IBM’s beat analyst expectations with an almost 30% jump in revenue from its cloud and data platforms in the second quarter.

The company reported earnings of $2.18 per share, which was down 31% from the same period in 2019, along with $18.1 billion in revenue during the three months ending 30 June. Wall Street analysts had predicted slightly less – $2.07 per share and $17.7 billion in revenue.

With the coronavirus pandemic forcing businesses to drastically change digital transformation strategies, IBM’s cloud business has become its big winner for revenue, with sales from its cloud and cognitive software division rising 3% year-on-year to $5.7 billion. About an hour after it released the report, shares in the company were up around 4%.

«The trend we see in the market is clear. Clients want to modernise apps, move more workloads to the cloud and automate IT tasks,» IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said on a post-earnings call with analysts

«Only 20% of the workloads have moved to the cloud. The other 80% are mission-critical workloads that are far more difficult to move. There is a massive opportunity in front of us to capture these workloads.»

Krishna took over from Ginni Rometty in April, just as the coronavirus really began to take hold. But, as the former head of its cloud business, he has proved to be a shrewd choice of leader during this time of mass digitisation.

The firm has abandoned some of its legacy business to focus more on its cloud computing services. However, despite the success of its cloud unit, IBM’s total revenue fell 5.4% to $18.12 billion.

Sales from IBM’s global business services segment fell 7%, for example, while sales from global technology services fell 8%. 

In April, the firm withdrew its full-year guidance for 2020 in light of the coronavirus pandemic. At the time the firm reported a 3.4% drop in revenue for the first quarter of the year but, again, revenue for its cloud business was up 19% to $5.4 billion. 

Microsoft is investigating reports that Windows 10 is falsely suggesting users who have upgraded to the latest feature update aren’t connected to the internet, despite them experiencing a stable connection.

Bizarrely, this issue, which is being widely reported online, is also causing some desktop apps, such as Cortana and Feedback Hub, to break because these applications believe the device is not connected to the web, according to Windows Latest.

«I am running on Windows 10 Enterprise, Version 2004, OS Build 19041.264,» one user commented. «I recently changed to the Windows Insider Program and updated Windows.

«In the taskbar, the Wi-Fi icon shows No Internet Access, but I have a stable internet connection wirelessly (Ex: I can browse the internet, ping IP Addresses, etc.). Another problem is when I try to open Cortana it also says that I have no internet connection (By the way, I can also open Microsoft’s website).»

The bug manifests as the Wi-Fi icon to the bottom-right of the icon tray incorrectly displaying a ‘No Internet Access’ message. While users are still able to browse the internet, as normal, a host of apps seemingly rely on this status message in order to establish connections, with software such as Spotify and even the Microsoft Store failing to reach their servers. 

Microsoft is aware of the Network Connectivity Status Indicator (NCSI) issue, according to a contract worker posting on a Microsoft forum, but the bug hasn’t yet been resolved. 

Most users experiencing the issue have complained only after upgrading to version 2004, also known as the May 2020 Update. 

This is simply the latest in a string of minor, and major, issues that have arisen after Microsoft first launched its major May 2020 Update. This update, in the first instance, was initially delayed after the last-minute discovery of a zero-day flaw.

Microsoft subsequently warned users against installing the May 2020 update until a set of other issues were resolved.

Several issues have since come to light including incompatibility problems with certain Lenovo devices, as well as a Google Chrome flaw whereby the web browser logs users out of their accounts and wipes stored information such as cookies and passwords.

Slack has launched an online certification programme for administrators to learn more about using the platform at an enterprise level.

There aren’t any real requirements to become ‘Slack Certified’, as the company is encouraging any and all levels of candidates to apply, regardless of experience. Although, it does suggest the most successful applicants will have six to 12 months of «real-world» experience as Slack admins or users.

This is also the entry point for a larger Slack certification, which is an «ecosystem of courses and badges» the firm is offering to help build skillsets for future jobs. A few «selected» candidates can also benefit from a $300 scholarship in Slack administration, which covers two attempts at the final exam.

Slack believes administrators will be a highly desired role for the so-called new normal and sees value in investing in their development. It will be hoping to take advantage of its huge popularity among startups and small businesses by encouraging Slack veterans to build on their existing skills and take these on to larger companies.

«Being a Slack admin is more than rolling out a new tool,» said Christina Kosmowski, the VP of customer success and services at Slack. «It means fearlessly undertaking the process of changing how an organisation works. We’re inspired by our admins and committed to their success – not only in their current organisation but also in their careers.»

