IBM: Rapprochement, Pragmatism, Survival?
May 18, 2020
Just a tiny decision. Probably nothing. The thwarted time sharing warp drive machine is sputtering. Gone are the days of IBM mainframes and those pesky plug compatible pretenders. Online meant IBM, by golly.
Then IBM drifted from the data centers, wandered in the PC wilderness, and ended on the shores of Lake Craziness in the Adirondacks chanting the mantra “Watson, Watson, Watson, come here I want you.”
IBM has a new president able to make decisions different from the previous chiefette. Gone are the daily stock buybacks. Terminations of those over 55 have slowed. Ads, although still a little wacky, no longer explain that IBM is a winner (a game show winner, that is).
The future of the company may be rapprochement. With what company? Microsoft, the devil in the OS/2s? Google? The company IBM understands according to a letter an IBM executive wrote me years ago. Huawei? Oracle, the mere database company which bought Sun Micro? No. No. No.
The “let’s be friends” is explained in “Red Hat and AWS launch OpenShift, a Joint Kubernetes Service.” DarkCyber noted:
According to Red Hat vice president of Hosted Platforms Sathish Balakrishnan, the fully managed service will help IT organizations to more quickly build and deploy applications in AWS on Red Hat’s enterprise Kubernetes platform, using the same tools and APIs. In addition, developers will be able to build containerized applications that integrate natively with the more than 170+ integrated AWS cloud-native services.
Yes, small news.
However, maybe Big Blue and the cagey orange smile may extend their relationship. IBM’s cloud and IBM itself might benefit from becoming BFFs with the FAABG least likely to kick Big Blue off the revenue bus.
The Bezos bulldozer chugs along, and even IBM can run fast enough to jump on the somewhat indifferent money scraper.
Stephen E Arnold, May 18, 2020
Crazy Expert Report: Covid19 and Enterprise Search? Really?
May 18, 2020
I received a notification from an online information service called WaterClouds Reports and Kandj and Prof Research. What? Water clouds, Kandj, and Prof Research. Will too many flailing experts spoil the content free soufflé?
Plus, the water thing meshes nicely with Beyond Search and DarkCyber.
What’s WaterCloud Reports up to these days? The answer is delivering information purporting to be about market research, news and reports using a number of different business identities. Suspicious? Yep, very suspicious.
I learned:
The news concerns “The Absolute Report Will Add the Study for Impact of Covid 19 in Enterprise Search Software.”
Now that’s a small dump truck of nuttiness.
What’s in this report available from and outfit called Kandj Market Research and not Water Cloud Reports?
Check this lingo with Covid tacked at the end:
The recent report titled “The Enterprise Search Software Market” and forecast to 2024 published by KandJ Market Research is a focused study encompassing the market segmentation primarily based on type and application. The report investigates the key drivers leading to the growth of the Enterprise Search Software market during the forecast period and analyzes the factors that may hamper the market growth in the future. Besides, the report highlights the potential opportunities for the market players and future trends of the market by a logical and calculative study of the past and current market scenario. The Final Report Will Include the Impact of COVID – 19 Analysis in This Enterprise Search Software Industry.
The news story suggests that the multi thousand dollar report may not be completed. Is it possible that this digital container of loopy zeros and ones is only completed when someone buys a copy?
No problem. Enterprise search is definitely a hot topic when Covid 19 is involved. Whip out your credit card. The report costs $4,000. There’s a deal too. Fork over $6,000 and you get an enterprise license. In the average WFH company, how many employees are hungering to read a report about enterprise search and Covid 19?
Answer: Not many.
What big time enterprise search vendors are included? Here’s the partial list. You have to spit out an email in order to see names of the other five vendors:
AddSearch
Algolia
Apache Solr
Elasticsearch
SearchSpring
Swiftype
Two open source systems apparently have reacted to Covid 19 for enterprise search. Also four other firms have put on their digital N95 masks and tried to “save” search.
Several observations:
- Outright scam or just a high school term paper? DarkCyber is leaning to the scam end of the spectrum?
- Covid 19. Nothing thrills like a key word which may attract clicks from the curious or the clueless.
- Kandj and the cloud whatever? Wow.
Not even Forrester, Gartner, Kelsey, and other mid tier consulting firms use this type of marketing. Well… sometimes?
