WebProNews

Tag: Cloud Computing

  • AWS Offering EC2 M1 Mac Instances

    AWS Offering EC2 M1 Mac Instances

    Just a year after introducing Mac EC2 instances, AWS is upping the ante by introducing M1 Mac instances.

    Apple’s M1 line is a custom system on a chip (SoC) processor based on the semiconductors that have powered the iPhone and iPad for years. Derived from ARM designs, the M1 has upended the computer industry, offering best-in-class battery life and energy efficiency, combined with performance that rivals the best Intel and AMD have to offer.

    The M1’s unique combination of performance and energy make it an ideal option for cloud computing applications where space and energy consumption are prime concerns.

    AWS’s Sébastien Stormacq says the M1 Mac instances already deliver significant performance/cost benefits.

    The availability (in preview) of EC2 M1 Mac instances lets you access machines built around the Apple-designed M1 System on Chip (SoC). If you are a Mac developer and re-architecting your apps to natively support Macs with Apple silicon, you may now build and test your apps and take advantage of all the benefits of AWS. Developers building for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV will also benefit from faster builds. EC2 M1 Mac instances deliver up to 60% better price performance over the x86-based EC2 Mac instances for iPhone and Mac app build workloads.

    Those interested in running the new M1 Mac instances will need to add a dedicated host to their account, since the instances are running on a bare metal server hosting a Mac mini. The on-demand cost is $0.6498 per hour, although customers can save up to 42% with a Savings Plan.

  • Microsoft Beats Estimates on Strong Cloud Performance

    Microsoft Beats Estimates on Strong Cloud Performance

    Microsoft has announced its FY22 Q1 results, beating analysts expectations on strong cloud growth.

    Microsoft reported revenue of $45.3 billion, an increase of 22% over last year. Revenue easily topped analysts’ expectations of $44 billion. The company’s profit for the quarter came in at $17.2 billion, up 24%.

    Notably, much of the Microsoft’s results were driven by continued cloud adoption. The company’s revenue for its Intelligent Cloud division, which includes Azure, was $17.0 billion, representing a 31% increase over the previous year.

    “Digital technology is a deflationary force in an inflationary economy. Businesses – small and large – can improve productivity and the affordability of their products and services by building tech intensity,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. “The Microsoft Cloud delivers the end-to-end platforms and tools organizations need to navigate this time of transition and change.”

    “We delivered a strong start to the fiscal year with our Microsoft Cloud generating $20.7 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 36% year over year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.

    Overall, Microsoft appears to have delivered on what Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives predicted would be another “Picasso-like masterpiece quarter.”

  • Cisco Is Working to Reinvent Itself, Much Like Microsoft

    Cisco Is Working to Reinvent Itself, Much Like Microsoft

    Cisco is working to reinvent itself and cash in on the modern shift to cloud computing, after years of being slow to adapt. 

    Once the world’s most valuable company, Cisco failed to adapt quickly enough to the shift to the cloud. The company built a lucrative business around traditional networking equipment, and didn’t offer emerging cloud giants equipment that adequately met their needs as they built out their cloud data centers.

    According to Bloomberg, the company has been working to reinvent itself, with analysts seeing parallels between Cisco and Microsoft. Much like Cisco, Microsoft missed out on emerging trends, not the least of which was the rise of the smartphone and mobile computing. Under CEO Satya Nadella, however, the Redmond giant has quickly pivoted to the cloud, becoming the second-largest cloud provider in the world. As a result, Microsoft is only the second US company, behind Apple, to cross the $2 trillion valuation mark.

    Despite the parallels, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said Cisco is in a unique position, with unique challenges.

    “The challenge that we have, is that no major technology hardware company has gone through a transformation like this.”

    As part of Cisco’s transformation, the company has been focusing on software and services, acquiring a slew of companies to help build its portfolio. Even there, however, the company has faced challenges and missed opportunities. Despite Webex being one of the premier videoconferencing platforms, and still a top choice among corporate users, it has largely taken a backseat to Zoom during the pandemic.

    “Webex was the premier brand,” says Erik Suppiger, an analyst for JPM Securities, told Bloomberg. “The perception now is that Zoom has considerable market share advantage.”

    Cisco clearly has a long road ahead of it, but the company is optimistic. In fact, it is predicting it will beat analysts expectations in the coming years, predicting its revenue will grow 5-7% each year until at least 2025.

    Whether it can live up to those promises remains to be seen.

