Zoom has announced it is bringing its videoconferencing software to smart displays.
As the coronavirus pandemic took off, Zoom quickly established itself as the videoconferencing solution of choice for professional, religious and personal use. As a result, the company’s business skyrocketed and it has been expanding its offerings to keep up with demand and improve the user experience.
Now Zoom is bringing its software to smart displays in an effort to make it even easier to use at home. The software will be available on Amazon Echo Show, Portal from Facebook and Google Nest Hub Max.
“With 42% of the U.S. labor force working from home full time, businesses can maintain their competitive edge by finding ways to increase productivity, enhance efficiency, and enable collaboration,” writes Zoom’s Jeff Smith. “With Zoom on your favorite smart display, you can connect with colleagues to work smarter together, using features like whiteboarding, content sharing, and co-annotation.
“As a Zoom Meetings user, all you’ll need to do is log in to one of our supported smart displays and integrate your calendar, status, and meeting settings. You’ll have access to all the tools you need to personalize your home office experience.”
It’s safe to say this latest move will help further cement Zoom’s position at the head of the pack.
Some things in the new world will change forever. Customer meetings will change forever. In the past, I never thought that I could do a Zoom call or a Teams call with the CEO of a company I’m trying to sell to. In the future, I don’t think my customers will want me to come and see them. There’s continued opportunity for remote access. Anything that allows you to connect with clients online or build the brand is going to be really valuable. I had an Instagram Live yesterday with Kris Jenner. She’s been selling online for years now. Every business needs to move online, especially small business.
Robert Herjavec, mega entrepreneur and Shark Tank star, says on CNBC that the coronavirus crisis has caused the word to change forever. Meetings will never be the same and many other post-pandemic changes are in store:
Customer Meetings Will Change Forever
When all of this first happened we wanted to use Zoom because all our customers use Zoom. But I have got to tell you, some of the security issues are really pretty bad within Zoom. So we’ve switched over to Microsoft Teams. I think that’s one of the reasons that Microsoft stock is doing so well. The use of Teams at the corporate enterprise level is really taking off. We’re also seeing Webex usage really go up. There was also the acquisition of BlueJeans (by Verizon), another video conferencing platform.
I have become very optimistic about the return, whenever the return is, and what the world will look like. Some things in the new world will change forever. Customer meetings will change forever. In the past, I never thought that I could do a Zoom call or a Team’s call with the CEO of a company I’m trying to sell to. In the future, I don’t think my customers will want me to come and see them. There’s continued opportunity for remote access. Anything that allows you to connect with clients online or build the brand is going to be really valuable. I had an Instagram Live yesterday with Kris Jenner. She’s been selling online for years now. Every business needs to move online, especially small business.
We’re Into This For The Long Haul
I used to think that we were in a light switch moment where miraculously President Trump will get on the news and say we’re all back on this date. But I think what we’re seeing now in California and in New York is that it’s going to be⎯⎯we’re into this for the long haul. Certain parts of the economy will go back quickly. But even the ones that do go back are going to be limited.
Restaurants will have to distance half the tables. If I have more space in my restaurant can I charge more along that line? I think it’s going to be challenging but with all those challenges there’s going to be opportunities. The key for me about going back is testing. What that means and how people get tested. There’s a great new saliva test that was approved by the FDA where people can do it at home and I think we just have to be able to do that at scale.
Nobody Wakes Up And Says “I Want My Life To Suck”
Shark Tank is a mirror to what’s happening in the American economy. When we started the show twelve years ago it was during the financial crisis. Nobody could get a loan. So people started a lot of businesses that you didn’t need capital for. Then we moved to online selling. This will be the same thing. If I’ve learned anything on twelve years from Shark Tank it is that the human condition is about hope. Nobody wakes up and says I want my life to suck. Every time somebody comes on Shark Tank they are full of hope and they’re full of optimism.
