Tag: Microsoft

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Supplier Report: 5/1/2020


Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

The trend for this post is leaders leaving.  AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is stepping down, John Legere resigns from the T-Mobile board (completely cutting ties), and SAP dropped the co-CEO model a few months after starting it.

Companies are pivoting for the times ahead and certain leaders have other options or just don’t want to deal with the headaches of day-to-day operations (see Disney’s Bob Iger).

Meanwhile, IT news is shifting back to normal… more talk about cloud and AI and less about Zoom and security concerns.

Artificial Intelligence/Robotics

  • Pope Joins Forces with IBM, Microsoft to Develop Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Pope Francis threw his support behind the development of AI during a speech that was read on his behalf at a conference that was attended by Microsoft president Brad Smith and IBM Executive Vice President John Kelly. At that time, the pope was sick and was unable to deliver the speech himself.

    The joint document specifically referenced the potential abuse that can occur with facial recognition technology.

    “New forms of regulation must be encouraged to promote transparency and compliance with ethical principles, especially for advanced technologies that have a higher risk of impacting human rights, such as facial recognition,” the document stated.

    https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/149005/pope-joins-forces-with-ibm-microsoft-to-develop-artificial-intelligence-ai/

Cloud

  • Google’s Thomas Kurian on COVID-19, customers in crisis and the big cloud fight

    This is a little dark, but it seems like it’s going to be a good shopping opportunity. There’s going to be a lot of companies that don’t come through this, or don’t come through this at the same level that they were at six months ago.

    Over the last year, if you look at what we’ve said repeatedly, yes, we need a very clear, crisp product strategy. I think the feedback we’ve received from customers, from partners has shown that we have now clarified our product strategy. So if we were to do acquisitions, they know how it complements our footprint.

    We’ve also scaled our go-to-market organization significantly, with credit to Rob Enslin and his team. They’ve done a great job and to be honest with you, a lot of examples of customers I gave you [above] were illustrative of the reach that we now have through our customer service and sales organization to help customers through this.

    We continue to work with partners to bring them business. One of the things that we’ve always felt is that the best partnerships are tested during a difficult period, and we remain committed to bringing as much business as we can to the partner community.

    As I said, we’re not ruling in or out any acquisition discussion. We don’t need acquisitions to grow; you’ve seen our growth rates. Nor are we saying we won’t do anything, because it would not make sense to make such a public statement.

    https://www.protocol.com/interview-with-google-cloud-ceo-thomas-kurian

  • IBM First-Quarter Sales Decline as New CEO Aims to Revive Growth

    International Business Machines Corp. IBM 0.24% posted lower first-quarter sales, withdrew annual earnings guidance because of uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic and took a large restructuring charge, highlighting the challenges new Chief Executive Arvind Krishna faces in trying to revive Big Blue’s fortunes.

    IBM on Monday said it was withdrawing full-year earnings guidance that included generating at least $13.35 in adjusted earnings per share, citing the Covid-19 crisis. The company said it would reassess the situation at the end of the current quarter.

    “It was a tough decision to withdraw guidance,” Mr. Krishna told analysts. “But these are unprecedented times, and this quarter is not the time to declare we have clarity—that does not benefit us, and it does not benefit you as investors and analysts.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-first-quarter-sales-decline-as-new-ceo-aims-to-revive-growth-11587415010

  • Amazon Is Running Out of Ways to Stop Microsoft’s JEDI Deal

    Between the fourth quarters of 2018 and 2019, AWS’s share of the global cloud platform market dipped from 33.4% to 32.4%, according to Canalys, while Azure’s market share jumped from 14.9% to 17.6%.

    Azure is growing faster for three main reasons: It’s tightly tethered to Microsoft’s other services, it’s increasingly popular with retailers that have been burned by Amazon, and it’s cheaper for Windows Server and SQL Server users, who are granted prices for “bundled” licenses instead of stand-alone services.

    AWS generates most of Amazon’s operating profits and supports the growth of its lower-margin marketplaces. If Azure keeps pulling customers away from AWS, Amazon’s profit growth could decelerate — which would leave it less room to expand its e-commerce ecosystem with loss-leading strategies.

