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Tag: IBM Cloud

  • Microsoft Azure Is a Major Threat to AWS

    Microsoft Azure Is a Major Threat to AWS

    Multiple reports are showing that Microsoft Azure is increasingly becoming a major threat to AWS in the cloud space.

    AWS is the current market leader among public cloud providers, with Microsoft Azure in second place and Google Cloud in third. Despite AWS’s lead, according to the Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report, Azure usage has surpassed AWS in several instances, representing the first time this has happened in 11 years of Flexera’s reporting:

    As in previous years, AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform are the top three public cloud providers. But for the first time, Azure has closed the gap with AWS, while other cloud providers have not shown much growth. For each public cloud provider, respondents specified whether they’re running significant workloads in that cloud, running some workloads, experimenting, plan to use it or had no plans to use it.

    Interestingly, Azure took the lead in overall breadth of adoption among organizations:

    Azure passed AWS for breadth of adoption among enterprises. Google Cloud Platform has the highest percentage for experimentation (23 percent) and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure has the highest percentage of plan to use (twelve percent), which could drive more adoption in future years.

    Azure also scored a win among “enterprises running some or significant workloads on the platforms.” While Azure tied with AWS at 47% of organizations using it for significant workloads, it surpassed AWS among organizations using it for some workloads, at 33% vs 30%.

    Of the top six cloud providers, Azure was the only one that saw its adoption rate increase year-over-year, coming in at 80% in 2022 vs 76% in 2021. In contrast, AWS adoption rates dropped in 2022 to 77%, down from 79% in 2021. Similarly, Google dropped from 49% to 48% and Oracle dropped from 32% to 27%. IBM Cloud’s adoption rate stayed steady at 25%, while Alibaba dropped from 13% to 11%.

    While Flexera’s report is telling enough, it’s supported by a new report from Credit Suisse. According to Investing.com, Credit Suisse analysts outlined how “Azure has grown meaningfully faster than AWS” and, as companies transition to the cloud, “the full multi-year impact of Azure’s growth opportunity is still not properly reflected in consensus estimates.”

    Overall, the two reports are excellent news for Microsoft and dovetail with previous reports demonstrating the growth potential of Azure.

  • 2021 IBM Call for Code Tackles Climate Change

    2021 IBM Call for Code Tackles Climate Change

    IBM has announced its 2021 Call for Code challenge, with the theme of tackling climate change.

    IBM’s Call for Code is currently in its fourth year, and calls on developers and problem-solvers to tackle some of the world’s biggest issues. This year, the theme is climate change, with IBM inviting developers to submit solutions on three sub-themes: zero hunger; clean water and sanitation; and responsible production and green consumption.

    A major theme of the Call for Code challenge is the use of open source software, and this year is no different. IBM is emphasizing solutions built on “Red Hat OpenShift, IBM Cloud, IBM Watson, IBM Blockchain, atmospheric data from IBM’s Weather Company, and developer resources and APIs from partners like Intuit and New Relic.”

    IBM is building on its decades-long environmental advocacy, in the hopes that participants will be able to help address one of the biggest challenges the world is currently facing.

    “Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and we must apply our collective ingenuity and cutting-edge technologies to make a lasting difference,” said Ruth Davis, director of Call for Code, IBM. “Together with our ecosystem of partners, IBM will work with the winning team to incubate and deploy their solution in communities where it’s most needed, just as we’ve done with past winners. I encourage every developer and innovator around the world to seize this opportunity through Call for Code to change our climate trajectory.”

  • Microsoft Azure and AWS Big Cloud Winners Amid Pandemic

    Microsoft Azure and AWS Big Cloud Winners Amid Pandemic

    As the global pandemic has accelerated cloud adoption, Microsoft Azure and AWS have emerged as the clear winners.

    Flexera has released its 2021 State of Tech Spend Report. As expected, digital transformation and cloud adoption are on the rise. Some 56% of respondents said digital transformation was a top initiative for 2021, as opposed to 54% in 2020. Cloud adoption saw even greater jump, with 48% of respondents making it a top priority in 2021, vs 40% in 2020. Not surprisingly, work from home was the single biggest driver for change, with 74% citing it as the leading factor.

