Atos’ Future Will Bring a Much-Needed Restructure

by Rena Bhattacharyya, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, IT Leader, Secure
R. Bhattacharyya

Summary Bullets:

  • Atos announced plans to split into two companies: one will focus on digital solutions and the other on information systems.
  • There is still much uncertainty regarding what will happen to Atos in the long term, with rumors flying of a potential acquisition by another French organization.

For France-based Atos, significant change is imminent. In mid-June 2022, the IT services provider (ITSP) announced plans to split into two companies:  SpinCo will offer high-growth solutions that support digital transformation, big data (including Atos’ computing portfolio), and cybersecurity; and TFCo (Atos’ Tech Foundations) will provide low-growth managed infrastructure services, digital workplace solutions, and professional services.  By restructuring, Atos is separating its higher-growth and higher-margin businesses from its underperforming divisions, which have been dragging the company’s overall financial performance down for several years.

Continue reading “Atos’ Future Will Bring a Much-Needed Restructure” →

UC&C Platforms Are Becoming Homogenized

by Gregg Willsky, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate
G. Willsky

Summary Bullets:

  • Three forces are driving homogenization of UC&C platforms: common features, a continuous surfeit of bells and whistles, and interoperability between competing platforms.
  • The need for in-office and remote workers to communicate and collaborate – and thus demand for UC&C platforms – will remain robust in the hybrid world.

Unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) platforms are becoming homogenized. There are three forces driving this phenomenon: (1) a common set of features has emerged from the major players, including meetings, chat, calling, and events (some players have created an augmented core by also including contact centers and AI); (2) competitors are continually and rapidly complementing common features with a surfeit of bells and whistles (e.g., live reactions such as likes, enhanced lighting for video feeds, and polling); and (3) interoperability between platforms and cooperation between competitors are fast becoming the norm.

Continue reading “UC&C Platforms Are Becoming Homogenized” →

With Atos Partnership, ZainTech Is Positioning Itself to Capitalize on Next-Gen Enterprise Services Boom in MENA

by Ismail Patel, posted in Cloud Enable, IT Leader, Secure
I. Patel

Summary Bullets:

  • After it consolidated its digital and enterprise divisions into ZainTech in late 2021, the deal with Atos is a signal of Zain Group’s strategic direction.
  • The partnership with Atos is part of Zain’s strategy to allow ZainTech to enter into deals with major enterprise vendors and grow organic revenue by selling next-gen enterprise services to regional clients.

Zain Group announced a partnership with French technology company Atos to provide digital transformation services to ZainTech enterprise customers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The deal comprises the provision of the following three services: a round-the-clock managed cybersecurity solution, a cloud solution to help businesses deliver next-gen digital technologies, and an end-to-end video analytics platform for customizable AI models (e.g., Atos Computer Vision Platform).

Continue reading “With Atos Partnership, ZainTech Is Positioning Itself to Capitalize on Next-Gen Enterprise Services Boom in MENA” →

With DataRobot Partnership, e& Moves Forward with Its Strategy to Reform into a Tech Company

by Ismail Patel, posted in Big Data
I. Patel

Summary Bullets:

• The deal with DataRobot is the first major announcement after Etisalat Digital rebranded to e& enterprise.

• The AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) solution targets customers in a variety of verticals, which will help e& achieve organic revenue growth and refashion itself from a telco into a tech company.

e& enterprise, part of e& (previously branded Etisalat Group), entered into a three-year partnership with US AI platform provider DataRobot, to launch enterprise AlaaS. DataRobot will enable e& enterprise customers to leverage AIaaS for deploying AI and ML solutions at scale without the need for deep data science expertise. AIaaS enables organizations to build and deploy AI solutions more quickly and at a lower cost compared to initiatives that rely primarily on in-house resources, thus accelerating ‘time-to-value.’ Customers of e& enterprise will be able to adopt the AIaaS offering, powered by a locally deployed DataRobot platform. Continue reading “With DataRobot Partnership, e& Moves Forward with Its Strategy to Reform into a Tech Company” →

The Future of SLAs: Predictive and Outcome-Oriented  

by Gary Barton, posted in IT Leader, Network
G. Barton
G. Barton

Summary Bullets:

  • Enterprises should work with providers to develop more meaningful KPIs within SLA agreements.
  • AI technology is enabling predictive fault detection; working with providers will help improve AI performance.

Service level agreements (SLAs) are one of the tech world’s necessary evils and often one of its most ineffective tools. Ideally, no SLAs should be required; enterprises would much rather have the service work than be compensated for its failure. Furthermore, the financial penalty in SLAs is often nowhere close to compensating for the financial loss caused by an outage. GlobalData’s conversations with enterprises have revealed a lack of faith from enterprises in SLAs, with more than one IT manager referring to them as ‘pointless.’