This is a challenging time but entrepreneurs will figure it out. The key though is you’ve got to have a growth plan. The stimulus plan, the protection plan, all these relief funds, are simply survival funds. They are not growth funds. If you don’t have a plan to grow, if you don’t have a plan to gain market share, getting a stimulus today is just keeping you in business. It’s not helping you to grow. You’ve got to have a game plan for that.
I want to know what people’s plan is for survival. It makes me want to invest in two types of companies, either a company that has a very strong balance sheet or companies like an Uber or a small business that can scale back its costs. I want to invest in a company that can quickly scale its expenses to meet a decline in revenue or vice versa. So fluidity and the ability to adapt in a small business is really going to be the key. I don’t want to invest in a business with a large infrastructure, buildings, equipment, and all that kind of stuff. That stuff is very difficult to scale down.
Customer Meetings Will Change Forever, Says Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec
Cannon has suffered a crippling ransomware attack, impacting numerous services and resulting in data loss and theft.
Cannon’s online photo and video storage service experienced a nearly week-long outage, as well as data loss for customers using the 10GB of free storage Canon offered. Despite the obvious problems, Canon was tightlipped about the issue, and refused to comment.
In response, BleepingComputer set out to investigate. A source confirmed to BleepingComputer that Canon’s email, Microsoft Teams and other applications were all experiencing outages. BleepingComputer was also able to obtain a partial copy of a Maze ransomware note Canon allegedly received. After reaching out to Maze, Maze operators confirmed to the publication they had successfully breached Canon, although denied they were responsible for issues with the image site that initially prompted BleepingComputer to investigate. The hackers also claimed to have stolen some 10TB of data, including private databases.
If the ransomware attack is as bad as the Maze operators are claiming, Canon is in a tough spot. While it’s understandable that they wouldn’t want to reveal details about the attack, being as tightlipped as they have been will likely backfire in the long run.
Microsoft has begun production of its Surface Duo dual-screen device, and will start shipping it August 24.
Microsoft surprised the industry with the announcement of two dual-screen devices, the Surface Duo and the Surface Neo. The latter will run Windows 10X, while the former runs Android. Microsoft has been cozying up with the Android and Linux communities in recent years, although a full-fledged Android device was still quite shock to many in the tech community. Microsoft even hired Android development teams to bring Duo development in-house and ensure the highest level of integration.
Once the coronavirus pandemic hit, however, Microsoft altered plans and focused on helping Windows 10X work on existing devices and moved the Neo’s release back to 2022. It appears the Duo, however, is close to seeing the light of day.
According to WindowsCentral’s Zac Bowden, Microsoft could start shipping the device as early as August 24:
”Surface Duo production has started and will begin shipping to customers the week of August 24th, I’m told. Should be less than a month to go now!”
Microsoft has scored a major contract that will see the Redmond-based company be the preferred cloud provider for PepsiCo.
Microsoft’s Azure is firmly in second place in the US cloud market, behind Amazon’s AWS and ahead of Google Cloud. The company has made signification headway, and has been racking up a string of high-profile contracts.
PepsiCo is the latest company to sign on with Azure, choosing it as its preferred cloud platform in a deal that will also see it deploy Microsoft 365 and Teams for all 270,000 employees.
“As a global leader in convenient food and beverages, our commitment to the timely delivery of PepsiCo products has never been more important,” said PepsiCo CIO, Seth Cohen. “Through our partnership with Microsoft, we aim to improve service delivery capabilities to meet rising demand for essential goods while driving new innovations to make our operations and workforce stronger and more resilient for the future.”
“Our partnership with PepsiCo applies Azure and AI capabilities to the ever-changing supply chain and retail landscape in new and exciting ways. By migrating PepsiCo’s global data estate and SAP landscapes to Azure, we’ll be able to help PepsiCo drive efficiencies from farmer to consumer,” said Deb Cupp, Microsoft CVP Enterprise Commercial Business. “We’re also pleased to deliver Microsoft 365 to PepsiCo’s associates worldwide as part of this partnership. Mobile communication and collaboration for PepsiCo’s workforce will be one of the keys to realizing the value Microsoft brings.”