Stephen E Arnold, May 18, 2020
Amazon Promises an All Star Sub and Thomson 404s to Source
May 18, 2020
The news item was not a breath taker: “Amazon Says Appropriate Executive to Be Available, As U.S. Panel Calls on Bezos to Testify.”
On May 15, the Bezos bulldozer said no in a nice way to the US government. Mr. Bezos would be driving the bulldozer to a small town where one lone retail store front was operating. Apparently knocking down the building in Farmington, Illinois, required his attention. The US government would be able to speak with “the appropriate Amazon executive.” No surprise.
What was a surprise to some in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky, was the dead link to the Amazon blog post pointing to the full text of Amazon’s response to the US government. This is particularly interesting since the article was written and checked by at least Ismail Shakil and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru and Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Gerry Doyle.
Ah, those trust principles appear to address issues other than verifying links to Amazon documents.
Stephen E Arnold, May 18, 2020
Microsoft and Cyber Security: Popping Up a Level?
May 15, 2020
Remember when Microsoft “invented” DOS? What happened to Gary? Nothing good.
Remember when Microsoft “invented” compression? What happened to those Stacker people? Poof.
Remember when Microsoft “reinvented” enterprise search? What happened to Fast Search & Transfer’s UNIX licensees? Hasta la vista, muchachos.
Now Microsoft seems to be preparing to convert the cyber security vendors into Microsoft partners. We noted “Microsoft Opens Up Coronavirus Threat Data to the Public.” Another virtue signaling story? Maybe.
The article reports/asserts:
Microsoft is making the threat intelligence it’s collected on coronavirus-related hacking campaigns public…
That seems useful. Here’s another piece of information presented as a quote from the head of the Cyber Security Alliance:
“Overall, the security industry has not seen an increase in the volume of malicious activity; however, we have seen a rapid and dramatic shift in the focus of that criminal activity,” Daniel, a former White House cybersecurity coordinator, told CyberScoop. “The bad guys have shifted their focus to COVID-19 related themes, trying to capitalize on people’s fears, the overall lack of information, and the increase in first-time users of many on-line platforms.”
The article points out:
The 283 threat indicators Microsoft has shared are available through Microsoft’s Graph Security API or Azure Sentinel’s GitHub page.
Open information. Github. Partnering. Fighting disease. — How much goodness can one services firm deliver?
DarkCyber believes that Microsoft is dropping apples that do not fall far from the DOS, Stacker, and Fast Search UNIX tree.
Microsoft wants to be in the thick of cyber security in order to surround and benefit from the money flowing into a starting-to-consolidate cyber sector.
Only this week, a Florida based vendor of investigative software started beating the bushes for a buyer. Consolidation has begun and is accelerating.
How can Microsoft benefit? Those cyber security outfits make darned good Microsoft partners. Installing, tuning, and customizing Microsoft services (on premises and in the cloud) makes good business sense.
Maybe DarkCyber is misinterpreting an act of sincere common good as a dark pattern?
On the other hand, we could ask Gary, a Stacker person, or a Fast Search UNIX licensee. Err, maybe not.
Stephen E Arnold, May 15, 2020
Google: Responding to the Bezos Bulldozer Just Slowly
May 14, 2020
Bulldozers have a top speed of what 10 kilometers per hour, maybe less if grinding through abandoned retail store fronts? As part of the DarkCyber research for our Amazon blockchain report, we put in our files “Amazon considers Entering Insurtech Market.” The date of this write up was 2017. The bulldozer has been making progress. AWS seems to be making progress. Amazon’s outstanding online marketing and documentation provides a semi-clear picture of what the Bezos bulldozer has accomplished. See, for example, Insurance.
We found the “truth” centric Thomson Reuters’ story “Insurer Brit and Google Cloud to Launch First Digital Lloyd’s Syndicate” intriguing. We learned:
Insurance company Brit and Google Cloud are together launching the first digital Lloyd’s of London syndicate, accessible from anywhere and at any time.
Thomson Reuters’ perceives that insurers are “in a race to team up with tech giants such as Google.”
Several questions:
- Did the Amazon insurance push fizzle and Thomson Reuters miss the two year old story?
- Did Google overlook the Amazon announcements which began flowing in 2017? For instance, “Amazon Is Coming for the Insurance Industry – Should We Be Worried?”
- Will regulators pay more attention to the financial services push from US technology giants?