  • SAP Raises Outlook on Strong Cloud Performance

    SAP Raises Outlook on Strong Cloud Performance

    SAP has raised its full-year outlook on strong cloud performance as customers increasingly move their business to the cloud.

    The global pandemic has accelerated many companies’ migration to the cloud, especially as workers have transitioned to remote and hybrid workflows. Many companies, including SAP, have benefited greatly.

    After its third-quarter review, SAP is now revising its full-year outlook, raising it as a result of its cloud performance. The company says its current cloud backlog is up 24% and its cloud revenue is up 20%. SAP now expects its cloud and software revenue to grow 2% to 4%.

    “Our strategy is clearly working,” said Christian Klein, CEO. “Customers are choosing SAP for their business transformation in the cloud. We see record adoption of our applications and our platform. This has resulted in strong acceleration of our cloud growth.”

    “This has been an excellent quarter across all key financial metrics,” added Luka Mucic, CFO. “We are seeing sustained, strong progress in SAP’s transformation. Our cloud business is growing at an accelerating pace and has led to our improved full year outlook.”

  • Cloud Giants Announce ‘Trusted Cloud Principles’

    Cloud Giants Announce ‘Trusted Cloud Principles’

    Microsoft, Amazon and Google have announced “Trusted Cloud Principles,” an industry initiative aimed at protecting customer rights in the cloud.

    With the rise of cloud computing, there are a number of issues that cloud companies and regulators are grappling with, not the least of which is privacy. Different jurisdictions have different privacy laws and requirements, making it a challenge for cloud companies to do business internationally.

    The three largest cloud providers — Amazon, Microsoft and Google — have created a set of Trusted Cloud Principles designed to help govern how cloud companies should operate. The initiative also has the support of Atlassian, Cisco, IBM, Salesforce and Slack.

    Through this initiative we seek to partner with governments around the world to resolve international conflicts of law that impede innovation, #security, and #privacy, and to establish and ensure basic protections for organizations that store and process data in the #cloud. Through this initiative, we commit to working with governments to ensure the free flow of data, to promote public safety, and to protect privacy and data security in the #cloud.

    The initiative’s website clearly outlines the group’s mission statement:

    Trusted Cloud Principles signatories are committed to protecting the rights of our customers. We have agreed to strong principles that ensure we compete while maintaining consistent human rights standards.

  • 96% of Third-Party Cloud Container Apps Have Known Vulnerabilities

    96% of Third-Party Cloud Container Apps Have Known Vulnerabilities

    A whopping 96% of third-party cloud container apps have known vulnerabilities, highlighting ongoing cloud security challenges.

    Cloud computing is often touted as more secure than traditional options. Unfortunately, this is only true if all parties involved make security a prime objective.

    According to Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 team, some 96% of third-party container apps have known vulnerabilities. In addition, 63% of third-party code templates contain insecure configurations.

    The news is especially concerning given the rise of supply chain attacks. Hackers are increasingly targeting widely used, third-party software, services, containers and plugins. Successfully compromising a single vendor who’s product is used by thousands of customers can have a far greater impact than compromising a single target.

    Unit 42 highlights the danger of supply chain cloud attacks:

    In most supply chain attacks, an attacker compromises a vendor and inserts malicious code in software used by customers. Cloud infrastructure can fall prey to a similar approach in which unvetted third-party code could introduce security flaws and give attackers access to sensitive data in the cloud environment. Additionally, unless organizations verify sources, third-party code can come from anyone, including an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT).

    Organizations that want to stay secure must start making DevOps security a priority:

    Teams continue to neglect DevOps security, due in part to lack of attention to supply chain threats. Cloud native applications have a long chain of dependencies, and those dependencies have dependences of their own. DevOps and security teams need to gain visibility into the bill of materials in every cloud workload in order to evaluate risk at every stage of the dependency chain and establish guardrails.

  • Oracle Scores Deal to Help Telefónica Spain Migrate to the Cloud

    Oracle Scores Deal to Help Telefónica Spain Migrate to the Cloud

    Oracle has scored a big win, signing a multi-year deal with Telefónica Spain to help it accelerate its cloud adoption.

    Oracle has been focusing its efforts on its cloud business, working to gain share in a market dominated by AWS, Microsoft and Google. The company has some advantages working in its favor, including its ability to offer a full end-to-end solution.

    The company has secured a multi-year contract with Telefónica Spain that will see the latter migrate to Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer, an on-premise solution. Using an on-premise solution ensures compliance with the EU’s data laws.

