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☆ Security Gets Blended With Corporate Networks in New Cloud Platforms
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

As everything moves to the cloud, a new generation of cybersecurity platforms has emerged, combining corporate networks with security tools such as malware protection into a single system that tech leaders can manage centrally. Older technology can be upgraded to lay the groundwork for implementing a new platform, Mr. Franch said, but it needs to happen without disrupting the existing corporate network. PREVIEWAt Carriage Services, Mr. Franch wants to undertake a network modernization similar to one he oversaw as chief technology officer of commercial real-estate services company Cushman & Wakefield. Modernization tends to reduce complexity and increase visibility of what’s on the network, which can benefit security, according to Mr. Franch. Goya Foods Inc. CIO Suvajit Basu said the Jersey City, N.J.-based company uses cybersecurity services from about seven vendors and a total of about 12 cybersecurity tools, many purchased and implemented over time.

That number includes both rocket launches and capsule reentries, and has been steadily climbing. A Falcon Heavy rocket launches the USSF-67 mission on January 15, 2023 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "Air space is going to be a critical, critical issue," Isom said, calling on new industries to contribute to the cost of air traffic control. A graph of FAA-licensed or permitted commercial space launches (excludes launches licensed by other U.S. government agencies, such as NASA or the Department of Defense). Together they create a moving target for space launches and the commercial airlines eyeing the same air space.

☆ Microsoft's cloud business, a key pillar of the Club's investment case, stands to gain from the AI craze
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

"But the one good thing here is the business model side of this, because it builds on the cloud." Nadella's comments Tuesday came shortly after Microsoft unveiled its strategy to reshape its internet search engine , Bing, by incorporating generative AI capabilities. Equipped with generative AI capabilities, Bing will be able to respond to users' queries with human-like written answers. On Monday, competitor Alphabet (GOOGL) announced its response to the ChatGPT craze , a generative AI service called Bard. The Club take The rivalry between Microsoft and Google has now spilled into generative AI, which is still in its early days.

☆ ChatGPT ignited a new A.I. craze. What it means for tech companies and who's best positioned to benefit
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Since the launch of ChatGPT late last year, no one in the tech world can seem to stop talking about artificial intelligence. CEO Sundar Pichai announced Thursday that the company will launch its LaMDA language model and new AI features "very soon ." But it's not just technology companies rethinking AI. We combed through earnings transcripts available through FactSet to find out what some of the biggest tech companies are saying about the latest craze and who could benefit the most. Preparing for an 'AI arms race' in tech There's no question that Microsoft stands to gain from ChatGPT and the AI push on Wall Street.

Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), which has the smallest cloud business among the three, said Google Cloud grew 32%, the slowest rise since the company began reporting the measure in 2019. "Once thought as the most defensive revenue stream in tech, we are seeing investors questioning the cyclicality for the (cloud) business," analysts at Bernstein said. Microsoft's revenue in its so-called intelligent cloud business that includes Azure rose 18% to beat expectations for October to December. Amazon finance chief Brian Olsavsky said on Thursday that the company expects slower cloud growth rates for the next few quarters. "Those (AI) advancements and demand for related cloud services will take time to materialize.

☆ Amazon's cloud business reports 20% growth in fourth quarter, missing estimates
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon Web Services leads the cloud infrastructure market, with almost 39% share in 2021, according to estimates from industry researcher Gartner. Revenue growth at AWS has generally decelerated since 2015 as the segment has become larger and competition has picked up. In the fourth quarter, AWS generated $21.4 billion in revenue, representing 14% of Amazon's total revenue. Also in the quarter, AWS announced the availability of data center regions in Spain and Switzerland. WATCH: Amazon Web Services revenue growth will slow down more in 2023, says Satori Fund's Niles

☆ Mark Zuckerberg is finally embracing his new role as Meta's Chopper-in-Chief. Here are the plans he just laid out to further cut costs in 2023.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The company is canceling multiple data center projects. Canceling multiple data center projectsMeta has also been canceling multiple data center projects, and incurred $1.3 billion in charges related to that. Li said the same operational "scrutiny" being applied to other areas of the company is going toward data centers as well. The company did not disclose which current data centers are being closed or affected by the design changes. "And we are going to optimize our overall approach to building data centers."