This is a huge win for Microsoft and will no doubt help it convince other companies to give Azure strong consideration.
Slack has filed a complaint against Microsoft with the EU, claiming the company is engaging in anti-competitive practices with Teams.
Slack and Teams have been locked in a bitter battle over the corporate messaging market. While Microsoft’s app has far surpassed Slack, in terms of users, Slack has continued to rack up some impressivecontracts. In particular, Slack has become a popular choice among companies that compete with Microsoft and don’t want to rely on one of their competitors for their communication.
Now Slack has upped the ante even more, filing a complaint with the EU. In particular, Slack is claiming that Microsoft is unfairly tying Teams to Office.
“We’re confident that we win on the merits of our product, but we can’t ignore illegal behavior that deprives customers of access to the tools and solutions they want,” said Jonathan Prince, Vice President of Communications and Policy at Slack. “Slack threatens Microsoft’s hold on business email, the cornerstone of Office, which means Slack threatens Microsoft’s lock on enterprise software.”
Microsoft should be concerned by this complaint, as it is similar to the complaint that was successfully used in Microsoft’s antitrust case in 2001. To make matters worse for the company, the EU is currently scrutinizing numerous US companies for anti-competitive practices. All of this means that Microsoft may find itself in an unfavorable climate should Slack’s complaint move forward.
Israeli security firm Check Point has worked with Zoom to fix an issue with Zoom vanity URLs.
Vanity URLs give companies a way to add their branding to their Zoom URLs. Companies could even add a customized website to the service. Unfortunately for Zoom, the vanity URLs had a serious security flaws.
According to Check Point’s research, “an attacker could have attempted to impersonate an organization’s Vanity URL link and send invitations which appeared to be legitimate to trick a victim. In addition, the attacker could have directed the victim to a sub-domain dedicated website, where the victim entered the relevant meeting ID and would not be made aware that the invitation did not come from the legitimate organization.”
This is just the latest in a long string of Zoom security issues that have come to the surface as the platform has gained in popularity. Zoom has been working to close the holes and improve security all around.
According to Check Point, the vanity URL vulnerabilities “were responsibly disclosed to Zoom Video Communications, Inc. as part of our ongoing partnership and cooperation. This security issue has been fixed by Zoom, so the exploits described are no longer possible.”
Verizon has announced a slew of new features for BlueJeans, its videoconferencing Zoom competitor.
Verizon announced a deal to purchase BlueJeans in April, as the coronavirus pandemic was gaining momentum. Zoom had established itself as the go-to option for remote work and education, as well as for individuals to stay in touch with friends and family. Verizon saw an opportunity to snap up one of Zoom’s competitors in the hopes of combining BlueJeans with the company’s Verizon Business offerings.
Verizon has now announced some major new features for BlueJeans, as well as significant partner integrations. The platform now integrates with Salesforce, using hands-free lead tracking to capture attendee data. BlueJeans can also use Splash to help streamline event promotions, as well as follow-ups. Similarly, BlueJeans can use TicketSocket for event monetization.
Even more significant, BlueJeans has increased the size limit of virtual events, supporting up to 150 presenters and 50,000 attendees. The platform previously only supported 15,000 attendees. In addition, BlueJeans will support seamless integration with YouTube Live. While the platform already supported Facebook Live, adding YouTube Live will greatly increase the potential reach of a live event. Similarly, better support for Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) in BlueJeans Events will make it easier to stream to additional social media platforms.
“When COVID hit, the video industry was ready,” said David Maldow, Founder, Let’s Do Video. “Changes in culture and technology were already driving organizations to embrace live streaming prior to the pandemic, but now that traditionally in-person events are being forced to go virtual, we’re really seeing the benefits of platforms like BlueJeans Events. With these latest updates, BlueJeans continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible when it comes to hosting large-scale, interactive experiences online that exceed audience expectations while providing moderators peace of mind.”
