Tag: Microsoft

Posted on

Supplier Report: 2/20/2016

sn_drphone_Luis Llerena

We made jokes last week when IBM didn’t buy a company, I guess we can’t make the same joke twice.  With their purchase of Truven, IBM has has solidified its place in the medical analysis world. The market is reacting well to the news, with IBM up 5% on the day of the announcement.

While IBM (finally) gets some good financial news, Dell is still in a waiting pattern for funding.  News that the EU is set to approve the deal is looming as Michael Dell finalizes the loans from mostly Chinese financial institutions.  Loans are not the only source of funds as Dell is looking to sell off assets, namely Perot Systems.

IBM

  • IBM buying healthcare analytics firm Truven for $2.6B

    Truven has over 8,500 clients, and will boost the size of Watson Health to over 5,000 employees. IBM: “Upon completion of the acquisition, IBM’s health cloud will house one of the world’s largest and most diverse collections of health-related data, representing an aggregate of approximately 300 million patient lives acquired from three companies. IBM plans to integrate Truven’s extensive cloud-based data set spanning hundreds of different types of cost, claims, quality and outcomes information with its existing data sets.”

    As a reminder of the health-related companies IBM has purchased in the last year:

    The deal comes six months after one to buy top medical imaging software firm Merge Healthcare, and ten months after the purchases of patient data analysis software firm Phytel and clinical database provider Explorys. The Phytel/Explorys deals coincided with the launch of Watson Health, which aims to provide software/services that can deliver insights from large volumes of anonymized patient data.

    http://seekingalpha.com/news/3118536-ibm-buying-healthcare-analytics-firm-truven-2_6b
    Side Note: The street is reacting favorably to the news – IBM was up 5%. 

  • IBM dangles $5 million prize for major breakthroughs using Watson

    And by grand challenges, it’s thinking big — it lists past achievements like the moon landing, mapping the human genome, and addressing climate change. (That last one might still be up for grabs, by the way).

    The contest is being launched Wednesday at the TED conference in Vancouver by Peter Diamandis, founder of XPrize, which is partnering with IBM on the project.

    The winners will be announced at TED 2020 (assuming the event is still around then). Three winning teams will split $4.5 million of the prize money, an IBM spokeswoman said, meaning they could each pick up $1.5 million. The other $500,000 will help fund projects along the way. IBM is the one putting up all the cash.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3034221/ibm-dangles-5-million-prize-for-major-breakthroughs-using-watson.html#tk.rss_all

  • IBM Embraces Blockchain with New Bluemix Cloud Services and Code

    Blockchain is a type of distributed database. It’s designed in a way that ensures that all transactions are public, yet no centralized party has exclusive control over them. The technology has become explosively popular because it powers Bitcoin, the open source, peer-to-peer payment system — although it can be used for much more than that.

    IBM’s visions of blockchain are centered around IoT:

    IBM is also promoting integration of blockchain apps with IoT devices for purposes that extend beyond payment. “Devices will be able to communicate to blockchain-based ledgers to update or validate smart contracts,” IBM says. “For example, as an IoT-connected package moves along multiple distribution points, the package location and temperature information could be updated on a blockchain. This allows all parties to share information and status of the package as it moves among multiple parties to ensure the terms of a contract are met.”

    http://thevarguy.com/open-source-application-software-companies/ibm-embraces-blockchain-new-bluemix-cloud-services-and-co

  • IBM launchs z13 Mainframe computers with advanced cryptography functions

    The z13s includes new cryptography hardware that can encrypt and decrypt data twice as fast as its predecessors for example. To speed up the z13s’ cryptography functions, the mainframe now features a faster cryptography co-processor card with more memory than IBM’s previous mid-range machines.