☆ Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360: Hands-on and how to preorder
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Mike Andronico | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The Galaxy Book series has consistently impressed us with its range of slim, attractive and versatile designs, so it’s no surprise that Samsung isn’t reinventing the wheel for the Galaxy Book 3 range — though it is bringing a powerful new member to the family. This year’s lineup consists of the Galaxy Book 3 Pro, the convertible Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 and the debuting Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, the latter of which features the highest-end Intel and Nvidia chipsets for serious productivity and immersive PC gaming. Galaxy Book 3 price and preordersAll three Galaxy Book 3 models are available for preorder now, and will ship on Feb. 17. The 16-inch Book 3 Pro 360 starts at $1,900 in the same colors, while the 16-inch Book 3 Ultra will run you at least $2,400 and comes only in Graphite. Slim looks, big power and cross-device functionalityMike Andronico/CNNI spent the majority of my hands-on time with the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, a mouthful of a laptop that improves on the Book 2 Pro 360 we really dug last year (seriously, Samsung needs to streamline these names).

☆ AMD delivers a Q4 beat amid industry headwinds, validating the Club investment case
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

But the deal was ultimately necessary for AMD, as it helped it expand its data center business, boost margins, and further diversify away from PCs. Bottom line Despite facing industry-wide headwinds, including a chip glut and soft PC demand, AMD managed to outperform low expectations. Q4 segment results Data center revenues increased 42% but were a little softer than what analysts had forecasted. Sequentially, embedded revenues are expected to increase, providing some upside, while gaming and PC revenues are expected to decline, consistent with seasonality. No specific financial guidance was provided for the full year of 2023, but management expects the data center and embedded segments to grow year-over-year.

☆ For the lucky workers who survive layoffs, anxiety and heavier workloads rule
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Employees who were kept on told Insider they felt anxious about their job security and overworked. And while those who've lost their jobs are experiencing tremendous financial and professional uncertainty, evidence suggests that workers who survive layoffs also suffer. In June 2020, Hannah was unexpectedly told she was being put into a redundancy pool with seven other colleagues. "There wasn't a lot of time to process the whole thing," Hannah told Insider. "You become very acutely aware that you are dispensable," Hannah told Insider.

REUTERS/Andrew KellyOAKLAND, Calif/BANGALORE, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Microprocessor giant Intel Corp (INTC.O) says it will regain its footing against AMD and other chip rivals which are gobbling up market share, but Wall Street is skeptical. That's a headwind for Intel and AMD, both of which are rolling out new chips, but Intel is facing a larger inventory correction. Intel still dominates the markets for PC and server processing chips, with a market share greater than 70%, tech research firm IDC calculated. Chipmaker shares were hammered across the board on Friday, but Intel led the decline, slumping by 10% while AMD lost 1.8%. AMD set to overtake Intel in market cap, again AMD set to overtake Intel in market cap, againReporting By Jane Lanhee Lee and Chavi Mehta; Editing by David Gaffen, Peter Henderson, Kirsten Donovan and Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

OAKLAND, Calif/BANGALORE, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Microprocessor giant Intel Corp (INTC.O) has stumbled badly at a time when smaller rival AMD and others are picking up speed. Intel still dominates the markets for PC and server processing chips, with a market share greater than 70%, tech research firm IDC calculated. "I don't think Intel is in a position yet to start recovering share" in the market, he said. Customers of processors cannot launch products if new chip designs are late, and Intel has stumbled on delivering its latest data-center chip, code named Sapphire Rapids. Worse for Intel, the benchmarks published by the two companies show that AMD's latest server chip outperforms Sapphire Rapids on "general purpose workloads", according to Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon.