    AWS generated $35 billion in revenue, or 12% of Amazon’s top line, in 2019. Assuming the JEDI contract pays out $1 billion annually over the next 10 years, it would only lift its AWS revenue by less than 3%.

    https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/04/22/amazon-running-out-ways-stop-microsoft-jedi-deal.aspx

Software/SaaS

  • Fishtown Analytics raises $12.9M Series A for its open-source analytics engineering tool

    “I wrote this blog post in early 2016, essentially saying that analysts needed to work in a fundamentally different way,” Fishtown founder and CEO Tristan Handy told me, when I asked him about how the product came to be. “They needed to work in a way that much more closely mirrored the way the software engineers work and software engineers have been figuring this shit out for years and data analysts are still like sending each other Microsoft Excel docs over email.”

    The dbt open-source project forms the basis of this. It allows anyone who can write SQL queries to transform data and then load it into their preferred analytics tools. As such, it sits in-between data warehouses and the tools that load data into them on one end, and specialized analytics tools on the other.

    https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/22/fishtown-analytics-raises-12-9m-series-a-for-its-open-source-analytics-engineering-tool/

  • Another pandemic woe: Zoom fatigue

    We’re using it for everything now. It would be one thing if we only used Zoom for team meetings and one-on-ones at work. But Zoom is now the go-to tool for informal social gatherings and virtual happy hours, family events and religious services, not to mention kids’ online classes, doctors’ appointments and perhaps a therapy session to process it all.

    Videoconferencing imposes cognitive and psychological frictions and aggravates social anxieties. As experts in human-computer interaction point out, using Zoom means putting on a show for others without being able to rely on the cues we primates depend on in physical encounters.

    https://www.axios.com/zoom-fatigue-coronavirus-teleconferencing-f5c0ce17-483f-4c71-9a7d-f023d7e7a45b.html

Other

  • SAP Drops Co-CEO Structure to Simplify Leadership During Pandemic

    SAP said Co-CEO Jennifer Morgan, 48 years old, would leave the company on April 30.

    “More than ever, the current environment requires companies to take swift, determined action which is best supported by a very clear leadership structure,” SAP said in a written statement. “Therefore, the decision to transfer from Co-CEO to sole CEO model was taken earlier than planned to ensure strong, unambiguous steering in times of an unprecedented crisis.”

    Christian Klein, 39, would stay on as sole CEO, SAP said late Monday in New York.

    Ms. Morgan, who is American, joined SAP in 2004 and ran the company’s cloud-computing business before being elevated last year to co-CEO. Mr. Klein, who is German and joined SAP in 1999 as a student, served as chief operating officer before his co-CEO appointment.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/sap-drops-co-ceo-structure-to-simplify-leadership-during-pandemic-11587425462

  • John Legere abruptly resigns from T-Mobile board of directors ‘to pursue other options’

    “Mr. Legere noted that he was not resigning because of any disagreement with management or the board on any matter,” T-Mobile said in its note, which also contained a quote from Legere addressed to the company and its employees:

    In his notice to the company, Mr. Legere stated “It has been a privilege and honor to have led T-Mobile as CEO for the past seven and a half years and served on the Board of Directors. And although I will be leaving the Board just a few weeks earlier than planned, be assured that I remain T-Mobile’s #1 fan!”

    Whatever Legere has planned next, apparently it couldn’t wait another month and change.

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/24/21235226/john-legere-resigns-tmobile-board-directors

  • AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson to step down, COO Stankey to take over

    AT&T announced Friday that CEO Randall Stephenson will retire and will be succeeded by President and COO John Stankey on July 1, months earlier than expected.

    Stephenson, 60, said in February he would remain CEO for the rest of the year, though he refused to project beyond that date. He will remain executive chairman of the board until January. AT&T shares were largely unchanged following the announcement.