    Of the cloud providers, Microsoft Azure and AWS were the clear winners. Some 61% of respondents said they were going to increase spending on Microsoft Azure in 2021. Similarly, 57% plan on increasing their spending on Microsoft SaaS, while 54% plan on spending more on AWS. Google appears set for more modest gains, with only 31% planning on increased spending on Google Cloud.

    The forecast looks even worse for IBM and Oracle. Respondents plan on increasing their spending on IBM Cloud a mere 16%, with 14% planning to decrease spending. While 20% said they planned on increasing spending on Oracle Infrastructure Cloud, 13% plan on decreased spending. The outlook is even worse for Oracle Licensed Software, with 22% planning to increase spending, as opposed to 25% planning to decrease expenditures.

    Flexera’s report is an important look into the cloud industry and the ongoing digital transformation, and is even better news for Microsoft and AWS.

  • IBM CEO On Hybrid Cloud: Microsoft and Amazon Likely Partners

    IBM CEO On Hybrid Cloud: Microsoft and Amazon Likely Partners

    IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says that Microsoft and Amazon will be partners with IBM on the hybrid cloud via their Red Hat technology platform.

    “It’s a question of understanding what’s hybrid as opposed to pure public,” says IBM CEO Arvind Krishna. “I look at both Microsoft and Amazon as likely partners in this journey, not as being the one and two. In the hybrid world, the question is where does the client want to decide where the workload runs? They can run it on Amazon, they can run it on Microsoft, they can run it on IBM, or they can run it on private. What is the technology platform that goes across all of those? Red Hat gives a great answer to that technology platform.”

    “There are many capabilities people need around integration and cybersecurity,” adds Krishna. “We’ll bring those to bear. Then we will bring our services to bear for those clients who would like to get that help both in improving the skills of their own people or for us to do the work for them. That is why you see us report $24 billion dollars in the trailing 12 months on total cloud revenue. That’s a hybrid market and not a singular public cloud market.”

    IBM CEO Arvind Krishna On Hybrid Cloud: Microsoft and Amazon Likely Partners
  • IBM: Strong Cloud Revenue Growth Powers Q3

    IBM: Strong Cloud Revenue Growth Powers Q3

    IBM today announced third-quarter 2020 earnings results. Although overall revenue was slightly down again cloud revenue was up big.

    “The strong performance of our cloud business, led by Red Hat, underscores the growing client adoption of our open hybrid cloud platform,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM chief executive officer. “Separating the managed infrastructure services business creates a market-leading standalone company and further sharpens our focus on IBM’s open hybrid cloud platform and AI capabilities. This will accelerate our growth strategy and better position IBM to seize the $1 trillion hybrid-cloud opportunity.”

    Highlights for the third quarter include:

    • GAAP EPS from continuing operations of $1.89
    • Operating (non-GAAP) EPS of $2.58
    • Revenue of $17.6 billion, down 2.6 percent (down 3.1 percent adjusting for divested businesses and currency)
      — Cloud & Cognitive Software revenue up 7 percent (up 6 percent adjusting for currency)
    • Total cloud revenue of $6.0 billion, up 19 percent
      — Total cloud revenue of $24.4 billion over the last 12 months, up 22 percent (up 25 percent adjusting for divested businesses and currency)
    • Red Hat revenue up 17 percent (up 16 percent adjusting for currency), normalized for historical comparability
    • GAAP gross profit margin of 48 percent, up 180 basis points; Operating (non-GAAP) gross profit margin of 49 percent, up 160 basis points
    • Net cash from operating activities of $15.8 billion and free cash flow of $10.8 billion, over the last 12 months

    “In the third quarter we continued to deliver strong gross profit margin expansion, generated solid free cash flow and maintained a sound capital structure with ample liquidity,” said James Kavanaugh, IBM senior vice president and chief financial officer. “We have the necessary financial flexibility to increase our investments in hybrid cloud and AI technology innovation and skills, while remaining committed to our long-standing dividend policy.”