☆ Microsoft's AI push has some analysts raving about the stock even after lackluster earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Microsoft 's earnings report earlier this week was largely considered dissatisfying to analysts. The company beat analyst expectations on per-share earnings while missing analysts' revenue estimate in its fiscal second quarter , Refinitiv data shows. But analysts who cover the stock weren't entirely beating up on it, pointing to AI as a bright spot in the earnings report. Analysts and company management have argued AI will improve existing products such as Azure and Bing. He said AI company Nvidia will have "derivative focus," while Arista Networks is well positioned as AI's fabric gets expanded.

“The small miss on Microsoft’s cloud earnings forecast is likely just a reflection of the new economic reality that businesses are facing and not a harbinger of something worse," said Bob O'Donnell, chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research. It forecast third-quarter revenue in its so-called intelligent cloud business would be $21.7 billion to $22 billion, just below the analyst average forecast of $22.14 billion, according to Refinitiv. He said revenue from OpenAI-related businesses would show up in revenue for Microsoft's cloud service Azure in the future. Azure cloud product revenue in the second quarter rose 31%, in line with estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. The company expects that revenue to drop to $11.9 billion to $12.3 billion in the current fiscal third quarter.

☆ Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the great cloud slowdown won't last forever as he shares his plan for a big bounce back
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Microsoft's earnings report Tuesday showed slowing cloud growth in a reality check for Wall Street. However, Microsoft's CEO and analysts think cloud is poised for a bounce-back after some hard times. Bernstein analysts wrote that Microsoft was the "canary in the coal mine" for cloud. Most analysts seem to agree with Nadella's approach, arguing that the cloud spending slowdown is temporary and not reflective of any longer-term trend. "We still think MSFT is well-placed to capture long-term opportunities," Bernstein analysts wrote to clients.

☆ Microsoft's slight earnings beat is not enough to lure us off the sidelines
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Dynamics 356 revenue was up 29% in constant currency, while LinkedIn's revenue increased by 14% in constant currency. Azure revenue growth increased 31%, or 38% on a constant currency basis, year-over-year. But Microsoft still beat Wall Street expectations for a constant currency growth rate of about 37%. Note: Constant currency growth rates help strip out fluctuations in foreign currency, namely a strong U.S. dollar, to provide a clearer financial picture. Of note, management sees Office 365 revenue growth sequentially lower by roughly 1 percentage point on a constant currency basis.

[1/2] Attendees walk through an expo hall at AWS re:Invent 2022, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., November 30, 2022. After years of blistering growth, most recently fuelled by remote working and studying during the pandemic, cloud demand has cooled in the past nine months and sales growth may slow further, analysts said. AWS, Amazon's lucrative cloud business from which it gets more than a quarter of its revenue, is expected to post a 24% increase in sales in the quarter. THE FUNDAMENTALS* Microsoft Q2 revenue is expected to rise 2.5% to $53 billion, the slowest increase in six years. * Amazon Q4 revenue is expected to rise 5.8% to $145.40 billion.

☆ Wall Street likes software stocks for the long term. Here are top picks from Goldman, Citi and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Zavier Ong | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Citi is also sounding a cautious tone on the sector, calling 2023 a "year of dichotomy in software." Stock picks CNBC Pro had a look at Wall Street research to find the banks' top stock picks to play the software sector. The bank said the company's already "healthy" operating margins could grow about 20%. Goldman also likes tax technology software firm Vertex for its potential to "drive higher cloud margins over time." German software firm SAP is one of Bank of America 's top picks in European software.

