Category: Enterprise

Tommy Bahama partners hybris to seize market opportunities

Tommy Bahama Singapore
Tommy Bahama’s outlet in Wisma Atria, Singapore.

Tommy Bahama, which has an outlet in Wisma Atria, Singapore, has selected hybris Commerce Suite to improve its omni-channel commerce capabilities and create a more agile response to expanding market opportunities.

A leading retailer of island-inspired apparel and home furnishings, the brand has achieved rapid growth in online commerce over the past few years. In addition to the web, Tommy Bahama offers in-store kiosks, a commerce channel that enables an “endless aisle” of products available through the e-commerce warehouse, allowing shoppers to access out-of-stock or online exclusive items directly in-store.

To ensure the brand’s continued global expansion and establish a foundation for market and channel growth, Tommy Bahama needed a robust commerce platform capable of integrating with its existing Adobe Experience Manager solution to deliver a world-class, end-to-end user experience across all channels. hybris not only complements the Adobe Experience Manager but enables it to further create and deliver a heavily optimised user experience.

SAP completes hybris acquisition

SAPSAP is investing in the future of commerce and customer engagement with its acquisition of hybris. The two companies plan to combine the agile omni-channel commerce solutions of hybris with robust enterprise technology and industry leading in-memory, cloud and mobile innovations from SAP to help facilitate new levels of customer insight and engagement.

“SAP and hybris will deliver the next-generation customer experience for businesses and consumers in a world where digital and physical converge seamlessly,” said Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe, co-CEOs, SAP AG. “With the addition of the hybris commerce platform, we intend to help enterprises achieve unprecedented intimacy with customers in real time and across all devices, delivery channels and touchpoints.”

The rules of engagement have changed and customers are in control. Modern businesses need systems that can predict and adapt in real time to customers wherever and however they engage. hybris expands SAP solutions that address customer engagement comprehensively across marketing, sales, service and commerce. As part of SAP, hybris is expected to take advantage of mobile, cloud and big data innovations from the company while continuing to drive forward the most modern, agile commerce platform in the market today.

Global printing dips but APeJ bucks trend

IDCWorldwide page volume from digital hardcopy devices has dipped to 2.98 trillion in 2012 from 3.03 trillion in 2011, a decline of 1.5 percent year over year, according to IDC.

However, in spite of the decline, the world continues to print at a good clip. Developed countries continued their negative page growth trend, driven by digital workflows, adoption of managed print services (MPS) and anemic economies. The silver lining for print volume in developed economies appears to be net new incremental pages from mobile devices.

While it may seem counter intuitive, smartphone and tablet users are generating more print volume compared to non-tablet/smartphone users.

Twistcode leverages GPU power for big data

By Edward Lim, Managing Consultant, CIZA Concept

FTwistcodeounded in 2006, Twistcode does research and development in high performance computing technology, especially massive-parallel computing and applications using central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs). It thrives in accelerating any repetitive algorithm and/or process in most environments.

With its focus on high performance computing, the young and dynamic company hopes to let its clients – enterprises and government organisations – concentrate on what’s important to them. It provides services such as rendering and modelling, and tweaks technologies and twist codes to adapt to customers’ needs.

Frustration over cell architecture
It was frustration over Sony’s cell architecture that prompted Twistcode to consider other options for its work.

NVIDIA unveils Quadro K6000 GPU

Monsters University is the first Pixar film to implement Global Illumination, a new lighting technology that allows for ultra-complex lighting set-ups where light bounces in a physically realistic way.
Monsters University is the first Pixar film to implement Global Illumination, a new lighting technology that allows for ultra-complex lighting set-ups where light bounces in a physically realistic way.

NVIDIA has unveiled the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 GPU and a new line of professional graphics GPUs for mobile workstations.

The Quadro K6000 GPU delivers five times higher compute performance and nearly double the graphics capability of its predecessor, the NVIDIA Quadro 6000 GPU, and features the world’s largest and fastest graphics memory.

Combining breakthrough performance and advanced capabilities in a power-efficient design, it enables leading organisations such as Pixar, Nissan, Apache Corporation, and the Weather Channel’s WSI division to tackle visualisation and analysis workloads of unprecedented size and scope.

Worldwide IT outsourcing market to grow to US$288b in 2013

GartnerThe worldwide IT outsourcing (ITO) market is predicted to reach US$288 billion in 2013, a 2.8 percent increase from 2012, according to Gartner. Compared with Gartner’s previous forecast, nearly all ITO segments are now forecasted to grow more slowly this year.

Gartner’s forecast includes slight upward revisions for both custom application outsourcing and infrastructure utility services (IUS) for 2014 through 2017. Although software as a service (SaaS) impacts the ITO market, it is forecasted as part of the software market, rather than as part of the ITO market.

“We continue to see overall market growth being constrained by near-term market factors, such as evolving ITO delivery models, economic, political and labor conditions, and service provider financial performance,” said Bryan Britz, Research Vice President at Gartner. “Mature Asia/Pacific and Western Europe are the regions where the outlook is most tempered, partly due to currency but also reflective of our view that 2013 is likely to be similar to 2012 in these regions.”

NVIDIA launches world’s first GPU-accelerated platform for geospatial intelligence analysts

NVIDIANVIDIA has launched the NVIDIA GeoInt  Accelerator, the world’s first GPU-accelerated geospatial intelligence platform to enable security analysts to find actionable insights quicker and more accurately than ever before from vast quantities of raw data, images and video.

The platform provides defence and homeland security analysts with tools that enable faster processing of high-resolution satellite imagery, facial recognition in surveillance video, combat mission planning using geographic information system (GIS) data, and object recognition in video collected by drones.

