Category Archives: Brian Krzanich

BlueData, Brian Krzanich, Doug Fisher, Hadoop, Intel, Kumar Sreekanti, News & Analysis, Spark

Intel, BlueData partner on big data following $20m funding round

Intel and BlueData are collaborating on big data

Intel and BlueData are collaborating on big data

Hadoop specialist BlueData announced a strategic collaboration with Intel this week after the chip company’s venture capital arm helped lead a $20m funding round for the startup.

BlueData offers a virtualised Hadoop-as-a-Service  software for on-premise infrastructure that speeds up Hadoop cluster deployment and model prototyping. The company also has some IP that The partnership will see the two companies integrate BlueData’s big data software with Intel’s Xeon processor technology, which Intel said builds on its existing big data integration initiatives with Cloudera and Apache Hadoop.

“Intel architecture provides a high-performance, secure, robust foundation for big data analytics,” said Brian Krzanich, Intel chief executive. “BlueData’s innovative software delivers the simplicity, agility and efficiency of big data-as-a-service in an on-premises model. Together, we are focused on bringing big data into the mainstream and unlocking the value for our enterprise customers.”

Kumar Sreekanti, co-founder and chief executive of BlueData  said: “This strategic collaboration with Intel will help advance BlueData’s mission of making it easy to deploy big data infrastructure. Our software platform simplifies the complexity, reduces the cost and delivers faster time to value for big data initiatives.”

“Our go-to-market relationship and joint product development with Intel will allow enterprises to accelerate their deployment of Hadoop and Spark, and deliver on the promise of big data analytics,” he added.

The move comes as Intel Captial, the chip giant’s venture capital arm, led a $20m series C funding round for BlueData along with participation from existing investors Amplify Partners, Atlantic Bridge, and Ignition Partners.

As part of the funding round Doug Fisher, senior vice president of Intel and general manager of its Software and Services Group, will join BlueData’s board of directors.

The BlueData partnership is one of a number of high-profile big data deals Intel has inked as of late. Less than a week ago the firm partnered with Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to develop a big data platform that can help diagnose and treat individuals for cancer based on their genetic pre-dispositions.

Altera, Brian Krzanich, Intel, Internet of Things, IoT, John Daane, M&A, News & Analysis

Intel joins IoT M&A frenzy with $17bn Altera acquisition

Intel is buying Altera for $17bn to strengthen its position in IoT

Intel is buying Altera for $17bn to strengthen its position in IoT

Chip giant Intel has wasted little time in joining the recent flurry of semiconductor M&A activity by acquiring embedded chip company Altera for $16.7 billion, reports Telecoms.com.

Altera specialises FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays), which essentially are chips that can be reconfigured, making them useful for dynamic embedded environments such as software defined radio and whatever the Internet of Things eventually serves up. Intel believes this kind of technology can help it in the embedded space, where it often struggles to compete with more power efficient ARM-based products.

“With this acquisition, we will harness the power of Moore’s Law to make the next generation of solutions not just better, but able to do more,” said Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel. “Whether to enable new growth in the network, large cloud data centers or IoT segments, our customers expect better performance at lower costs. This is the promise of Moore’s Law and it’s the innovation enabled by Intel and Altera joining forces.”

“We believe that as part of Intel we will be able to develop innovative FPGAs and system-on-chips for our customers in all market segments,” said John Daane, President, CEO of Altera. “Together, we expect to drive meaningful value for our customers, partners and employees around the world.”

Intel has been getting serious about IoT for some time, especially when it became apparent how difficult getting into the smartphone market would be for it. Back in 2009 it bought embedded software company Wind River and it has recently broken out its IoT activities into a distinct reporting unit. Together with other acquisitions, such as cellular modem company Infineon, Intel is amassing a portfolio of silicon capabilities that could be combined into some highly versatile chips – just what you need when looking to future proof your embedded technology.