Archivo mensual: enero 2016

acquisition, CRM, M&A, News & Analysis, Outbox, PwC

PWC buys CRM and sales automation specialist Outbox

PwC is to acquire technology consultant Poland-based Outbox Group, a cloud-based CRM and sales automation specialist.

The addition of 250 employees from Outbox, a partner of Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle and SAP, will raise PWC’s headcount of technology specialists to almost 3,000 across EMEA. The acquisition agreement, signed on 31 December 2015, is expected to formally complete by January 31 2016.

Formed in 2005, Outbox provides consultancy over CRM, customer experience and marketing automation to 150 customers including Sky, Vodafone and Inmarsat. The Warsaw-based consultancy has now completed 250 CRM projects and has international offices in the UK, Germany, France and the Czech Republic.

The potential market for customer experience, CRM and digital is estimated at €6 billion according to PwC’s UK and EMEA Consulting Leader, Ashley Unwin. “This acquisition represents an investment in emerging markets and establishes centre of excellence for customer and digital capabilities within PwC in Europe,” said Unwin.

UK-based Outbox managing director Nicholas Mobbs will join PwC as a partner. “We are excited to join a leading consulting brand and combine business advice with user experience, marketing automation and CRM skills and services,” said Mobbs.

In other PWC news, cloud computing is contributing to a confidence crisis among enterprise chief executives, according to PWC’s global chairman Dennis Nally. Speaking at the 2016 Davos World Economic Forum, Nally said the cloud-based integrated global economy means that the world’s hot spots can instantly transmit end to end instability across the world.

Quoting the results of PwC’s 19th Annual Global CEO Survey, Nally said there were two outstanding sentiments among the survey group of 1,409 CEOs in 83 countries. The global economy and geopolitical tensions, the top two concerns, are interlinked now that technology acts as a lightning rod between hot spots, according to Nally. “We all know how integrated the global economy really is and not looking good is how I’d put it,” Nally told CNBC.

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Cloud Expo Sponsorship Opportunities Announced | @CloudExpo #Cloud

18th Cloud Expo, taking place June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world.
Cloud computing is now being embraced by a majority of enterprises of all sizes. Yesterday’s debate about public vs. private has transformed into the reality of hybrid cloud: a recent survey shows that 74% of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy. Meanwhile, 94% of enterprises are using some form of XaaS – software, platform, and infrastructure as a service.

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Cloud Expo New York ‘Call for Papers’ | @CloudExpo #Cloud

The 18th International Cloud Expo has announced that its Call for Papers is open. 18th International Cloud Expo, to be held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City brings together Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, DevOps, Containers, Microservices and WebRTC to one location.
With cloud computing driving a higher percentage of enterprise IT budgets every year, it becomes increasingly important to plant your flag in this fast-expanding business opportunity. Submit your speaking proposal today!

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Secrets of @CloudExpo Speakers | @ThingsExpo #IoT #DevOps #BigData

With 10 simultaneous tracks, keynotes, general sessions and targeted breakout classes, Cloud Expo and @ThingsExpo are two of the most important technology events of the year. Since its launch over eight years ago, Cloud Expo and @ThingsExpo have presented a rock star faculty as well as showcased hundreds of sponsors and exhibitors!
In this blog post, I provide 7 tips on how, as part of our world-class faculty, you can deliver one of the most popular sessions at our events. But before reading these essential tips, please take a moment and watch this brief video from Sandy Carter.

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Secrets of @CloudExpo Sponsors | @ThingsExpo #IoT #M2M #DevOps #BigData

The best way to leverage your Cloud Expo presence as a sponsor and exhibitor is to plan your news announcements around our events. The press covering Cloud Expo and @ThingsExpo will have access to these releases and will amplify your news announcements. More than two dozen Cloud companies either set deals at our shows or have announced their mergers and acquisitions at Cloud Expo. Product announcements during our show provide your company with the most reach through our targeted audiences.

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Fusion’s Cloud Solutions Support Hospital System’s Security Initiatives | @CloudExpo @FusionConnectSM #Cloud

Fusion has announced that a major East Coast hospital system has signed a three year, $1.5 million agreement with Fusion to upgrade the healthcare institution’s communications infrastructure, facilitating its migration to the cloud while protecting its significant technology investments. A key reason for the hospital system’s selection was Fusion’s ability to customize its secure, cloud-ready solution with call control technology that prevents fraudulent calls from reaching patients within the institution, supporting compliance requirements to shield patient information.

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Microsoft, News & Analysis, non-profit

Microsoft donates $1 billion of cloud services to non-profit groups

Microsoft1Microsoft has announced that it will give non profits groups $1 billion worth of cloud services in a in a three year charitable scheme designed to ‘advance the public good’ and solve some of the world’s toughest problems.

The majority of the provisions will be free or discounted cloud services, namely Azure computing power and data storage and Office 365 corporate programmes and other products. The voluntary groups, charities and non-profit organisations will have a global spread, according to Microsoft President Brad Smith, writing on the company blog.

