Former Google Cloud Executive Speaks Out
Former Google Cloud product management lead, Amir Hermelin has recently written a post on Medium in which he explains what he thinks the future will hold for the company. Hermelin noted that Google’s two biggest mistakes were spending too much time chasing AWS and Microsoft Azure and taking too long to realize the value of the enterprise market.
Hermelin was on the Google Cloud team beginning in mid-2012; 18 months before Google’s Compute Engine would become generally available. He wrote in his post, “Seeing success with Snapchat and the likes, and lacking enough familiarity with the enterprise space, it was easy to focus away from ‘large orgs’.This included insufficient investments in marketing, sales, support, and solutions engineering, resulting in the aforementioned being inferior compared to the competitors.”
Google has put significant effort in the cloud arena over the past year and a half. Previously the company’s ‘poster child’ for its cloud suites was Snapchat; but they have now secured Fortune 500 companies like Verizon and eBay. Google has yet to respond to Hermelin’s post.
Microsoft’s Pentagon Cloud Contract Pitch
The bids for the heavily sought after Pentagon Cloud Contract, that could lead to a possible 10-year partnership, are due at the end of the week. Microsoft has posted a blog post highlighting its ability to secure the most sensitive government applications.
By the end of the first quarter of next year, Microsoft will have completed its work on Azure Government Secret, which was first announced last year. Azure Government Secret will support “Secret U.S. classified data or Defense Information Systems Agency Impact Level 6 workloads,” according to the post written by Julia White, Microsoft’s corporate vice president. They will soon also support Top Secret Workloads.
The company also announced Azure Reservations, which will allow government customers to sign up for one year or three-year blocks of cloud services to fix their costs in place for an extended period of time. With Google Cloud officially dropping out of the running Monday, Microsoft could have an even better shot at securing the contract.
Semtech Partners with Alibaba Cloud
Semtech has announced that it is partnering with Alibaba Cloud to help enterprises in China adopt its Lo-Ra devices and wireless radio frequency technology. The joint effort will secure and establish the radio spectrum for the rapid growth of IoT solutions for multiple vertical markets and new use cases in China. This includes: logistics tracking, food safety compliance, air quality, and smoke detecting safety.
Alibaba Cloud introduced the first Lo-Ra based Airship Balloon, which connected sensors from 20 meters underground to 40,000 meters above ground; demonstrating the extensive capabilities of Lo-Ra technology including long range, simple and flexible network deployment.
At a recent industry event, Alibaba demonstrated one of the new use cases in a video in which an unmanned vehicle delivered a package with real-time tracking and event detection. This indicates, in the future China’s IoT industry will leverage Semtech’s Lo-Ra technology due to its long range, low power capabilities with a simple flexible network.
Marc Pegulu, the Vice President and general manager of Semtech Wireless and Sensing Products Group said in a statement, “The abundant amount of low power IoT use cases emerging in China leveraging Semtech’s Lo-Ra Technology will position the platform as the de facto IoT solution, and we anticipate Alibaba will be one of the industry leaders as it strengthens its ecosystem of IoT partners in China.”
Microsoft Invests in Grab
Microsoft is investing in the ride-hailing and on-demand services company,Grab, based in Singapore, as a part of a deal to collaborate on big data and AI projects. Under the agreement, Grab will adopt Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud provider. The companies did not disclose financial terms.
Grab will use Microsoft’s technology to scale its own digital platform. Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President at Microsoft stated, “Our partnership with Grab opens up new opportunities to innovate in both a rapidly evolving industry and growth region.”
The companies also said they will be working on a number of “innovative deep technologies projects,” including, for those that opt in, facial recognition with built in AI designed to replace the old-school method of ID checks. This is the second automotive partnership Microsoft has made recently. Will we see more? Stay tuned to future round-ups to find out.
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