DarkCyber cannot answer these questions. However, it would be helpful if a time context for Google’s activities were provided. The information makes clear how quickly or slowly Google responds to the slow moving Bezos bulldozer which is chugging along in some interesting financial markets. Are those camels watching the bulldozer moving forward? Nah, the bulldozer is probably delivering groceries.
Stephen E Arnold, May 14, 2020
The Bezos Bulldozer Heads to Academia
May 13, 2020
Oxford University and AWS have teamed up for cloud based research.
Does this strike anyone else as an interesting and perhaps improbable combination? On its News and Events page, Oxford University announces, “Oxford University and Amazon Web Services Create a Test-Bed for Cloud-Based Research.” The post reveals:
“Today the University of Oxford is delighted to announce a new strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The collaboration will focus on building a portfolio of new research projects relating to AI, robotics, cyber-physical systems, human-centered computing, and support to the University’s new ‘Lighthouse’ Doctoral Scholarships. This new university- industry collaboration, supported by a £7 million [about $8.7 million] gift from AWS to the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division, will accelerate advances in AI and Data Science across the entire research portfolio of the University. Professor Patrick Grant, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) University of Oxford, said: ‘Cloud computing is an essential part of modern research. A streamlined operating model for using cloud services will benefit all of our researchers. The Oxford Robotics Institute, the Cyber Physical Systems Group, and the Human Centered Computing group are leading the initial projects in the short term, but I look forward to growing the collaboration to bring research benefits across our research work more broadly.’”
For its part, AWS is happy to demonstrate how its products can help academia. That is, after all, one more sector it can add to its collection of those becoming dependent on its platform. The press release quotes members of each Oxford department involved: the Applied AI Lab, the Robotics Institute, Human-Centered Computing, and the Cyber Physical Systems group. See the post for each of those perspectives. I am particularly curious about the Human-Centered Computing professor’s vision for an Institute of Responsible Technology, but details are not provided.
As for that Lighthouse Doctoral Scholarship program, it will fund 25 PhD students for the years 2020-2022 “who are applying to the Centre for Doctoral Training in Autonomous Intelligent Machines and Systems, or to the research laboratories of the supervisors in the human-machine collaboration initiative.” This will help the university toward its existing goal of adding 300 graduate scholarships between 2018 and 2023.
Between the funding, the scholarships, and the technology, both AWS and Oxford have high hopes for an advanced, multi-national, “cloud-first” research initiative.
Like IBM, tie ups with big name universities may payoff in useful ways: Recruitment, research, virtue signaling, etc.
Too bad for the University of Washington maybe?
Cynthia Murrell, May 12, 2020
AWS Kendra: A Somewhat Elastic Approach to Enterprise Search
May 12, 2020
Elastic, Shay Banon’s Version 2 of Compass, has a hurdle to jump over. Elasticsearch has been a success. The Lucene-centric “system” which some call ELK has become a go-to solution for many developers. Like Lucidworks (It does?) and many other “enterprise search and more” vendors, Elasticsearch delivers information retrieval without the handcuffs of options like good old STAIRS III or Autonomy’s neuro-linguistic black box.
Amazon took notice and has effectively rolled out its own version of enterprise search based on … wait for it … the open source version of Elastic’s Elasticsearch. The service has been around since Amazon hired some of the Lucidworks (It does?) engineers more than five years ago after frustration with the revolving doors at that firm became too much even by Silicon Valley standards. Talk about tension. Yebo!
Amazon has reinvented Elasticsearch. The same process the Bezos bulldozer has used for other open source software has been in process for more than 60 months. Like the system’s Playboy bunny namesake, Kendra has a few beauty lines in her AWS exterior.
A tweak here (access to Amazon’s smart software) and a tweak there (Amazon AWS pricing methods), and the “new” product is ready for prime time, ready for a beauty contest against other contestants in the most beautiful IR system in the digital world.
“Amazon Launches Cognitive Search Service Kendra in General Availability” reports:
Once configured through the AWS Console, Kendra leverages connectors to unify and index previously disparate sources of information (from file systems, websites, SharePoint, OneDrive, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Amazon Simple Storage Service, relational databases, and elsewhere).
Does this sound like federated search or the Palantir Gotham approach to content?
Well, yes.
The reason is that most enterprise search vendors like Coveo, Attivio, X1, IBM Omnifind (also built on Lucene), and dozens of other systems make the same claims.
