Broadcom-VMware, Alibaba Cloud, Red Hat, Google Cloud: A Hefty Roundup
From the ‘landmark’ deal that just won’t come together to generative AI news galore, we have it here.
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For the second time this year, Broadcom and VMware have pushed back the outside date on their pending, $61 billion combination. To be clear, the “outside date” doesn’t mean a closing date, it means the date by which either company can walk away from the deal.
If the new date, Aug. 26, comes and Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware still has not closed, the two can again extend the outside date to Nov. 26, a date in effect since the original merger agreement was filed. That would depend on whether “all of the closing conditions except those relating to regulatory approvals have been satisfied or waived,” VMware told the SEC.
Indeed, bringing the two companies together has so far been a difficult affair. The proposed merger continues to face significant resistance in Europe, where antitrust regulators have shifted their deadline for a decision on the transaction to July 17. It’s not the first time they have changed the deadline as they assess the impact of a Broadcom-VMware union on buyers in Europe.
Broadcom has continued to say the pairing will occur by October 2023, the month that marks the end of the company’s fiscal year.
Alibaba is following through on plans to cut cloud computing jobs.
CNBC is reporting that the China-based ecommerce behemoth is laying off 7% of its cloud computing employees. The media outlet said affected employees will get severance packages. Some people could take a different job within the company, too.
The move comes as Alibaba said last week it plans to go public. Earlier this year, it announced that it would split the company into six units, each with its own executives and boards of directors.
Alibaba Cloud ranks as the No. 1 provider in China and the second-largest in Asia Pacific overall, behind Amazon Web Services, according to Synergy Research Group. Globally, though, it has yet to catch up with the Big Three hyperscalers. Alibaba Cloud accounts for just 9% of Alibaba’s total revenue, whereas rival AWS stands out as Amazon’s most profitable segment.
The fast-growing AI movement is changing how organizations approach their processes — and Red Hat channel chief Stefanie Chiras only sees opportunity.
“[T]he key to helping customers seize this new reality is co-creation,” wrote Chiras, senior vice president of partner ecosystem success at Red Hat, in a May 24 blog. The missive came as part of the Red Hat Summit taking place this week in Boston.
“We are firmly committed to delivering unparalleled customer experiences by bringing together the unique expertise of our partners with the capabilities of Red Hat technology,” Chiras continued. “While this is not a new concept, it is more critical than ever before. Bridging capabilities between the datacenter to the cloud to the edge can only be achieved through unrelenting collaboration, interoperability and co-created solutions.”
Red Hat remains focused on supporting hybrid cloud environments. These mixes of public and private cloud resources require unique platforms for bridging the gaps in proprietary programming and individual capabilities. Red Hat, with its open-source approach, is tackling those challenges. It’s also leaning heavily on newly beefed-up AI capabilities to make things run more smoothly and predictably — for channel partners as much as for end users, Chiras said.
“Our goal with ecosystem partners is to help you seize innovation easily and get value from your open hybrid cloud. We do the work on the back-end, so that you get the simplicity on the front-end. Intelligent innovation is one of the reasons that we work so closely with our partners to deliver solutions that simplify and optimize IT.”
Google Cloud is going all-in on generative AI with several of its partners, mostly through its Vertex AI platform.
First, there’s a new deal with Google Cloud-only managed service provider SADA. Read about that agreement here.
Then there’s another with consultancy Wipro. The firm, like SADA, is integrating Google Cloud’s AI suite into its own intellectual property and platforms.
“Generative AI offers incredible opportunities ahead,” said Thierry Delaporte, CEO and managing director of Wipro. “Expanding our partnership with Google Cloud allows us to help our clients accelerate the adoption of this technology — safely, securely and responsibly. We are investing in skills as well as new capabilities in this area, so that Wipro can define and drive our clients’ AI-led transformation.”
Data security and management provider Cohesity is doing much the same.
“To apply generative AI transformatively, businesses need to be able to easily get rapid insights from their data utilizing cutting-edge and leading AI/ML models,” said Sanjay Poonen, CEO and president of Cohesity. “We also agree with Google that AI must be handled securely and responsibly. With our unique platform, Cohesity not only provides … search via our built-in indexing capabilities, but robust security protocols to help customers maintain control and privacy of their data at every turn.”
And, of course, recall that SAP and Google Cloud made a big splash around generative AI a couple of weeks ago.
Not to get too far in the weeds over generative AI, but we would be remiss if we didn’t cover another announcement on that front.
On May 24, Alteryx, which delivers cloud analytics, unveiled AiDIN. The company bills the platform as an engine that combines AI, machine learning and generative AI with its technology. The goal is to make cloud analytics more efficient and productive.
One industry analyst calls the strategy a new way “to interact with, improve and reimagine analytics.”
“These are exactly the types of integrations that will help enterprises drive high quality insights from large language models,” added David Menninger, senior vice president and research director of Ventana Research.
