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IBM to put Watson Workspace out to pasture over lack of adoption


Bobby Hellard

17 Jan, 2019

IBM is killing off its AI-powered collaboration tool Watson Workspace after it failed to “resonate” with clients, according to a leaked memo.

Watson Workspace is IBM’s answer to Slack or Microsoft Teams, but with AI capabilities. It provided a platform for shared workspaces, collaborations and even hosted third-party apps. But, despite having only been released in 2016 in beta, the app is being shut down by the 28 February, according to a memo seen by The Register.

“While there is no question that Watson Workspace is innovative and agile, it hasn’t resonated with clients or obtained traction in the marketplace necessary for IBM to continue forward with the service,” the memo states.

“Despite our best efforts and enthusiasm for these offerings, our decision to withdraw them aligns to IBM’s investment strategy, focused on delivering solutions that deliver measurable value to our customers and business partners.”

According to the document, IBM has already stopped taking new orders for Watson Workspace and will not be adding any new features to it. It’s reportedly working with business partners to create options for handling subscriptions and contracts once the end of service is officially announced. Business clients that have already brought into Watson Workspace will, from today, see a banner in the user interface of the service that will provide a timeline for moving off the service.

“We will also provide access to a tool that will allow you to download and save your conversations and content from Watson Workspace. Please plan accordingly to capture any content you’d like to retain as we work to sunset the service. This option will only be available for a limited time,” IBM added in the memo.

The Watson, or the artificial intelligence factor, on Workspace was called ‘moments’ and was used mainly to search conversation history or catch up on work chat after a break. Arguably, this was perhaps a poor use of Watson AI given its capabilities – it famously beat two contestants on the game show Jeopardy – and also nothing different from popular apps like Slack, which also has AI functions for the same things.

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Announcing @Darktrace “Silver Sponsor” of @CloudEXPO Silicon Valley | #Cloud #CIO #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #SmartCities

Darktrace is the world’s leading AI company for cyber security. Created by mathematicians from the University of Cambridge, Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System is the first non-consumer application of machine learning to work at scale, across all network types, from physical, virtualized, and cloud, through to IoT and industrial control systems. Installed as a self-configuring cyber defense platform, Darktrace continuously learns what is ‘normal’ for all devices and users, updating its understanding as the environment changes.

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Announcing @EFeatherston To Join @CloudEXPO Silicon Valley #FinTech Faculty | #Cloud #CIO #Blockchain #SmartCities

The level of trust we have with individuals, businesses, and technology affects our lives daily. This is important to remember when discussing new technologies. For example, our level of trust is a critical factor when evaluating a new technology as a potential solution for providing business value. Given the importance of trust, imagine one’s reaction upon hearing that blockchain is a “trustless trust” system. On the surface, that does sound like an oxymoron. This paper discusses how “trustless trust” applies to blockchain. It will discuss the various consensus algorithms used to provide that trust, including the benefits and challenges of each. Key use case patterns will be provided as examples and what the impact of the tradeoffs between consensus algorithms.

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Enterprises more confident with cloud than ever – but still concern over security issues

Another year, another study on cloud adoption – and if it’s surprising statistics you want, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Yet this may be seen as a good thing. As the report released by NetEnrich shows, the numbers on infrastructure and public cloud usage for enterprise continues to tick over, while security remains vital and DevOps still has a long way to go to mass adoption.

The research, which polled 100 IT decision makers in companies with 500 or more employees, found large enterprises in particular were ‘eagerly adopting cloud infrastructure, applications and services.’ More than two thirds (68%) said they were using cloud infrastructure today, with only 5% saying it wasn’t in their plans, while almost half (47%) reported ‘extensive’ public cloud production usage.

In terms of cloud adoption models, the choices large organisations had made were refreshingly wide-ranging. Only one in five (18%) said they were strictly using infrastructure as a service (IaaS), with 45% in the ‘mostly IaaS and some PaaS’ (platform as a service) category. 37% said they used IaaS and PaaS easily, as well as dabbling in containers.

While that side of application development is seeing solid interest in the enterprise, DevOps may need a further push. Less than one in four (23%) said they had completely switched to DevOps, with many others (59%) content to dip their toes in the water for now.

Naturally, security continues to be an overriding concern – and it’s even less of a surprise when considering the implications for enterprise organisations. Almost three quarters (72%) said security was their top priority for 2019, while a third said it was their biggest concern when it came to public cloud.