It seems Verizon is moving full-speed-ahead with BlueJeans, and this will make hosting events post-pandemic a little easier.
“Digital transformation is the opportunity of this generation,” says ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott. “If you look at the Zoom partnership as one example, all companies want simple, easy, seamless experiences for their people and their customers. This is how you transform companies. This is how you grow and this is how you navigate a digital experience to win. We’re at the forefront of the digital transformation rage in the cloud.”
We’re At The Forefront Of The Digital Transformation Rage
Digital transformation is the opportunity of this generation. If you look at the Zoom partnership as one example, all companies want simple, easy, seamless experiences for their people and their customers. This is how you transform companies. This is how you grow and this is how you navigate a digital experience to win. We’re at the forefront of the digital transformation rage in the cloud. We’re super excited.
If you look at Zoom, they had 300 million users utilizing their system in the heart of this COVID crisis. I expect that will continue to grow. The question was how do you handle 300 to 400 million users, most of them concurrently on a global scale? They turn to ServiceNow to solve that problem. Our customer service management solution is like no other in the marketplace. We can not only use self-help tools for customers, but we can also use virtual agents. Best of all, most of the service that will be required when Zoom does have to remediate an issue will be done predictively on the Now platform.
ServiceNow At The Epicenter Of Helping Zoom Innovate
Furthermore, they also want to have a hardware as a service business model that they’ll bring to offices all over the world. The idea here is simple, touch it once–instant collaboration, instant linkage to the ServiceNow workflow, and then the users get a great experience. That hardware as a service business model will be very large for them because they want to displace existing legacy vendors with their modern solution. ServiceNow is in the epicenter of helping Zoom utilizing our great innovation and ultimately taking both of these solutions to market to help many many customers around the world.
If you look at the tech sector for cloud, companies that are at the forefront of creating great digital experiences, these companies are going to continue to scale, continue to hit new highs and continue to grow. Nine out of ten CEOs have a digital-first strategy before COVID. Now I suspect that 10 out of 10 would have a digital-first strategy. It’s the only way to navigate these choppy waters.
We Get Things Done In Days and Weeks, Not Years
The companies that will do less well, and I’m just basing this on research and current results, are the ones that have heavy time-consuming elongated project cycles or potentially commodity hardware where customers are just not going to invest in that. Whatever they invest in they want a return and they want that return to come quite quickly. In the case of ServiceNow, our business cases show 5, 6, 7 times return on investment and we get things done in days and weeks, not years. That’s what makes the big difference. Speed, value creation, and truly illuminating great employee and customer experiences are what this market is all about.
One of the things that we covered in our last earnings call is that 20 percent of our business is in one-way shape or form tied to industries that would be highly impacted by COVID. What was amazing is we didn’t have one down-sell or one cancellation in that total customer group. What you’re seeing is when you have a platform company that truly can innovate, make work actually work better for people, take cost out, and improve business productivity, that’s the last place even challenged industries are going to cut.
We’ve been very fortunate because the partnerships that we have built with this hungry and humble culture and our near 100 percent retention rate are paying off even in the most challenging industries like the airlines, hospitality, and retail.
ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott: At The Forefront Of The Digital Transformation Rage
Zoom has taken the next step toward world domination of the video conferencing market by offering hardware as a service (HaaS).
As the pandemic has forced companies and individuals to change how they work and communicate, Zoom has become the clear favorite among video conferencing platforms. Although it has stumbled with some security issues, it has quickly resolved those and continued moving forward.
Now Zoom is launching its HaaS for US customers, offering a high-quality Zoom Phone, as well as hardware for Zoom Rooms, such as wide-angle cameras and touchscreen displays.