Continue reading “The Future of SLAs: Predictive and Outcome-Oriented  “ →

Speechmatics Cracks Number Transcription with New Entity Formatting

by wstofega, posted in Big Data
W. Stofega

Summary Bullets:

  • Accurately interpreting speech has posed challenges due to the variation in meaning and context that occurs during ordinary conversation.
  • Entity formatting or number interpretation is notoriously difficult to achieve. People might say ’oh’ instead of ’zero,’ or use ‘triple three’ instead of ‘3-3-3.’

Speechmatics was founded by Dr. Tony Robinson in 2006 and is based in Cambridge, England (UK). Robinson was a pioneer in applying recurrent neural and deep neural networks to automatic speech recognition (ASR). Speechmatics employs approximately 250 workers and is privately held. In 2012, the company began offering its ASR software to enterprise businesses on a usage-based revenue model.

Continue reading “Speechmatics Cracks Number Transcription with New Entity Formatting” →

IBM’s Quantum Roadmap for 2025 Brings Practicality and Excitement

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in Cloud Enable, IT Leader, Secure
S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:    

  • IBM’s roadmap for quantum computing leans heavily into software/development as the interface to make solving problems on quantum computers as easy as it is on classical systems.
  • IBM’s introduction of its modular quantum computing plan will allow, in the long term, parallelization of quantum computing, essentially creating larger quantum CPUs out of several smaller ones.

As it has been for the last several years, the quantum computing market is again boiling with a great deal of vim and vigor.  In May 2022, IBM made an announcement that it is expanding its roadmap for quantum computing, particularly at a large scale with a focus on realistic problems. IBM’s very near-term, previously disclosed roadmap includes the 433-qubit processor named IBM Osprey, which the company expects to make available later this year. In 2023, IBM intends to introduce IBM Condor, a quantum CPU that reaches 1,000+ cubits.

Continue reading “IBM’s Quantum Roadmap for 2025 Brings Practicality and Excitement” →

Customers and Partners Seek Reassurance About Broadcom’s Plan for Transforming VMware

by Chris Drake, posted in IT Leader

C. Drake

Summary Bullets:

  • Broadcom’s move to acquire VMware raises many questions, including whether Broadcom can integrate a much larger company with a focus on cloud software and application management.
  • Key questions about the acquisition include whether Broadcom might change or dispose of existing VMware solutions or alter the relationship between VMware and its customers or partners.

The announcement of Broadcom’s $61 billion (USD) bid to acquire VMware raises a raft of questions, the answers to which should not be expected anytime soon.  Assuming the acquisition gains regulatory approval and is not met with a counterbid before the July deadline, it will be one of the largest technology acquisitions of all time.  This will be a major acquisition for Broadcom, which will need to integrate VMware’s 35,000 employees with its own 20,000-strong workforce.  The acquisition will also significantly enlarge Broadcom’s software business, especially in the markets for multi-cloud, hybrid cloud, and application management solutions. Continue reading “Customers and Partners Seek Reassurance About Broadcom’s Plan for Transforming VMware” →

Announcements from Industrial IoT Services Providers Augur Well for Market Momentum

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Internet of Things
K. Weldon
K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:

  • Over the past six months, IoT service providers in the US, Europe, and APAC have been busily disclosing new capabilities, with close to 30 announcements, not including customer wins.
  • Announcements ranged from news on acquisitions and investments to new and enhanced services, technology alliances, and vertical solutions.  

New and Enhanced Services

New and enhanced services ranged from asset tracking improvements to expanded coverage, roaming alliances, managed services, wholesale expansion, and blockchain in conjunction with Internet of Things (IoT), edge alliances, and dynamic network access.

Continue reading “Announcements from Industrial IoT Services Providers Augur Well for Market Momentum” →

Cisco DevOps Tools Tackle Ops’ Pain Points

by Charlotte Dunlap, posted in IT Leader

C. Dunlap

Summary Bullets:

  • New Cisco DevOps tools build on initial API management innovations.
  • Installing a qualified head of ET&I indicates a serious DevOps strategy.

Cisco used last week’s KubeCon as the stage to build out its DevOps portfolio, stemming from its Emerging Technology and Incubation (ET&I) business unit.  The three product announcements address customers’ ongoing digitization challenges around service mesh, security, and modern monitoring. Continue reading “Cisco DevOps Tools Tackle Ops’ Pain Points” →