    “This means clients can process twice as many high-volume, cryptographically-protected transactions as before without compromising performance,” the company says. “This equates to processing twice as many online or mobile device purchases

    http://www.albanydailystar.com/technology/ibm-launchs-z13-mainframe-computers-with-advanced-cryptography-functions-16515.html

  • IBM’s Rometty Slams Competitors With ‘Yesterday’s Business Model,’ Spotlights Cognitive Era As Future Disruptor

    “You see two of them coming together on yesterday’s business model, and you see another one breaking up on yesterday’s business model,” Rometty said in a thinly veiled reference to the pending merger of Dell and EMC, and last year’s split of Hewlett-Packard into two companies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc.

    http://www.crn.com/news/cloud/300079711/ibms-rometty-slams-dell-emc-hpe-as-yesterdays-business-model-spotlights-cognitive-era-as-future-disruptor.htm

Microsoft

  • Microsoft Azure continues open source love affair

    Following its earlier announcement of a partnership with Red Hat, Microsoft added Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 6.7 and 7.2 to the Azure Marketplace. That means developers who want to use the popular operating system now have an easy and Microsoft-approved path to get it running on Azure.

    A majority of Azure Marketplace workloads are Linux-based, which is an interesting position for Microsoft’s cloud platform, considering the company’s previously dim view of the open source OS.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3034269/microsoft-azure-continues-open-source-love-affair.html#tk.rss_all

Dell | EMC

  • ​Apparently $45 billion doesn’t just grow on trees

    “Between the date the merger agreement was entered into and the date of this proxy statement/prospectus, the market value of the VMware Class A common stock has declined, thereby reducing the implied value of the stock portion of the merger consideration,” the letter said.

    “Changes in the market value of the VMware Class A common stock also will impact the amount of cash that holders of EMC common stock will receive in the merger in lieu of fractional shares of Class V Common Stock,” the letter continued.

    http://www.networkworld.com/article/3034359/cloud-computing/the-dell-emc-merger-hits-some-snags.html

  • EU set to clear Dell’s US$67 billion deal to buy EMC (sources)

    Dell Inc, the world’s third-biggest maker of computers, is set to gain unconditional EU antitrust approval for its US$67 billion bid for data storage company EMC Corp, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. European Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso declined to comment on Thursday. The Commission is scheduled to give its ruling on the deal by Feb. 29.

    http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/technology/eu-set-to-clear-dell-s-us/2528382.html

  • Dell in talks to offload key assets, report says

    Dell Inc. is in negotiations to sell Perot Systems Corp. to NTT Data Corp. of Japan, Reuters reports.

    Round Rock-based Dell is trying to sell the IT consulting business to raise money to fund its $67 billion buyout of Massachusetts-based EMC Corp. Dell has asked for $5 billion for Perot Systems but worldwide market jitters appear to have dampened companies’ appetite for tech acquisitions.

    http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/blog/techflash/2016/02/dell-in-talks-to-offload-key-assets-report-says.html

Oracle

  • Oracle to invest $400 million in India, says global CEO Safra Catz

    It will be the largest campus outside the US and will seat 11,000 employees, which will be ready in the next five years, BusinessLine reports.

    The company will also launch incubation centres. “I am particularly excited about the incubation centres which will house substantial software and technology capabilities, tools, and training to help launch new technology start-ups built utilising Java and the Oracle platform,” Catz added.

    http://www.ibtimes.co.in/oracle-invest-400-million-india-says-global-ceo-safra-catz-666849

Other

  • The CIO’s playbook for managing an SAP relationship

    Too often I have witnessed companies prematurely forced into a negotiation as a result of an event created by SAP (e.g. audit) or their company (e.g. merger). These organizations are compelled to operate in a reactionary manner, and challenged to fully understand their existing relationship with SAP, resulting in uncertainty and doubt. In most cases, these situations result in below market commercial agreements, increased risk and strained relationships, both internally and with SAP.

    On the other hand, I have also partnered with IT executives who recognize the need to anticipate such events and proactively undertake a detailed baseline and assessment of their SAP relationship well in advance of entertaining a commercial discussion.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3031283/it-strategy/the-cios-playbook-for-managing-an-sap-relationship.html#tk.rss_all

  • CIOs aren’t ready for Docker and container technology

    Virtualization made computing more efficient by enabling companies to run multiple operating systems on a single server. But VMs only support one application per OS. Containers take server resource utilization much further by allowing developers to run an app in its own container, and run multiple containers on the same OS. Developers can also move containers between Linux servers or virtual machines (VMs) and make changes to apps or portions of apps, called microservices, without breaking the software and risking downtime. Proponents say containers facilitates greater agility in the age of constantly updated mobile and Web apps.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3033167/virtualization/cios-aren-t-ready-for-docker-and-container-technology.html#tk.rss_all

 Photo: Luis Llerena

Posted on

Supplier Report: 2/13/2016

sn_dice_Pierre Rougier

Mark your calendars, a week has gone by and IBM has not purchased a marketing company!