    “Digitalization and connectivity are reconfiguring the way we work and live, and Telefónica is transforming its business to support our customers in this new world. As we take advantage of these new opportunities, we need to consolidate and simplify our technological infrastructure to make ourselves more agile and adaptable, and this is where our collaboration with Oracle comes in,” says Fidel Jesús Fernández, director of Technologies and TI Transformation at Telefónica Spain. “Oracle Cloud@Customer gives us the flexibility we need to build a robust and scalable cloud platform in our own data centers, which is scalable and elastic to meet the changing needs of our business.”

    “Telecommunications companies are having to reinvent their business models as they navigate changing customer expectations, capture new markets and become both service providers and enablers. Telefónica is one of the companies that is at the forefront of this change, and we are delighted to provide the power and flexibility of Oracle Cloud@Customer to support Telefónica de España and its partners in providing the next generation of digital services to consumers and companies, “says Enrique Diaz Galán, KAD for Telefónica at Oracle.

  • Salesforce Economy to Create 9.3 Million Jobs, $1.6 Trillion in Revenue by 2026

    Salesforce Economy to Create 9.3 Million Jobs, $1.6 Trillion in Revenue by 2026

    A new report is demonstrating the breadth of the current digital transformation, claiming the Salesforce economy will create 9.3 million jobs and $1.6 trillion in revenue in the next five years.

    Salesforce is the leading CRM provider in the world, and recently acquired Slack, one of the leading corporate messaging platforms. Salesforce has gone all-in on the hybrid/remote workplace, and aims to be the “digital HQ” for its customers. CEO Marc Benioff is a firm believer that employees “can be successful from anywhere,” and Salesforce is aggressively positioning itself as the company that can make that happen.

    A new study by IDC, shows Salesforce is doing something right, as the company and its ecosystem partners “will create 9.3 million new jobs and $1.6 trillion in new business revenues worldwide by 2026.” Equally impressive, for every $1 Salesforce makes, its partner ecosystem will make $6.19.

    The company attributed its “digital HQ” strategy as a key to IDC’s findings. IDC predicts that cloud-related tech will make up 27% of digital transformation IT spending in 2022, and grow to 37% in 2026. This trend is being driven by the remote work transition initially sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Salesforce is helping its customers make that transition smoother.

    In fact, IDC found that Salesforce solutions had helped 47% of customer respondents expand their workforce to include more suburban and rural areas. In addition, 38% were able to expand their workforce into new demographics, such as stay-at-home parents who would otherwise not be able join the workforce, and 36% are able to support more flexible work environments.

    “The Salesforce partner ecosystem extends the power of Salesforce to companies of all sizes, across industries and helps make customer success possible,” said Tyler Prince, EVP, Alliances & Channels, Salesforce. “As Salesforce grows, so do our partners — and we are committed to providing our expanding partner ecosystem with the tools needed to succeed in the jobs of the future.”

  • Huawei Investing $15 Million in Middle East Cloud Computing

    Huawei Investing $15 Million in Middle East Cloud Computing

    Huawei is preparing to invest $15 million over the next three years in Middle East cloud computing.

    Huawei has suffered greatly at the hands of the US and its allies. In country after country, the company has been banned and restricted from participating in 5G networks over security concerns.

    The company has increasingly been turning to its other businesses, including its cloud computing. According to Zawya, the company will spend $15 million over the next three years in the Middle East.

    “[The program] will thus provide truly unique and rewarding offerings to local businesses, while safeguarding the region’s digital future through extensive training opportunities in the cloud arena,” said Eric Wan, vice president of cloud marketing, ecosystem and partner development at Huawei Middle East.

  • COVID-19 Driving Global Government IT Spending Growth

    COVID-19 Driving Global Government IT Spending Growth

    The COVID-19 pandemic is driving governments around the world to invest more heavily in IT.

    One of the biggest lasting effects of the pandemic is an accelerated migration to the cloud and transition to digital-first workflows. The accelerated pace, however, has put a strain on IT departments across industries, including government.

    As a result, according to Gartner, 2022 will see a 6.5% increase in government IT spending, for a total of $557.3 billion.

    “Governments will continue to accelerate investments in digital technologies to respond and recover from the continuing evolution of public health uncertainties due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Irma Fabular, research vice president at Gartner. “The disruptions caused by the pandemic have also reinforced a key digital government tenet, which is public policy and technology are inseparable.”

    Some of the fastest growing segments include the modernization of IT infrastructure and applications; improving public services responsiveness and resilience; and adoption of citizen digital identity.