It offers a complete solution consisting of an NVIDIA Tesla GPU accelerated system, software applications for geospatial intelligence analysis, and advanced application development libraries

ASOS leverages hybris for China e-commerce business

hybrisUK online fashion and beauty store ASOS has selected the hybris Commerce Suite to launch its new e-commerce business in China. Providing an omni-channel experience for those 420 million potential customers, the site will include a fully-integrated, feature-rich mobile version.

With six million active customers, ASOS stocks more than 60,000 branded and own-label products through each of its websites: UK, USA, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, and Russia. It ships to 241 countries and territories from its 1.1 million square foot global distribution centre in the UK.

According to a report from eMarketer released in February 2013, this year’s B2C e-commerce sales are expected to grow 18.3 percent to US$1.298 trillion worldwide as Asia-Pacific (APAC) surpasses North America to become the world’s No. 1 market for B2C e-commerce.

Australia big on cloud computing

IDCAustralian enterprises are taking to cloud computing. According to IDC’s 2013 Australia End-User Cloud Survey, 86 percent of Australian enterprises were currently using cloud computing, up from 71 percent in 2012.

IDC observed that line-of-business (LOB) managers in leading-edge enterprises had begun to add to CIO’s cloud spending by direct acquisition of cloud services as a delivery mechanism for new competitive offerings within their own industries and marketplaces. This was validated by the survey results where the business unit (69.6 percent) was ranked higher than the IT department (59.8 percent) by the respondents when it came to the responsibility for selection of the service providers in their most recent cloud computing projects.

“Until 2012, cloud was primarily an IT label for IT infrastructure services delivered as a service. Now, cloud is no longer just an IT infrastructure play. Cloud-based business services being acquired by LOB managers will now drive growth in the use of externally sourced services. Cloud in 2013 is now business as usual for CIOs, IT managers, and LOB managers. By 2015, cloud will be just another delivery model for a range of “as-a-service” offerings that are based on infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS),” said Raj Mudaliar, Senior Analyst, Cloud Services Research at IDC Australia.

Gartner adjusts worldwide IT spending projection downwards to 2% growth this year

GartnerGartner has adjusted its worldwide IT spending forecast for 2013 downwards to US$3.7 trillion in 2013. Last quarter, the research firm predicted a 4,1 percent increase compared to 2012 but that projection has been sliced by half to 2 percent. This reduction takes into account the impact of recent fluctuations in US dollar exchange rates. 

The Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast is the a leading indicator of major technology trends across the hardware, software, IT services and telecom markets. For more than a decade, global IT and business executives have been using these highly anticipated quarterly reports to recognise market opportunities and challenges, and base their critical business decisions on proven methodologies rather than guesswork.

“Exchange rate movements, and a reduction in our 2013 forecast for devices, account for the bulk of the downward revision of the 2013 growth,” said Richard Gordon, Managing Vice President at Gartner.

NVIDIA Tesla GPU accelerators power world’s most energy efficient supercomputer

Eurora SystemNVIDIA Tesla GPU accelerators are powering the world’s two most energy efficient supercomputers, according to the latest Green500 list published last week.

The winning system is Eurora at CINECA, Italy’s largest supercomputing centre, in Casalecchio di Reno. Equipped with NVIDIA Kepler architecture-based GPU accelerators – the highest-performance, most efficient accelerators ever built – Eurora delivers 3,210 MFlops per watt, making it 2.6 times more energy efficient than the best system using Intel CPUs alone (at Météo France). It also greatly surpasses the most efficient Intel Xeon Phi accelerator-based system, Beacon, at the National Institute for Computational Sciences, at the University of Tennessee.

The number two system on the June 2013 Green500 list is the Aurora Tigon supercomputer at the Selex ES facilities Chieti, Italy.

Gartner: Worldwide PC, tablet and mobile phone shipments to grow 5.9% in 2013

GartnerCombined shipments of PCs, tablets and mobile phones are projected to reach 2.35 billion units in 2013, a 5.9 percent increase from 2012, according to Gartner. The market is being driven by sales in tablets, smartphones and to a lesser extent, ultramobiles, as PC shipments are on the decline.

Worldwide traditional PC (desk-based and notebook) shipments are forecast to total 305 million units in 2013, a 10.6 percent decline from 2012 , while the PC market including ultramobiles is forecast to decline 7.3 percent in 2013. Tablet shipments are expected to grow 67.9 percent, with shipments reaching 202 million units, while the mobile phone market will grow 4.3 percent, with volume of more than 1.8 billion units.

The sharp decline in PC sales recorded in Q1 was the result in a change in preferences in consumers’ wants and needs, but also an adjustment in the channel to make room for new products hitting the market in the second half of 2013.

Enhancements to hybris Commerce Accelerator speed up omni-channel functionality deployment

hybrishybris has integrated hybris Commerce Accelerator with hybris Order Management Services (OMS) to enable merchants to deliver a complete omni-channel shopping experience, including browsing and fulfillment – like buy online and pick up in store and cross-channel stock-level display.

This significant enhancement means that B2C merchants of all sizes can now, at an affordable price point, go live with a world-class commerce system in less than four months through ready to use storefront templates and channel integrations that can be deployed quickly and then enhanced with more functionality over time.

Customers can also chose the deployment and purchase model which best meets their needs – traditional on-premise perpetual license, hosted by hybris or on-demand (software-as-a-service) with a monthly fee based on usage or revenue share.

Stanford University researchers build world’s largest artificial neural network

NVIDIANVIDIA has collaborated with a research team at Stanford University to create the world’s largest artificial neural network built to model how the human brain learns. The network is 6.5 times bigger than the previous record-setting network developed by Google in 2012.