    Stankey, who was being groomed as Stephenson’s successor over the last couple years, recently dropped his position as CEO of AT&T’s WarnerMedia, which will soon be led by Hulu co-founder Jason Kilar.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/att-ceo-randall-stephenson-to-step-down.html

Posted on

Supplier Report: 4/17/2020


Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash

The relationship between SoftBank and WeWorks is crumbling and it is extremely interesting to watch this situation implode.

As more information comes to light about how WeWork operated and their overall strategy of real estate manipulation, you can’t feel bad for either company’s failure (at least I don’t). Manipulate. Overvalue. Cash Out. I hope investors and reputable banks learn from this mess (hello Uber).

Meanwhile, Foxconn might actually use those manufacturing plants in Wisconsin for something useful… making respirators.

Acquisitions/Investments

  • Friendship Ended With SoftBank, Now Lawsuits Are WeWork’s Best Friend

    SoftBank’s reasoning for backing out includes concern about regulatory probes into WeWork and more technical details concerning an exchange of shares that SoftBank sabotaged in order to prevent this deal. WeWork is suing SoftBank, claiming that concern over regulatory troubles are not grounds for backing out because WeWork has been controlled by SoftBank for nearly half a year now. In WeWork’s own words:

    “The investigations were not a surprise, given Neumann’s conduct and the Company’s loss of billions in value. SoftBank had complete knowledge of the facts underlying the investigations when it executed the [Master Transaction Agreement]. … All of the investigations were known to SoftBank at the time that it signed the December 27, 2019 amendment to the MTA. But SoftBank did not raise the investigations as a basis not to consummate the Tender Offer until recently, as the approaching April 1, 2020 closing date caused it to become increasingly desperate.”

    https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/y3m7gy/friendship-ended-with-softbank-now-lawsuits-are-weworks-best-friend

  • German security firm Avira has been acquired by Investcorp at a $180M valuation

    The financial terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed in the companies’ joint announcement, but the CEO of Avira, Travis Witteveen, and ITP’s MD, Gilbert Kamieniecky, both said it gives Avira a total valuation of $180 million. The deal will involve ITP taking a majority ownership in the company, with Avira founder Tjark Auerbach retaining a “significant” stake of the company in the deal, Kamieniecky added.

    Avira is not a tech startup in the typical sense. It was founded in 1986 and has been bootstrapped (in that it seems never to have taken any outside investment as it has grown). Witteveen said that it has “tens of millions” of users today of its own-branded products — its anti-virus software has been resold by the likes of Facebook (as part of its now-dormant antivirus marketplace) — and many more via the white-label deals it makes with big names. Strategic partners today include NTT, Deutsche Telekom, IBM, Canonical and more.

    https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/08/german-security-firm-avira-has-been-acquired-by-investcorp-at-a-180m-valuation/

Artificial Intelligence/Robotics

I mentioned it a few weeks ago, but it is very strange how there has been almost no news about AI and automation for the last 6 weeks.

Once would assume with people being unable to work, there would be some talk of automation (even if it is an uncomfortable topic with people out of work), but… crickets.

Software/SaaS

  • Our Government Runs on a 60-Year-Old Coding Language, and Now It’s Falling Apart

    The Government Accountability Office has repeatedly warned about the use of legacy programming languages for critical systems. In 2019, the GAO issued a report summarizing 10 federal computing systems that were in desperate need of an overhaul. For instance, the Department of Education’s system for processing federal student aid applications was implemented in 1973. It takes 18 contractors to maintain the system, and since it’s written in COBOL, it requires specific hardware and is difficult to integrate with newer software languages.

    GAO considers COBOL a legacy language, which means agencies have trouble finding staff that knows how to write the code at all. And when they can, the specialist contractors charge a premium.

    It also means that when a system breaks, there might not be somebody there to fix it. And that’s where New Jersey finds itself now, with a sagging system and lack of qualified engineers.

    https://onezero.medium.com/our-government-runs-on-a-60-year-old-coding-language-and-now-its-falling-apart-61ec0bc8e121

  • SAP the first of the enterprise software vendors to pre-announce
    • FRS Cloud Revenue Up 29% €2.01 billion €2.01 billion
    • Non-IFRS Cloud Revenue Up 27% €2.01 billion
    • Software Licenses Revenue Down 31% to €0.45 billion
    • Total Revenue Up 7% to €6.52 billion
    • IFRS Operating Profit Up More Than 100% to €1.21 billion
    • Non-IFRS Operating Profit Up 1% to €1.48 billion

    The decline in software licenses is steep but not wholly unexpected. SAP has all but stopped selling licenses and is moving rapidly to a subscription model.