“Amazing hardware partnerships are a key part of Zoom’s ecosystem,” says Velchamy Sankarlingam, President of Product and Engineering at Zoom. “With many people globally coping with today’s unique challenges, easy access to hardware is critical for offices, distance learning, telehealth, and more. Zoom Hardware as a Service will help users adapt to new work-from-anywhere environments by making it easier than ever before to get access to the latest and greatest hardware for Zoom Rooms and Zoom Phone. “
“Hardware as a Service is a game-changer that addresses key IT challenges of heavy upfront hardware costs, complex deployments, high-touch support, and cumbersome device lifecycle management,” says Roopam Jain, Industry Director, Unified Communications and Collaboration at Frost and Sullivan. “It enables flexible and cost-effective OPEX-based end-to-end deployments that future proof technology investments, allowing business users to leverage cutting-edge communications.”
Launching Zoom HaaS is the next logical step, and allows the company to better control the user experience by taking low-quality cameras, computers and other equipment out of the equation. This will improve the overall experience for customers and likely improve brand loyalty.
Microsoft has rolled out Together mode to Teams in an effort to significantly improve video conferencing.
As social distancing and remote work have become standard, video conferencing and communication tools have become critical components for individuals and businesses alike. Whether its corporate teams keeping in touch, churches conducting services or individuals keeping up with family and friends, Teams, Zoom, FaceTime, Skype and others have become lifelines.
At the same time, video fatigue has taken its toll, with widespread reports of video conferencing being exhausting and draining on its users. Microsoft has set out to address that with its new Together mode.
Together mode uses AI segmentation tech to create the illusion that everyone is together in the same place, such as a meeting room, auditorium or coffee shop. This creates a much more familiar and comfortable experience, as opposed to the traditional grid placement.
“We’re social creatures, and the social and spatial awareness systems in the brain can finally function more naturally” within Together mode, says Microsoft’s Jaron Lanier.
Microsoft Teams Meeting
The end result is a more engaging experience “by helping you focus on other people’s faces and body language and making it easier to pick up on the non-verbal cues that are so important to human interaction. It’s great for meetings in which multiple people will speak, such as brainstorms or roundtable discussions, because it makes it easier for participants to understand who is talking.”
With no immediate end in sight to the pandemic, improvements like this will go a long way toward helping people stay productive and connected.
“We’re already at the point where 12 percent of our employees started after the pandemic,” says Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. “They weren’t flown to headquarters for a week. They didn’t do the onboarding. They haven’t met casual acquaintances waiting for the elevator or at all hands. These kinds of weak social times and the cultural value that’s built up through those interactions are going to have to be realized in another way.”
Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack, announces their acquisition of enterprise directory company Rimeto, which helps employees in large organizations connect with each other more efficiently:
12 Percent of Slack Employees Started After Pandemic
This morning we’re announcing the acquisition of Rimeto. Their tagline is the enterprise directory reimagined which is a great way to think about it. Obviously, that’s also going to be especially important now. We’re already at the point where 12 percent of our employees started after the pandemic. They weren’t flown to headquarters for a week. They didn’t do the onboarding. They haven’t met casual acquaintances waiting for the elevator or at all hands. These kinds of weak social times and the cultural value that’s built up through those interactions are going to have to be realized in another way.
We started talking (to Rimeto) just before the pandemic hit. I’ve actually never met any of the team face-to-face. No one on our side has met anyone on their side face-to-face. The whole thing was conducted using all of these technologies. We, of course, had a shared channel in Slack with them. It’s them, it’s us, it’s the lawyers, it’s the accountants, the whole kind of suite of entities that are required to pull off a deal like this. I think you’re going to see more and more of that.
Pandemic Causing Much Bigger Reliance On Software
I don’t think we’re going to be back in the office for a while. But to the extent that people do end up going back to offices, let’s say later this year or really next year, it’s still going to cause a generational shift. There is still going to be a much bigger reliance on software. A couple of weeks ago we announced Slack Connect. The idea is to increase the efficacy of collaboration across organizational boundaries while also increasing the security.
Two Sack users in an organization can set up a share channel between them or you can have more than one. In fact, when we did our convertible debt offering a month and a half ago, we did that in a share channel with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Jay Wood, and Latham, and put the whole thing together in that way. It’s a great way to collaborate.