For those that apply for the courses, there are a new set of controls to get used to, starting with ‘Message Activity’ which details the reach, impact, and engagement of Slack messages.

The updates also include further tools to drive integrated productivity apps, such as Google Calandar and Microsoft Calendar. This also includes a streamlined tasks manager called ‘Centralised Channel Management’ which is available for Grid plans. With this, admins will have one main dashboard to view and manage channels across their organisation. All it takes is a few clicks on the dashboard to rename, archive, and edit permissions.

Those interested in the course can sign up here.

​Salesforce has announced its plans to roll out three new Marketing Cloud product updates which aim to facilitate working from home for enterprise marketing teams.

The updates include three AI-focused innovations to its Interaction Studio, four new features in the enterprise addition of Pardot, as well as a new Datorama integration with Tableau.

Salesforce’s Interaction Studio, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to manage customer interactions, is to be improved with technology integrated from the company’s Evergage acquisition, which was finalised earlier this year.

Users will be able to to build, manage, test, and implement AI-powered recommendation strategies with the new Einstein Personalization Recipes, use an “advanced, continuous learning algorithm” to choose the best suitable offer or experience through Einstein Personalization Decisions, as well as improve personalisation campaigns and customer engagement efforts using A/B/n Testing.

Salesforce also announced that it would be integrating its Datorama analytics platform with Tableau, which was acquired by the company last year for $15.3 billion (£12 billion). The integration is to aid marketers in optimising their budget and data using Automated Marketing Data Integration.

Lastly, the software company will roll out four new features to its enterprise edition of Pardot, Salesforce’s marketing automation product. With B2B Marketing Analytics Plus, users will be able to use AI to sift through and understand data as well as determine best future marketing strategies.

Pardot will also be equipped with Einstein Attribution, which produces report and dashboards for optimised revenue credit assignment and Pardot Business Units, which facilitates campaign management across brands, geographies and segments. Admins and developers will also be able to test, audit and configure IT processes with the new Developer Sandboxes for Pardot.

While the Datorama Integration with Tableau is already available, Pardot Premium is to roll out later this month. Salesforce announced that the Interaction Studio will become generally available in the third quarter of 2020.

HPE has teamed up with colocation service provider Interxion to bring GreenLake services to the European market, in a move it says will offer a managed cloud experience without the complexity of managing data centres.

Hosted at Interxion’s colocation data centres, the HPE GreenLake cloud services initiative has been designed to allow customers to maintain ownership of their data and workloads, minus the need to manage on-site data.

Announcing the move, the tech giant said the setup will bring a host of benefits – such as greater visibility of resource utilisation across co-located and public cloud-based workloads, as well as governance across enterprise applications and data. It will also enable enterprises to interconnect with connectivity providers, public clouds and each other, the firm said.

To begin with, HPE is introducing a pilot program in Ireland – but a successful trial will see the scheme quickly expand to the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands.

“As the cloud gateway to Europe, Ireland is the perfect market to trial this new hosted HPE GreenLake cloud offer,” commented Maeve Culloty, Managing Director of HPE Ireland. “By running workloads as a service on dedicated hardware at a colocation data center, customers are getting the best of both worlds: the convenience of cloud and the security and compliance associated with a traditional on-premise infrastructure.”

The announcement follows the launch of new HPE GreenLake’s new cloud services last month, which opened up access to a host of cloud services that can be deployed via HPE GreenLake Central.

Now, thanks to the Interxion collaboration, customers can leverage further key benefits – such as eliminating the cost of on-premise data centres and gaining access to public cloud providers, the company claims. Businesses will also have visibility over usage and spend, keep control of data and processes, all while running their workloads in data centres powered by 100% renewable energy.

Initially, HPE and Interxion said they are offering HPE GreenLake cloud services for private cloud with containers or virtual machines, and data centre infrastructure – which will be available via HPE and HPE channel partners.

“Our agreement to launch HPE GreenLake cloud services hosted in our data centers improves speed and agility by increasing customers’ connectivity to public clouds while staying in control of cost, security and compliance without the need to invest in an on-premise data center, as they can deploy HPE GreenLake solutions in Interxion’s colocation data centers,” commented Séamus Dunne, managing director of Interxion Ireland.

“Interxion will help businesses safeguard mission-critical data, while also taking into account their security needs and operational reliability.”

Google has made changes to Gmail to make the app more holistic for remote working users and reduce their dependency on supporting services like Slack and Zoom.

The company is incorporating more applications into its business version of Gmail, taking away the need to use multiple tabs or switch to other apps.