But they have started blocking citizens living in sanctioned countries from accessing their cloud services.  Speaking of blocking, Microsoft is preventing new Lumia phones from seeing the light of day.  Microsoft is expected to kill the brand in the coming months.

Dell is struggling with securing finances for the EMC acquisition.  However, EMC’s William Green stated that only an “act of God” would prevent the deal from taking place.

IBM

  • IBM Aims To Make Enterprises Agile With Cloud Data Services

    The introduction marks an expansion of the company’s Cloud Data Services with more than 25 services and 150 publicly available datasets available to help developers build, deploy, and manage Web and mobile applications, and enable data scientists to discover hidden trends using data and analytics in the cloud, IBM said in a Feb. 4 statement announcing the marketplace.

    This new marketplace comprises several existing IBM services, including IBM Compose Enterprise, IBM Graph, IBM Predictive Analytics, and IBM Analytics Exchange.

    http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/ibm-aims-to-make-enterprises-agile-with-cloud-data-services/d/d-id/1324199

  • IBM Has Blocked SoftLayer Cloud Users In Iran
    Via a letter to customers posted on Reddit:

    “Currently, at customer sign-up, SoftLayer blocks IP addresses that originate from countries that are subject to U.S. trade and economic sanctions,” read the email, according to Reddit user Borayeris.

    “At this time, these countries are Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. Starting February 1, 2016, SoftLayer will implement network-wide blocking of these IP addresses.”

    http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/e-regulation/ibm-block-softlayer-cloud-iran-185733

  • IBM Rolls Out a Slew of New Cloud Data Services for IBM Cloud

    “Data is the common thread within the enterprise, regardless of where its source might be,” said Derek Schoettle, general manager of analytics platform and cloud data services at IBM, in a statement. “In the past, data handlers have relied on disparate systems for data needs, but our goal is to move data into the future by providing a one-stop shop to access, build, develop and explore data.”

    http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=020000BXV9EW

Microsoft

  • Is Microsoft Corporation About to Kill One of Its Major Brands?

    The end of Lumia may not mean the end of Windows Phone, however. Microsoft could consolidate its smartphone efforts under its Surface brand instead. Rumors of a “Surface Phone” have been around for months. They gained new steam late last month, when a poster on Reddit discovered that surfacephone.com redirected to Microsoft’s general Surface page.

    The Surface remains a modest contributor to Microsoft’s financials, but has enjoyed growth in recent quarters. Last quarter, Surface devices generated $1.35 billion, up more than 20% on an annual basis. With the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book, Microsoft is slowly establishing a brand of high-end, innovative Windows devices.

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/fool/article/Is-Microsoft-Corporation-About-to-Kill-One-of-Its-6813440.php

  • Cloud now makes up one third of Microsoft revenues as Azure soars

    Cloud services are going so well for Microsoft that Business Insider suggests it is growing faster than Amazon’s reported 127% in revenue gain.

    On the other side, revenue for Windows Surface devices increased 29 percent driven by the launch of Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book while online gaming “Xbox Live” monthly active users grew 30 percent year-over-year to a record 48 million.

    http://cops2point0.com/2016/02/cloud-now-makes-up-one-third-of-microsoft-revenues-as-azure/

  • Microsoft Lays Off ‘Dozens’ as It Cuts Costs in Mobile Division: Report

    The report comes courtesy Finnish publication Helsigin Sanomat, which says that dozens of employees have been let go from the company. The report claims that the company is handing out pink slips to employees in an attempt to curtail the expenses in its mobile division. The division saw a significant drop in the revenue last quarter.

    “The job reductions were spread across more than one business area and country and reflect adaptations to business needs. We go through this process in the most thoughtful manner possible, with the deepest respect for affected individuals,” a Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet in a statement. We’ve reached out to the company to check whether employees at Microsoft India are also being let go.

    http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/microsoft-lays-off-dozens-as-it-cuts-costs-in-mobile-division-report-801109

EMC | Dell

Oracle

  • Will 2016 Be Oracle Corporation’s Best or Worst Year Yet?

