Category: Latest Articles

New Cloud Wars Q&A with IBM explores what it means to be the "most-open" cloud

IBM Says We’re #1 With “Most Open” Cloud

August 15, 2019
Betting that its $34-billion acquisition of Red Hat will trigger new growth, IBM says its two-year overhaul of its vast cloud portfolio plus Red Hat gives it the “most open” cloud in the industry precisely as customers are demanding open-source solutions. But is IBM truly the “most open” cloud? Is it more open than Google,
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Thomas Kurian Google Cloud VMware deal

Why Google Cloud Extended Partnership with VMware: The Thomas Kurian Effect

August 13, 2019
From Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s very first public comments about his plans for reinvigorating the company, meeting and exceeding the needs of customers has been at the top of his list. Google’s always had superb cloud technology but, until Kurian’s arrival at the beginning of this year, it remained largely detached from the marketplace.
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Insights from Satya Nadella and Amy Hood on Microsoft's monster Q4 revenue

Inside Microsoft’s Monster Q4: 10 Big Cloud Numbers

August 12, 2019
To show the magnitude of Microsoft’s latest cloud-revenue performance, I recently offered this broad perspective for the quarter ended June 30: #1 Microsoft Cloud Revenue as Big as Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, IBM Combined. Some additional perspective: the $11 billion in commercial-cloud revenue for Microsoft’s fiscal Q4—traditionally its largest quarter of the year—was more than 30%
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Hillery Hunter explains IBM's plan for Red Hat

IBM’s $34-Billion Payback Plan for Red Hat

August 9, 2019
Would you spend $34 billion to boost your chances of capitalizing on a $1-trillion market? And if so, how would you turn that expectation into reality? That first question represents the precise motivation behind IBM’s $34-billion acquisition of Red Hat. And details have begun to emerge about how Red Hat’s highly regarded open-source solutions—particularly its
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How Microsoft, Amazon and Workday Are Driving Machine-Learning Revolution

August 8, 2019
While every tech vendor in the Cloud Wars Top 10 is eagerly exploring the vast potential of machine learning, it was fascinating to see how #1 Microsoft, #2 Amazon and #8 Workday used their latest earnings calls to highlight their broad efforts with a technology that’s rocketed into prominence in the past 18 months. Oracle’s
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Google Jumps to #6 behind #1 Microsoft, #2 Amazon, #3 Salesforce, #4 SAP, #5 Oracle

August 5, 2019
Sparked by CEO Thomas Kurian’s customer-centric leadership, Google Cloud continues to climb in the Cloud Wars Top 10. On the strength of its recently posted $2-billion quarter, the vendor has now moved up to #6. New leadership sparks transformation at Google Cloud. While no one has questioned Google’s technological capabilities in the enterprise cloud, under
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CEO John Donahoe spoke about the ServiceNow Microsoft deals that are driving growth.

ServiceNow Bets Big on Microsoft and Mobile for Next Growth Spurt

August 2, 2019
Having posted $3 billion in revenue for the past 12 months, ServiceNow is banking on some powerful new mobile applications plus a deep new partnership with industry leader Microsoft to trigger its next phase of growth. While CEO John Donahoe cited a number of factors for the company’s sustained performance, I was most interested in
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Microsoft’s $1B Bet: “Most Important Technological Development in Human History”

July 31, 2019
If you believe it’s important to dream big dreams, then you gotta love the expectations behind Microsoft’s decision to invest $1 billion with partner OpenAI: to achieve nothing short of “shape the trajectory of humanity.” There’s been a fair amount of chit-chat about the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership to create AGI (artificial general intelligence). But largely overlooked
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Highlights from Amazon Q2 earnings announcement, including aws growth

Amazon Becoming Powerhouse in Red-Hot Machine Learning and Blockchain

July 30, 2019
Looking to extend its cloud leadership beyond the IaaS category it created and dominates, Amazon’s AWS unit disclosed big customer wins and new advanced services in the explosive categories of machine learning and blockchain. In disclosing Q2 financial results late last week, Amazon—the #2 company on my Cloud Wars Top 10 rankings—pounded home its advances
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