The reality is that these systems do not have the bits and pieces available within a giant cloud platform with quite a few graduates of an Amazon AWS training program ready to plug in the AWS solution. For example, if a government agency wants the search in Palantir, no problem. Palantir deploys on AWS. But if that government agency wants to use Amazon’s policeware services and include search, there’s Kendra.
You can get a free copy of the DarkCyber Amazon policeware report’s executive summary by requesting the document at this link.
What does Amazon bring to the enterprise search party?
The company has more than 200 services, features, component, and modules on the shelf. Because enterprise search is not a “one size fits all”, the basic utility function has to fit into specific enterprise roles. For most enterprise search vendors, this need for user function customization is a deal breaker. Legal doesn’t want the same search that those clear minded home economics grads require in the marketing department. Microsoft SharePoint offers its version of “enterprise search” but paints over the cost of the Microsoft Certified professionals who have to make the search system work Fast. (Yep, that’s sort of an inside search joke.)
Amazon AWS provides the engine and the Fancy Dan components can be plugged in using the methods taught in the AWS “learn how to have a job for real” at a company your mom uses to shop during the pandemic. Amazon and Microsoft are on a collision course for the enterprise, and the Kendra thing is an important component.
The official roll out is capturing headlines, but the inclusion of Lucene-based search invites several observations:
- Despite AWS’ pricing, an Amazon enterprise search system allows the modern information technology professional to get a good enough service with arguably fewer headaches than other options except maybe the SearchBlox solution
- Enterprise search becomes what it has been for most organizations: A utility. Basic information retrieval is now an AWS component and that component can be enhanced with SageMaker, analytics, and other AWS services.
- Amazon wins even if Kendra does not win the hearts and minds of IBM Omnifind, Inbenta, and Algolia users. Why? Most of the cloud based enterprise search vendors support the AWS platform. What are the choices? The wonky HP cloud? The “maybe we will kill it” Google Cloud? Azure, from the outfit that cannot update Windows 10 without killing user computers who activate game mode? Plus, dumping Kendra for another TV star inspired search system is easy. Chances are that, like Palantir, AWS hosts and supports that competitive system too.
Net net: The fight with Microsoft is escalating. The Bezos bulldozer will run over open source outfits and probably some AWS customers. But Kendra’s turning her gaze on the bountiful revenues of Microsoft in the enterprise. Will Amazon buy a vendor of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel clones?
Exciting times, maybe not just because of enterprise search? Why did those defectors from Lucidworks (It does?) embrace Lucene and not SOLR? Maybe they did that too?
Stephen E Arnold, May 12, 2020
JEDI Warriors: Amazon and Microsoft Soldier On for Money
May 11, 2020
DarkCyber noted “Bid High, Lose, Try Again. Amazon Continues to Push for a JEDI Re-Do.” The main point of the write up is to point out that Amazon is not happy with the disposition of the Department of Defense’s decision to award JEDI to Microsoft.
What’s interesting about the article is that Microsoft implies that it is the provider of the “latest and best technology available.” The author is a corporate vice president of communications. The viewpoint is understandable.
The blog post points out:
Amazon has filed yet another protest – this time, out of view of the public and directly with the DoD – about their losing bid for the JEDI cloud contract. Amazon’s complaint is confidential, so we don’t know what it says. However, if their latest complaint mirrors the arguments Amazon made in court , it’s likely yet another attempt to force a re-do because they bid high and lost the first time.
That’s an interesting assertion. If the bid data were available, perhaps some characterization of what “high” means in this context would be helpful.
DarkCyber understood that Amazon lost the procurement because of a combination of factors, not “price.” Factors included alleged interference by the White House, Amazon’s assurances that on premises and cloud systems would work in the security environment required / envisioned by the DoD, and a lack of support for essential applications like PowerPoint. Price is an important factor, but data about the fees is not floating around in the miasma of rural Kentucky.
Microsoft’s PR VP states:
This latest filing – filed with the DoD this time – is another example of Amazon trying to bog down JEDI in complaints, litigation and other delays designed to force a do-over to rescue its failed bid. Think about it: Amazon spent the better part of last month fighting in court to prevent the DoD from taking a 120-day pause to address a concern flagged by the judge and reevaluate the bids. Amazon fought for a complete re-do and more delay. Amazon lost. The judge granted the DoD’s request for a timeout in the litigation to address her concerns. And now Amazon is at it again, trying to grind this process to a halt, keeping vital technology from the men and women in uniform – the very people Amazon says it supports.