    To generate fresh cloud growth, Oracle might need to make more acquisitions. In January, Oracle agreed to acquire AddThis, a provider of social sharing, content recommendation, personalized marketing tools, and analytics services for web publishers. Industry sources told TechCrunch that Oracle paid $100 million to $200 million for the company.

    Oracle suggests that AddThis’ tools, which power 15 million sites, will be integrated into its Data Cloud platform. The acquisition of AddThis complements Oracle’s previous acquisitions of online-to-offline provider Datalogix, cloud marketing services provider BlueKai, online ad campaign firm Maxymiser, and cloud marketing automation firms Eloqua and Responsys. In addition to boosting its SaaS revenues, those acquisitions can widen Oracle’s moat against other major players in the marketing cloud space, like Adobe, Salesforce, and IBM.

    Oracle finished last quarter with $17.4 billion in cash and equivalents and $34.9 billion in marketable securities, so it still has the firepower to keep growing its cloud business inorganically.

    http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/07/will-2016-be-oracle-corporations-best-or-worst-yea.aspx

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman’s Total Pay Drops 13%

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. Chief Executive Meg Whitman’s total compensation was valued at $17.1 million last year, down 13% from 2014.

    Ms. Whitman’s base salary remained at $1.5 million, but she received a smaller bonus. Her nonequity incentive compensation declined to $2.5 million from $4.3 million a year earlier.

    http://www.nasdaq.com/article/hewlett-packard-enterprise-ceo-meg-whitmans-total-pay-drops-13-20160212-00258

  • A PR’s perspective on the Hewlett Packard Enterprise/Financial Times spat: The medium is not your messageSo HPE got into a fight with a Financial Times writer:

    Kellaway received an email from Gomez objecting to an article she had written the previous week which criticised Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s chief executive, Meg Whitman. In the article Kellaway repeated the advice Whitman gave to an audience at Davos — “You can always go faster than you think you can” — and made light of the assertion by saying that “sometimes, when you go faster you fall flat on your face.”

    The writer goes on to call the HPE Rep a bully:

    His full letter, released this morning by the HP comms team, shows how easy it is to wade too deep. “Obviously”, he writes, “you and the FT are free to write about the topics you select. I’ve read your bio and respect your right to ‘poke fun’ at management. But you still have an obligation to get it right. And FT management should consider the impact of unacceptable biases on its relationships with advertisers.”

    Unfortunately, even prefaced by a declaration of respect for editorial independence, the last line has a hard time distancing itself from a veiled threat. A little too Tucker-ish, perhaps.

    http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2016/02/08/prs-perspective-hewlett-packard-enterprisefinancial-times-spat-medium-not-your

Other

  • Tableau Struggling To Keep Up With Market Expectations

    Recently there has been increasing competition in the Big Data analytics space that is hurting Tableau. Qlik Technologies (NASDAQ:QLIK) launched its version of a data analytics software Qlik Sense. The product is getting positive reviews from enterprise and mid-market consumers, especially since the Sense Desktop is available for free. Additionally, bigger vendors are offering a similar product. Of note is Microsoft’s Power BI data-analytics software that is offered for free and compares with Tableau’s premium priced offering. Additionally, Microsoft’s Power BI is more likely to attract its existing Excel users – a market that Tableau targets. Other bigger competitors include Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) which are coming up with similar offerings of their own. Market research suggests that among the available data visualization solutions, Tableau has the most expensive product.

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3889526-tableau-struggling-keep-market-expectations

  • Tumultuous Times for BI and Analytic Tool Vendors

    Last year’s report featured nine vendors in the Leader’s Quadrant, but only three made the cut this year. Sent packing from the prestigious perch were MicroStrategy, Oracle, IBM, SAP, and SAS, each of which you can now find in the Visionaries’ quadrant, thanks to lower abilities to execute compared to last year. And Info Builders lost even more cred, falling into the Niche Players category after scoring lower in ability to execute (Y axis) and completeness of vision (X axis).

    sn_bi_2016_magquad
    http://www.datanami.com/2016/02/10/tumultuous-times-for-bi-and-analytic-tool-vendors/

Photo: Pierre Rougier

Posted on

Supplier Report: 2/6/2016

sn_news_Matt Popovich

For a company that was not expected to making many acquisitions in 2016, IBM sure has been busy.  They purchased three marketing firms this week… 3! These purchases bring to light that IBM currently has marketing department with over 10,000 employees (and growing).