Computer-based neural networks are capable of “learning” how to model the behaviour of the brain – including recognising objects, characters, voices, and audio in the same way that humans do.

Yet creating large-scale neural networks is extremely computationally expensive. For example, Google used approximately 1,000 CPU-based servers, or 16,000 CPU cores, to develop its neural network, which taught itself to recognise cats in a series of YouTube videos. The network included 1.7 billion parameters, the virtual representation of connections between neurons.

ASICS picks hybris for new global consumer websites

hybrisSports footwear maker ASICS has selected hybris Commerce Suite for the infrastructure of the company’s new global consumer websites, featuring corporate, branding and e-commerce functions.

The solution will empower its branding and transactional pages, supporting its omni-channel deployments and B2C commerce with consumers.

In the middle of 2011, ASICS launched an internal project to rebuild the system, by using an omni-channel enabled e-commerce solution. After carefully comparing and evaluating several vendor solutions, ASICS selected hybris Commerce Suite in May 2012. It will start designing and integrating the new system in the US this year before rolling it out to other countries.

Vietnam’s PC market up in Q1

IDCIt looks like Indonesia is not the only market where PC sale is still heading north. Vietnam’s PC market grew by 13 percent in Q1 compared to the same period last year, according to IDC’s Vietnam Quarterly PC Tracker.

Nearly 500,000 PCs were shipped despite concerns over high inventory.

Anticipation of growing consumer demands in under-penetrated areas of Vietnam spurred vendors to increase consumer PC shipments. 

Philippines’ printer market bucks APAC trend

The market for printing devices in the Philippines grew by an astounding 34.5 percent in Q1, compared to the same period last year. This is a sharp contrast to overall Asia-Pacific region drop of 7.6 percent, the sixth consecutive quarter of year-on-year drop.

According to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals (HCP) Tracker, about 233,400 units of single and multifunction printers (MFP) and copiers were shipped in Q1 versus 174,000 units in Q1 of 2012.

Eight out of 10 were of inkjet technology while laser and serial dot matrix (SDM) accounted for the remaining 12.9 percent and 7.0 percent, respectively. Total market revenue hit an all-time high of US$48.2 million.

hybris partners LivePerson to provide digital engagement solutions

hybrishybris will partner intelligent engagement solution provider LivePerson to offer an integrated solution for businesses to optimise the online commerce experience and drive greater return on investment (ROI) to their digital properties.

The hybris Commerce Suite is now fully integrated with LivePerson’s award-winning chat solution and available on the hybris Extend marketplace. The new integration will be essential to e-commerce professionals seeking to differentiate their brands from competitors, enabling them to connect more meaningfully to visitors and delivering a richer, more personalised experience for customers that will drive higher customer satisfaction and greater value to their business.

With LivePerson’s chat solution, merchants are able to increase conversion rates through their online stores and decrease cart abandonment. For example, if a customer is having difficulty locating a particular item, a customer service agent will be alerted and offer immediate assistance with the customer directly through live chat or ‘click to call’. Likewise, customers can engage directly with a customer service agent through a ‘click to chat’ button. To ensure an optimised client engagement, the customer’s page data is dynamically passed through to the agent.

PC sales in ANZ dip in Q1

IDCThe PC market is weakening as demand for tablets and other mobile devices strengthen. In Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), the PC market closed Q1 with a 21 percent and 27 percent dip respectively compared to the same quarter last year, according to IDC.

This decline is all the more ominous in view of recent cuts to the Australian Federal interest rate and the quarter being the end of financial year in New Zealand.

“The softness in PC sales across the consumer and commercial space reflects a declining demand for PCs,” said Amy Cheah, Market Analyst of IDC Australia. “More consumers are skipping or delaying PC purchase as tablets become the more common alternative for mobile access. Vendors, as a result, took a more cautious approach this quarter, cutting back on shipments given the slow moving inventory situation.”

Gartner: BI software revenue to reach US$113m in India this year

GartnerBusiness intelligence (BI) software revenue in India is forecasted to reach US$113 million in 2013, a 16 percent increase over  2012 revenue of US$98.1 million, according to Gartner. This forecast includes revenue for BI platforms, analytic applications and corporate performance management (CPM) software.

“Pressures from consumers, environmental policies, government and industry regulations, international standards of quality, and internal operational efficiency are forcing enterprises to improve their operations and processes to become both agile and efficient in a volatile marketplace, “ said Bhavish Sood, Research Director at Gartner. “These internal and external pressures are driving increased adoption of  analytics solutions across the country.”

India BI Software Software Forecast Estimates (US$m)

Subsegment Data

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Analytic Applications and Performance Management

Sum of Revenue (M)

14.2

16.8

20.0

23.6

27.8

Growth (%)

14.24

18.94

18.45

18.07

17.87

CPM Suites

Sum of Revenue (M)

18.6

22.0

26.0

30.7

36.1

Growth (%)

11.97

18.32

18.03

17.85

17.62

BI Platforms

Sum of Revenue (M)

65.3

74.1

84.0

95.1

107.4

Growth (%)

13.86

13.43

13.40

13.11

12.93

Total Sum of Revenue (M)

98.1

113.0

130.0

149.3

171.2

Total Growth (%)

13.55

15.15

15.05

14.82

14.67

Gartner (June 2013)

Unified communications picking up steam in Malaysia

IDCUnified communications is picking up steam in Malaysia with an increase of  14 percent to US$47.5 million in the second half of 2012 compared to the earlier half.