    The question of just how fragile the ERP market has become will be the subject of much commentary on the earnings call. For the moment, SAP believes decisions are being ‘postponed,’ anticipating that conditions will remain very difficult through Q2 with a gradual recovery in Q3-4.

    https://diginomica.com/sap-first-enterprise-software-vendors-pre-announce

  • Microsoft thinks coronavirus will forever change the way we work and learn

    While usage continues to rise, Microsoft is releasing a new remote work trend report to highlight how work habits are changing.

    Naturally, more people are using the video and meetings capabilities of Teams, and Microsoft has seen a new daily record of 2.7 billion meeting minutes in a single day. That’s up 200 percent from 900 million minutes in mid-March, around the time many businesses shifted toward remote working. Unsurprisingly, people are turning on video in Teams meetings two times more than before, with video calls usage in Teams growing by more than 1,000 percent in March. Microsoft found that people in Norway and the Netherlands are more likely to turn on video with around 60 percent of calls including video, compared to 38 percent in the US and 47 percent in the UK.

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/9/21214314/microsoft-teams-usage-coronavirus-pandemic-work-habit-change

  • Google’s Hangouts Meet is now just Google Meet

    In an email to The Verge, Google confirmed that it has officially changed the service’s name. Google also confirmed that Meet is an independent part of G Suite, the portfolio of business services that also includes brands such as Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Drive. Hangouts Chat, the text-messaging arm of the Hangouts brand, is also part of the suite.

    The rebrand still appears to be a work in progress. As of this writing, the service is still called Hangouts Meet by Google in the iOS App Store, and its G Suite landing page also retains the old name. And while G Suite’s website lists “Meet” as an included service at the top of the page, “Hangouts Meet” is still referenced in a list lower down.

    The rebrand comes at a time when Google Meet has seen explosive growth as the COVID-19 pandemic forces workplaces to move their meetings online. Google Meet’s usage is currently 25 times what it was in January, Google revealed late last month, and the service is gaining more than 2 million new users a day.

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/8/21214059/google-hangouts-meet-rebrand-video-chat-conferencing

    Ugh… Google’s message tool strategy frustrates me so much.

Other

  • Foxconn will produce ventilators at its controversial Wisconsin plant

    Medtronic’s CEO was unable to share the numbers of ventilators that Foxconn will produce during his interview with CBNC. However, in a statement provided to Reuters, Foxconn said that it’s hoping to speed up production time so that the ventilators can be produced as soon as possible, and that medical and technical personnel from the two companies were working closely together. The partnership came about after Medtronic open-sourced the design for its PB-560 ventilator, which has been downloaded 70,000 times, according to Ishrak.

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/8/21213269/foxconn-ventilators-wisconsin-plant-medtronic-pb-560-open-source-design-covid-19

  • End of an Era: Microsoft Word Now Flagging Two Spaces After Period as an Error

    The change was received with mixed reactions by the user community, but many believe that using just one space after a period is something that makes total sense.

    “Consistency and efficiency won. Two spaces after a period is a relic of the typewriter world,” someone says. “There should always be two spaces unless you need to cut down to fit in the 280 limit. Readability improves with two spaces,” another Twitter user, who this time suggests we should all stick with two spaces after a period, explains.

    The new approach is without a doubt controversial, but while change is hard, it’s all just a matter of time until everyone adapts to the one-space rule.

    https://news.softpedia.com/news/end-of-an-era-microsoft-word-now-flagging-two-spaces-after-period-as-an-error-529706.shtml

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News You Can Use: 4/15/2020


Photo by Max van den Oetelaar on Unsplash

  • Thousands of techies in locked-down India are braving coronavirus daily to keep the world running

    “Many different areas in ODCs are blocked off with separate access cards…Even if the client wants to be considerate, it’s not possible because you may be violating a regulatory applicable policy,” said Benoy CS, vice-president of the digital transformation practice at research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. “Some ODCs won’t even allow mobile phones or anybody with a camera. These physical security measures cannot be implemented at home.”

