Larry Dignan

GE intros 'cloud agnostic' data platform with Pivotal, Amazon Web Services

zdnet.com — Summary: When their powers combine, a powerful trifecta of tech giants are hoping to solve the big data value problem. SAN FRANCISCO -- Big data is growing at a pace that might scare off some global businesses (even within the technology sector), but General Electric executives pointed the multi-billion dollar opportunity here.

As end of Q2 nears, IBM employees fret 'resource actions'

zdnet.com — Summary: IBM appears to be making good on its promise that it will make the bulk of its workforce rebalancing moves in the second quarter. Employees ranging from consultants to data center workers to sales are sweating. The clock is ticking on the second quarter for IBM and a number of employees are worried about "resource actions," quiet layoffs that largely go unnoticed.

HP swaps PC, printer unit captains: It's all about China, Lenovo

zdnet.com — Summary: Todd Bradley steps down from HP's PC and printer unit to be replaced by Dion Weisler, a former Lenovo and Acer executive. HP is hoping Bradley and Weisler can form an executive tag team that can tackle China and Lenovo.

AMD bets ARM, server chip experience means market gains

zdnet.com — Summary: AMD wants to be more than just an alternative to Intel. It wants to lead ARM's gains in the data center as 2014 shapes up to be a pilot year for hyperscale servers. AMD on Tuesday outlined its server roadmap and plans to sample 64-bit ARM processors for data centers in the first quarter of 2014.

Samsung may have key role in ARM server stakes

zdnet.com — Summary: It's a bit unclear whether there are enough large horses to make ARM servers commonplace in the data center today. If Samsung entered the market either to manufacture processors or launch systems, the game would change. Data centers are increasingly eyeing servers with ARM-based processors for power savings and lower costs uniquely designed for so-called hyperscale environments.

Cloud customer win chatter escalates: Wooing Workday

zdnet.com — Summary: HP trumpets that Workday is a cloud customer. That statement, however, doesn't mean that Workday bolted from AWS. The reality is that IT buyers will arbitrage public cloud providers without much brand loyalty. Quite a kerfuffle has broken out over what cloud services Workday is using. Why?

The build up to Microsoft's Build 2013

zdnet.com — Summary: Microsoft's Build 2013 developer conference is just a week away. What's likely to be on the agenda? In just over a week, Microsoft will be convening its Build 2013 developer conference. Company execs have said to expect information of interest to developers across most every major product family: Windows, Windows Azure, Office 365, Windows Phone, Xbox and Visual Studio during the conference.

Apple: iMessage and Facetime are encrypted so we can't hand over info

zdnet.com — Summary: Cupertino reveals level of requests from law enforcement for customer info, and says customers' location, map searches or Siri requests are not stored in "identifiable form." Apple is the latest technology company to reveal the scale of US government requests for data on its customers - and perhaps more importantly also the information that it says it is unable to share.

Hadoop: How it became big data's lynchpin, and where it's going next

zdnet.com — Summary: Doug Cutting, creator of the distributed computing platform Hadoop, on why the platform is in an almost unassailable position and what's in store for the platform. The creator of the Hadoop platform, Doug Cutting, is surprised Hadoop didn't have to battle it out with more competitors in its early years but thinks it's now too late for a competitor to take on the platform.