“The cloud infrastructure and applications business has never been better, and the reason is consumer demand,” said Javed Sikander, CTO at NetEnrich. “Despite the various data breaches, security missteps and occasional outages, consumers of technology services are putting more data into the cloud; they’re using more digital products and services; and they’re buying more devices that run cloud-based applications.

“Like other consumer activities, users clearly are saying that when it comes to the cloud, they’re willing to accept some risk,” added Sikander. “Business and IT leaders are getting the message, which explains the big jump in the amount of time and money companies are spending on cloud.”

You can check out the full survey results here.

https://www.cybersecuritycloudexpo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/cyber-security-world-series-1.pngInterested in hearing industry leaders discuss subjects like this and sharing their experiences and use-cases? Attend the Cyber Security & Cloud Expo World Series with upcoming events in Silicon Valley, London and Amsterdam to learn more.

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Box launches UK-specific Box Zone with data centres in London and Cardiff


Connor Jones

17 Jan, 2019

Box has launched an additional data zone for its Box Zones offering, presenting a new zone for the UK with separate data centres in London and Cardiff.

Back in 2016, the cloud content management company first announced Box Zones and said that it would feature eight separate locations where users can store data.

Box offers data centres in the UK, USA, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Singapore, Japan and Australia. The company adds more zones when it receives enough demand from its 90,000 customers, which is why the UK has just received its own data centres.

“Businesses today face a complex and evolving regulatory landscape, none more so than here in Britain,” said Chris Baker, Box senior vice president and general manager of EMEA. “With the Brexit decision pending and the impact on regulation such as GDPR unknown, UK and European businesses are searching for ways to guarantee business continuity. The UK Zone will help companies to address data sovereignty concerns and provide certainty around their content.”

If you think that the decision has anything to do with GDPR or Brexit, then you’d be wrong, according to Baker. Even if Brexit goes ahead, a possibility that’s increased in likelihood over the past few days, GDPR is likely to still apply in UK law in every way but in name, so there must be another reason for opening a UK zone.

Speaking to Cloud Pro, Baker said that the main reason for launching the UK zone was because of contracts which have certain specifications which require data to be held in a certain jurisdiction. One of the requirements of GDPR is that businesses must be certain at all times where given data resides in the world.

“I know some wealth managers, for example, who in their contracts with their clients state that their information will reside in the UK,” said Baker. “It’s not a regulatory thing, it’s just something that the client has decided to do, perhaps because that client prefers that.”

Aerospace companies in the UK sell to governments in the EU, in the Far East and into North America such the USA’s Department of Defence. Usually, when selling to these entities or responding to a request for proposal (RFP), there will be conditions that demand all related content, designs and contracts must reside in that entity’s jurisdiction. So as a UK Aerospace company, you’ll need a zone in NA in order to business there, likewise with EU governments, Baker explained.

“At Virgin Trains, we are a digital-first company with staff and offices across the UK. We are committed to ensuring that those employees have the information and tools to do their best work, even as compliance requirements continue to rapidly change,” said John Sullivan, chief information officer at Virgin Trains. “The UK zone will give choice and control over our content. It is great to see Box’s continued commitment to helping UK customers like Virgin Trainsproactively prepare our data residency strategy.”

Data residency isn’t the only factor which influenced the need for another zone. Businesses often have to visit other countries in order to take meetings, attend conferences and conduct sales and when that happens “the speed of light can be a limiting factor,” said Baker.

“Latency is an issue for some customers. Box has a Singapore zone for that reason. If business people in Asia are going to the US and back, the speed of light is a limiting factor in the downloading and uploading of documents – so latency could be a reason for wanting to allocate data to a zone.”

Speaking further about the extent to which Brexit and GDPR could affect businesses and their requirements for a UK Box Zone, Baker said there is concern about divergent regulations following Brexit. It’s unclear whether the UK will change or amend GDPR’s laws which are now domestically enshrined. “This environment is only going to get more complex,” he said.

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Oracle unveils Java Card 3.1 for securing IoT devices


Clare Hopping

17 Jan, 2019

Oracle has revealed the latest version of its Java Card, used for securing internet of things (IoT) devices such as smartwatches and other hardware that process large amounts of information.

Java Card 3.1 can be used in a vast array of applications, from telecoms devices and contactless payments terminals to cars, smart meters and wearables. It will help simplify the rollout of 5G technologies, securing the transfer of data between the device and the network, whether 5G or NBIoT networks.

“Connected devices’ volumes are expected to increase in the upcoming years, posing an increasingly complex challenge as growth adds system complexity to the infrastructure handling device data,” Volker Gerstenberger, president and chair of the Java Card Forum said.