    Firms like Wipro, India’s third-largest IT company, are seeking waivers, but it is risky, Benoy added.

    In any case, configuring corporate virtual private networks (VPN)—programming that creates a safe, encrypted connection over the public internet—to give access to multiple devices from different locations and building traceability has been a challenge for the industry. IT body Nasscom is working with the government for favourable policies on this front.

    https://qz.com/india/1834746/some-tcs-infosys-wipro-staff-go-to-work-amid-coronavirus/

  • How a stockpile of 39 million masks was exposed as fake

    Brady said federal investigators had reason to suspect the arrangement. The 39 million masks were advertised as N95 masks from 3M, the largest U.S.-based manufacturer. But 3M told federal investigators it manufactured only 20 million such masks last year, making that large of a stockpile unlikely unless the product was counterfeit.

    “We believe we disrupted fraud,” Brady said. “We are seeing [personal protective equipment] fraud in every variation, but mostly in respect to N95 masks. We have an anxious public, and resources are strained.”

    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-11/coronavirus-seiu-masks-fraud-fbi

  • 10 joy-inducing aesthetics you should know

    This is a little hippie-dippie but maybe you will get something out of it…
  • Will We Forgive Amazon When This Is Over?

    When parrying claims that it’s a monopolist, Amazon often cites the statistic that e-commerce is only 16% of all retail. With stores closed and delivery the only safe option for many vulnerable people, it’s clear that proportion will spike in the coming months. Reports from employees and analysts indicate volumes in Amazon’s warehouses are on par with seasonal surges around the holidays. Market-research firm CommerceIQ reported sales of toilet paper are up 186%, while cough and cold medicine sales are up 862%.

    While demand for those products remains high, Amazon shoppers are unable to get many of the essential products the company says it’s prioritizing now. My search for toilet paper on Amazon yielded a jumbo 700-foot roll of commercial toilet paper in the first slot. In the second? A baffling block of text in lieu of a product image, stating that customers ordering this product after April 6 won’t receive it, so they shouldn’t bother. And everything considered nonessential takes more time than the two days Amazon conditioned us to expect.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-we-forgive-amazon-when-this-is-over-11586577604

  • Microsoft to give parents 12 weeks of paid leave to help deal with extended school closures

    Microsoft is offering a new benefit to employees dealing with extended school closures.

    Parents who work for the company can get three months of paid parental leave. It doesn’t have to be taken as a single chunk.

    Workers can take it a week, or event a few days, at a time.

    An estimated 1.6 billion students around the globe are home right now because their schools have closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

    Many states, like Washington, where Microsoft is headquartered, have already said schools will not open again until the next academic year.

    https://www.8newsnow.com/coronavirus/microsoft-to-give-parents-12-weeks-of-paid-leave-to-help-deal-with-extended-school-closures/

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Supplier Report: 4/10/2020


Photo by Steve Harvey on Unsplash

Interesting times we are living in. As the social distancing program continues, people are expanding their use of technology. Video conferencing favorite Zoom exploded in use over the last month, but security concerns are forcing users to consider other options.

Amazon was never a beloved company, but people certainly love their services. It is confusing times as workers are pushing back on the company for their safety, but Amazon has emerged as a (perhaps THE) critical service to get needed supplies when you are expected to stay home.

Acquisitions/Investments

  • T-Mobile Closes Merger With Sprint, and a Wireless Giant Is Born

    T-Mobile also envisions taking on cable operators, once its 5G service is up and running. In theory, 5G would allow home viewers to stream shows and movies at speeds they had only been able to get through the cable companies. “It’s the least competitive market I’ve ever seen,” Mr. Sievert said. Most regions of the country have only one cable company servicing the area.