Other beneficiaries will include universities that qualify for free Azure services. There is also a plan to invest in organisations that supply Internet connectivity to the developing world. The goal of the new program is to make 20 investments in 15 countries, Smith said.

Initially Microsoft aims to serve 70,000 non profit organisations over a three year period beginning immediately. The target is to increase Azure’s use at research universities and achieve a 50% extension on an existing programme that already reaches 600 academic institutions.

Microsoft’s new philanthropic arm and its business development unit are to collaborate on ‘white space’, investing time and money in order to make use of unused television airwaves, aggregating the frequencies to create the networks for Internet connectivity.

In an example of how the new scheme could work, Microsoft has funded Kenyan organisation outfit Mawingu (the Swahili word for cloud) which provides Internet connectivity to schools and small businesses in areas without electricity supplies. Microsoft CEO Nadella visited Mawingu in July to as part of the publicity for the release of Windows 10.

The news comes a month after Microsoft rebranded its charity work as Microsoft Philanthropies and CEO Satya Nadella is currently at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The timing of the announcement could raise the profile the company’s cloud service businesses. Academia, a key segment branding software and tools among students and educators, is dominated by Microsoft rivals Apple and Alphabet, according to Bloomberg.

“The most fundamental way we advance our mission is through technology that reaches people through the market,” said Smith, “part of the history of the company was to make sure our technology was reaching everybody.”

Dell, Dell vWorkspace, Dell vWorkspace vs Parallels RAS, Dell vWorkspace vs Parallels Remote Application Server, Parallels RAS, Parallels Remote Application Server, RAS, Remote Application Server

An Overview of Dell vWorkspace

An Overview of Dell vWorkspace Unified business procedures are a key offering of the cloud revolution, and virtualization plays a key role in unifying business procedures across an organization. The entrance of Dell into the virtualization space speaks volumes about this trend. The recent acquisition of virtualization solutions company Quest by Dell has brought the […]

The post An Overview of Dell vWorkspace appeared first on Parallels Blog.

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Microsoft announces $1bn cloud pledge for “public good”

(c)iStock.com/tumpikuja

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has revealed a three part philanthropic initiative whereby the tech giant will donate $1 billion (£704m) of cloud computing resources towards non-profit organisations and education over the next three years.

The Redmond firm argues the cloud is a vital resource for “unlocking the secrets held by data”, in terms of communications and problem solving, better delivery of services, and helping organisations work in a more productive and efficient manner.

The initiative comes from the recently formed Microsoft Philanthropies unit, and will include access to Microsoft Azure, the Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS), and CRM Online for non-profits and non-governmental organisations, as well as further access to Office 365.

“Cloud computing has emerged as a vital resource for addressing the world’s problems,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft president and chief legal officer in a company blog post. “It is vital that the cloud serve the public good in the broadest sense. While the marketplace is reaching a rapidly growing number of customers around the world, it is not yet benefiting everyone.

“If we’re going to realise Microsoft’s mission of empowering every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more, we need to reach those that the market is not yet reaching,” he added.

Microsoft is certainly not the first company to be promoting a philanthropic cause – Facebook’s continued quest to get the entire planet online being a case in point – but the more cynical in the industry have previously asked quite how altruistic such goals are; “business dressed as charity”, as The Verge put it back in 2013. In 2014, Rackspace offered investment for a data science boot camp, admitting that while the key was to get the knowledge out to market, it would be no bad thing if the graduates were recruited by the managed cloud vendor.

Among the projects Microsoft has already contributed to are a biodiversity research program in Brazil, a research laboratory at the University of Texas, and leveraging cloud-based health records management in Botswana.

You can find out more here.

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Enterprise storage migration: Reliability key – but UK lagging behind

(c)iStock.com/Henrik5000

The latest research from Western Digital Corporation has revealed that reliability continues to be more important than cost for enterprises looking to move their data to the cloud.

The survey, which polled 700 senior technology decision makers across three continents including in the energy, finance and healthcare industries, saw cloud budgets remain the leading growth area in IT, with more than four in five (84%) either planning, are completing or have completed cloud migrations.

Yet as far as the UK is concerned, there is less cloud hype than suspected; two in five CIOs (39%) say they have less than 10% of their company’s data in the cloud.

80% of overall respondents say their storage demands are growing, while three quarters (74%) say they need to keep up with performance demands of applications. More than half (55%) say they are not storing enough data to keep the business healthy long term; strategies for correcting this include data analytics (81% of respondents) and secure offline, or cold, storage and archiving (74%).

One of the more interesting parts of the research related to the Internet of Things (IoT). China, France, and the US agree that the Internet of Things is driving a need for change in data centres, while the energy, finance, telecom, and manufacturing sectors are most likely to receive the greatest impact from it.

83% of respondents overall argue the IoT, big data, and mobility drives change in data centres. “The findings of our survey underscore the increasing value of data, where dependable access through reliable storage systems and devices is more critical than ever before,” said Dave Tang, Western Digital SVP.