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Mostly Business by Ted Goff

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What IT News Editors are researching ... 

In the news ...

Oracle Cloud Revenues Up 51%. “The sustained hyper-growth in our multi-billion dollar cloud business continues to drive Oracle’s overall revenue and earnings higher and higher,” said Oracle CEO, Safra Catz. “In Q1, total revenues were up 7%, GAAP EPS was up 19%, and non-GAAP EPS was up 12%. Oracle is off to a very, very strong start in FY18.”

“In a couple of weeks, we will announce the world’s first fully autonomous database cloud service,” said Oracle Chairman and CTO, Larry Ellison. “Based on machine learning, the latest version of Oracle is a totally automated “self-driving” system that does not require human beings to manage or tune the database. Using AI to eliminate most sources of human error enables Oracle to offer database SLA’s that guarantee 99.995% reliability while charging much less than AWS.”

SAP Hybris solutions. Over the past quarter alone, SAP solutions for customer engagement and commerce have achieved strong double-digit growth in new cloud bookings, as well as double-digit growth in software revenue. This momentum occurs as SAP Hybris cloud solutions for the front office continue to be enhanced across sales, service, commerce, marketing, and revenue, contributing to an increase of 40 percent in deals involving multiple SAP Hybris cloud solutions in the first half of 2017 compared to the same time last year.

Arsenal Football Club, one of the most recent SAP Hybris Commerce solution customers, has transformed its online retail site, ArsenalDirect.com, to meet the increasing demands and expectations of the club’s supporters globally. The solution has brought Arsenal strong results, such as an 86 percent increase in mobile transactions and a 42 percent increase in sales as a whole.

“We have the most complete portfolio for the front office today,” said Carsten Thoma, president and co-founder of SAP Hybris.* “We offer an unparalleled range of capability areas and enhancements to our solutions through better unification and integration across the SAP suite — to harvest Big Data and provide contextual customer experience, but also to capitalize on new business models such as those driven by the subscription economy.”

Transforming global IT. SAP announced that ZF Friedrichshafen AG has chosen a wide selection of SAP software including SAP S/4HANA, the SAP BW/4HANA solution and SAP SuccessFactors solutions to help transform its global IT landscape. The implementation and integration of these solutions will help provide ZF with a single source to connect with suppliers, customers and business networks and provide ZF with the foundation for new digital business models.

“True digital transformation can only happen when solutions scale across the entire company,” said Michael Kleinemeier, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, SAP Digital Business Services. “We are delighted that ZF has chosen SAP to offer a reliable model of long-term engagement built on trust and a spirit of innovation.”

SAP has appointed Brian Duffy as EMEA North Regional President reporting to Adaire Fox-Martin, Member of the Executive Board, SAP SE, Global Customer Operations. A 12-year veteran of SAP, Duffy will be based in London where he will lead growth efforts for the SAP platform, applications and business networks in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and the Baltic countries.

IBM Cloud. IBM announced that the State of Arizona has turned to IBM Cloud to help manage its daily mainframe operational consumption. Cloud managed services on IBM Z will provide State of Arizona agencies the agility to carry out some of Arizona's most critical IT operations including mainframe services and disaster recovery efforts.

"Delivering our IBM Cloud capabilities to the State of Arizona will help many of its agencies transform their computing capacity and execute their IT strategy more securely and efficiently than ever before," says Philip Guido, General Manager of IBM Infrastructure Services. "We believe this can serve as a model for other states to take advantage of the trusted history of the IBM mainframe to improve the everyday lives of their citizens."

Smart Clothing Market to hit $4bn by 2024. The industry forecast report "Smart Clothing Market Size By Product (T-shirts, Pants, Shoes, Undergarments, Jackets, Socks), By Application (Sports & Fitness, Healthcare, Military & Defense, Industrial, Entertainment), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, France, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Mexico), Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017 - 2024" by Global Market Insights, Inc. says Smart Clothing Market share is set to exceed USD 4 billion by 2024, and shipments are set to grow at over 50% CAGR.

Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Metadata Management Solutions.  DATUM announced they have been positioned by Gartner, Inc. as a Leader in the Metadata Management Solutions Magic Quadrant for its Information Value Management® platform. The report states that "the growing need for organizations to inventory and leverage data assets continues to drive strategic initiatives on metadata management and the growth of its solutions.  In fact, by 2020, 50% of information governance initiatives will be enacted with policies based on metadata alone…It is important to note that this understanding of metadata goes far beyond just technical facets; it is used as a reference for business-oriented and technical projects and builds the foundations for describing, inventorying and understanding data for multiple use cases such as information governance or analytics."