    The deal appeared nearly complete in February, after T-Mobile and Sprint beat back a court challenge from attorneys general in 13 states and the District of Columbia.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/business/media/tmobile-closes-sprint-merger.html

  • Xerox Is Ending Hostile Takeover Bid for HP

    Xerox said Tuesday it is ending both its more than $30 billion tender offer and a proxy fight to replace the printer and PC maker’s board. Xerox concluded it is no longer prudent to pursue the deal given the public health crisis and resulting market swoon.

    The move puts the kibosh on one of the biggest mergers in the works and underscores the blow that the coronavirus has dealt to the world of deal making.

    It marks the end of a five-month-long offensive by Xerox, kicked off when its offer became public in early November after the two companies had earlier explored a combination quietly but failed to come to an agreement. HP has repeatedly rebuffed its rival since then, rejecting Xerox’s latest cash-and-stock offer of $24 a share and an earlier one as insufficient and too risky given the amount of debt involved.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/xerox-to-end-hostile-takeover-bid-for-hp-11585684800

Security/Privacy

  • What You Need To Know About Marriott’s Recent Data Breach

    In this breach, the company believes that passport information, driver’s license numbers, and credit card information were not part of what was taken. According to their official website, the information that was potentially compromised includes:

    • contact details (e.g., name, mailing address, email address, and phone number)
    • loyalty account information (e.g., account number and points balance—but not passwords)
    • additional personal details (e.g., company, gender, and birthdate day and month)
    • partnerships and affiliations (e.g., linked airline loyalty programs and numbers)
    • preferences (e.g., stay/room preferences and language preference)

    https://lifehacker.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-marriotts-recent-data-breac-1842654474

  • Zoom is leaking some user information because of an issue with how the app groups contacts

    Popular video-conferencing Zoom is leaking personal information of at least thousands of users, including their email address and photo, and giving strangers the ability to attempt to start a video call with them through Zoom.

    The issue lies in Zoom’s “Company Directory” setting, which automatically adds other people to a user’s lists of contacts if they signed up with an email address that shares the same domain. This can make it easier to find a specific colleague to call when the domain belongs to an individual company. But multiple Zoom users say they signed up with personal email addresses, and Zoom pooled them together with thousands of other people as if they all worked for the same company, exposing their personal information to one another.

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/31/21201956/zoom-leak-user-information-email-addresses-photos-contacts-directory

  • Zoom CEO: ‘I Really Messed Up’ on Security as Coronavirus Drove Video Tool’s Appeal

    “I thought I was letting our users down,” he told the Journal on a video call, using a Zoom virtual background depicting the Golden Gate Bridge. He hasn’t had more than 4½ hours of sleep a night in the past month, he said. “I feel an obligation to win the users’ trust back.”

    To some extent, Mr. Yuan is paying the price for well-meaning decisions he made early during the coronavirus crisis. When it hit China late last year, he quickly moved to make Zoom more widely accessible for free so medical professionals and others could remain in touch. When financial analysts in early March asked him how Zoom would stand to benefit from its sudden popularity—then still mainly overseas—he said “support for each other is more important than revenue.”

    Though he gives no hint of regretting that choice, Mr. Yuan now says “sometimes you have a good intention, and sometimes you get punished,” adding “we need to slow down and think about privacy and security first. That’s our new culture.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/zoom-ceo-i-really-messed-up-on-security-as-coronavirus-drove-video-tools-appeal-11586031129

Other

  • Amazon Worker Who Led Strike Over Virus Says Company Fired Him

    A group of workers at the Staten Island fulfillment center walked off the job Monday to demand Amazon close the facility for extended cleaning, the latest in a wave of virus-related protests. They say a number of their colleagues there were diagnosed with Covid-19. Organizers say more than 60 workers participated in the protest.

    Amazon confirmed it fired Smalls, saying he violated safety regulations, including failing to abide by a 14-day quarantine required after being exposed to an employee with a confirmed case of Covid-19.

    “Mr. Smalls received multiple warnings for violating social distancing guidelines and putting the safety of others at risk,” Amazon said in a statement. Smalls “was asked to remain home with pay for 14-days, which is a measure we’re taking at sites around the world. Despite that instruction to stay home with pay, he came on site today, March 30, further putting the teams at risk.”