Rimeto Let’s Slack Users Connect Within Organizations
Companies, obviously, are not going to stop acquiring. They’re not going to stop doing offerings. You’re still going to see IPOs and we’re going to see roadshows conducted in that way. When you’re crossing organizational boundaries the profile information, the identity of the person is also important. Inside the company with Rimeto, we’re offering much richer search, much more detailed information about groups and things like skills and backgrounds, not just the phone number and desk location.
We also want the ability to have some of that cross organizational boundaries so partners, collaborators, professional services firms, customers, and vendors can have access to some of that information as well.
12 Percent of Slack Employees Started After Pandemic, Says CEO Stewart Butterfield
Slack has announced it has acquired Rimeto, a company that has revolutionized business directory software.
Rimeto offers a unique approach to business directories, upgrading the concept from a bland list of names and contact info. Instead, Rimeto pulls information from across a company to develop a rich profile of each employee, including what projects they’ve worked on, what customers they’ve interacted with, their skills, experience and more.
Slack is especially interested in this technology during the pandemic, as employees are struggling to stay connected with their coworkers.
“If there’s one thing we’ve heard over and over from our customers and employees alike during the pandemic, it’s that people are struggling to stay connected,” writes the Slack Team. “We all want to understand the people we work with and have context around their lives. Employees with weak social ties to their colleagues aren’t as happy or productive as employees at companies with a thriving, healthy culture.”
Integrating Rimeto with Slack is a natural fit, and will significantly improve Slack’s profile and directory features. At the same time, Slack intends to keep offering Rimeto as a standalone product and continue supporting their existing customers.
This is good news for all parties. Slack will see a significant boost to their directory features, while Rimeto and their customers will likely benefit from the additional resources Slack brings to the table.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has released a beta of Honeycode, a low-code development service for cloud computing.
AWS is the current, undisputed champion of cloud computing, with a commanding lead in the market. In spite of that, both Microsoft and Goole have made headway and are chipping away at AWS’ lead.
Simultaneously, one of the biggest trends in the tech industry is low or no-code development. These tools provide a way for organizations to quickly prototype, develop and deploy applications with minimal coding. This can significantly reduce investment cost, and speed up development. Both Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud offer low-code development options.
Now Amazon is playing catchup, with the release of Honeycode. Honeycode is described as “a fully managed service that allows customers to quickly build powerful mobile and web applications – with no programming required.”
According to the company’s announcement, “customers can use a simple visual application builder to create highly interactive web and mobile applications backed by a powerful AWS-built database to perform tasks like tracking data over time and notifying users of changes, routing approvals, and facilitating interactive business processes. Using Amazon Honeycode, customers can create applications that range in complexity from a task-tracking application for a small team to a project management system that manages a complex workflow for multiple teams or departments.”
It’s a safe bet Honeycode will be a popular addition to the AWS ecosystem and help the company as it continues to fend off Microsoft and Google.
They’ve become a familiar sight in shopping malls, but Microsoft has announced it is permanently closing its retail shops.
The company’s announcement reflects the changing retail landscape in the wake of COVID-19. Like most industries, the pandemic forced Microsoft’s retail employees to work remotely, where they focused on helping customers do the same. As a result, and thanks to the success of that initiative, the company will continue to focus on remote sales teams, providing assistance to customers all over the world.
“Our sales have grown online as our product portfolio has evolved to largely digital offerings, and our talented team has proven success serving customers beyond any physical location,” said Microsoft Corporate Vice President David Porter. “We are grateful to our Microsoft Store customers and we look forward to continuing to serve them online and with our retail sales team at Microsoft corporate locations.
“We deliberately built teams with unique backgrounds and skills that could serve customers from anywhere. The evolution of our workforce ensured we could continue to serve customers of all sizes when they needed us most, working remotely these last months,” continued Porter. “Speaking over 120 languages, their diversity reflects the many communities we serve. Our commitment to growing and developing careers from this talent pool is stronger than ever.”
This is a significant change in the company’s operations and it’s unlikely Microsoft will be the last company to reimagine its retail operations.