Overall, the revenue in 2H12 Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) market hit US$89.2 million, a 22.5% growth on a year-over-year basis, according to IDC’s Asia/Pacific Semi-annual Collaborations and Video Tracker, which captures the market share of major vendors in the region, 

Enterprise telephony continues to play an integral part of the UC&C market, with 50.6 percent of total revenues in 2H12, followed by enterprise collaboration apps (29.5 percent), contact centre applications and equipment (12.9 percent) and enterprise videoconferencing solutions (6.9 percent).

ZTE and Easymeeting.net to develop videoconferencing solutions

ZTEZTE and Easymeeting.net have entered into a strategic partnership to develop and release several major videoconferencing R&D initiatives in the next 12 to 18 months.

The videoconferencing industry is experiencing a huge shift from complicated high-cost solutions towards highly-scalable cloud-based software coupled with affordable hardware. The partnership between ZTE and Easymeeting.net will expedite the transition by making videoconferencing more affordable and simple to use.

ZTE’s depth of knowledge and experience with enterprise communication technology is a perfect match for Easymeeting.net whose focus is on providing innovative and disruptive services to the mass market.

NVIDIA GPU accelerators enable HIV research breakthrough

hivResearchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have achieved a major breakthrough in the battle to fight the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) using NVIDIA Tesla GPU accelerators.

Featured on the cover of the latest issue of Nature, the world’s most-cited interdisciplinary science journal, a new paper details how UIUC researchers collaborating with researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have, for the first time, determined the precise chemical structure of the HIV “capsid,” a protein shell that protects the virus’s genetic material and is a key to its virulence. Understanding this structure may hold the key to the development of new and more effective antiretroviral drugs to combat a virus that has killed an estimated 25 million people and infected 34 million more.

 

UIUC researchers uncovered detail about the capsid structure by running the first all-atom simulation of HIV on the Blue Waters Supercomputer. Powered by 3,000 NVIDIA Tesla K20X GPU accelerators – the highest performance, most efficient accelerators ever built – the Cray XK7 supercomputer gave researchers the computational performance to run the largest simulation ever published, involving 64 million atoms.

APAC shines in gloomy Q1 for servers

GartnerThe Asia/Pacific posted the strongest growth in server shipment (7.0 percent) and revenue (1.7 percent) year-on-year in Q1.

The US was the only other region to post growth, according to Gartner.

“While these two regions grew in both shipments and revenue, it was not enough to offset the declines of the other geographies – all of which declined in server shipments and revenue for the quarter,” said Jeffrey Hewitt, Research Vice President at Gartner. 

NVIDIA GRID unleashes graphics for virtualised desktops

NVIDIANVIDIA has unleashed the full graphics potential of enterprise desktop virtualisation with the availability of NVIDIA GRID vGPU integrated into Citrix XenDesktop 7.

NVIDIA GRID vGPU technology addresses a challenge that has grown in recent years with the rise of employees using their own notebooks and portable devices for work. These workers have increasingly relied on desktop virtualisation technologies for anytime access to computing resources, but until now this was generally used for the more standard enterprise applications. Performance and compatibility constraints had made it difficult for applications such as building information management (BIM), product-lifecycle management (PLM) and video-photo editing.

Two decades ago, hardware-based graphics replaced software emulation. Desktop virtualisation solutions stood alone as the only modern computing form without dedicated graphics hardware. As a result, an already busy virtualised CPU limited performance and software emulation hampered application compatibility.

GSMA to create Connected City experience at Mobile Asia Expo

GSMAVisitors to Mobile Asia Expo 2013 in Shanghai will get to delve in a new Connected City experience. They will be able to stroll down a city street of the future and experience the Connected Life powered by intelligent mobile connections.

The Connected City will build on the success of the Connected City at this year’s Mobile World Congress and draw on developments that have put Asia at the forefront of connected device and service uptake.

 

In partnership with China Mobile, Cisco, Ford Motor Company, Huawei, KT Corp. and SAP, the Connected City will be a life-like urban environment where attendees will experience how these companies are making homes smarter, motoring more intelligent, shopping easier and city living safer in the largest and most forward-thinking mobile market in the world. Each area will bring together the latest in cutting-edge products and services to demonstrate how a connected future, driven by mobile, will simplify and enhance people’s everyday lives.

hybris a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for e-commerce

hybrisFor the second year running, hybris has been included as a Leader in Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for E-Commerce. Following substantial growth in 2011, hybris has further consolidated its position as the market’s dominant independent e-commerce and omni-channel vendor.

“Given the size of our next two biggest competitors, we believe our placement in the report confirms that hybris represents the most compelling e-commerce and omni-channel solution available in the market today,” said Ariel Luedi, CEO of hybris.

“Both our larger competitors, and smaller-sized vendors, struggle to compete with us on performance, value and functionality. In the next 12 months, we look forward to increasing our market share and building on the gains we made in 2012,” he added.

NetApp Connect provides seamless access to enterprise data from mobile devices

NetAppNetApp has announced NetApp® Connect which enables secure, instant, and easy mobile access to data stored on NetApp storage systems. Based on technology NetApp acquired from ionGrid, it can integrate seamlessly into a NetApp environment without requiring complex VPN setup or separate authentication tools. Additionally, all data remains completely on-premise while delivering consumer-class simplicity and ease of use to the enterprise.

NetApp Connect complements the strong and growing base of NetApp’s partner-delivered mobility solutions such as Citrix ShareFile and VMware Horizon Suite, helping NetApp deliver a more complete range of capabilities to enterprise customers. These partner solutions, integrated with the data management capabilities of NetApp storage (or the clustered Data ONTAP architecture), provide efficient and secure collaboration, data sharing, and mobile device access solutions.