    “Digital identity is moving beyond authenticating citizens online and signing remote transactions,” said Fabular. “To raise the chances for greater adoption of digital identity, governments must treat privacy, security and user convenience as critical success factors.”

  • Google Cloud Unveils Unattended Project Recommender

    Google Cloud Unveils Unattended Project Recommender

    Google Cloud is making it easier to recover resources from abandoned projects with its Unattended Project Recommender.

    Even the most organized cloud-based organization occasionally has projects and resources that fall through the cracks, or are otherwise abandoned. Google’s new Unattended Project Recommender is designed to help identify those projects and recover or deprecate them.

    Google announced the new service in a blog post:

    To help you prune your idle cloud resources, we’re excited to introduce Unattended Project Recommender. It’s a new feature of Active Assist that provides you with a one-stop shop for discovering, reclaiming, and shutting down unattended projects. With actionable and automatic recommendations, you no longer have to worry about wasting money or mitigating security risks presented by your idle resources. Unattended Project Recommender uses machine learning to identify, with a high degree of confidence, projects that are likely abandoned based on API and networking activity, billing, usage of cloud services, and other signals. This feature is available via the Recommender API today, making it easy for you to integrate with your company’s existing workflow management and communication tools, or export results to a BigQuery table for custom analysis.

    Unattended Project Recommender should be a major help to companies looking to more closely monitor and manage their cloud resources.

  • ’Significant Demand’ Forces Microsoft to Cancel Windows 365 Free Trial

    ’Significant Demand’ Forces Microsoft to Cancel Windows 365 Free Trial

    Microsoft has canceled its free trial of Windows 365, as a result of “significant demand” for the new service.

    Microsoft announced its “Cloud PC” service, Windows 365, roughly three weeks ago. The service is designed to allow almost anyone with a web browser to run Windows and its applications.

    As we wrote when it was announced, the new services promises to upend and pose a major threat to the virtualization market. Virtualization — running a guest OS in a virtualized machine on the main computer — requires fairly fast hardware and plenty of memory. Duplicating that experience in the browser, with network speed being one of the only real limitations, stands to completely reimagine the experience.

    It appears plenty of other people agree with that assessment, as Microsoft has been forced to stop its free trial due to significant demand.

    Individuals looking to signup for a free trial once Microsoft catches up with demand can do so here.

  • Cloud Infrastructure Spending Hit $42 Billion in Q2

    Cloud Infrastructure Spending Hit $42 Billion in Q2

    The cloud infrastructure market continued its impressive gains, with spending hitting $42 billion in Q2, according to Synergy Research Group.

    Synergy’s latest data is good news for the industry, and provides a number of important revelations. According to the company, the top three cloud companies continue to be AWS, Microsoft and Google, with 33%, 20% and 10% of the market respectively. Alibaba, IBM, Salesforce, Tencent, Oracle and “Others” round out the industry.

    Interestingly, that means the top three companies account for 63% of money spent on cloud infrastructure.

    “This market continues to be a runaway success story for Amazon, Microsoft, Google and some other cloud providers. You would not normally expect to see growth rates actually increasing in such a huge and rapidly developing market, yet once again that is what our research has shown,” said John Dinsdale, a Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group. “It must be said that this success is hard earned. Amazon, Microsoft and Google in aggregate are typically investing over $25 billion in capex per quarter, much of which is going towards building and equipping their fleet of over 340 hyperscale data centers. There remains a wealth of opportunity for smaller, more focused cloud providers, but it can be hard to look away from the eye-popping numbers coming out of the big three.”

    Synergy’s report is further evidence that, despite the accelerated cloud transition as a result of the pandemic, there appears to be plenty of room for further growth.

  • Cisco May Need to Open the Coffers to Remain Competitive

    Cisco May Need to Open the Coffers to Remain Competitive

    Analysts believe Cisco may have to spend big on acquisitions if it wants to remain competitive in a changing tech landscape.

    Cisco built its business on networking equipment for the enterprise, the kind of equipment companies need to run data centers and on-premise networks. As Business Insider’s Aaron Holmes argues, however, Cisco is facing an existential crisis: the cloud.

    Cloud computing is on the rise now more than ever. While the transition was already well underway, the pandemic and rise of the remote workforce sent the transition into overdrive. As more and more companies rely on cloud computing to handle their basic operations, the need for expensive, enterprise-grade equipment to support on-premise networks and data centers drops precipitously.

