Amazon Web Services has launched a subscription-based data service that gives users access to large datasets from third-party providers.

The AWS Data Exchange is a central hub that contains over 1,000 free and paid licensable data products from over 80 different data providers.

Some of the data providers include brands such as Reuters, Change Healthcare, Dun & Bradstreet and Foursquare.

It’s the latest service to be added to the company’s Marketplace, which already includes its machine learning service, which has algorithms and models for customers to use.

Standard methods of third-party data subscription are inconsistent with the modern architectures customers are developing in the cloud, according to AWS, which said it was challenging to reach every customer that might be interested in their data without large investments in sales and marketing, as well as technology to store, deliver and entitle data for their customers.

These barriers often prevent customers who have valuable data from becoming a data provider, according to the cloud giant.

«Unfortunately, the way customers exchange data hasn’t evolved much in the last 20 years,» said Stephen Orban, GM of AWS Data Exchange. «AWS Data Exchange gives our customers the ability to quickly integrate third-party data in the workloads they’re migrating to the cloud, while giving qualified data providers a modern and secure way to package, deliver, and reach the millions of AWS customers worldwide.»

Data providers can publish free or paid products under the terms of use they specify and can issue private offers with custom terms for specific AWS customers. They can also choose to approve each subscription, allowing them to review intended uses cases or manage compliance needs.

Foursquare, an independent location data platform, has its audiences and places datasets available on the Data Exchange.

«AWS Data Exchange provides us with secure access to customers at the incomparable scale, while also serving as easy data ingestion and activation vehicle for data usage,» said Josh Cohen, SVP of product at Foursquare.

Mozilla, Fastly, Intel, and Red Hat have come together to found the Bytecode Alliance, an initiative to make software development more secure.

This is an open-source community dedicated to creating software foundations, building on standards such as WebAssembly and the WebAssembly System Interface (WASI).

Together with Intel, Red Hat and cloud computing provider Fastly, Mozilla will build secure foundations for everything from small embedded devices to large computing clouds.

Modern software applications and services are built from global repositories of shared components and frameworks, according to the Alliance. This, however, increases concerns about trust, data integrity and vulnerabilities within these systems.

But the Bytecode Alliance has been formed to establish a capable, secure platform that allows developers and service providers to confidently run untrusted code, on any infrastructure, for any operating system or device, based on decades of experience with web browsers development.

It aims to deliver a state-of-the-art runtime environment and associated language toolchains, which are linked software development tools. The group hopes to build an environment where security, efficiency and modularity can all coexist across the widest possible range of devices and architectures. 

The founding members are making several open-source project contributions to the Alliance, including Wasmtime, a small and efficient runtime for WebAssembly & WASI. Lucet, an ahead-of-time compiler and runtime for WebAssembly & WASI focused on low-latency, high-concurrency applications. WebAssembly Micro Runtime (WAMR), an interpreter-based WebAssembly runtime for embedded devices and Cranelift, a cross-platform code generator with a focus on security and performance, written in Rust.

«We believe WebAssembly can play an even bigger role in the software ecosystem as it continues to expand beyond browsers,» said Luke Wagner, distinguished engineer at Mozilla and co-creator of WebAssembly.

«This is a unique moment in time at the dawn of a new technology, where we have the opportunity to fix what’s broken and build new, secure-by-default foundations for native development that are portable and scalable.»

IBM is working with Bank of America to develop what it claims is the world’s first financial services-ready public cloud.

Named «the financial services-ready public cloud», IBM said it could enable independent software vendors and Software as a Service (SaaS) providers to focus on deploying their core services to financial institutions with the controls for the platform already put in place.

The aim is to give financial institutions an opportunity to efficiently assess the security, resiliency and compliance of technology vendors, through the platform’s security validation. Only independent software vendors or SaaS providers that demonstrate compliance with the platform’s policies will be eligible to deliver services through it.

Financial services-ready public cloud is expected to run on the tech giant’s public cloud and will be built with Red Hat‘s Open Shift. It will include more than 190 API driven, cloud-native platforms as a service where users will be able to create applications.

The company said the project has been developed with the aid of financial services experts in IBM’s networks, including some of the largest financial institutions in the world.

According to Bank of America’s CTO Cathy Bessant, it’s one of the most important collaborations in the financial services industry cloud space.

«This industry-first platform will allow Bank of America to use the public cloud, putting data security, resiliency, privacy and customer information safety needs at the forefront of decision making,» said Bessant. «By setting a standard that addresses the concern of hosting highly-confidential information, we aim to drive the public cloud to a safety level that is unmatched.»

VMware has made a slew of announcements at its annual European conference, starting with a partnership with Carbon Black’s cloud and hardware security and Dell PCs.