By keeping all data securely behind the corporate firewall and never copied to the cloud, NetApp Connect offers mobile access to corporate data while maintaining the tight security and control that enterprise IT requires for keeping its data and business protected.

hybris Commerce Suite integrates with SAP

hybrishybris Commerce Suite can now be fully integrated with SAP and is available on the hybris Extend marketplace (http://www.hybris.com/en/partners/hybris-extend). The integration offers hybris customers and partners a way to facilitate fast and easy integration with SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

hybris will officially announce the integration at SAP’s Sapphire NOW event in Orlando (hybris is at booth number 1633).

Based on hybris’ OmniCommerce strategy, this integration enables retailers and enterprises to provide a single, cohesive customer experience from any sales channel and touchpoint in the purchasing process through hybris’ open architecture. This avoids the “rip and replace” approaches used by many vendors. Instead, companies can leverage the potential of their total system landscape in new ways to provide an enhanced customer experience.

Gartner: India IT infrastructure spending to reach US$2.3b by 2014

GartnerThe Indian IT infrastructure market, comprising of server, storage and networking equipment, will hit US$2.1 billion this year, growing 9.7 percent compared to 2012, according to Gartner.

“Despite global economic challenges, India provides strong growth opportunities across segments including infrastructure. Infrastructure alone is expected to surpass US$2.9 billion in 2017,” said Naveen Mishra, Research Director at Gartner. “The Nexus of Forces – big data, cloud, social and mobility – are finding real-time business driven use cases which is bringing a paradigm shift in the way IT is delivering business impact and hence, changing the role of an Indian CIO.”

The Indian IT infrastructure market is driven by hardware refresh, optimisation and consolidation efforts. New data centre build out, primarily driven by service providers, is providing added impetus to this market.

Tegra to drive NVIDIA growth in 2012

NVIDIANVIDIA has reported revenue for Q1 of fiscal 2014, ended April 28, 2013, of US$954.7 million, down 13.7 percent from US$1.11 billion in Q4 of fiscal 2013.

GAAP earnings per diluted share were US$0.13, down 53.6 percent from US$0.28 in the prior quarter. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were US$0.18, down 48.6 percent from US$0.35 in the prior quarter.

As previously announced, NVIDIA plans to return in excess of $1 billion this fiscal year to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and quarterly dividend payments. During Q1, NVIDIA returned US$146.3 million to shareholders by repurchasing US$100 million of shares, and paying US$46.3 million of dividends, or US$0.075 per share.

Gartner: Indian public cloud services market to hit US$443m in 2013

GartnerLooks like the public cloud services market in India is growing fast. According to Gartner, this market is expected to grow 36 percent from US$326 million in 2012 to US$443 million in 2013.

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), including cloud compute, storage and print services, continues as the fastest-growing segment of the market in India, growing 22.7 percent in 2012 to US$43.1 million, and is expected to grow another 39.6 percent in 2013 to US$60.2 million.

Software as a service (SaaS) continues to be the largest segment of the cloud services market in India, comprising 36 percent of the total market in 2012. Gartner predicts that from 2013 through 2017, US$4.2 billion will be spent on cloud services in India, US$1.6 billion of which will be spent on SaaS.

NVIDIA and HP deliver unprecedented workstation capabilities to professionals

HP Z1NVIDIA and HP are meeting the demanding needs of professionals with a range of NVIDIA® Quadro® professional graphics products powering HP Workstations, including the market’s first 27-inch all-in-one HP Z1 Workstation and the HP Z820 Workstation, showcased to editors from around Southeast Asia at the NVIDIA Quadro Day in Kuala Lumpur on April 26.

Built on the NVIDIA Kepler™ architecture, the NVIDIA Quadro lineup offers unprecedented workstation performance and capabilities for professionals in manufacturing, engineering, medical, architectural, and media and entertainment companies. The dual-socket HP Z820 Workstation leverages the power of NVIDIA Quadro graphics to deliver exceptional performance in an expandable chassis, while the HP Z1 offers blazingly fast rendering and interactive performance, enabling digital artists to spend more time being creative.

“NVIDIA closely collaborates with technology providers like HP and with ISVs, so professionals can enjoy outstanding performance with CAD and DCC applications,” said Sandeep Gupte, senior director of the Professional Solutions Group at NVIDIA. “With NVIDIA Quadro, professionals have a choice that is stable, reliable and affordable – that’s why it powers a vast range of consumer product design.”

IDC: 3rd platform will drive China’s smart manufacturing sector

IDCIDC believes that IT vendors can leverage business opportunities created by China’s smart manufacturing policies, endeavours to consolidate relationships with governments and industry associations, and enhanced R&D innovation utilising 3rd Platform technologies (cloud computing, big data, social business, and mobility).

Smart manufacturing has been identified and supported by the Chinese government as the key field for further development. In line with this, the national ministries have released research that could drive the continuous construction of IT infrastructure in manufacturing enterprises. Next-generation technology architecture or 3rd platform has triggered clear demands from enterprise customers and created a thorough R&D ecosystem.

Since 2011, the Ministry of Industry and IT of PRC, along with the National Development and Reform Commission, have been releasing a series of research papers on smart manufacturing. IT service providers could identify potential business opportunities by analysing the subject directions and final approved lists.

Dell unveils mobility solutions to support BYOD initiatives

DellDell has unveiled new solutions that help organisations better plan, deploy and manage mobile and BYOD environments to help drive greater business value from their IT investments.

