Month: September 2020

HPE Completes Acquisition of Silver Peak

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

Summary Bullets:

• The acquisition of Silver Peak by HPE is complete and will be beneficial overall, creating a complete offering with SD-Branch

• The SD-WAN market is still hot and a new wave of consolidation is on the horizon.

In July 2020, HPE announced its intent to acquire one of the leading SD-WAN vendors, Silver Peak. Silver Peak has been fighting it out with big competitors and doing very well for itself. Along with Versa, Cisco, and VMware, Silver Peak are considered to be among the top contenders in the marketplace today. HPE and its Aruba networking division have generally been considered the number two competitor in the campus and branch networking markets, but the Aruba proposition has not been able to get recognition or traction in the SD-WAN market. HPE was a very early adopter of the SD-Branch concept, but unfortunately was too early for a market starry-eyed with SD-WAN enthusiasm. Continue reading “HPE Completes Acquisition of Silver Peak” →

“BlueJeans by Verizon” Has Come a Long Way in a Short Time

by Gregg Willsky, posted in Communicate
G. Willsky

Summary Bullets:

• Verizon has been aggressively expanding and marketing the “BlueJeans by Verizon” offer since the acquisition five months ago.

• BlueJeans by Verizon will continue to play a key role in Verizon’s UC&C portfolio going forward.

Overview

In just five months, BlueJeans by Verizon has become a centerpiece of Verizon’s UC&C portfolio and larger advanced communications strategy. Verizon has left no stone unturned. Product features, integration with existing Verizon offers, sales, marketing, and support have been carefully considered. Very compelling is Verizon’s decision to operationalize BlueJeans as something of an independent start-up within the larger Verizon organization. Despite significant progress, the BlueJeans story at Verizon is not yet complete as more change lies ahead. Continue reading ““BlueJeans by Verizon” Has Come a Long Way in a Short Time” →

Who’s Winning the Wireless Private Network Race?

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Mobilize
K. Weldon
K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:

  • There has been a small but meaningful trickle of news on private wireless (cellular) network deployments over the last couple of years from a cast of characters ranging from CSPs to equipment vendors, SIs, and enterprises themselves. The latest CBRS auction has also uncovered likely new entrants, including companies that lack their own cellular networks or want to own and manage their own deployments.
  • Interest in providing private wireless networks is not new; after all, this is essentially what WiFi has been providing all along. But using 4G LTE and 5G (over licensed, unlicensed, or ‘lightly regulated’ spectrum) for these networks is creating excitement from a wide swath of the telecom market. Will companies buy it?

GlobalData has been tracking the private wireless network market for several years because it is potentially a major disruptive technology. It promises to partially displace WiFi and wireline connectivity – at least for those use cases that need more consistent signal strength, security, higher speeds, and lower latency, with support for in-building, campus, and hybrid environments such as manufacturing facilities, warehouses, sports stadiums, mines, oil and gas fields, ports, airports, and other transportation hubs. Continue reading “Who’s Winning the Wireless Private Network Race?” →

AWS Continues Its JEDI Protest After the Pentagon Declares Microsoft the Winner (Again)

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in Cloud Enable
A. DeCarlo
A. DeCarlo

Summary Bullets:

  • After a multiple-month JEDI contract re-evaluation process, the Pentagon reached the same decision it had 11 months ago and awarded Microsoft the deal.
  • AWS immediately re-sounded the alarm that the procurement process was inherently inequitable, filing a new protest with the court.

The JEDI battle lines are still as tightly drawn as when Microsoft was declared the winner in October 2019. Amazon didn’t waste any time to raise its continued objections after the Department of Defense (DoD) disclosed it was once again awarding the sought-after multi-billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract to Microsoft. Posting a blog titled “JEDI: Why we will continue to protect this politically corrupted contract award,” AWS outlined some of the issues with both the initial award and the re-evaluation processes. Continue reading “AWS Continues Its JEDI Protest After the Pentagon Declares Microsoft the Winner (Again)” →

Teradata Tries to Shake Off Its ‘Just a Storage Vendor’ Stereotype

by , posted in Big Data
Ted Cuzzillo,
Principal Analyst – Data Analytics

Summary Bullets:

  • Longtime database vendor and now also analytics vendor Teradata is trying to fight off the perception that it just does data storage.
  • Teradata, in character with its quiet and reliable reputation, struck at the stereotype recently by announcing an expansion of its 20-year-old academic program.

Underneath all the buzz of technology marketing is the steady hum of stuff just working. Part of that hum seems to have always been Teradata, which has been around so long that the name even goes back to when a terabyte of data was impressive.

It’s been humming for so long that it carries a stale stereotype — propagated even by some people who should know better. They still say it offers only data storage. Never mind its strong, nimble analytics wares. Continue reading “Teradata Tries to Shake Off Its ‘Just a Storage Vendor’ Stereotype” →

Story-First Data App Lands in North America, Tells ‘Only What You Need To Know’

by , posted in Big Data
Ted Cuzzillo,
Principal Analyst – Data Analytics

Summary Bullets:

• The new tool’s story-first approach may succeed in winning over the vast numbers of business users who never use data.

• The software maker, Toucan, should consider new messaging and take more seriously the threat from other vendors to imitate its approach.

How do you present data to those who would rather run away at the first sight of a dashboard? Multiple surveys over the years all come to a similar conclusion: roughly three quarters of business people feel this way. They could use data but never do. Now a product out of Paris, France works on a radical idea: message first, data second to deliver only what people “need to know.”