The conclusion of the blog post is that Amazon should tip over its king and concede defeat.
DarkCyber finds this procurement to be interesting. Neither side is likely to walk away.
The reason, however, has little to do with technology or concern with the DoD, war fighters, or any other uplifting notion.
There are 10 billion reasons or more plus additional payments as a result of scope changes, engineering change orders, and ancillary tasks.
The battle is less about ideals and more about money, prestige, and the JEDI deal as a Dyson vacuum cleaner for more government work. The best technology? Yeah, right.
Stephen E Arnold, May 11, 2020
Putting Wood Behind the Toronto Project: Why Google Drops Projects
May 11, 2020
If DarkCyber were asked, “What cloud vendor should I use?”, the answer must consider persistence, consistency, and commitment.
Amazon, bless their prime heart, continues to take orders, deploy new AWS services, and make documentation which baffles. IBM is trying to turn its digital battleship into something capable of delivering AIops, whatever that is while it sells mainframes. Microsoft is pushing its Azure concept forward as it leaves the baffled Surface users and frustrated Window 10 update lovers at the altar. Even Oracle demonstrated that low prices can zoom forward.
But Google?
With the news reported in “Sidewalk Labs Announces It Will No Longer Pursue Quayside Project,” Google makes it clear that stick-to-ativity is not the company’s core competency. The write up states:
the economic circumstances made it “too difficult” to make the 12-acre project financially viable without sacrificing “core parts” of its plan. Sidewalk Labs, which has a 30-person office on the waterfront, will continue to work on some of its proposed innovations, including mass timber construction, a digital master-planning tool, and its approach to all-electric neighborhoods.
Ah, ha. Covid and not the push by Google to get money from tax and other assessments. Like other Google projects, this smart city thing is not really going away. It’s a pre beta testing thing.
What’s this have to do with Google’s cloud push? Decisions like waving goodbye to Toronto are tough to ignore. Forgetting Dodgeball and Web Accelerator are easy, but pulling out of Toronto is a major move.
Why does Google drop projects?
Google sells ads.
I am not convinced that its up to the task of delivering over time what government and commercial customers require; that is, confidence that Alphabet won’t spell “sayonara” with AdWords without warning. Automated ads are easier than creating something, overcoming hurdles, and persevering. Hey, let’s play ping pong. That putting wood behind a tough job for sure.
Stephen E Arnold, May 11, 2020
Microsoft Monetizes Asian User Database
May 8, 2020
Retail companies are out to sell their products and services to customers, so they hit up social media platforms and other large networks willing to sell customer information. Private organizations, on the other hand, guard their clients’ information, but Microsoft is about to take advantage of its large client base to generate more profit says IT Brief: “Microsoft To Monetize Huge Windows 10 User base.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Microsoft users are working remotely, 33% are in Asia, and Microsoft sees an opportunity to make money via its office suite. Microsoft is rebranding Office 365 to Microsoft 365 and they are adding Windows 10 upgrades for enterprises and new items for Microsoft Teams. Microsoft 365 will continue the subscription based service for both individuals and enterprises.
New offerings in Microsoft 365 are:
“ ‘In terms of inclusion of features, Microsoft 365 Business Premium does offer more than Zoom or Slack: it includes the Office apps, 1 TB of cloud storage, Outlook with a 50 GB mailbox per user, device and data protection tools, upgrade rights to Windows 10 from previous versions, and of course Teams, which competes with Zoom and Slack. The pricing, in addition to the bundling of Windows 10 upgrade, is likely to resonate strongly with the price-conscious Asian market in the shrinking economy,’ says [Nishant Singh, head of technology and telecoms data at GlobalData.]”
Microsoft attempted to monetize Windows 10 in Asia through the Microsoft Store, but it was not successful. Instead Microsoft will make an enterprization of consumers through Microsoft 365, who need to replicate a business enterprise through their own systems. Microsoft is less likely to make revenue through Windows as the only thing left for the OS is newer releases, but if Microsoft charges for Microsoft 365 and apps sold through it the profit margins will be bigger.
It also means that Microsoft could implement the pricing method used by airlines: Pay per bag, buy a snack, pay for another four inches of leg room.
Whitney Grace, May 7, 2020
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