At Dell’s “The Power to Do More — Accelerating Results” event held in San Francisco today, company executives, industry leaders, global customers and channel partners shared insights and perspectives on Dell’s end-to-end strategy for meeting customers’ requirements. Additionally, interactive, customer-led discussions showcased Dell’s integrated technologies and scalable design point, which are proving instrumental in addressing emerging business demands and technology megatrends, including consumerization of IT, cloud computing, data insights, security and business intelligence.

“Dell is uniquely positioned to deliver highly differentiated, complete solutions — from clients to cloud and everything in between — that remove the barriers created by legacy technologies while empowering customers and partners to unlock new business opportunities,” said John Swainson, President of Dell Software. “Software is the catalyst to modernizing today’s IT environments, enabling organisations to do more and achieve greater business results.”

Adobe Analytics integrates with hybris Commerce Suite

hybrisAdobe Analytics, a key component of Adobe Marketing Cloud, has been integrated with hybris Commerce Suite to enhance digital marketing including measurement, segmentation, targeting and optimisation.

The integration module, developed jointly by Adobe and hybris, gives organisations a unique combination of real-time analytics across online (including Web, mobile, social and video) and offline marketing channels.

The solution enables a multi-dimensional view of customers that makes it possible for organisations to fine tune and better personalise every interaction. The integration module will be available in the hybris Extend marketplace.

13 HKSTPC partners win Hong Kong ICT Awards

HKSTPCHong Kong’s push for innovation has borne further fruits with 13 incubation and partner companies of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) scooping a total of 15 awards at the prestigious Hong Kong ICT Awards. They won with innovations ranging from intelligent interactive advertising display and business solutions for retailers to self-powered smart sensors.

“Despite the keen competition from over 600 entries at the Awards, our partner companies have won two Gold medals, three Silver, two Bronze and several certificates of merits,” said Allen Yeung, Vice President of Business Development and Technology Support of HKSTPC.

“We are delighted that among the 13 awardee companies, six are our incubation companies that are still budding, yet have shown enormous development potentials.  Particularly four of them, namely Cenique Infotainment Group Limited, StampUp Limited, QBS Systems Ltd and Voloe Technology Ltd were only admitted to the Programme last year.  Their remarkable achievements proved our local technopreneurs are full of creativity and innovation, and that has further affirmed the value of HKSTPC’s Incubation Programmes,” he added.

Gartner: Worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment spending down 16% in 2012

GartnerWorldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending declined 16.1 percent to US$37.8 billion in 2012, according to Gartner. Wafer-level manufacturing underperformed in 2012, pulled down by weakness in lithography and deposition. Among the major sectors, those more strongly driven by logic manufacturing, 28/20-nanometer (nm) processing and yield ramps-ups did better.

“Continued oversupply in DRAM and the shift to NAND into oversupply led to a reduced need for capacity,” said Klaus-Dieter Rinnen, Managing Vice President at Gartner. “Memory manufacturing-related purchases declined significantly. Logic-related spending provided only a weak counterforce, impacted by slowing overall semiconductor device demand in the second half of 2012 and bulging inventories. Consequently, manufacturing equipment sales realized a declining quarterly pattern, starting in the second quarter through the end of the year.”

Applied Materials reclaimed the top spot based on its relative strength in deposition and process control. Weakness in lithography and limited sales in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) caused ASML’s decline. Similar to Applied, Tokyo Electron Ltd (TEL) benefited from its relative strength in the nonlithography sectors it serves. Lam Research moved to 4th following its merger with Novellus Systems.

Gartner: Top 10 technology trends for the energy and utilities sector

GartnerGartner has identified the top ten technology trends affecting the global energy and utility markets in 2013, as the industry faces significant challenges from ongoing environmental sensitivity, changing policymaker attitudes and consumer expectations.

“Searching for successful business models that will address these issues and generate anticipated shareholder returns in uncertain regulatory settings is a top priority for this industry,” said report author Kristian Steenstrup, Vice President and Gartner Fellow. “This is in addition to protecting the security of critical generation and delivery infrastructure, as well as maintaining system reliability with aging physical assets. Public and private utilities are looking at how technology can reduce cost, drive efficiency and enhance competitive advantage.”

According to Steenstrup, what was once considered a conservative and slow-moving industry has seen a wide range of innovation from within and outside the traditional IT organization. He believes that understanding business trends is a crucial requirement for energy and utility organisations to create a successful IT strategy in this market.

Singapore and Taiwan among world’s Top 10 in IT use

Singapore maintained its second position while Taiwan inched into the final spot in the Top 10 list of the 12th edition of The Global Information Technology Report by the World Economic Forum.

The report’s Networked Readiness Index (NRI) measures the capacity of 144 economies to leverage infocommunications technology (ICT) for growth and well-being.

Finland topped the list by switching place with Sweden, which slid to third.

Transforming computing experiences from the device to the cloud

IntelIntel has announced new technologies and partnerships aimed at transforming how people experience technology from the device to the cloud. The announcements at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) included details on new data centre product lines based on the 22-nanometer (nm) process technology and the new Intel rack scale architecture, along with details on the forthcoming 4th generation Intel Core processor family.

During her keynote, Diane Bryant, Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Datacentre and Connected Systems Group, underscored the importance of the data centre in enabling amazing personal computing experiences to deliver real-time information and services. She also outlined the steps Intel is taking to provide the hardware and software needed for data analytics to improve the capabilities of intelligent devices and data center infrastructure.

“People are increasingly demanding more from their devices through applications and services whether at home, at work or wherever they may be,” Bryant said. “Intel is delivering a powerful portfolio of hardware and software computing technologies from the device to the data center that can improve experiences and enable new services.”