    As a result, many analysts believe Cisco will need to make additional acquisitions to remain competitive and adapt to the changing industry. Such an acquisition could be of an up-and-coming startup that offers a product or service complimentary to Cisco’s ambitions, or it could be a larger acquisition of an established rival.

    Fortunately, as Holmes points out, this is nothing new for Cisco. The company has a long history of making acquisitions and isn’t shy about ponying up when the need arises. Hopefully, company leadership realizes the current cloud transitions represents one of those times.

  • Microsoft Tops Forecasts on Strong Cloud Results

    Microsoft Tops Forecasts on Strong Cloud Results

    Microsoft has announced its quarterly results, topping forecasts on strong Azure performance.

    Microsoft has been firing on all cylinders, recently becoming just the second company to cross the $2 trillion valuation mark. Multiple analysts have raised the company’s stock target, citing its cloud business, which benefits from the Microsoft’s strong legacy business.

    The latest quarterly results bear out that optimism, with the company reporting $46.2 billion in revenue, an increase of 21%. Significantly, the company’s Intelligent Cloud revenue came in at $17.4 billion, up 30%. Azure growth, in particular, was a whopping 51%. Overall net income for the quarter was $16.5 billion, an increase of 47%.

    The company’s revenue for Fiscal Year 2021 was $168.1 billion, up 18%. Net income was $61.3 billion GAAP, an increase of 38%.

    “We are innovating across the technology stack to help organizations drive new levels of tech intensity across their business,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. “Our results show that when we execute well and meet customers’ needs in differentiated ways in large and growing markets, we generate growth, as we’ve seen in our commercial cloud – and in new franchises we’ve built, including gaming, security, and LinkedIn, all of which surpassed $10 billion in annual revenue over the past three years.”

    “As we closed out the fiscal year, our sales teams and partners delivered a strong quarter with over 20% top and bottom-line growth, highlighted by commercial bookings growth of 30% year over year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft. “Our commercial cloud revenue grew 36% year over year to $19.5 billion.”

  • Box Unveils Native E-Signature Capabilities

    Box Unveils Native E-Signature Capabilities

    Box is rolling out native e-signature capabilities, in the form of Box Sign.

    Box has been under increased pressure to improve its standing in the market. Unlike some of its competitors, Box has not experienced as much pandemic-fueled success as other cloud platforms, despite being the perfect platform for remote work.

    The company is rolling out Box Sign, in an effort to help grow its reach. The new feature is based on the company’s SignRequest acquisition in February. The native e-signature features will be included in all business plans.

    “Every day, more transactions are moving from paper-based manual workflows to the cloud, and we will only see this trend accelerate as companies shift to a hybrid work environment,” said Diego Dugatkin, Chief Product Officer at Box. “With the addition of natively embedded e-signatures, Box customers will be able to manage the entire content lifecycle in the cloud, realizing the value of their content — at no additional cost. From the moment a file is created to when it’s shared, edited, published, approved, signed, classified, and retained, the entire content lifecycle can now happen in the Box Content Cloud.”

  • Google Cloud Promises Product Stability With Enterprise APIs

    Google Cloud Promises Product Stability With Enterprise APIs

    Google is working to convince its cloud customers they can count on it for product and feature stability with Google Enterprise APIs.

    Google has a long history of killing off its own products suddenly. App Maker, Loon, Google Hangouts, Google Play Music, Game Builder, Google Jump, Google+ and Chromebook Pixel are just a few of the projects and products Google has killed. 

    Unfortunately for the company, having a reputation for killing off its own products is not conducive to gaining cloud market share, a core goal of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. The company is now taking steps to address its reputation, with its new Enterprise APIs.

    At Google Cloud, we’ve been implementing programs to enhance your trust in our platform; for example, we introduced Mission Critical Services, a consultative offering for customers with top-tier Premium Support, and simplified launch stages, for greater predictability of our product roadmap. 

    Today, we’re taking it one step further by introducing designated Google Enterprise APIs, a label applied to the vast majority of APIs across Google Cloud, Google Workspace, and Google Maps Platform (not inclusive of our consumer APIs). Built for higher stability, Google Enterprise APIs are governed by new tenets, a stringent set of requirements about how and when we make changes to them. 

    Given Kurian’s goal of becoming the number two cloud provider in five years, in terms of market share, Enterprise APIs are a step in the right direction. In fact, it makes one wonder why the company didn’t take such a step sooner.