    https://www.ibm.com/investor/att/pdf/IBM-3Q20-Earnings-Charts.pdf
  • IBM, ServiceNow In New AI Partnership

    IBM, ServiceNow In New AI Partnership

    IBM and ServiceNow are partnering to provide enterprise solutions that utilize AI to automate IT operations. The new joint solution combines IBM’s AI‑powered hybrid cloud software and professional services to ServiceNow’s intelligent workflow capabilities and IT service and operations management products. The solution raises up deep AI‑driven insights from their data and then recommends actions for IT organizations to take that help them prevent and fix IT issues at scale.

    “AI is one of the biggest forces driving change in the IT industry to the extent that every company is swiftly becoming an AI company,” said Arvind Krishna, Chief Executive Officer, IBM. “By partnering with ServiceNow and their market-leading Now Platform, clients will be able to use AI to quickly mitigate unforeseen IT incident costs. Watson AIOps with ServiceNow’s Now Platform is a powerful new way for clients to use automation to transform their IT operations.”

    “For every CEO, digital transformation has gone from opportunity to necessity,” said ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott. “As ServiceNow leads the workflow revolution, our partnership with IBM combines the intelligent automation capabilities of the Now Platform with the power of Watson AIOps. We are focused on driving a generational step improvement in productivity, innovation, and growth. ServiceNow and IBM are helping customers meet the digital demands of 21st-century business.”

    ServiceNow says that in today’s technology‑driven organization, even the smallest outages can cause massive economic impact for both lost revenue and reputation. They note that this partnership will help customers address these challenges and help avoid unnecessary loss of revenue and reputation by automating old, manual IT processes and increasing IT productivity.

    Here is what IBM and ServiceNow are planning:

    • Joint Solution: IBM and ServiceNow will deliver a first of its kind joint IT solution that marries IBM Watson AIOps with ServiceNow’s intelligent workflow capabilities and market‑leading ITSM and ITOM Visibility products to help customers prevent and fix IT issues at scale. Now, businesses that use ServiceNow ITSM can push historical incident data into the deep machine learning algorithms of Watson AIOps to create a baseline of their normal IT environment, while simultaneously having the ability to help them identify anomalies outside of that normal, which could take a human up to 60% longer to manually identify, according to initial results from specific Watson AIOps early adopter clients. The joint solution will position customers to enhance employee productivity, obtain greater visibility into their operational footprint and respond to incidents and issues faster.

    Specific product capabilities will include:

    • ServiceNow ITSM allows IT to deliver scalable services on a single cloud platform estimated to increase productivity by 20%.
    • ServiceNow ITOM Visibility automatically delivers near real‑time visibility from a native Configuration Management Database, into all resources and the true operational state of all business services.
    • IBM Watson AIOps uses AI to automate how enterprises detect, diagnose, and respond to, and remediate IT anomalies in real time. The solution is designed to help CIOs make more informed decisions when predicting and shaping future outcomes, focus resources on higher‑value work and build more responsive and intelligent applications that can stay up and running longer. Using Watson AIOps, the average time to resolve incidents was reduced by 65 percent, according to one recent initial proof of concept project with a client.
    • Services: IBM is expanding its global ServiceNow business to include additional capabilities that provide advisory, implementation, and managed services on the Now Platform. Highly‑skilled IBM practitioners will apply their expertise to facilitate rapid delivery of valuable insights and innovation to clients. IBM Services professionals also will introduce clients to intelligent workflows to help improve resiliency and reduce IT risk. ServiceNow is co‑investing in training and certification of IBM employees and dedicated staff for customer success.

    “Businesses are facing increased pressures to match the digital pace of a cloud‑first market in order to meet the demands of their customers,” said Stephen Elliot, program vice president, DevOps, and Management Software, IDC. “The C‑ suite is transforming workflows to deliver insights and automation for more efficient customer engagement models and cost containment strategies for the business while simplifying IT operations and increasing collaboration between IT and business stakeholders.”