As the battle for corporate messaging clients heats up, investors and traders are beginning to choose whom they believe will be the winner.
Slack helped revolutionize the corporate messaging market and is still considered the market leader, in terms of features and maturity. In recent years, however, Microsoft Teams has gained ground, even surpassing Slack in overall users.
Despite Teams’ gains, Slack continues to be heavily used and has racked up contract after contract with some of the biggest names in tech. In spite of that, investors are worried about Slack’s long-term ability to successfully compete with Microsoft.
According to TheStreet, Goldman Sachs analyst Heather Bellini downgraded Slack from neutral to sell based on these concerns.
“While we continue to view Slack as a best-in-class team messaging offering that is favored by the technical community, we expect Microsoft Teams to continue to try and leverage its packaging within Office 365 to drive increased adoption, thus creating the potential for a more competitive environment,” wrote Bellini.
Another factor in the equation is Slack’s existing customer base. Because it appeals to small and medium-sized companies, Bellini believes it is more vulnerable to coronavirus-related economic issues. Despite downgrading Slack, she maintains her target price of $30.
Microsoft has a long history of entering a market with what is widely considered to be an inferior product, when compared with the market leader. Leveraging the power of their operating system and business-class software, however, Microsoft is usually able to make significant headway while improving their initial offering.
Only time will tell if Slack is able to succeed where so many other companies have fallen to the juggernaut from Redmond. If not, it may lend weight to Amazon’s rumored interest in buying the company.
Amazon may be looking to acquire Slack to better compete with Microsoft and Google, as well as cash in on the work-from-home trend.
Amazon and Slack recently inked a deal to deploy the messaging platform across the Amazon Web Services (AWS) workforce. At the same time, Slack committed to continued reliance on AWS as their cloud provider of choice, and will use Amazon’s Chime to power Slack Calls.
Daniel Newman, an analyst at Futurum Research, has told Business Insider that the deal may be part of a much bigger plan for Amazon.
“It’s a clear opportunity to get more deeply under the hood,” Newman told Business Insider. “Amazon’s Chime product is limited in adoption and Slack is beloved, but has no direction when you compare it to Zoom. Microsoft has Teams and Google has pretty complete meeting applications. When you look at a suitor like AWS, it’s a really good potential fit.”
While no one knows for sure if Amazon is actually looking to purchase Slack, the move would make a lot of sense and shore up perceived weak spot. AWS leads the cloud market, but does not have the depth of software offerings that its rivals do, especially Microsoft and Google. Both of those companies have communication platforms that are hugely popular. This has led analysts to speculate Amazon might make a move for Slack even before this deal.
Should the speculation prove true, the move could significantly alter the messaging market and give Amazon a competitive advantage.
Amazon has just fired a shot across Microsoft’s bow with plans to open a Redmond-based office that will house up to 600 AWS employees.
Amazon has been increasing its presence in the Redmond area, with the city being chosen for Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite endeavor. The company’s new offices, however, will host AWS engineering teams.
It’s likely no accident Amazon has chosen Redmond for its new offices. In recent years, Microsoft Azure has emerged as the strongest competitor to AWS, so having a presence in Microsoft’s backyard makes sense.
Officials for both Amazon and Redmond touted the announcement as one that would benefit the city, as well as Amazon’s employees.
“Our new Redmond office is part of our plan to continue growing and creating jobs in the Puget Sound region,” said John Schoettler, Amazon’s vice president of global real estate and facilities. “In addition to Redmond’s strong existing talent pool and close access to our Seattle and Bellevue locations, these new facilities will also provide more flexible work options for employees, allowing us to continue our sustainable growth in the region for years to come.”
“We are thrilled that Amazon has decided to create even more jobs and further invest in Redmond,” said Angela Birney, mayor of Redmond. “As we look to the future and people are able to get back to work, Amazon’s commitment to providing jobs for the community by utilizing existing talent in the Puget Sound Region will continue to strengthen Redmond’s growth and prosperity now and for years to come.”