While IBM conceives of new and better ways to sell you things, EMC is getting sued.  There are at least 3 (because it is the magic number) stockholder lawsuits in flight all stating that EMC and Dell are misleading stockholders with their financial math.

I am officially giving Microsoft their own section on the report and I picked a good week.  Microsoft purchased keyboard app maker SwiftKey not only for the popular app, but because of the predictive system it developed to aid with their AI goals. Microsoft also announced attempts to create underwater data centers for improved global performance and for environmental (cooling) reasons.

IBM

  • IBM Signs Agreement to Acquire Aperto to Meet Growing Client Need for Digital Transformation

    ARMONK, N.Y., Feb. 2,2016 /PRNewswire/ IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Aperto a digital agency with headquarters in Berlin. Upon completion of this transaction, Aperto will to join the IBM Interactive Experience (IBM iX) team, supporting IBM’s growth in the largest economy in Europe.

    Aperto’s 300-plus employees will continue to serve its roster of clients, which currently includes companies such as Airbus Group, Volkswagen and Siemens.

    http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwgeeks/article/IBM-Signs-Agreement-to-Acquire-Aperto-to-Meet-Growing-Client-Need-for-Digital-Transformation-20160202
    After reading that press release, I still had no idea what this company did, so I went to their website:

    Our ability to connect today’s three core disciplines – technology, strategy and creativity – at the highest level is what makes us the “Right-Service Agency For The Digital Age”. We guide the digital transformation of companies and organizations by pioneering ground-breaking marketing solutions, products and business models.

    We know that today no agency can do everything. Tasks and projects are becoming more complex as new technologies and specializations emerge. Those who still promise ‘Full-Service’ end up delivering only half the possible results. That’s why we concentrate on what our clients really need to be successful. This constant focus on the right priorities is what we call ‘Right-Service’.

    Okay…

  • IBM To Acquire ecx.io To Better Customer Experience
    So they bought ANOTHER customer experience firm in Europe. This is the THIRD in a week.

    Upon close of this transaction, ecx.io will bring 200 employees specialized in designing and implementing commerce and digital marketing services and platforms to IBM iX. Clients will benefit from this range of capabilities, combined with the strategy, analytics, cloud and cognitive depth of IBM.

    http://www.teleanalysis.com/corporate/ibm-to-acquire-ecx-io-to-better-customer-experience-20761.html
    So we are clear…
    IBM now has 10,000 people working on advertising

    IBM doesn’t talk as much about its digital agency business as it does about its machine-learning cloud service “Watson.” But the company is clearly ramping its efforts up in this market for 2016. The talent wars for top designers are brutal, so IBM is shopping.

    http://www.dailynewsx.com/news/business-news/ibm-now-has-10000-people-working-on-advertising-13369.html

  • ​IBM unveils 25 new services with quadruple Cloud play

    The hybrid cloud services can be deployed across multiple cloud providers and are based on open source technologies and open ecosystems that include company and third-party data.

    In addition to the expansion, the tech giant also introduced four new cloud data services; IBM Compose Enterprise, IBM Graph, IBM Predictive Analytics and IBM Analytics Exchange.

    “Data is the common thread within the enterprise, regardless of where its source might be,” says Derek Schoettle, General Manager, Analytics Platform and Cloud Data Services, IBM.

    http://www.computerworld.co.nz/article/593445/ibm-unveils-25-new-services-quadruple-cloud-play/

  • IBM Is Blowing Up Its Annual Performance Review

    That maxim, it seems, also applies to IBM’s annual performance review—a 10-year-old system called Personal Business Commitments. The program will be replaced with a brand new approach this week, one that gives more opportunity to shift employee goals throughout the year and includes more frequent feedback.