“Java Card 3.1 is very significant to the Internet of Things, bringing interoperability, security and flexibility to a fast-growing market currently lacking high-security and flexible edge security solutions.”

Some of Java Card 3.1’s new features include support for deploying edge security services using an I/O model to transport sensitive data using a range of physical layers and application protocols.

It also introduces new APIs that specifically address the rapidly-evolving IoT marketplace demands, such as the ability to exchange sensitive data with other connected devices. Multiple applications can be installed on each chip, with the option of adding more after it has been deployed.

With full developer support for creating new services and applications, Java Card 3.1 makes developing, enhancing and deploying security-centric applications a much easier task, Oracle explained.

“Java Card is already used and trusted as a leading security platform for countless devices in the multi-billion-dollar smart card and secure element industry,” said Florian Tournier, senior director for Java Card at Oracle.

“The 3.1 release enables the rollout of security and SIM applications on the same chip, allowing those services to be used on a large spectrum of networks from NB-IoT to 5G, and on a wide range of devices.”

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Veeam receives cash injection from Insight Venture Partners to speed up growth


Clare Hopping

17 Jan, 2019

Veeam announced it has received $500 million in investment from Insight Venture Partners to accelerate its growth in the data management sector.

As part of the agreement, Veeam will also receive support from the investor’s internal business strategy arm, Insight Onsite as well as the capital to invest in smaller organisations as part of its merger and acquisition plan.

Veeam and Insight Venture Partners have a solid history, with the investment firm contributing to Aelita Software, the first company set up by founder Ratmir Timashev, Bill Largent and Andrei Baronov.

“Back then, we relied on Insight to provide strategic counsel and support, and after we sold that company to Quest Software in 2004, we continued our relationship,” said Timashev. “Over the years, Insight has been a trusted advisor to Bill Largent, Andrei Baronov and me, even acquiring a minority share in Veeam back in 2013.”

Veeam has grown fast over the last five years, boasting more than 325,000 customers and 60,000 partners. It now wants to take this to the next levels and snatch a greater market share from the likes of IBM, Dell and Veritas.

Insight Venture Partners explained it wanted to invest in Veeam so it could help the data management business to become the “most trusted” backup provider through the Veeam Availability Platform.

“Over the past decade, Veeam has established itself as the premier vendor for on-premises backup and recovery software, and is now No.1 in the market for providing data management for public and private cloud environments,” Michael Triplett, managing director at Insight Venture Partners, and member of the Board of Directors at Veeam.

“Veeam has unparalleled leadership in terms of technology, vision and go-to-market strategies, which we believe will only further extend its No.1 market position. Insight is thrilled to continue this journey with Veeam’s management.”

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Bill @Schmarzo Keynote On-Demand Presentation | @CloudEXPO #BigData #Analytics #CIO #DataScience #ArtificialIntelligence

Bill Schmarzo, author of “Big Data: Understanding How Data Powers Big Business” and “Big Data MBA: Driving Business Strategies with Data Science” is responsible for guiding the technology strategy within Hitachi Vantara for IoT and Analytics. Bill brings a balanced business-technology approach that focuses on business outcomes to drive data, analytics and technology decisions that underpin an organization’s digital transformation strategy.

Bill has a very impressive background which includes CTO at Dell EMC, Vice President of Advertiser Analytics at Yahoo! and Vice President of Analytic Applications at Business Objects.

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Which analytics and BI technologies will be the highest priority in 2019?

  • 82% of enterprises are prioritising analytics and BI as part of their budgets for new technologies and cloud-based services.
  • 54% say AI, machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) are also a high investment priority.
  • 50% of enterprises say their stronger focus on metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) company-wide are a major driver of new investment in analytics and BI.
  • 43%  plan to both build and buy AI and machine learning applications and platforms.
  • 42% are seeking to improve user experiences by automating discovery of data insights and 26% are using AI to provide user recommendations.

These and many other fascinating insights are from the recent TDWI Best Practices Report, BI and Analytics in the Age of AI and Big Data. An executive summary of the study is available online here. The entire study is available for download here (39 PP., PDF, free, opt-in). The study found that enterprises are placing a high priority on augmenting existing systems and replacing older technologies and data platforms with new cloud-based BI and predictive analytics ones. Transforming Data with Intelligence (TDWI) is a global community of AI, analytics, data science and machine learning professionals interested in staying current in these and more technology areas as part of their professional development. Please see page 3 of the study for specifics regarding the methodology.