The Dell-owned company said it was expanding its enterprise endpoint security portfolio to include Carbon Black Cloud to make organisations more resilient against advanced cyber attacks.

The announcements were made as part of the company’s vision of «intrinsic security», which is about making it more automated, proactive and pervasive across its entire distributed enterprise.

Rahul Tikoo, Dell’s senior VP of Commercial Client, said that cyber criminals are constantly pushing the limits with difficult-to-discover attack vectors, especially those targeting endpoint devices.

«We have to take a multi-layered approach to security,» he said. «With the addition of VMware Carbon Black Cloud as the preferred endpoint security solution for Dell Trusted Devices and Secureworks, our customers can be more secure while doing their best work.»

The company called it a «unique combination of threat prevention». It said that detection and response functions from Secureworks use AI and machine learning to proactively detect and block endpoint attacks, while security experts can hunt for threats across the endpoint, network and cloud.

«As we continue to build on VMware’s vision for intrinsic security, it’s clear that we are all stronger when we combine the right people and the right technology,» said Patrick Morley, general manager of the Security Business Unit at VMware. «Dell’s selection of VMware Carbon Black Cloud as its preferred endpoint security, in combination with Dell Trusted Devices and Secureworks, serves as continued validation that we are providing a comprehensive form of endpoint protection. We now have the opportunity to work together and further expand our collective ability to keep worldwide customers protected from advanced cyberattacks.»

Along with Carbon Black, there were also updates to the recently unveiled VMware Tanzu portfolio of products and services. These were aimed at transforming how enterprises build, run and manage software on Kubernetes.

Updates included the rollout of a beta program for Project Pacific, as well as the debut of a new VMware Cloud Native Master Services Competency that help customers build Kubernetes-based platforms.

There were also two previews of brand new offerings, Project Path and Project Maestro. Project Path is for cloud providers and Managed Service Providers to adopt new business models and help bring new value, revenue and improved margins to their cloud business.

Whereas Project Maestro promises a cloud-first service that delivers a unified approach to modelling and managing virtual network functions and services.

HCL technologies and Google Cloud have announced the launch of a cloud business unit to support enterprise cloud adoption.

This is a dedicated business group within HCL that will be supported by engineering and business teams from Google Cloud.

HCL, an Indian-based IT and consultation company that spun out of the R and D division of HCL Enterprises in 1991, said it currently has more than 1,300 professionals trained on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and plans to expand this capacity to more than 5,000 specialists in the near future.

Enterprise customers will receive support in areas like containerisation, hybrid and multi-cloud, the companies claimed.

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said: «The cloud is at the heart of innovation and digital transformation for enterprises and that it unlocks new opportunities for them to tackle their most important challenges.»

«Through our partnership with HCL, we can help organizations deploy Google Cloud broadly and at scale, and move their most critical, data-intensive workloads to GCP.»

Under this joint investment, customers will be able to migrate SAP workloads to the Google Cloud Platform, deploy Hybrid and multi-cloud with Google Cloud’s Anthos, and adopt AI and machine learning services in areas such as e-commerce, supply chain and marketing.

«HCL and Google have a deep and long-standing relationship, and this new business unit is a strategic step forward in our partnership,» said C Vijayakumar, CEO of HCL.

«I am confident that the Google Cloud Business Unit will accelerate the execution of digital transformation of global organisations as well as incubate new IP and solutions that will redefine the market.»

The unit will also provide details on using Anthos, data and analytics, AI, collaboration with G Suite and more.

This renewed investment in Google’s cloud arm has dented its overall earnings, with the tech giant missing analysts estimates for its third-quarter by about $1.7 billion.

Google parent Alphabet’s quarterly earnings were dented by heavy investment in its cloud computing business.

The tech giant missed analysts estimates for third-quarter profit by about $1.7 billion, though it beat revenue estimates by about $175 million.

Google is the world’s leading provider of internet search, advertising and video services, but Google Cloud is a key segment of its overall business. Currently, this part of its operation is a distant third to rivals AWS and Microsoft’s Azure.

The company has said it will continue to spend on cloud, AI and consumer hardware as it looks to compete in these «new areas».

«Our businesses delivered another quarter of strong performance, with revenues of $40.5 billion, up 20% versus the third quarter of 2018 and up 22% on a constant currency basis,» said Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google. «We continue to invest thoughtfully in talent and infrastructure to support our growth, particularly in newer areas like Cloud and machine learning.»

Net income in Q3 was $7.1 billion, or $10.12 a share, down from $9.2 billion, or $13.06 a share, in the same period a year earlier, the company reported on Monday. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, analysts expected $12.35 a share.