That data-second concept bucks the conventional assumption, that users want data to make their own observations and conclusions. And they want to drill down as far as questions may lead them.

Toucan Toco’s top down approach is absolutely not self-service. Presentations are created by authors, who are forced to simplify and focus data in a lockstep path with very few choices. Authors can’t even change fonts. Toucan Toco enforces simplicity.

Messages have such primacy that creators can actually sketch out a presentation with fake data to create placeholders for real data. That’s easy to do because Toco ignores an old assumption, that those engaged in data like to drill down. Toco gives them, as the product literature puts it, only what they “need to know.”

Toucan’s bold rejection of analytics industry dogma — self-service, data’s primacy, and almost infinite accommodation to a user’s inquiries — naturally inspires a question. What market is there? Continue reading “Story-First Data App Lands in North America, Tells ‘Only What You Need To Know’” →

Mayflower Voyage Opens Up a New World of Opportunity for Edge Computing and AI

by Chris Drake, posted in IT Leader
C. Drake

Summary Bullets:

  • The transatlantic voyage of the Mayflower robotic ship will be an important testbed for the use of edge computing and artificial intelligence at sea.
  • Potential use cases for commercial autonomous ships include marine research, ocean clean-up, remote marine pilotage, and defense.

On September 16, the UK’s first robotic ship, named the Mayflower Autonomous Ship, will embark on a transatlantic voyage from Plymouth, England to Plymouth, Massachusetts, retracing the route of the original Mayflower on the 400th anniversary of its crossing. The transatlantic voyage of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship will be an important testbed for emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and edge computing, and is widely expected to pave the way both for the development of commercial autonomous ships and for the advancement of use cases ranging from marine research and defense to remote marine pilotage and ocean cleanup. Continue reading “Mayflower Voyage Opens Up a New World of Opportunity for Edge Computing and AI” →

Industry 4.0 and the Promise of Smarter Operations Using IoT

by John Marcus, posted in Internet of Things
J. Marcus

This piece first appeared first on the official blog of RAD.

Summary Bullets:

  • IoT’s role in Industry 4.0 isn’t about making connectivity or sensors smarter. It’s about making an enterprise’s operations smarter, integrating advanced control and automation capabilities by connecting industrial assets.
  • Increasingly, that means updating and connecting existing industrial control systems, with the promise of further automating thousands of operational endpoints.
  • Top Industry 4.0 applications include basic on/off commands and security functions.
  • Optimization of processes and of productivity is the main benefit that manufacturers see.

Is the Internet of Things (IoT) getting smarter? That is often how ‘Industry 4.0’ is described as digital technology is deployed in production or other industrial processes to take advantage of advanced platforms and devices (including analytics, automation, and artificial intelligence). Differing from machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions that use network connectivity simply to monitor the condition or location of an object, Industry 4.0 goes further to describe applications which actually control or operate connected things via networked connectivity. While sometimes the connected ‘thing’ refers to newer machines and devices such as robots, autonomous guided vehicles (AGV), or augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR) headsets worn by industrial workers, the ‘thing’ might also refer to core production equipment that has been installed for decades. Either way, the aims of Industry 4.0 remain the same: connecting machines to provide essential information and insights to allow companies to make smarter decisions, automate processes, and reach specific ROI goals related to efficiency and cost control. Continue reading “Industry 4.0 and the Promise of Smarter Operations Using IoT” →

IoT in New Zealand: About Outcomes, Not Networks

by Malcolm Rogers, posted in Internet of Things
M. Rogers

Summary Bullets:

  • Vodafone NZ localizing its global IoT platform for New Zealand will help win domestic customers.
  • Overall, carriers need to move the IoT conversation away from connectivity to applications and outcomes to move up the value chain.

Earlier this week, Vodafone New Zealand announced it would be bringing new IoT capabilities to businesses in New Zealand. Specifically, the company has launched a local version of its IoT Global Data Service Platform (GDSP) called ‘Connect’ that will be delivered via Vodafone NZ’s XONE innovation labs. Vodafone NZ had previously offered only the global version of the IoT management platform, but updates to policy, software, and other support features could be hampered by latency issues. The move is important for Vodafone NZ’s ambition in the Kiwi IoT market. Rival carrier Spark has made recent investments into developing IoT solutions for New Zealand businesses that go beyond SIM management platforms. Spark now has productized solutions for asset tracking and management as well as a parking solution for both SME and enterprises. In a sign that it is gaining lost ground, Spark saw IoT connections grow 60% year over year to end June 2020. Vodafone NZ, however, is still the market leader in terms of connections and has the international advantage through its affiliate companies’ global networks. Localizing this solution will now help grow domestic-only customers with broader offers. Continue reading “IoT in New Zealand: About Outcomes, Not Networks” →

Tableau Still Helps People See and Understand Data, but Which People?

by , posted in Big Data
Ted Cuzzillo,
Principal Analyst – Data Analytics

Summary Bullets:

  • Salesforce’s acquisition of Tableau was a milestone for the inception of a new, post-Tableau era of innovation.
  • Tableau’s absorption within Salesforce will leave competitive space for new products.

Back at Tableau’s first release in 2004, many data analysts felt their hearts stir. Some had already dreamed of data analysis that went as deep and as fast as the mind could go, but now Tableau made it possible. All they needed then was access to the data inside IT’s vaults. But that access to data was a problem for many IT departments, and there began a long insurgency. Continue reading “Tableau Still Helps People See and Understand Data, but Which People?” →