SAS a Leader in 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools. Gartner Inc.'s August 2017 Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools places SAS in its Leaders quadrant, based on completeness of vision and ability to execute. This is the seventh consecutive year that SAS has been named a Leader. "With organizations continuing to develop data integration strategies that blend structured, unstructured and semi-structured data, it's important to select a data integration solution that can integrate a variety of data sources quickly," said Todd Wright, Global Product Marketing Manager for Data Management at SAS. "We believe inclusion in the Leaders quadrant further validates SAS' solutions and continued innovation in areas including self-service data prep and the introduction of machine learning to link data integration and data discovery."

According to Gartner, "The biggest change in the market from 2016 is the pervasive yet elusive demand for metadata-driven solutions. Consumers are asking for hybrid deployment not just in the cloud and on-premises (which is metadata-driven combined with services distribution), but also across multiple data tiers throughout broad deployment models, plus the ability to blend data integration with application integration platforms (which is metadata driven in combination with workflow management and process orchestration) and a supplier focus on product and delivery initiatives to support these demands."

Wright added, "SAS Data Integration technologies enable users to break down silos and ensure easy and fast access to the data they need. Because SAS' solution is built on a strong foundational metadata strategy with integrated data quality, we believe users can get analytics projects up and running faster with data they know they can trust."

Oracle Analytics Cloud. Connecting people to the information they need through the power of cloud technology, Oracle announced that Oracle Analytics Cloud is experiencing significant growth with thousands of organizations subscribing to the service globally. In addition to tripling adoption over the last 12 months, nearly 75 percent of customers are new to Oracle Analytics Cloud, ranging from small and medium sized businesses accessing enterprise-class analytics for the first time to large organizations modernizing their analytics platforms. Arlington Orthopedic Associates, Outfront Media, and Skanska AB are among those using Oracle Analytics Cloud to identify new savings, help increase their return on investment, and fuel innovation.

NASA Television. Two cosmonauts will venture outside the International Space Station Thursday, Aug. 17, to deploy several nanosatellites, collect research samples and perform structural maintenance. Coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 10 a.m. EDT on NASA Television and the agency's website. 

Twitter Searchable #Stickers for Photos - Twitter #Stickers, a fun photo-editing tool that allows people to choose from hundreds of accessories, emojis, and props and stick them anywhere on photos they upload to Twitter. Any public Tweet containing a sticker is easily searchable and discoverable, creating a new visual spin on the hashtag; simply tapping on a sticker brings up a new timeline of Tweets from people around the world using that same sticker. Like hashtags on Twitter, #Stickers make it easy for people to explore a topic they're interested in, and join in on the public, global conversation. "Millions of Tweets with photos are sent every day on Twitter, capturing the moments that the world is talking about," said Leslie Berland, CMO at Twitter. "#Stickers give people a fun way to add their own unique style to their photos, and connect them with others around the world. By making stickers searchable like hashtags, we're enabling the best of Twitter: making it easy for people to create conversations around events and experiences that are happening right now."

Reliance on smartphones linked to lazy thinking - Our smartphones help us find a phone number quickly, provide us with instant directions and recommend restaurants, but new research indicates that this convenience at our fingertips is making it easy for us to avoid thinking for ourselves. Researchers suggest that smartphone users who are intuitive thinkers -- more prone to relying on gut feelings and instincts when making decisions -- frequently use their device's search engine rather than their own brainpower. Smartphones allow them to be even lazier than they would otherwise be. "Our research provides support for an association between heavy smartphone use and lowered intelligence," said Gordon Pennycook. "Whether smartphones actually decrease intelligence is still an open question that requires future research." University of Waterloo. Computers in Human Behavior

Digital Marketing Software Market Growing at 17% CAGR to 2019 - The Digital marketing software market is expected to grow from $25,840.2 million in 2014 to $56,613.2 million by 2019, at an estimated CAGR of 17.0% from 2014 to 2019. The need to improve marketing effectiveness and customer E-experiences as well as the need to develop digital competitiveness are some of the key factors which are driving the global market for digital marketing software. The Key Players Include Adobe Systems, Hubspot, SAS, Microsoft, SAP, Marketo, HP, Oracle and Salesforce. RnR Market Research

Researching ... Digital Cameras, PCs, Laptops, PDAs, Tablets ...

• Blogs and Blogging
• SEO and Internet Marketing Tools
• Computers, Desktops
• Laptops, Notebooks
• LCD TV: Samsung
• Digital Cameras
• DVD Players
• MP3 / MP4 Players
• Microsoft
• Adobe
• Apple
• Oracle
• SAP
• Business Intelligence