    Additionally…

    There is no single measure of an employee’s performance like before. “In the old system, there was one score. People [got] sort of obsessed by that,” Gherson said. “In the new system, there are five scores. It leads to a much richer, more balanced discussion.”

    http://fortune.com/2016/02/01/ibm-employee-performance-reviews/

  • Why IBM Is Buying a Digital Marketing Agency
    To follow up last week’s post on IBM purchasing digital marketing company Resource/Ammirati…

    Since March 2014, IBM iX has quietly doubled its workforce to 10,000 specialists in everything from e-commerce advice to mobile development—including 1,000 creative design professionals branding experts. IBM iX’s hiring spree has been fueled by the company’s strategic partnerships with Apple (with which it is building industry specific mobile apps), Box (content management and workflow), Facebook (marketing intelligence), and Twitter (data analytics).

    And though it already ranks as the world’s largest digital agency, ahead of boutique firms like SapientNitro and Razorfish, the group wants even more of that work. This week, IBM iX signaled that intention with its plan to add another 300 creative experts through the acquisition of 35-year-old interactive media specialist Resource/Ammirati.

    http://fortune.com/2016/01/29/ibm-resource-ammirati/

EMC | Dell

  • Lawyer flings class action sueball at EMC over Dell merger

    It also says that prospectus opinion from Morgan Stanley on the deal “fails to disclose an “adjusted July Case” which was used as the basis for many of its analyses,” and similar analysis by Evercore “ails to disclose EMC’s “2.x Plan”, the calculation of fully diluted shares, and the equity value at the unaffected price for both EMC and VMware.”

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/03/lawyer_sues_emc_dell_merger/
    Actually, it is 3 lawsuits…
    Dell-EMC Deal Facing 3 More Shareholder Suits

    All of them allege EMC is shortchanging investors. Arguing that the merger agreement was adopted in violation of the fiduciary duties of EMC’s board of directors, they are turning to the courts for injunctive relief to enjoin the merger, as well as other remedies.

    http://www.cmswire.com/information-management/dell-emc-deal-facing-3-more-shareholder-suits/

Hewlett Packard Enterprise | HP Inc

  • HPE chases risky business with Autonomy and Stonebraker tech

    “We’re not just analysing risk events,” said Garber, “but giving organisations the tools to take action on them as well.”

    According to a 2015 Morgan Stanley report, cited by Garber, financial services firms have lost $260bn to regulators for breaches of compliance from 2009 to 2015.

    Asked how much of that HPE reckoned it would have saved (and, indeed, earned) Garber declined to offer a figure, but stated that actually the company was looking at a much wider area than just financial services.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/04/hpe_chases_risky_business_customers/

  • HPE Acquires Data Protection Software Developer Trilead

    Trilead, an Altendorf, Switzerland-based developer of low-cost data protection software for VMware vSphere and ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V virtualized environments, put a statement on its website home page that it was acquired by HPE. Neither the timing of the acquisition nor the purchase price was addressed in the statement.

    http://www.crn.com/news/storage/300079597/hpe-acquires-data-protection-software-developer-trilead.htm

Microsoft

  • Microsoft tests underwater data center

    Microsoft said its reasons for experimenting with underwater data centres were twofold.

    Firstly, half the world’s population is located within 125 miles (200km) of the coast so data centres in the sea would reduce latency – the time its takes data to travel from its source to customers.

    But there were also environmental reasons for the trial. Putting the data centre in the ocean eliminated the need for cooling and, in future, if such centres could be colocated with offshore renewable energy sources, they could also produce zero emissions, according to Microsoft.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35472189

  • Microsoft Corporation To Become Second Largest Cloud Player

    Analysts are betting big time on this strategy for Cloud revenues to grow at the Redmond Company. Thus Microsoft Exchange and Outlook are actually driving the revenues for Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) digital cloud services.

    http://insidestocktrader.com/microsoft-corporations-nasdaqmsft-to-become-second-largest-cloud-player/851406/

  • Microsoft Acquires SwiftKey to Advance AI Goals

    SwiftKey’s predictive technology aligns with Microsoft’s interest in developing intelligent systems that can work more on users’ behalf and under their control, he added. That likely means artificial intelligence systems.