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-30/amazon-worker-who-led-strike-over-virus-says-company-fired-him

  • Amazon Has Hired 80,000 Workers Amid Soaring Demand During Coronavirus Outbreak

    The tech giant also announced a raft of worker protections, including plans to check employees’ temperatures at its facilities in the U.S. and Europe and at Whole Foods Market locations by early next week. The company is checking the temperatures of 100,000 employees daily and plans to provide masks to all facilities by next week, according to Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of world-wide operations. Any employee found to have a temperature above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit will be asked to go home and not return until after having gone three days without a fever, Mr. Clark said.

    Amazon warehouse workers and other hourly employees have called on the company to do more to protect them as the coronavirus has spread. Employees in at least 15 warehouses in the U.S. have tested positive for Covid-19 or entered quarantine because of symptoms, Amazon said this week. That list has grown almost daily in recent weeks.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-has-hired-80-000-workers-out-of-100-000-plan-announced-weeks-ago-11585840027

Posted on

Supplier Report: 4/3/2020


Photo by Sydney Sims on Unsplash

Having done this blog for the last 7 years, I tend to notice patterns with the technology press.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, articles mentioning artificial intelligence technology and automation have completely dropped off. Unfortunately, this makes sense as the global workforce is scared, and any talk of job-eliminating technology will add to our collective anxiety.

Only 25% of all Americans have the ability to work remotely. As shops close down and reduce their output, many are questioning how long some businesses can survive. It is getting to the point where certain IT firms (like Saleforce) are pledging not to make “substantial job eliminations” for the next 90 days – which is so classy considering Saleforce is a company that could operate almost entirely online and still produce products and sales with limited impact.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is quietly upping their game with more Azure capacity, pushing their Team’s software, and still making acquisitions.

Acquisitions/Investments

  • Microsoft acquires 5G specialist Affirmed Networks

    With its focus on 5G and edge computing, Affirmed looks like the ideal acquisition target for a large cloud provider looking to get deeper into the telco business. According to Crunchbase, Affirmed raised a total of $155 million before this acquisition, and the company’s more than 100 enterprise customers include the likes of AT&T, Orange, Vodafone, Telus, Turkcell and STC.

    https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/26/microsoft-acquires-5g-specialist-affirmed-networks/

  • Deloitte acquires Microsoft, IBM partner Bistech

    Bistech will join Deloitte’s data analytics team in Brisbane, with Bistech co-owners Shane Morgan, Justin Hoareau and Brad Culbert in leadership roles. All 17 consultants will also join Deloitte.

    “We’re incredibly excited and pleased to be joining Deloitte’s Analytics & Cognitive team, which shares the same people values and customer focus we’ve built over the last 19 years in business,” Bistech founder Shane Morgan said in a statement.

    Founded in 2000, Bistech provides data analytics, data science, data management and financial performance management services in the form of consulting, technical implementation, support and training.

    https://www.crn.com.au/news/deloitte-acquires-microsoft-ibm-partner-bistech-539759

Cloud

  • Microsoft reveals 775 percent Azure surge, quotas on some resources and ‘significant new capacity’ coming ASAP

    “We are expediting the addition of significant new capacity that will be available in the weeks ahead,” the post continues. “Concurrently, we monitor support requests and, if needed, encourage customers to consider alternative regions or alternative resource types, depending on their timeline and requirements. If the implementation of these efforts to alleviate demand is not sufficient, customers may experience intermittent deployment related issues. When this does happen, impacted customers will be informed via Azure Service Health.”

    The post seems very much designed to reassure customers that Microsoft is not going to run out of cloud anytime soon, but also reveals “a few temporary restrictions designed to balance the best possible experience for all of our customers.”

    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/29/microsoft_reveals_775_percent_azure_usage_surge_in_coronavirus_lockdown_zones/
    Microsoft needs to invest heavily in its own infrastructure now if it wants to keep up with the popularity of its remote work tools, analyst warns

    A survey of chief information officers, human resources professionals and others this week suggested Microsoft could weather the crisis because of its cloud and collaboration software products including Skype for Business and the Microsoft Teams chat app.