Key takeaways from the study include the following:

82% of enterprises are prioritising analytics and BI applications and platforms as part of their budgets for new technologies and cloud-based services

78% of enterprises are prioritising advanced analytics, and 76% data preparation. 54% say AI, machine learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) are also a high investment priority. The following graphic ranks enterprises’ investment priorities for acquiring or subscribing to new technologies and cloud-based services by analytics and BI initiatives or strategies. Please click on the graphic to expand for easier reading.

Data warehouse or mart in the cloud (41%), data lake in the cloud (39%) and BI platform in the cloud (38%) are the top three types of technologies enterprises are planning to use

Based on this finding and others in the study, cloud platforms are the new normal in enterprises’ analytics and BI strategies going into 2019. Cloud data storage (object, file, or block) and data virtualisation or federation (both 32%) are the next-most planned for technologies by enterprises when it comes to investing in the analytics and BI initiatives. Please click on the graphic to expand for easier reading.

The three most important factors in delivering a positive user experience include good query performance (61%), creating and editing visualisations (60%), and personalising dashboards and reports (also 60%)

The three activities that lead to the least amount of satisfaction are using predictive analytics and forecasting tools (27% dissatisfied), “What if” analysis and deriving new data (25%) and searching across data and reports (24%). Please click on the graphic to expand for easier reading.

82% of enterprises are looking to broaden the base of analytics and BI platforms they rely on for insights and intelligence, not just stay with the solutions they have in place today

Just 18% of enterprises plan to add more instances of existing platforms and systems. Cloud-native platforms (38%), a new analytics platform (35%) and cloud-based data lakes (31%) are the top three system areas enterprises are planning to augment or replace existing BI, analytics, and data warehousing systems in. Please click on the graphic to expand for easier reading.

The majority of enterprises plan to both build and buy artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions so that they can customise them to their specific needs

43% of enterprises surveyed plan to both build and buy AI and ML applications and platforms, a figure higher than any other recent survey on this aspect of enterprise AI adoption. 13% of responding enterprises say they will exclusively build their own AI and ML applications.

Capitalising on machine learning’s innate strengths of applying algorithms to large volumes of data to find actionable new insights (54%) is what’s most important to the majority of enterprises

47% of enterprises look to AI and machine learning to improve the accuracy and quality of information. And 42% are configuring AI and machine learning applications and platforms to augment user decision making by giving recommendations. Please click on the graphic to expand for easier reading.

https://www.cybersecuritycloudexpo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/cyber-security-world-series-1.pngInterested in hearing industry leaders discuss subjects like this and sharing their experiences and use-cases? Attend the Cyber Security & Cloud Expo World Series with upcoming events in Silicon Valley, London and Amsterdam to learn more.

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Walgreens selects Microsoft as strategic cloud provider in seven year deal

Pharmaceutical giant Walgreens Boots Alliance is making Microsoft its strategic cloud provider, focusing on connecting Walgreens stores and health information systems with a sprinkling of artificial intelligence (AI) on top.

The companies have signed a seven-year agreement with various strands. On the practical side, Walgreens will roll out Microsoft 365, the latter’s enterprise suite, to more than 380,000 employees and stores, while the ‘majority’ of Walgreens’ infrastructure will move to Azure.

On the conceptual side, plans include collaborating with healthcare providers and baking in the ‘fundamental design principles’ of data privacy and security, a multi-year research and development investment, as well as providing more personalised healthcare services.

Among the more intriguing concrete details was the planned launch of 12 in-store ‘digital health corners’ where retailers could target select healthcare-related hardware and devices.

The agreement represents the first major cloudy move Microsoft has made in 2019, and in terms of scope can be assessed alongside the company’s snaring of Walmart in a five-year strategic cloud deal announced in July. That move however came with a back story, with reports intimating that Walmart and Amazon’s retail rivalry had wider repercussions. Walmart had previously told vendors that if they ran applications on Amazon Web Services, they would lose business with the retailer.

More generally, given Amazon’s positioning in that space retail customers have been seen as a growth area for both Microsoft and Google. Speaking at an event in October, now-departed Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene explained how the company was using its AI capability in retail to predict inventory allocations. French hypermarket retailer Carrefour was also unveiled as a Google customer, while a study in October argued retail, along with advertising and marketing, were the most mature industries in terms of hybrid cloud adoption.

Walgreens said the move represented the company’s “strong commitment to creating integrated, next-generation, digitally enabled healthcare delivery solutions,” while Microsoft endeavoured to “put people at the centre of their health and wellness, combining the power of the Azure cloud and AI technology and Microsoft 365 with Walgreens’ deep expertise and commitment.”

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The cloud news categorized.