Google has been building data centres, buying equipment and recruiting engineers and salespeople to support its cloud unit. CEO Thomas Kurian was hired at the end of 2018 from Oracle to help in this regard.

Quarterly estimates for the other major cloud providers have seen the opposite; cloud computing has boosted revenue. Leading the way, AWS has annually recorded increased earnings for the last five years.

Establishing itself in second, Microsoft has invested heavily in Azure, making a number of shrewd acquisitions this year, and announced that Azure’s 73% growth had pushed Microsoft up to a market cap of $1 trillion, in April.

«In many of these areas we are the new entrant and we create competition, and sometimes the competitive pressures can lead to concerns from others,» CEO Sundar Pichai said.

The Pentagon has awarded its $10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft, instead of Amazon, which received criticism from President Donald Trump and rivals. 

Amazon’s AMS was seen as the front runner for most of the bidding process and said it was «surprised» by the decision.

The contract, known as the Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure (JEDI), pitted some of the world’s biggest tech companies against each other with the ultimate prize being to upgrade the US defence department’s IT systems.

The project has been marred in controversy and complaint, particularly over the decision to offer it to a single vendor. This resulted in legal action and also caught the attention of the President, Donald Trump.

End of the JEDI saga

The JEDI project is about replacing the Department of Defences (DoD) ageing computer networks with a single cloud system.

As winners of the contract, Microsoft will provide AI-based analysis and store classified military information, as well as a host of other computer services. A big reason for the project is to give the military better access to data and the cloud from battlefields, which also proved to be to big a concern.

That was the case for Google who was the first to drop out of the JEDI race in October 2018. The decision followed its announcement that it would not renew another military contract called Project Maven after protests from its employees.

«We are not bidding on the JEDI contract because first, we couldn’t be assured that it would align with our AI Principles,» a Google spokesman said in a statement. «And second, we determined that there were portions of the contract that were out of scope with our current government certifications.»

The parts of the contract that Google cited were also issues for both IBM and Oracle who filed lawsuits against the DoD in December last year, arguing that there were conflicts of interest between former Pentagon and AWS employees.

Oracle was removed from the bidding process in April, before the ruling from that lawsuit, when it failed to meet the requirement of having three data centres with FedRAMP Moderate ‘Authorised’ support.

AWS Trumped

IBM was also ruled out, not long after, leaving Microsoft to battle it out with the favourite, AWS. However, in August, the bidding caught the attention of President Trump, who has had a long public spat with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

A year before, it was reported that Trump called his Pentagon Secretary James Mattis and directed him to «screw Amazon» out of a chance to bid on the JEDI contract. This is according to Mattis’ forthcoming book «Holding The Line: Inside Trump’s Pentagon with Secretary Mattis.» The account was written by Guy Snodgrass, who served as a speechwriter for Mattis.

The official line from the Pentagon is that it weighed up the bidding fairly and that Microsoft was the rightful winner. But reports of Trump’s involvement cast some doubt over those statements; Amazon said it was «surprised about this conclusion».

«AWS is the clear leader in cloud computing, and a detailed assessment purely on the comparative offerings clearly lead to a different conclusion,» said an AWS spokesperson. «We remain deeply committed to continuing to innovate for the new digital battlefield where security, efficiency, resiliency, and scalability of resources can be the difference between success and failure.»

Google and IBM have got into a «quantum supremacy» discourse with the later discrediting the claims of the former.

Google said its giant 53-qubit Sycamore quantum processor was able to perform a complex mathematical problem in 200 seconds, while the world’s most-powerful supercomputer would need 10,000 years to complete.

Quantum supremacy is a theory put forward by Caltech professor John Preskill who said ‘supremacy’ is achieved when a quantum computer can do something a normal computer cannot.

Google made its supremacy claim in a paper called «Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconductor processor» published in the research journal Nature.

But the accuracy of the experiment was quickly called out by IBM, which refuted the claims.

«We argue that an ideal simulation of the same task can be performed on a classical system in 2.5 days and with far greater fidelity,» IBM said in a blog post. «This is, in fact, a conservative, worst-case estimate, and we expect that with additional refinements the classical cost of the simulation can be further reduced.

«Because the original meaning of the term ‘quantum supremacy,’ as proposed by John Preskill in 2012, was to describe the point where quantum computers can do things that classical computers can’t, this threshold has not been met.»

IBM’s research staff said that when Google’s comparison to classical computing was made, it relied on an advanced simulation that uses parallelism, fast and error-free computation, and large aggregate RAM. But, it failed to fully account for enough disk storage.

Big Blue, which is deep into its own quantum computing research, said that it’s «Schrödinger-style» classical simulation approach uses both RAM and hard drive space to store and manipulate the state vector.