    The survey, conducted by RBC Capital Markets, suggested companies are likely to accelerate moves from on-premises computing resources into the public and private cloud – benefiting cloud providers like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services – and increase budgets for Microsoft collaboration products.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-coronavirus-crisis-new-customers-2020-3

Security/Privacy

  • Google’s security measures failed to find Android malware in Play Store

    The malware, named “Tekya”, imitated the user’s actions in order to click ads and banners from agencies suh as AdMob, AppLovin’, Facebook and Unity. The affected apps included utility apps such as cooking apps and calculators, and apps aimed at kids, such as puzzles and racing games.

    Tekya was able to go undetected for so long because it hid in Android’s native code — code that’s designed to run only on Android processors. As such, the malware avoided detection by Google Play Protect, the system designed to keep Android safe. The malware was removed by Google in early March, after Check Point disclosed its findings to the company.

    Considering the Play Store is home to more than two million apps, 56 being affected in this way represents a very small sample. However, it does demonstrate that Google’s security efforts aren’t fool-proof.

    https://www.engadget.com/2020-03-24-google-security-android-malware-play-store.html

  • What Is the Most Secure Video Conferencing Software?

    While Zoom offers end-to-end encrypted chat—meaning only the participants in the exchange have access to the contents of the messages—its video calls are not encrypted in the same way by default. Hosts, however, can enable end-to-end encryption in video calls too, according to the company.

    The app has a troubled record when it comes to security and privacy. Thanks to a creepy feature, hosts can track whether you are paying attention to the meeting, and the company’s privacy policy allows it to collect all sorts of personal data.

    https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/m7qwgx/what-is-the-most-secure-video-conferencing-software
    So they are not even going to mention Cisco’s Webex?

Software/SaaS

  • Slack working on Microsoft Teams “calling features” integrations via Public APIs, what does that mean?

    There is no simple open signalling standard/API for another system to directly call a Microsoft Teams user.

    Microsoft enables 1:1 calling between Skype for Business (Server and Online) and Microsoft Teams, so in theory, Slack could route calls via the own run Skype for Business Server infrastructure or emulate a Skype for Business Federation. This would allow 1:1 voice, video and chat if all the right codecs and signalling were supported. In Microsoft language, this is called “federation”.

    Microsoft is also rolling out Teams to Skype consumer connectivity, again 1:1, user to user, so Slack could emulate this to do peer to peer calling, video and chat.

    Note these are direct private chat, not team chat in a multi-person team workspace in either product.

    https://tomtalks.blog/2020/03/slack-working-on-microsoft-teams-calling-features-integrations-via-public-apis-what-does-that-mean/

Other

  • Apple’s Siri voice assistant now provides coronavirus advice

    When you first ask Siri about the virus, the voice assistant will ask whether you are experiencing related symptoms, which include a fever, dry cough, or shortness of breath. People with extreme or life-threatening illnesses are advised to call 911, while anyone who’s not sure is informed of the diseases symptoms and told to self-isolate if they appear. Links to telehealth apps on the App Store are provided for anyone who can’t currently reach a healthcare provider.

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/23/21190600/apple-siri-coronavirus-covid-19-symptoms-healthcare-advice-information

  • Salesforce’s Benioff pledges no ‘significant’ layoffs for 90 days

    It sounds like Benioff’s second tweet, which also asked employees to consider paying their own hourly workers like housekeepers and dog walkers throughout the layoff period, whether they were working or not, was designed to give the CEO some wiggle room for at least some layoffs.

    Salesforce has almost 50,000 employees worldwide. Even if the company were to lay off just 1% of employees it would equal 500 people without jobs, though it’s not clear if that would count as “significant.” Perhaps more likely, the company might make some cuts to staff for performance or HR-related reasons, but not broad cuts, and thus make both of its CEO’s claims essentially true.

    https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/26/salesforces-benioff-pledges-no-significant-layoffs-for-90s-days/