Zoom is adding end-to-end encryption (E2EE ) for all users, reversing a decision made just weeks ago to reserve the highest security for paid plans.
Zoom has been in hot water more than once in recent months over its encryption claims and policies. Originally, the company’s marketing led customers to believe it provided E2EE when it did not. Once the company finally rolled out the upgraded encryption, it said it would only be for paid subscribers.
The rationale for the decision was that free plans were more likely to be used for illegal activities, and the company wanted to be able to work with the FBI and local law enforcement. Needless to say, the stand was not a popular one.
It appears the company has changed direction, and charted what it believes will be a compromise solution that will allow it to offer E2EE to free users.
“To make this possible, Free/Basic users seeking access to E2EE will participate in a one-time process that will prompt the user for additional pieces of information, such as verifying a phone number via a text message,” writes CEO Eric S. Yuan. “Many leading companies perform similar steps on account creation to reduce the mass creation of abusive accounts. We are confident that by implementing risk-based authentication, in combination with our current mix of tools — including our Report a User function — we can continue to prevent and fight abuse.”
The move is measured solution that will likely satisfy most critics.
Parallels and Google have announced a partnership, aimed at brining full-fledged Windows applications to Chrome Enterprise.
Parallels got it start creating virtualization software for macOS that allowed it to run Windows and Linux. Over the years, the company has expanded its offerings, and was ultimately acquired by Corel in 2018. Throughout its history, however, the company’s products have been well received, often going head-to-head with similar products from VMware.
According to the company’s latest announcement, it is helping Google bring Windows desktop applications to Chrome Enterprise.
“Remote work is a new reality, making efficiency, connectivity, speed, reliability, security and undisrupted access essential elements of a successful organization,” says Parallels’ site. “At this key moment, our two organizations have formed a landmark partnership to equip enterprises with solutions that optimize their businesses and teams to meet the evolving challenges of modern work environments.
“Parallels brings more than a decade of cross-platform solutions experience, seamlessly integrating operating systems and features, to its partnership with Google. Parallels’ award-winning software solutions make it simple for enterprises, businesses, organizations and individuals to access and use the applications and files they need on any device or operating system.”
The announcement is short on hard details. In a Google Chrome blog post, however, Chrome OS VP John Solomon said: “Our new partnership with Parallels brings legacy application support—which includes Microsoft Office desktop apps—to Chromebooks. More to come on this over the coming months.”
Not one to rest on its laurels, Microsoft has released an update to Teams that appears to have Zoom squarely in its sights.
Zoom quickly established itself as the video communication platform of choice for businesses and individuals alike in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. It goes without saying, that hasn’t gone over well with Microsoft, especially since the company owns Skype, one of the oldest video communications platforms.
In recent months, however, Microsoft Teams has become the darling of the company, and it seems clear it views Teams as its best chance to take on Zoom. With its most recent upgrade, it’s clear that Microsoft is fighting back to reclaim some of the video conferencing market share.
The first eye-catching feature of the new release is custom background effects. Teams already had the ability to blur backgrounds, but this new feature allows users to upload their own images, or use one of the presets that come with the app.
“No need for a green screen, or even a blank wall. Teams uses a highly trained model that differentiates the subject from their background and can impose a custom background over everything else, making it easy and fast to start expressing yourself in all your meetings,” writes Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365.
The second Zoom-like feature is the ability for free accounts to schedule meetings in advance. Like Zoom, Teams users can either copy the invitation link or send an invitation for Outlook or Google calendar.
Another feature that will greatly benefit users is live captions.
“Teams free users can now turn on live captions during their calls and meetings,” Spataro continues. “This feature makes meetings more inclusive, giving participants another way to follow along with the conversation and address the needs of participants with different hearing abilities or language proficiencies. It’s currently available as a preview in U.S. English.”
Overall, this is a welcome upgrade to Teams and will likely go a long way toward helping Microsoft make a dent in Zoom’s lead.
