The week in cloud: Google and Microsoft spar while IBM and SAP play hot hands
photo: Shutterstock / Alexey Repka
Google and Microsoft slapfest continues; IBM pushes Watson for third-party apps; SAP bets big on HANA for ERP. Read more »
Networking chip firm Mellanox to buy startup Kotura. Because photonics.
photo: Thinkstock
Mellanox, the networking chip company famous for its Infinband products has agreed to to buy photonics startup Kotura in an all-cash deal. The purchase comes after Kotura started making products for the data center. Read more »
SAP to world: We’re a cloud company, no really!
To the surprise of very few, SAP plans to put make its HANA analytical database available as a cloud service. Read more »
Look, IBM is doing SQL on Hadoop, too
photo: Shutterstock / hauhu
IBM’s entrant in the SQL-on-Hadoop competition has been flying under the radar, but is available as a technology preview. Called Big SQL, it’s a big deal if IBM wants to be a major player in the Hadoop space. Read more »
Dell snaps up Enstratius to build cloud momentum
With Enstratius, Dell gets enterprise-class cloud management capabilities, says Enstratius CTO George Reese. Read more »
How will we measure the internet of things?
The internet of things is purportedly going to change our lives, boost our profits and create loads of economic opportunity. I don’t doubt this, but I do want to know how we’ll measure these gains. Read more »
Amazon offers cloud certifications; more proof that AWS is all grown up
photo: Mega Pixel
Amazon is following the lead of its IT elders by rolling out technology certifications for developers, solution architects and admins. Read more »
IBM makes “world’s smallest” movie by filming atoms
Researchers at IBM’s Almaden Research Center used a two-ton scanning tunneling microscope to make a the world’s tiniest movie. Read more »
IBM has a new protocol (and a box) for the internet of things
IBM has a new box for the internet of things, but it’s the MQTT protocol inside that box that’s worth a long look. The protocol could become the messaging layer for the internet of things. Read more »
Opscode gains momentum with IBM, Microsoft deals
IBM is integrating Chef into SmartCloud and Microsoft is adding support for Azure as well in a sign that enterprises are fully aboard the devops bandwagon. Read more »
CA snaps up Layer 7 as API management arena heats up
Last week it was Intel buying Mashery, now it’s CA buying Layer 7. Both Mashery and Layer 7 are in the business of managing application programming interfaces. Read more »
IBM buys UrbanCode for its devops chops
Big Blue says UrbanCode’s software works well with its own Worklight mobile application development platfrom to speed up the creation and deployment of mobile (and cloud) apps. Read more »
Why IBM might ditch servers and become Intelligent Business Middleware
IBM is reportedly in talks to sell it’s server business to Lenovo. As it ditches commodity hardware again, where is IBM’s fortune going to be made? Mobility and data. Read more »
Cloud keeps looking good for IBM, and flash storage could help in the months ahead
Despite gains in cloud computing revenue, IBM did not meet Wall Street’s expectations of the legacy technology vendor. Flash storage could help bring more revenue later this year. Read more »
Scoop: Juniper, Ericsson go for OpenStack gold
The two networking powers have applied to become Gold members of the foundation that governs the OpenStack open-source cloud effort. Read more »
IBM ponies up $1B to add flash to more products and speed up big data
IBM announced Thursday a $1 billion bet on flash storage, following on similar moves in the past. Flash has been hot as of late, and this bet could pay off nicely. Read more »
From outsider to IBM Fellow in less than 2 years: Neil Bartlett sets a record
photo: IBM
IBM Fellows get access to all of IBM’s toys (maybe even Watson!) and, perhaps more importantly, a hotline to Ginni Rometty. That’s why analysis and risk whiz Neil Bartlett is so happy to join the club. Read more »
IBM releases Hadoop box and database technology for quicker data insights
photo: Jordan Novet
IBM announced a new PureData appliance for Hadoop and technology for speeding up analytic databases. The announcements come at a good time, with data sets growing and enterprises hankering for easy and fast analysis capability. Read more »
MuleSoft rakes in more moolah to connect your applications to the world
MuleSoft wants to push its Anypoint Platform as the Switzerland of application integration,and now it has $37 million to promote that vision. Read more »
Google Nose is not really a joke
photo: Flickr / Slideshow Bruce
Google Nose (now in beta) is an April Fools joke, but computers that smell or even taste things will soon be within the realm of possibility. Just ask IBM. Read more »
What it takes to be a mobile hit: Five friends, zero VC dollars and lots of chutzpah
John Arrow is the 26-year-old CEO of a four year old mobile application company that has 375 employees. Here’s how he managed to grow his business while growing as a leader at Mutual Mobile. Read more »
Big Brother and sensor-based surveillance will ensure you wash your hands
photo: Shutterstock/Palto
Sensors, data analysis and connectivity can be a boon when it comes to preventing a variety of ills (and illnesses) but the combo can also be used in less benign ways. Do employees need more rights? Read more »
Hurd? Capellas? Let’s be bold. How about Gerstner, Bradley, Bartz, Otellini as new Dell chief?