Following on from Google Meet and Chats being integrated into Gmail, the tech giant is increasing the capabilities of both within the email service. The collaboration features in Chat rooms now include shared files and tasks functions.

This also includes the ability to create chat rooms with people outside of your company, such as contractors or consultants, creating cross-organisational collaboration, similar to the ‘Connect‘ feature Slack introduced in June.

The idea is to give G Suite customers less reason to use services like Slack and make Gmail a one-stop collaboration tool. While the email service has over 1.5 billion active users, G Suite only has six million business customers, less than Microsoft’s more enterprise-focused Office suite.
 
Within a room, users can open and co-edit a document with the rest of their team without leaving Gmail, similar to the functions in Google Docs. Users can also join video calls from Chats, forward a chat message to an inbox and create a task directly from a chat message.

«Virtual meetings, remote collaboration, flexible hours: it’s becoming clear that these new ways of working are here to stay,» said Javier Soltero, VP and GM of G Suite.
 
«Remote working has significantly increased the demands we’re getting from many directions – in both our professional and our personal lives. People tell us they feel overloaded with too much information and too many tasks across too many different tools. Instead of learning another tool, we need the tools we already use to be even more helpful, and work together, in an integrated, intuitive way.»

There are also updates for Meet and Chat security; in the coming weeks, Google Meet hosts will have more control over meetings, where they can assign who can join or collaborate within them. There will also be stronger phishing protections built within Gmail to Google Chat. If a user clicks on a link within the service, it will be scanned in real-time and flagged if it’s found to contain malicious content.

GDPR defines personal data as an ‘asset’, yet despite this modern valuation, most of us have unwittingly – or unthinkingly –  given it away in exchange for online services. As such, the average digital footprint is spread far and wide.

If you can remember all the companies that have bits of your digital info, you can begin approaching each one individually and demand they delete it – but you may be surprised at the quantity of organisations that really is. While the mind may immediately leap to Facebook, Google and the other tech giants, it’s also lots of obscure entities. That time you brought a hat at Disneyland, for example, the shop collected more than just a payment. 

How do you start tracing companies you don’t remember engaging with? The answer is in your inbox and involves a little AI knowhow. This is the basic premise of Mine, an Israeli startup that uses machine learning to make the GDPR’s ‘right to be forgotten’ serviceable.

Gold Mine

Mine was founded by CEO Gal Ringel and CTO Gal Golan, who met in the cyber security unit of the Israeli army, and CPO Kobi Nissan, who previously worked for CandyCrush developer King. While many businesses saw GDPR as a hindrance when it came into force in 2018, for Mine it was an integral part of its inception.

“When we started to research the right to be forgotten, we quickly realised that we couldn’t find one tool that makes the GDPR accessible for the average person,” Ringel tells IT Pro. “Regulations are complex and difficult for the average user to understand. With that goal in mind, we quickly realised that we needed to come up with a really simple app that uncovers what companies have your personal data, to make your digital footprint tangible, for the first time, so you can almost touch it.” 

Ringel estimates that around 350 companies are waiting to be found in the average person’s email. For work accounts, it’s almost half of that falling somewhere between 80 to 100. A staggering 90% of the companies that have your data can be found in your inbox, spam filter or even your trash folder. What’s more, the key to finding out who has your personal details isn’t in the email itself, but rather the subject line.

With Google Cloud’s AI platform, Mine has built machine learning models divided into two datasets. The first is trained on emails that have been tagged as different types of interactions – specifically learning about subject lines. This process has been repeated in 12 different languages so that the service works for users in other parts of the world, not just Israel, and can also spot traces of companies from Germany, France, Italy, Israel, Spain and many more. 

“We search for these traces and then reflect it back to you,” Ringel explains. “So basically the AI understands what the interaction you had with a company was just based on the email’s subject. So for example, ‘Welcome to Air BnB’, that interaction is a sign up, and ‘Your purchase from Amazon’, means you’ve bought something. 

“We worked really hard for almost a year to develop machine learning that is non-intrusive, but basically scans your inbox by only looking at the email subject. So it never actually reads the context of the email, because we don’t want to see the process of how they collect the personal data and we also don’t want to be collecting any email data.”

How Mine understands what data you’ve given to that company is down to the second dataset, which has been trained on thousands of privacy policies. Under the rules of the GDPR, companies have to be transparent with the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of data collection. So for example, Airbnb collects your data for two reasons: Signing up to its service and then for payments. So it will have your name, address, email, mobile phone number, a copy of your passport, plus payment details if you’ve ever used its service. 