AiDIN supports Alteryx capabilities including data insights and workflow summaries.
“With generative AI, users unlock an entirely new way of using insights to transform their business and solve their biggest challenges,” said Suresh Vittal, chief product officer at Alteryx. With Alteryx AiDIN, “customers can intuitively infuse data-driven insights into every decision across every function, while maintaining governance over their analytics processes.”
Hybrid cloud is going nowhere.
That’s according to a new report, State of Observability 2023, commissioned by Splunk and carried out by Enterprise Strategy Group.
On average, respondents support and maintain 165 business applications. About half of those reside in the public cloud, while the other half live in on-premises environments.
Regardless of where those apps are housed, as the number within the organization grows, IT experts must have access to unified visibility, Splunk said.
“With the rising complexity of today’s technology environments and the direct connection between reducing disruptions and optimal customer experiences, observability is fundamental to the successful operations of modern businesses,” said Spiros Xanthos, senior vice president and general manager of Splunk’s observability business. “Observability enables businesses to keep their software and infrastructure reliable, systems secure and customers happy, making it a critical component to any organization’s resilience strategy.”
ESG surveyed 1,750 IT leaders across 10 countries to reach its findings.
As hybrid cloud dominates the enterprise environment, a glaring problem is coming to light: automation remains siloed to the point that efficiency and business continuity both have come under threat.
That’s according to CloudBolt Software, which tackles the automation, optimization and governance of hybrid cloud.
The company recently released its latest commissioned report, The Truth About Siloed Automation, conducted through Gartner Pulse Surveys. CloudBolt got responses from 350 senior IT and devops leaders who work at companies with more than 3,000 employees.
More than half of those organizations — 57% — keep their automations within individual silos, CloudBolt found. All told, respondents report the presence of 27 different automation tools within their organizations, with little to no consistency across teams.
Of the 57%, 75% of respondents said those disparate approaches hamper their ability to unify cloud operations across functions. Not only does this make work more difficult and redundant, it also opens the door for business continuity risk if a vital team member leaves.
On top of that, 88% of respondents agreed that housing cloud automations in one repository would bolster compliance, security and business continuity, and reduce overall risk. We interpret that as pretty big area of opportunity for cloud channel partners to tackle.
CloudBolt CTO Rick Kilcoyne agreed.
“To reap the full benefits of cloud automation, it is time IT teams acknowledge automation silos are real and establish an automation Center of Excellence with the remit to unify the disparate pieces into a single repository for consistent re-use — accessible to all who need it,” he said.
As hybrid cloud dominates the enterprise environment, a glaring problem is coming to light: automation remains siloed to the point that efficiency and business continuity both have come under threat.
That’s according to CloudBolt Software, which tackles the automation, optimization and governance of hybrid cloud.
The company recently released its latest commissioned report, The Truth About Siloed Automation, conducted through Gartner Pulse Surveys. CloudBolt got responses from 350 senior IT and devops leaders who work at companies with more than 3,000 employees.
More than half of those organizations — 57% — keep their automations within individual silos, CloudBolt found. All told, respondents report the presence of 27 different automation tools within their organizations, with little to no consistency across teams.
Of the 57%, 75% of respondents said those disparate approaches hamper their ability to unify cloud operations across functions. Not only does this make work more difficult and redundant, it also opens the door for business continuity risk if a vital team member leaves.
On top of that, 88% of respondents agreed that housing cloud automations in one repository would bolster compliance, security and business continuity, and reduce overall risk. We interpret that as pretty big area of opportunity for cloud channel partners to tackle.
CloudBolt CTO Rick Kilcoyne agreed.
“To reap the full benefits of cloud automation, it is time IT teams acknowledge automation silos are real and establish an automation Center of Excellence with the remit to unify the disparate pieces into a single repository for consistent re-use — accessible to all who need it,” he said.
If you thought the ‘landmark’ Broadcom-VMware deal would have been tied up by now, well, you’d be mistaken. And it’s not entirely clear when the companies will wrap up their intended $61 billion pairing. As part of this week’s cloud computing news roundup, we take a look at the latest goings-on with the planned Broadcom-VMware transaction.
There’s also a significant development at Alibaba Cloud. Parent company Alibaba, the China-based ecommerce giant, is going through with intended cuts to the cloud computing division. Find out more in the slideshow above.
Next up, prepare for a slew of generative AI news. From Red Hat and Google Cloud to Alteryx, it seems everyone in cloud is all about this fast-growing trend.
Finally, we round out this week’s roundup with a look at two cloud-centric research reports, one from Splunk, the other from CloudBolt Software. Both assess how organizations are managing their environments — or not, to be more accurate. The results point to significant opportunity for cloud channel partners to further guide and help customers.
Let’s start with the latest on Broadcom-VMware, though. Click the image above to start our latest slideshow.
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