    Microsoft is shelling out $250 million, according to the Financial Times. It will fold SwiftKey’s employees into its stable, and they apparently will report to Shum.

    http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83072.html

Other

  • Analytics software maker SAS puts 2015 revenue at near $3.2B

    Cary-based SAS Institute Inc. said Tuesday its revenues were almost $3.2 billion in 2015. That was 2 percent more than 2014.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/feb/2/analytics-software-maker-sas-puts-2015-revenue-at-/

  • Tableau Software Inc (DATA) Plunges 35% On Disappointing Earnings

    Tableau Software delivered a weaker-than-expected quarter with very little upside to revenue as they beat the high-end of guidance by $2.8M vs their four-quarter average of $14.9M. The company reported 42% revenue growth with billings growth of 36%, compared to the 64% and 54% in Q3/15, respectively. Much of the focus will center around the revenue/billings deceleration and the guidance, which will be given on the call. The prior 2016 revenue outlook was $845M-$865M. The stock is down 30%+ in the after-market.

    http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/02/tableau-software-inc-data-plunges/

  • Teradataaaaargghh! How to go from years in the black right into the red

    Teradata is suffering from competition, the cloud and new style Big Data analytics, which collectively makes its kit seem expensive and dated. Although it’s moved into Big Data analytics, that market is not taking off fast enough and the Internet of Things data analytics boom is still nascent. Companies like HDS are entering the analytics market and increasing the competitive pressure.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/04/teradata_full_year_loss/
    What happened was that its Marketing Applications unit didn’t deliver the goods. In fact, it experienced an approximate $45m operating loss in 2015.
    sn_teradata_annual_crm

Photo: Matt Popovich

Posted on

Supplier Report: 1/23/2016

sn_snowfoot_PaulGreen

IBM has added another feather in their video stream capabilities cap with with purchase of Ustream.  Considering that they recently picked up Clearleap and we should start paying attention to what IBM is doing with video services.

Investors are paying attention to EMC due to concerns that Dell might not be able to muster up the $40-50B needed to make this acquisition a reality.

Oracle is in their own reality as they file a lawsuit against the State of Oregon for a failed healthcare portal implementation.  They are also in the news for claiming cloud market leader Amazon is not “enterprise” enough for most businesses.

Keep an eye out for something between Splunk and IBM, there are rumors floating around…

IBM

  • IBM buys Upstream to boost cloud-based video streaming services

    IBM claimed that the division will allow the firm to target the cloud-based video streaming software and services market, which is estimated to be worth a hefty $105bn.

    Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president at IBM Cloud, outlined Big Blue’s ambitions for the video streaming market, saying that video has become a “first-class data type in business that requires accelerated performance and powerful analytics that allows clients to extract meaningful insights”.

    http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2442894/ibm-buys-upstream-to-boost-cloud-based-video-streaming-services

    This comes after IBM announced the purchase of ClearLeap during the week of 12/12/2015. Clearleap that allows streaming video to scale.

    More Information:

    Coincidentally, IBM also announced the launch of its Cloud Video Services unit that includes previously acquired Clearleap, Cleversafe and Aspera along with 1,000 video related patents it has accumulated since 1995. The graphic at the top of this story explains the component parts for what IBM believes will be a $105 billion market opportunity by 2019.

    IBM and video? You have to see this in a wider context. Video is a very fast growing part of enterprise content. It is also a resource hog that requires significant data management effort. However, it has been something off a Cinderella in the enterprise. This acquisition and launch change that perception. More compelling, video is a very good use case for Watson based analytics solutions.

    https://diginomica.com/2016/01/21/ibm-acquires-ustream-expects-video-to-lose-its-cinderella-status/

  • IBM profit forecast pulls stock to 5-year low

    While sales of the new services, bundled together under the heading “strategic imperatives,” increased 16 percent to $28.9 billion in 2015, the company forecast profit this year far below analysts’ projections.

    Operating earnings will be at least $13.50 a share in 2016, chief financial officer Martin Schroeter said Tuesday. That’s less than the $15 a share predicted by analysts. Currency fluctuations will affect operating earnings by more than $1 a share, he said.

    https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/01/20/ibm-falls-year-low-profit-forecast-misses-estimates/cnngchUC8irebscm3xLQ2O/story.html

  • Execs: Strategic shift is paying off for IBM

    That’s in spite of announcing for, the 15th consecutive quarter, falling revenue. IBM (NYSE: IBM), which was down nearly 5 percent during Wednesday morning trading, has been in a period of transition for the past few years, putting less focus on hardware and more focus (and investment dollars) into cloud, analytics, mobile, social media and security. Those strategic areas were up 26 percent for the year, making up a combined $29 billion and representing about 35 percent of the revenue. Cloud alone rose 43 percent to $10.2 billion for the year.

    http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/techflash/2016/01/execs-strategic-shift-is-paying-off-for-ibm.html

  • IBM inks $40 million deal to transform the way people withdraw from ATMs

    BTI Payments, which is a White Label ATM (WLA) operator, has entrusted IBM to transform its IT Infrastructure and deploy and manage an incremental 4,000 Automated Teller Machines (ATM) across the country.