    Of course, if Google wasn’t so kill-happy with its own products, it wouldn’t need to do anything to convince customers it won’t kill its own products.

  • Jefferies Raises Microsoft Stock Target on Fundamentals

    Jefferies Raises Microsoft Stock Target on Fundamentals

    Jefferies analyst Brent Thill has raised his price target for Microsoft’s stock on what he sees as strong fundamentals.

    Microsoft has been on a tear in recent quarters, boosted by its Azure cloud computing platform. The company is currently in second place in the cloud industry, behind AWS, but many experts see Microsoft’s cloud platform continuing to benefit from its legacy business. Given how much of the business world runs on Microsoft, migrating to Azure is a no-brainer for many Microsoft-based shops.

    With the company set to announce its quarterly results tomorrow, Brent Thill has raised his target price for the stock from $310 to $335, according to TheStreet.

    “Microsoft been a significant outperformer year to date, up 30% vs the software index, setting the bar slightly higher for MSFT shares going into the” earnings report, Thill said.

    “Key items to watch are fiscal 2022 margin pressure, elevated expectations and more color on recent merger acquisition and broader aspirations,” Thill added.

  • Oracle’s Cloud Unit Gears Up for ‘24×7’ Work in Fight for the Cloud

    Oracle’s Cloud Unit Gears Up for ‘24×7’ Work in Fight for the Cloud

    Oracle has told employees on various cloud projects to prepare for “24×7” work as the company fights for cloud market share.

    Oracle is currently behind the market leaders — AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud — in the cloud market. The company has had some major wins, however, as it offers a complete end-to-end solution.

    The company is now telling employees it will be redoubling its efforts, in a leaked memo seen by Business Insider. The memo emphasizes the need to focus on cloud projects and goals for the next few quarters, even if it means putting other projects on pause.

    “Other feature and development work is paused to assist in this effort,” the memo reads.

    “Region bootstrap, across regions, will need to happen on a 24×7 basis in order to hit our delivery dates. All teams will need to resource appropriately to accommodate this expectation,” the memo continued.

    Oracle is even willing to reallocate personal from other projects, if needed, to help it meet its goals.

    “This means, in some cases, temporarily reallocating personnel from other projects, teams, or orgs,” the memo added.

    The memo is one of the clearest signs yet of how seriously Oracle is taking the cloud market, and the lengths it will go to advance its position in the market.

  • Jeff Bezos Officially Steps Down as Amazon CEO

    Jeff Bezos Officially Steps Down as Amazon CEO

    Jeff Bezos has officially stepped down as Amazon CEO, on the 27th anniversary of the founding of his company.

    Bezos surprised the world when he announced in February 2020 that he would be stepping down from the company he founded and turned into an e-commerce and cloud behemoth. It’s believed he wants to spend more time on his Blue Origin company, one of the main competitors to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

    Monday, Bezos and Amazon made the move official. Andy Jassy, the head of AWS, succeeds him. Jassy’s promotion to the top job shows the importance of Amazon’s cloud business moving forward.

    In the meantime, despite not being CEO, Bezos will remain a powerful voice in the company. He continues to be its biggest shareholder, with a stake that’s currently worth some $180 billion.

  • Satya Nadella Replacing John Thomson as Microsoft Board Chairman

    Satya Nadella Replacing John Thomson as Microsoft Board Chairman

    Satya Nadella is replacing John Thompson as chairman of Microsoft’s board, in addition to his role as CEO.

    John Thompson is the former CEO of Symantec, and joined Microsoft’s board in 2012. He initially held the role of lead independent director, from 2012 to 2014, when he became chairman.

    The board has now voted to make Nadella chairman, while Thompson will return to being lead independent director. The move is no doubt an acknowledgement of Nadella’s role in making Microsoft the powerhouse it is today.

    During his tenure, Microsoft has pivoted, from focusing on its operating system and office software, to a heavy emphasis on cloud computing, coming in only behind AWS in the market. The company has also focused on making its software and products run on all major platforms, rather than excluding others in favor of Windows.

    The board is clearly happy with the job Nadella is doing, and wants him to have an even larger role in strategic decision-making.

    In this role, Nadella will lead the work to set the agenda for the board, leveraging his deep understanding of the business to elevate the right strategic opportunities and identify key risks and mitigation approaches for the board’s review. As lead independent director, Thompson will retain significant authority including providing input on behalf of the independent directors on board agendas, calling meetings of the independent directors, setting agendas for executive sessions, and leading performance evaluations of the CEO.