IBM Watson To Help Deliver Cognitive-powered Insights

    “KPMG’s use of IBM Watson technology will help advance our team’s ability to analyze and act on the core financial and operational data so central to the health of organizations and the capital markets.  In addition to the unprecedented possibilities for enhancing quality, the potential for cognitive and related technologies to help us pursue new business offerings is extraordinary.”

    http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2016/Mar/8/kpmg-announces-agreement-with-ibm-watson-to-help-deliver-cognitive-powered-insights/

  • Hilton Hotels Teams Up With IBM For New Robot Concierge Connie

    Named after the hotel chain’s founder, Conrad Hilton, Connie is a 2.5-foot-tall Aldebaran Nao robot equipped with IBM Watson and WayBlazer intelligence. As a result, it is capable of answering dozens of routine questions that are usually asked to front desk officers like where to dine, arrangement of tours and which transportation to use.

    http://www.techtimes.com/articles/139844/20160310/hilton-hotels-teams-up-with-ibm-for-new-robot-concierge-connie.htm

Storage: Dell | EMC | Infinidat

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

  • ‘They’re doubling down on old technology’ – Whitman takes dig at Dell-EMC

    “We have taken very different strategies in this environment – there’s no question,” she said. “And so we decided to get smaller while they got bigger. We decided to lean into new technology while they’re doubling down on old technology in a cost-takeout play. They levered up while we de-levered. And we are super-focused on being fast and nimble for our customers. So both strategies may work. I happen to like our hand better than the Dell-EMC hand.”

    http://www.channelnomics.eu/channelnomics-eu/news/2449969/theyre-doubling-down-on-old-technology-whitman-takes-dig-at-dell-emc
    Dell/EMC Merger: Position Defense and Why HP Is Upset

    Much of what Whitman says lacks anything solid behind it, making it clear that she’s got the political promise thing down. But, at some point, it might be nice to see one of the “amazing innovations” supposedly coming out of the company. Dell won’t be able to adequately defend against the HP FUD until the deal is settled. Until it has more than one marginally good quarter under its belt, it might be wise to hold back a bit on the rocks.

    http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/unfiltered-opinion/dellemc-merger-position-defense-and-why-hp-is-upset.html

  • Why HPE Beats HP Inc.

    But, there is another factor, perhaps more important. HPE has retained the growing business segments of the old HPQ, while HP Inc. has retained the declining business segments, as discussed in a previous piece here.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2016/03/04/why-hpe-beats-hp-inc/#46a81e8f2ae7

  • Why Meg Whitman Relies On ‘Entitled’ 22-Year-Olds For Advice

    Whitman says “entitled is too strong a word” to define new graduates, but even that isn’t so bad. In fact, the impatience of today’s youth is useful at a $50 billion sales corporation like Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “They refuse to work on things that do not matter,” she says. She receives emails frequently from young hires complaining that a project they are working on isn’t going anywhere. That’s surprising, but it’s also useful. “You would be surprised how many projects we’ve killed because a 22-year-old says, ‘That’s stupid,’ ” Whitman told the audience. “It’s a little annoying honestly.”

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/03/07/why-meg-whitman-relies-on-entitled-22-year-olds-for-advice/#286b0d8e3870

Microsoft

  • Satya Nadella’s Bold Plan To Future-Proof Microsoft: Embrace Apple iOS, Android And Now Linux

    Nadella’s strategy is to get Microsoft apps and services out there, anywhere, even if it means cozying up to rivals like Apple and Android or, now, the open-source Linux OS. Nadella has little choice. Personal computing is increasingly moving to mobile devices, where Windows badly trails iOS and Android. Businesses, meanwhile, have embraced Linux. The operating system itself is free, so users need only pay for service and maintenance costs.

    http://www.ibtimes.com/satya-nadellas-bold-plan-future-proof-microsoft-embrace-apple-ios-android-now-linux-2332620

  • Microsoft releases SQL database software for rival Linux system

    Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadellais trying to boost Microsoft’s sales of databases, which help companies store and analyze data. Its goal is to take customers from top vendor Oracle, whose share of the market was twice that of Microsoft’s in 2014, according to IDC. Adding a Linux database also lets Microsoft target the most complicated, high-performance systems, and helps the company sell more to existing customers that use more than one operating system, Nadella said.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/03/08/microsoft-releases-sql-database-software-for-rival-linux-system/

  • Microsoft Corporation Backs Out From Slack Acquisition

    It is widely believed by many that $8 billion was not enough for the acquisition. With increasing revenues, the app has gained great popularity among enterprise users and it is expected to add several new features that will put it in direct competition with Skype. Hence, it is speculated that even if Microsoft would have offered $8 billion, Slack would not have immediately agreed on the acquisition.

    http://www.businessfinancenews.com/28101-microsoft-corporation-backs-out-from-slack-acquisition/

Other

  • HPE, Dell and IBM losing ground to ODMs

    But none of the top players could match the expansion rate of Gartner’s ‘Others’ category, a collection of unspecified players sitting outside the top five. This includes Quanta and Wistron, two Taiwanese ODMs that have found success selling their boxes into hyperscale datacentres from the likes of Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Those outside the top five saw revenues beef up 18.9 per cent to $4.75bn (£3.35bn) and shipments swell 16 per cent to 1.26 million in Q4.

    http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2450283/hpe-dell-and-ibm-losing-ground-to-odms

  • Better Buy: IBM vs. Oracle

    With two wins against IBM’s lone victory, Oracle takes the cake. But it’s a tarnished crown, and both tech giants have a lot to prove right now. The big caveat here is that IBM took the growth title which could point to future victories in other areas, too. But my Tarot cards are in for repairs today, so I can’t tell for sure how all of that will work out over the next few years.

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/fool/article/Better-Buy-IBM-vs-Oracle-6881787.php

  • Microsoft, Salesforce Among Winners as ’3rd Platform’ Replaces IT, Says CLSA

    3rd Platform technologies (mobile, cloud, analytics, social business) are growing 13% while 2nd Platform (client-server and first-generation internet technologies) is declining 5%. The gap between them is increasing by a factor of 7x […] The 1st Platform was hardware-centric (you were a DEC or an IBM shop) and the machines dictated IT choices. The 2nd Platform was focused on software (companies would characterize themselves as SAP or Oracle shops). The 3rd Platform is services-centric – Platform as a Service. The megaplatforms where apps will run are at the center of the wave – this includes Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Salesforce, Amazon, IBM and SAP are seven – but there will be consolidation around a smaller number of leaders.

    http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2016/03/07/microsoft-red-hat-splunk-salesforce-benefit-as-3rd-platform-replaces-it-says-clsa/

Photo: Andrew Amistad