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.
- 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.
- 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 LeavesOther 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.
- 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.
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.
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