photo: HP
Blackstone reportedly reached out to Oracle co-prez Mark Hurd to gauge his interest in being Dell CEO should Blackstone’s buyout bid succeed. Here are a few much more interesting options. Read more »
IBM rethinks the transistor to keep scaling compute power
IBM has tweaked the transistor, adding a coating that allows ions to complete the circuit instead of electrons. That’s some heavy science, but it could help keep Moore’s Law going. Read more »
Podcast: How IBM uses chaos theory, data and the internet of things to fix traffic
photo: IBM
IBM thinks the internet of things is about far more than changing the color of your light bulbs, in large-scale implementations it can prevent traffic jams, save lives and lower costs for cities. Read more »
For big data achievements, IT and analysts need to work together
photo: Albert Chau
Representatives at IBM and the New York Stock Exchange laid out a schematic for doing big data analytics and showed how it can work in practice. Read more »
The week in cloud: VMware fesses up; Amazon adds features; Newvem watches Amazon
photo: Shutterstock / Gena96
It was a busy week in cloud as VMware took the wraps off its public cloud play; Newvem added still another way to watch your Amazon account; and Amazon itself churned out a ton of new AWS features. Read more »
EMC is just not that into SoftLayer, but IBM may be
photo: Shutterstock / Bruce Rolff
EMC is not in the race for SoftLayer, the cloud services provider, but IBM is on the prowl for cloud expertise and has looked at both SoftLayer and Rackspace, sources say. Read more »
Death of an IT salesman
photo: Shutterstock Peshkova
Enterprises have already started to change the way they buy IT but we’re still in the midst of a massive multi-year transformation. And that should worry vendors like EMC, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and VMware. Read more »
Report: IBM and EMC eye SoftLayer
photo: Flickr / mrs. tom
Softlayer may be in the cross hairs of not one but two legacy IT giants, according to a Reuters report. Even the idea that EMC or IBM would consider a buyout is interesting. Read more »
Wanted: More jobs for Watson
photo: IBM
IBM’s always on the look out for new challenges for Watson to tackle. Two dozen teams of USC students recently had 48 hours to create their own business plans for the technology. Read more »
Who’s the biggest cloud of all? The numbers are in
Synergy Research ranked the top Iaas, PaaS and CDN providers by revenue for the fourth quarter. Some of the findings might surprise you. Read more »
Rackspace gussies up private cloud with new OpenCenter dashboard
Rackspace says its new dashboard, part of its latest OpenStack-based private cloud release, will speed up cloud rollouts and configuration tasks by adding point-and-click capabilities for enteprise users. Read more »
Finally: IBM drops the other OpenStack shoe
At its Pulse conference this week, Big Blue is finally providing some details about its OpenStack cloud implementation plans. Read more »
Watson goes to college: How the world’s smartest PC will revolutionize AI
photo: IBM
IBM’s Watson made waves in AI when it defeated a pair of champions on Jeopardy! Now, engineering students at RPI, Watson’s new home, hope to use the supercomputer to gain fresh insights into machine learning. Read more »
Big data can improve websites, cut energy bills, save lives
photo: Jordan Novet
Use cases at the Strata conference show that information gleaned from Hadoop and other big data technologies can bring companies new revenue streams and cut expenditures. Read more »
This week’s 10 best data stories (so far)
There has been a lot of data news already this week — some big, some interesting, and some both. Here’s a collection of the stuff you shouldn’t, or don’t want to, miss. Read more »
IBM plugs big data capabilities into Deutsche Telekom’s M2M infrastructure for smarter cities
The two companies have signed a partnership aimed at providing municipalities with tools for making their cities, in particular their transport systems, smarter and more efficient. Read more »
IBM’s mobile first plan is really about cloud first. That’s all you need to know
photo: IBM
IBM’s mobile first strategy is not only about mobile, but about IBM’s attempt to remake the entire IT infrastructure at many companies to use the cloud, data, and real-time nature of social networks to serve customers. Read more »
Amazon gets (more) serious about the enterprise. No kidding
photo: Shutterstock/ tommistock
The fact that Amazon Web Services is targeting enterprise accounts is nothing new. The company’s just getting more blatant about it. Read more »
