IBM Corp.‘s annual Think event in Boston showed how the company has had a complete facelift in the era of Chief Executive Arvind Krishna. Krishna (pictured) has used the boom in artificial intelligence to reposition the company around Watson and make that the focal point of IBM’s next platform. I left Think 2024 more positive about IBM than I have been in a long time, primarily because the company isn’t just talking about transformation; it’s doing it.
Juniper Networks Inc. announced enhancements this week to its AI-Native Networking Platform, aimed at adding value to its cloud-hosted products. These products use Mist AI to optimize user experiences and simplify operations, as well as network assistant Marvis. The new features detect and fix network, application and security issues, which enables customers to anticipate user needs. The company says this approach can lower operational costs by up to 85%.
Private cloud infrastructure company SoftIron, in a move to try to displace VMware’s vSphere suite, just announced its VM Squared virtualization platform. Recently, I discussed this development with Jason Van der Schyff, Chief Operating Officer at SoftIron. “Our raison d’être has been to deliver a new type of on-premises infrastructure, which we call True Private Cloud,” he told me.
The day after Cisco Systems Inc. announced its third-quarter 2024 earnings, investors are wavering on the results, as the stock was falling 2% this morning, reversing a 5% jump after-hours Monday. The company reported revenue of $12.7 billion, down 13% year-over-year — 16% without Splunk — and $70 million ahead of consensus estimates. Gross margins remain best-in-class for an infrastructure vendor at 68.3%.
The RSA Conference 2024 last week was dubbed as the artificial intelligence security show, and rightfully so, as AI was prevalent across keynotes, sessions and the show floor. That’s all fine and dandy, but it’s important to understand the engine that drives AI is data. Last year, Amazon Web Services Inc. announced Amazon Security Lake, to provide efficient security data management that would enable its customers to conduct proactive threat analysis of its data. And at RSAC, the cloud leader issued a raft of updates.