    This IT Infrastructure transformation will help reduce operational and capital expenditure while adding business value.

    http://www.businessinsider.in/IBMinks-40-million-deal-to-transform-the-way-people-withdraw-from-ATMs/articleshow/50623231.cms

EMC | Dell

  • Two big risks could torpedo Dell-EMC deal

    Dell and its Silver Lake backers must now be worried that the deal will be dead in the water before it happens. They have to raise $40bn – $50bn in debt to finance the EMC acquisition. If that debt-raising exercise fails, because investment groups and organisations can’t see EMC shareholders accepting the tracking stock, and can’t also see why they should finance Dell/Silverlake buying EMC for 30 per cent more than it’s worth, then the whole deal could fall apart.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/21/two_big_risk_torpedoes_could_screw_dellemc_deal/

HP Inc | Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Oracle

  • Oracle Jabs Again in Legal Fight with Oregon

    Oracle responded with its own lawsuit last year that alleged certain Oregon officials purposely sabotaged the project for political reasons and shifted the blame to Oracle. The technology giant alleged in its new lawsuit that its company executives and staff members representing Oregon governor Kate Brown agreed to settle all of the lawsuits on Oct. 19.

    http://fortune.com/2016/01/20/oracle-sues-oregon-healthcare-settlement/

  • Amazon’s Cloud Is Not Enterprise-Ready, Says Oracle Exec
    I love it when Oracle talks trash…

    “My conclusion is it’s easier to add cloud tech to an enterprise company than to add enterprise stuff to a cloud company,” he said. “I’m a legitimate convert because I thought this through before I joined up here.” Before joining Oracle in late 2014, Magnusson drove development of Google GOOG 2.62% App Engine.

    http://fortune.com/2016/01/20/oracle-exec-says-aws-not-enterprise-ready/

Other

  • Why IBM and Oracle Plunged in 2015 While Microsoft Soared 19% Higher

    Ending on a positive note, we’re left with Redmond’s finest. Under Nadella, Microsoft has embraced many strategies that would have been unthinkable under Ballmer, and with good results. Despite a flagging PC market and a dead-end entry into the mobile market, Microsoft has found a way back to earnings growth and stabilizing revenues.

    Like Oracle, the company is betting heavily on cloud computing. Unlike the database giant, Microsoft has found a big winner in its Windows Azure cloud-computing platform, which is an almost unchallenged No. 2 in that fast-growing market. Oracle is not even on the radar yet. So Microsoft is getting results from Nadella’s new strategy already, giving investors a strong return in 2015.

    http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/01/16/why-ibm-and-oracle-plunged-in-2015-while-microsoft.aspx

  • Google’s new managed containers are brought to you by Red Hat
    So Red Hat is in bed with Microsoft, and now Google… very interesting.

    Google and Red Hat are touting several advantages of their collaboration, including the fact that OpenShift could complement and expand the use of Kubernetes, Google’s container management and orchestration system. Kubernetes has fast become a standard-issue item on most cloud platforms with containers, and Red Hat is the No. 2 contributor to that project, behind Google.

    http://www.infoworld.com/article/3025334/cloud-computing/googles-new-managed-containers-are-brought-to-you-by-red-hat.html

  • Splunk outperforms after analyst predicts major deal with IBM

    Northland analyst Tim Klasell heard from a “few industry sources” that Splunk and IBM are “moving closer together” and could agree to a meaningful partnership over time. The analyst told investors in a research note that IBM is getting close to a “big move to improve its ties” with Splunk. While Klasell did not know the financial details, he believes such a partnership could be a “nice tailwind” for Splunk to sign larger deals. The analyst has an Outperform rating on Splunk with an $80 price target.

    http://www.thestreet.com/story/13433060/1/splunk-outperforms-after-analyst-predicts-major-deal-with-ibm.html