  • IBM: Barriers To Digital Transformation Have Broken Down

    IBM: Barriers To Digital Transformation Have Broken Down

    “The barriers have broken down now in digital transformation because of people working from home and the need to adopt faster,” says Brenda Harvey, General Manager at IBM Asia Pacific. “We see continued growth of hybrid cloud and of cloud services after the pandemic. It’s touching every element of a company’s business processes from the inside out and the outside in.”

    Brenda Harvey, General Manager of IBM Asia Pacific, discusses how the work at home acceleration caused by the pandemic has permanently broken down the barriers to digital transformation:

    Cloud Driving Better Business Impact

    The benefits coming from new personalized services, workflow automation, infusing AI to help drive this more personal experience, are actually driving better business impact. When we think about hybrid cloud which enables you to leverage all of your investments across your infrastructure we’re actually seeing two and a half times value than traditional models. We’re also seeing the benefits from regulatory cloud and capabilities that we’re putting into our platforms. We just announced a financial services cloud and we’ll do the same with insurance and healthcare.

    We’ll take the costs out of the regulatory risk and compliance while providing more value from a business perspective. We’ve had a number of relationships across multiple industries including BNP Paribas, MUFG Bank, Adobe, across telecom with Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, Verizon, and even Schlumberger and Ernst & Young. Companies are seeing the value of these platforms. In fact, in the study, 94% of the respondents said that by 2022 they would have a new business platform model that would continue to power their business.

    Barriers To Digital Transformation Have Broken Down

    We see continued growth of hybrid cloud and of cloud services after the pandemic. It’s touching every element of a company’s business processes from the inside out and the outside in. The inside out includes HR, finance, risk compliance, procurement, supply chain. Then the outside in, marketing, sales, customer engagement, and customer service. With marketing at marketing events, we saw a 3X response into our Think Digital than previous years because we could have more reach. So now marketing is taking into account a digital transformation of the clients’ needs.

    Customer service and engagement are the number one priority of our clients. They are building and investing in the contact center to improve the experience and drive more value. This cloud platform will bring in new capabilities with 5G such as IoT (internet of things), blockchain, and of course quantum capabilities. We’ll see the technology advance while the cultural change is advancing too. The barriers have broken down now in digital transformation because of people working from home and the need to adopt faster.

    IBM: Barrier To Digital Transformation Have Broken Down
  • Big Tech: IBM Deploys Face Mask Surveillance System

    Big Tech: IBM Deploys Face Mask Surveillance System

    This may or may not worry you depending on your point of view. IBM has deployed a super intelligent face mask surveillance system for businesses (or government) to discreetly track face mask usage by employees, customers, and anyone who enters a building where their system is installed. The platform will send alerts to the powers that be if anyone is either not wearing a face mask properly or not wearing one at all.

    Presumably, if the tech savvy eye in the sky notices an infraction it will quickly enable management and their enforcement teams to confront the individuals to rectify their face mask violation. How dare they! It will also monitor in real-time crowd density, social distancing, and elevated body temps of those who are entering an establishment.

    IBM Cloud released a video narrated by Ian Smalley (below) that explains how their technology works to enable any business or government to surveil and enforce mask usage:

    Here is a really cool way that Edge Computing is being used to help businesses reopen and operate safely. We know face masks can substantially reduce the transmission of aerosol borne viruses. But sometimes people forget to wear them properly or at all. IBM Edge Application Manager places analytical workloads with Edge enabled cameras that can recognize face masks and determine if they are being worn effectively.

    Since analysis is being performed at the camera the video data and individual privacy are protected. You also avoid the expense of transmitting, storing, or analyzing that image data any further. Alerts are sent every time the camera detects improperly worn or non-existent face masks. Then it sends the aggregated data back to the IBM Maximo Worker Insights platform allowing you to highlight face mask activity in your facilities.

    It’s pretty amazing stuff and that’s only scratching the surface. IBM Application Manager is also using Edge Computing to monitor crowd density, social distancing, and elevated body temps of those who are entering an establishment.