The tech giant also suggested the term «supremacy» is misleading and has a negative connotation. The word, it explained, «exacerbates overhyped reporting» on the status of quantum technology and that «through its association with white supremacy, evokes a repugnant political stance». 

«A headline that includes some variation of ‘Quantum Supremacy Achieved’ is almost irresistible to print, but it will inevitably mislead the general public,» IBM said. «First because, as we argue above, by its strictest definition the goal has not been met. But more fundamentally, because quantum computers will never reign ‘supreme’ over classical computers, but will rather work in concert with them, since each have their unique strengths.»

Microsoft has announced the acquisition of Mover, a cloud-based file migration company, as it looks to facilitate more ways for its customers to move data from other cloud services into the Microsoft 365 cloud suite.

Since its inception eight years ago, Mover has been used in data migration from over a dozen cloud service providers, including Box, Dropbox, Egnyte, and Google Drive. And the Canadian-based startup counts companies such as AutoDesk, Symantec and Nike as its customers. Now Mover’s capabilities and expertise will be taken under Microsoft’s corporate wing. 

«As the world moves to Microsoft 365, it needs an excellent self-serve solution for migrating content,» said Eric Warnke, co-founder and CEO of Mover.

«Our technology makes us one of the fastest OneDrive and SharePoint document migrators in the world. My team has proven this time and time again by setting migration speed records for the industry, always meeting customer needs. Security, file fidelity, and transfer accuracy are core tenets of our company and we take pride in our reputation.»

The deal comes just a month after Microsoft acquired similar-sounding Movere, another cloud migration specialist and adds further to its already busy portfolio of cloud firms. In July, Microsoft snapped up BlueTalon, a software company that focuses on data-centric security and hybrid data environments. A month later, it acquired jClarity, a software company that specialises in Java installations.

While it still trails behind AWS, Microsoft’s cloud business is growing fast. The company reported Azure revenue grew 64% in the last quarter, while sales of AWS rose by 37%.

«Our goal is to help customers move to the cloud with confidence,» said Jeff Teper, CVP Office, SharePoint and OneDrive. «Today, we offer several options to support cloud file migrations, including FastTrack and offerings from trusted Microsoft partners, as well as the SharePoint Migration Tool for migrating content from on-premises SharePoint sites and file shares to Microsoft 365. Mover will enhance these offerings with proven tools, plus more self-service options over time.»

Mark Hurd, the co-chief executive officer of Oracle and former HP boss died on Friday aged just 62.

Hurd had been in the role for nine years but was forced to take a leave of absence in September due to ill health.

The cloud giant has confirmed the death but told IT Pro that it is not commenting any further.

Instead, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison posted a tribute on Hurd’s website, calling him a «close and irreplaceable friend and trusted colleague».

«Oracle has lost a brilliant and beloved leader who personally touched the lives of so many of us during his decade at Oracle,» Ellison said on Friday. «All of us will miss Mark’s keen mind and rare ability to analyse, simplify and solve problems quickly.

«Some of us will miss his friendship and mentorship. I will miss his kindness and sense of humour. Mark leaves his beloved wife Paula, two wonderful daughters who were the joy of his life, and his much larger extended family here at Oracle who came to love him. I know that many of us are inconsolable right now, but we are left with memories and a sense of gratitude…that we had the opportunity to get know Mark, the opportunity to work with him…and become his friend.»

In September Oracle surprised many with an earlier than expected release of its quarterly earnings. The company then hit investors with a double shock as Hurd announced the board had accepted his leave of absence request for an undisclosed illness.

Hurd shared the CEO role with Safra Catz, who took on sole duties following his departure, with Ellison handling some of his responsibilities during the transition. What’s more, the announcement came a few weeks before the firm’s annual conference, Oracle Open World 2019, where Hurd’s absence hung over the proceedings.

«I would just like to take a moment and say how much I miss Mark Hurd, personally,» said Ellison, during his keynote address. «We’ve worked together for a long time, I love him, and I wish him a speedy recovery.»

Industry veteran

Mark Hurd became a well-known figure in the technology industry, having played a major role in some of the sector’s biggest firms.

Hurd started his career in 1980 as a salesman for National Cash Register (NCR) and worked his way up to CEO during his 25-years at the company. He left in 2005 to become HP’s CEO, one of the biggest personal computer manufacturers at the time. His five-year stint saw the company’s share price double, but his tenure was rocky with a number of controversies, culminating in his departure following a sexual harassment claim.

Despite the troubles, Hurd had a friend in Ellison, who quickly came to his defence and criticized the HP board in a letter to the press, saying it had «just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago».

He joined Ellison’s company in 2010 as president and replaced him as CEO in 2014 in a joint position with Catz. Hurd is survived by his wife Paula, whom he met at NCR, and their two daughters.