What’s been happening in the tech and vendor world in December? We compiled the latest vendor news and trending topics of the past month. It takes just a few minutes to be up to date.
SoftwareOne CEO Brian Duffy was featured on the cover of the December issue of ERP Today in an article in which he highlights the challenges facing organisations, particularly those in the mid market, and how SoftwareOne is helping, as this snippet explains:
Most compelling of all is the concept of 'self-funded' technology investments where a customer can, with the help of SoftwareOne, rationalise its current landscape and divert those savings towards different and more effective tools. At a time when budgets are under more pressure than ever, while the need to accelerate has never been greater, a partner that can help you get there without increasing the cost burden could be exactly what many thousands of mid-market companies are crying out for.
CEO, SoftwareOne
SoftwareOne was named as Federal Government Partner of the Year Award in LATAM at the annual AWS Partner Awards. It was also named SI Partner of the Year – EMEA and the MSP Partner of the Year – Global awards, and won the Rising Star Partner of the Year (SI) – Iberia award.
AWS Supply Chain added new capabilities to help customers optimise their supply chains, including supply planning, collaboration, sustainability, and generative AI.
The general availability of Amazon S3 Express One Zone, a high-performance storage class that offers the fastest data access speed and highest performance for latency-sensitive applications, has been introduced.
Salesforce and AWS are expanding their strategic partnership to offer seamless data management and AI capabilities to customers, enabling them to innovate and collaborate more effectively.
IBM and AWS have collaborated to bring Amazon RDS for Db2, a fully managed cloud offering, to help businesses optimise AI workloads and simplify database management across hybrid cloud environments.
Microsoft expanded the availability of its AI tool, Copilot, to faculty and higher education students, to improve learning efficiency and provide personalised assistance.
The expansion includes commercial data protection to ensure privacy and protect user data. Microsoft also announced a major update to Microsoft Bing with a new feature called Deep Search, which aims to provide more relevant and comprehensive answers to complex search queries.
The general availability of Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty is now made available by Microsoft, which will help governments meet compliance, security, and policy requirements while using the cloud. Microsoft is also introducing new capabilities, including drift analysis and transparency logs.
Microsoft launched the Secure Future Initiative to enhance the security of its products and platforms, with a focus on automation, AI, and multi-factor authentication and is also investing £2.5 billion to expand its AI datacenter infrastructure in the UK, bringing advanced GPUs and meeting the growing demand for AI-specific compute power.
Microsoft and Oracle jointly announced that Oracle Database@Azure is now generally available in the Azure East United States region, with more regions to come in 2024. This offering allows customers to run Oracle database services on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) inside Azure data centres, providing flexibility in where they run their workloads.
IBM Consulting and Palo Alto Networks partner to strengthen clients' security postures and address evolving cyber security threats.
IBM has unveiled its new series of utility-scale quantum processors called "IBM Quantum Heron," which boast the highest performance metrics and lowest error rates of any IBM Quantum processor to date. The company has also introduced the IBM Quantum System Two, its first modular quantum computer.
Oracle has opened a second cloud region in Chile, making it the first hyperscaler to have two regions in the country, allowing organisations to strengthen business continuity and meet data residency requirements.
Oracle has been recognised as a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services, solidifying its position among the top global hyperscale cloud providers.
SAP has been recognised by Gartner as a Leader in Data Integration Tools for the 16th consecutive time, highlighting their commitment to providing world-class data integration solutions.
Trend Micro has launched a new generative AI tool called Trend Companion, designed to help security analysts streamline their workflows and increase productivity. In addition to this, Trend Micro also achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Built-in Competency in the Security and Cloud Operations category, recognising their ability to provide customers with an automated deployment package that integrates with key AWS services.
Trend Micro has integrated cloud risk management into its cyber security platform, allowing organisations to consolidate their cyber security efforts and gain a comprehensive view of cloud security risks.
Another busy month in the world of AI, but after the raft of new AI announcements from Microsoft and AWS at their respective Ignite and re:Invent conferences in November, this month there has been a focus on the importance of trust and governance of AI.
Leading the way on this topic, IBM has introduced watsonx.governance, a platform designed to help businesses deploy and manage generative AI and machine learning (ML) models and offering tools to mitigate risks, ensure compliance, and provide transparency and explainability in AI workflows.
IBM also launched the AI Alliance in collaboration with Meta and over 50 founding members and collaborators globally. The AI Alliance is a collaborative effort among leading organisations to promote open innovation and responsible development of AI technologies. IBM is also collaborating with Dun & Bradstreet to bring together their respective data and AI capabilities to help organisations responsibly expand their use of generative AI.
Meanwhile, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO) and Microsoft have formed a partnership to discuss the role of artificial intelligence in the workforce. This partnership aims to educate workers about AI, incorporate their perspectives in AI development, and shape policies that support workers' skills and needs.
IDC
Gartner
Our world faces immense challenges. But with that challenge comes extraordinary opportunity. Learn how your organisation can use technology to shape the future.
Our world faces immense challenges. But with that challenge comes extraordinary opportunity. Learn how your organisation can use technology to shape the future.