Gartner: 2.4b PCs, tablets and mobile phones to ship in 2013

GartnerWorldwide shipment of PCs, tablets and mobile phones are expected to top 2.4 billion units in 2013, a 9 percent increase from 2012, according to Gartner. Device shipments are predicted to reach more than 2.9 billion units in 2017. However, the mix of these devices will significantly change over the forecast period.

The proliferation of lower-priced tablets and their growing capability is accelerating the shift from PCs to tablets.

“While there will be some individuals who retain both a personal PC and a tablet, especially those who use either or both for work and play, most will be satisfied with the experience they get from a tablet as their main computing device,” said Carolina Milanesi, Research Vice President at Gartner. “As consumers shift their time away from their PC to tablets and smartphones, they will no longer see their PC as a device that they need to replace on a regular basis.”

New hybris Commerce Suite powers all channels from a single commerce platform

hybris storeThe latest major release of the hybris Commerce Suite is touted as the first commerce platform to give B2B and B2C organisations true omni-channel capabilities on a single technology stack.

With new functionality to support the cross-channel consumer and in-store business tools to manage functions such as “buy online, pick up in store”, businesses can now design, develop and deploy advanced commerce solutions more quickly and over more channels than ever before.

“Retailers, brands and manufacturers are racing to meet the increasing demands of the modern consumer. Businesses need to have systems that allow them to innovate faster. With the hybris Commerce Suite, implementing an omni-channel vision is no longer a multi-year process for B2C and B2B businesses,” said Ariel Luedi, CEO of hybris. “It is now within the realm of possibility for them to set up a true omni-channel commerce platform in under six months.”

Master database management system gives telcos the edge

hybrisIn a highly competitive and dynamic market, telcos are increasingly looking at multiple channels to sell their services and products. Many players have turned to personalisation and business analytics in order to retain and win customers.

However, James Chu, Regional Sales Manager for Southeaast Asia and Telco of hybris, believes that taking an additional step will give them the edge.

“We offer our customers one more step – master database management (MDM) system. MDM curates inventory so that customers can find what they want easily and on any device,” he explained.

hybris partners SingPost for e-commerce fulfillment

burghardt-groeberMultichannel commerce and communication software leader hybris has teamed up with SingPost for e-commerce fulfillment in Singapore.

“What this means is that customers who are going into e-commerce can take our suite of solutions as well as leverage the strengths of our partners such as SingPost for key parts of their operations such as warehousing, delivery and customer clearance,” Burghardt Groeber, Vice President for Asia, hybris told Entelechy Asia in an exclusive interview.

According to him, Southeast Asia is interesting as there are different countries with different laws, customs, geographical size and reach, languages, currencies and taxes.

Acer enters professional workstation market

AcerAcer has expanded its commercial offering with the Veriton P series and new Altos servers, which support a wide range of computing configurations and feature the Intel Xeon E3 and E5 processors, ECC memory, RAID support, and backup components to maximise the performance and run time.

“With a full range of high-performance products and a flexible operating strategy in place our new workstation and server lineup promises immediate benefits for the most demanding clients. We will be able to reach out to many more customers in the SMB, Enterprise, Education and Government sectors,” said Walter Deppeler, Senior Corporate VP and Head of Commercial Business at Acer.

The new Veriton P Series Workstations provide robust computing and rendering for the individual user. The Veriton P series targets customers ranging from small offices to large scale corporations and public organisations and pack NVIDIA’s professional 3D and 2D graphics cards with support across the Intel range of Xeon processors.

NVIDIA unveils visual computing appliance

The NVIDIA GRID Visual Computing Appliance can serve 16 concurrent users with high-performance, graphics-intensive applications.
The NVIDIA GRID Visual Computing Appliance can serve 16 concurrent users with high-performance, graphics-intensive applications.

NVIDIA has introduced the industry’s first visual computing appliance that enables businesses to deliver ultra-fast GPU performance to any Windows, Linux or Mac client on their network.

The NVIDIA GRID Visual Computing Appliance (VCA) is a powerful GPU-based system that runs complex applications such as those from Adobe Systems, Autodesk and Dassault Systèmes, and sends their graphics output over the network to be displayed on a client computer. This remote GPU acceleration gives users the same rich graphics experience they would get from an expensive, dedicated PC under their desk.

NVIDIA GRID VCA provides enormous flexibility to small and medium-size businesses with limited IT infrastructures. Their employees can, through the simple click of an icon, create a virtual machine called a workspace. These workspaces – which are, effectively, dedicated, high-performance GPU-based systems – can be added, deleted or reallocated as needed.

Leveraging GPU power for big data analytics

NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang chats with Shazam CTO Jason Titus on using GPUs for audio search.
NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang chats with Shazam CTO Jason Titus on using GPUs for audio search.

Think graphics processing unit (GPU) and most would relate it to mainly gaming. But enterprises are finding new ways to leverage the power of GPUs to tackle big data analytics and advanced search for both consumer and commercial applications.

Shazam, Salesforce.com and Cortexica are among those  expanding the use of GPUs beyond their traditional role of processing massive data sets and complex algorithms for high performance computing science and engineering applications. They rely on NVIDIA Tesla GPU accelerators for areas as diverse as audio search, big data analytics and image recognition.

“GPU accelerators provide great value to applications with lots of data or computations,” said Sumit Gupta, General Manager of the Tesla accelerated computing business at NVIDIA. “A growing number of applications that provide mobile service and social media analysis have both. And that’s prompting their providers to turn to GPU accelerators as they scale up their infrastructure to meet growing demand.”

Emerging Companies Summit to include mobile computing, game development and cloud

Emerging Companies SummitMore than a dozen startups using the massive computing power of GPU technology to redefine the possibilities of business will participate in NVIDIA’s Emerging Companies Summit (ECS) 2013, to be held March 20 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, Calif.