Sign up

Naturally, to find all this out, you need to sign up to one more service: Mine’s. It requires your email address to perform its basic function and your first and last name so that it can contact each company on your behalf. Upon registering your email, the company says, the machine learning models get to work and within 30 seconds you’ll be presented with 40 or so companies that have your data – this expands to hundreds after roughly 48 hours and repeatedly notifies you as and when you sign up to more. 

All the usual suspects will be there – Netflix, LinkedIn, Amazon – along with an assortment of unknown and forgettable one time services. Underneath each will be the data you signed up and a button to take action. Click on this and Mine sends a request on your behalf. Some companies, however, will be listed as “action unavailable”. 

“The reason you see action unavailable can be for two reasons,” Ringel explains. “First, these are companies that we still haven’t got round to analysing their privacy policies and learned their data structure. And the second could be that we didn’t find any contact information within their privacy policy. So we don’t know who to approach. When you want to reclaim from a company, we automatically shoot an email to its data protection officer or its privacy officer.” 

As a company turning the GDPR into a service, Mine will come under more scrutiny than most when it comes to compliance. The company’s own privacy policy has no margin for error.  

«The only data we do store is your email address, which you signed up with, and a list of the companies’ names we identified in your footprint,” Ringel confirms. “You can easily request a copy of the data we hold about you to see exactly what we keep. We are fully transparent on everything we are doing and, of course, in line with GDPR regulations.»

Main image copyright: Mine.

HSBC Holdings has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its long-term cloud provider for its planned digital transformation. 

The multi-year agreement will make AWS technology available across the company’s business, starting with customer-facing applications and modernisation of its Global Wealth & Personal Banking arm.

HSBC Holdings, the parent company of HSBC, is headquartered in London and serves customers around the world out of offices in 64 countries across Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa. 

With the migration, HSBC will have access to AWS’s extensive portfolio of cloud services, including compute, containers, storage, database, analytics, machine learning, and security to develop new digital products and support security and compliance standards for millions of its personal banking customers around the worldwide. 

The bank plans to use AWS serverless and analytics services, including Amazon Kinesis, to create a more personalised and customer-centric banking experience, it said. 

«Our work with AWS is an example of how HSBC continues to invest in secure and advanced technologies to make our digital banking experience even better for customers,» said Dinesh Keswani, CTO and CIO for digital at HSBC. 

«Our ambition is to make it easy, safe, and reliable for customers to bank with us, whenever and wherever they are. HSBC’s collaboration with AWS helps us to deliver innovative banking solutions to customers at a faster rate, starting with our Wealth & Personal Banking business.»

According to AWS, HSBC is continuing to expand its use of its cloud services to deliver innovative financial services that help customers grow their wealth in «new and more personalised ways».

«We look forward to our continued collaboration with HSBC as they leverage AWS’s proven capabilities, reliability, and security to drive efficiency across their business and become a more agile organisation in the cloud,»  said Frank Fallon, VP of financial services at AWS. 

Microsoft and Citrix have announced an expansion of their partnership to help organisations deal with the move to remote and agile business models.

The multi-year deal between Citrix and Microsoft aims to help businesses accelerate the move to the cloud and speed up adoption of digital workspaces and virtual desktops.

Citrix and its workspace portal will become Microsoft’s «preferred» digital workspace, while Citrix has chosen Azure as its preferred cloud platform.

The thinking behind the deal is to help businesses address the «workplace of the future» with the pandemic drastically changing the way companies operate. Citrix believes that more organisations will make remote work a permanent part of their cost and workforce management strategies, which will mean that office structures will change. 

Virtual desktops has been an area of heavy investment from Microsoft, with the pandemic forcing many businesses to shift to working from home. As a result, Windows Virtual Desktop usage has almost trebled in recent months and the company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, has prioritised work on both Microsoft Teams and Windows Virtual Desktops.
 
The two companies will provide joint tools and services to simplify and speed the transition of on-premises Citrix customers to Azure. They will also devise a connected roadmap to enable a consistent and optimal flexible work experience that will include joint services comprised of Citrix Workspace, Citrix SD-WAN, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365.

«The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses around the world to change the way that employees work, while still meeting the speed and security requirements that today’s uncertain business environment demands,» said David Henshall, president and CEO of Citrix.

«Looking forward, hybrid-work models will become the standard for many customers, requiring a flexible infrastructure to support, secure and empower their teams.
 
«Together, Citrix and Microsoft can deliver a powerful digital workspace in a trusted and secure public cloud where employees can access everything they need to engage and be productive whether they are at home, in the office or on the road.»