☆ Read the memo that Google's cloud boss Thomas Kurian sent to the unit as the company lays off 12,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Rosalie Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian sent a memo to staff addressing the layoffs. As Google lays off 12,000 employees, its cloud boss Thomas Kurian sent a memo to employees within the unit to address the cuts. Google has viewed Google Cloud as a major driver of growth to provide an alternative source of revenue to supplement its massive advertising business. "We are sincerely grateful for the contributions each of these people have made to our business," Kurian wrote in a memo to Cloud employees. A Google Cloud spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

☆ The 4-day workweek may not be the answer to workplace productivity and flexibility, Davos panelists say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Alexandra York | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, included a panel on the four-day workweek. "We have had a static, for many countries, five-day week for about a century," Grant said Thursday at his panel discussion called "The Four-Day Week." While a four-day workweek seems like an obvious answer, there are some key factors to consider before making the change, they agreed. The four-day week "is very much a discussion for the upper class," van Gennip said. Flexibility through reorganizationWhether it be a four-day workweek or another method of schedule restructuring, a focus on both flexibility and productivity also benefits companies, van 't Noordende said.

☆ Apple launches faster M2 chips, powerful laptops in rare January launch
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 17 (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on Tuesday unveiled MacBooks powered by its new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, in a surprise announcement weeks ahead of its traditional launch event. The Mac mini starts at $599, cheaper than the latest iPhone 14 series, and is available from Jan. 24. MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch with the latest chips start at $1,999, compared with the $1,299 price tag of a 13-inch model fitted with the M2 chip. The M2 Pro has nearly 20% more transistors than the M1 Pro and double the amount in M2, helping programs like Adobe Photoshop run heavy workloads "faster than ever", Apple said. The company traditionally has four launch events in a year, with the first spring event scheduled in March, when Apple launches its iMacs and accessories.

Apple's latest Mac Mini uses the company's M2 and all-new M2 Pro processors. Though it's kept the same minimalistic form factor, the new compact desktop is now powered by Apple's M2 and M2 Pro processors. If these claims hold true, the new Mac Mini should give content creators a nice boost in performance. The Mac Mini with M2 Pro is pricier but delivers more power for professionalsFor even heavier loads, the Mac Mini with M2 Pro offers more power. Mac Mini with M2 (256GB)Mac Mini with M2 Pro (512GB)

☆ A major union in Germany says workers at Tesla's Berlin factory face unreasonable working hours and fear speaking out
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A major German union has criticized the working conditions at Tesla's giant Berlin plant. IG Metall said long hours mean workers have too little time for "leisure, family, and relaxation." At the conference, IG Metall, a German union representing workers at Tesla's Gigafactory has criticized the electric carmaker for poor working conditions, Reuters reported. Tesla did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside normal US working hours. Tesla struggled to hire at the Berlin-based factory because of low wages, IG Metall told Bloomberg in June.

☆ How the tough job of Amazon delivery has changed with new Rivian vans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Katie Tarasov | Erin Black | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailHow the tough job of Amazon delivery has changed with new Rivian vansAmazon has rolled out 1,000+ electric Rivian vans in at least 100 U.S. cities since July, bringing big changes for some of its 275,000 drivers delivering 10 million packages a day around the world. CNBC talked to drivers about how the job has changed since 2021, when they told us about unrealistic workloads, peeing in bottles, dog bites and error-prone routing software. Here's an inside look at the new tech Amazon says is maximizing safety, comfort and efficiency for a better driver experience.

☆ How the job of Amazon delivery has changed with Rivian's electric vans and routing software
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Katie Tarasov | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

For now, most Amazon drivers are still in about 110,000 gas-powered vans — primarily Ford Transits, Mercedes-Benz Sprinters and Ram ProMasters. Amazon wouldn't share how it determines which of its 3,500 third-party delivery firms, or delivery service partners (DSPs), are receiving Rivian vans first. Workers load packages into Amazon Rivian Electric trucks at an Amazon facility in Poway, California, November 16, 2022. Amazon vans have driver-facing cameras inside, which can catch unsafe driving practices as they happen. For example, an Amazon driver in Missouri was found dead in a front yard in October, allegedly after a dog attack.

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