A highlight of the GPU Technology Conference (GTC), ECS will feature 16 companies from around the world. This year’s conference and summit have expanded to include companies focused on mobile computing, game development and cloud-based technologies. Also participating are companies advancing areas as diverse as visual search, financial services and medical diagnostics. Five top startups will be recognised for their innovation in a competition with more than $75,000 in prizes.

As part of the fast-paced “CEO on Stage” event in front of the ECS audience, executives will present their companies to a distinguished panel of professional investors, analysts and technology leaders. The expert panelists will then challenge presenters with questions and provide insightful feedback.

New NVIDIA Quadro cards offer unprecedented performance

NVIDIA Quadro KeplerA new range of NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics products offers unprecedented workstation performance and capabilities for professionals in manufacturing, engineering, medical, architectural, and media and entertainment companies.

Built on the ultra-efficient processing power of the NVIDIA Kepler architecture – the world’s fastest, most efficient GPU architecture – the new lineup includes:

  • NVIDIA Quadro K4000 – A high-end card that delivers blazing-fast performance for graphics-intensive applications. Has 3 GB of onboard memory, multi-monitor support and stereo capability in a single-slot configuration.
  • NVIDIA Quadro K2000 – A midrange card that offers outstanding performance with a broad range of professional applications. Comes with 2 GB of onboard memory to hold large models and multi-monitor support for enhanced desktop productivity.
  • NVIDIA Quadro K2000D – A variant of the Quadro K2000, with native support for two dual-link DVI display connectors for interfacing with ultra-high-resolution medical imaging displays.
  • NVIDIA Quadro K600 – An entry-level card with great performance and certifications for leading professional applications. Equipped with 1 GB of onboard memory, comes in a low-profile design for maximum usage flexibility.

hybris Software raises $30m investment

hybrishybris has secured a $30 million investment to fund growth in emerging markets, strengthen its presence in North America and Europe, address additional verticals, and make strategic add-on acquisitions. 

The new investment comes from Meritech Capital Partners, Greylock Israel and Huntsman Gay Global Capital (HGGC), which has been the company’s largest investor since 2011. George Bischof, a Managing Director at Meritech who led this equity round, has joined the hybris Board of Directors.

Over the past three years, hybris has generated organic revenue growth at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 70 percent, while still generating positive operating cash flows. hybris currently employs more than 600 people.

ACCA launches vendor-neutral cloud assessment tool

ACCAThe Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA) has launched the online version of its Cloud Assessment Tool (CAT), which is designed to help businesses choose the most suitable cloud provider.

CAT provides a standard framework for IT users to measure their requirements against vendor offerings. The vendor-neutral framework will help enterprises make informed decisions as they consider migrating their data and applications to the cloud.

ACCA is currently benchmarking services and platforms provided by its members, including PLDT/Smart, Microsoft, Verizon Terremark, Telenor, Equinix, and Hiring Solutions.

Asian mobile players and operators among Global Mobile award winners

The ASUS-made Google Nexus 7 clinched the Best Tablet Award.
The ASUS-made Google Nexus 7 clinched the Best Tablet Award.

Asia is becoming a leading force in the mobile communications space. Mobile product makers Samsung and Asus and mobile operators NTT Docomo, Bharti Airtel and SK Telecom were among the winners at the 18th Annual Global Mobile awards, held at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The Government of New Zealand also nabbed the Spectrum for Mobile Broadband Award.

More than 170 independent analysts, journalists, academics, and subject matter experts and 13 representatives from mobile operators throughout the world participated in the judging of the 2013 awards.

The full list of winners and finalist for the 2013 Global Mobile Awards is available at www.globalmobileawards.com/winners-2013

Intel accelerates mobile computing push

IntelIntel Corporation has announced a range of new products, including a new dual-core Atom SoC (“Clover Trail+”) platform for smartphones and Android tablets, and its first global, multimode-multiband LTE solution that will ship in the first half of this year.

Other disclosures included “Bay Trail” momentum, mobile device enabling efforts, and continued smartphone momentum in emerging markets with the Intel Atom Z2420 processor-based platform.

“Today’s announcements build on Intel’s growing device portfolio across a range of mobile market segments,” said Hermann Eul, Intel Vice President and co-General Manager of the Mobile and Communications Group. “In less than a year’s time, we have worked closely with our customers to bring Intel-based smartphones to market in more than 20 countries around the world, and have also delivered an industry-leading low-power Atom SoC tablet solution running Windows 8, and shipping with leading OEM customers today. Looking forward, we will build upon this foundation and work closely with our ecosystem partners, across operating systems, to deliver the best mobile products and experiences for consumers with Intel Inside.”

NetApp adds Flash offerings

NetAppNetApp has announced the availability of the EF540 all-flash array for today’s extreme performance-driven enterprise applications, and previewed the architecture of its new, purpose-built FlashRay product family, which will deliver rich scale-out and storage efficiency features to maximise the benefits of all-flash arrays.

The new product introductions extend the comprehensive NetApp enterprise flash portfolio, which maximizes the value of flash across the entire compute, network and storage stack, enabling the flexibility to choose the best approach to unique workloads.

With the strongest and broadest flash portfolio in the industry, in a complete line of products, including intelligent caching technologies Flash Cache, Flash Pool, and Flash Accel, the new EF540 flash array and the forthcoming FlashRay family provide flexibility and choice and maximise the value of flash across the entire compute, network, and storage stack. NetApp has deployed more than 36PB of flash in the market to date. These new product introductions will further extend that leadership.