Google Cloud offers free data transfers to customers migrating to other clouds

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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Google Cloud said it will offer free network data transfer to customers that move to another cloud provider or migrate on-premises.

In a blog post, Google Cloud outlined the changes. Data transfer fees have been under scrutiny by customers as well as regulators. Google Cloud's move also puts pressure on Microsoft Azure and AWS to do the same.

AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud battle about to get chippy

Amit Zavery, VP, Head of Platform at Google Cloud said eliminating data transfer fees is one important move, but also took aim at software licensing. He said:

Eliminating data transfer fees for switching cloud providers will make it easier for customers to change their cloud provider; however, it does not solve the fundamental issue that prevents many customers from working with their preferred cloud provider in the first place: restrictive and unfair licensing practices.

Certain legacy providers leverage their on-premises software monopolies to create cloud monopolies, using restrictive licensing practices that lock in customers and warp competition.

Google Cloud's free data transfer broaches a key topic in hybrid and multi-cloud approaches. Where your data resides equates to lock-in in many cases. Interoperability would offer more choices. The company has an FAQ outlining the details of free data transfers.

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OpenAI launches GPT Store, Team plan, eyes developer, enterprise traction

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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OpenAI launched its GPT Store for custom versions of ChatGPT as well as plans for business and enterprise users. In the first quarter, OpenAI will launch a revenue share program for developers based on engagement with payment details to follow.

The launch, which was telegraphed two months ago, was overshadowed by the Sam Altman saga. The launch of the GPT Store illustrates how OpenAI is focusing on its generative AI business and ecosystem again.

Automation of IT processes, security, governance, analytics top AI use cases, says IBM survey

Most of the GPTs at launch were created by the OpenAI team, but the company said users have created more than 3 million custom versions of ChatGPT.

GPTs I tested include:

• The Negotiator on real estate commissions for buying a residential property. I also asked about financial incentives for new cars.
• Mocktail Mixologist for Virgin Mojito recipes.
• Tech Support Advisor, which explained printer issues well. I could see Tech Support Advisor being used with support videos you'd find on YouTube. Enter Google's Bard at some point.
• Web Browser, which uses Bing to aggregate answers and gather information. The question revolved around success rates of running with a knee replacement. "Lack of Concrete Scientific Evidence: There’s not a ton of scientific research on the impact of high-stress exercises like running on artificial knees. Much of the research is retrospective and relies on post-surgery patients reporting their own experiences," said Web Browser.   

OpenAI's GPT Store will highlight featured GPTs from Canva, Khan Academy and AllTrails.

Where's this GPT Store headed for business? It's not a huge leap to see enterprises create custom GPTs for internal support, financial processes and other areas. What remains to be seen is whether enterprises go directly to OpenAI, look to a competitor, use open source or rely on a cloud hyperscale vendor (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).

While those use case details are being sorted out, OpenAI is launching new business plans. The company rolled out ChatGPT Team, which will be $25 per user/month billed annually or $30 a month billed monthly.

Team includes everything in Plus, the $20 a month plan for individuals, as well as high message caps, the ability to create and share GPTs in your workspace, an admin console, and no training on your data.

Enterprise includes everything in Team and unlimited high-speed access to GPT-4 and tools like DALL-E browsing, SSO, expanded window for longer inputs, no training on your data and customer data retention windows and admin controls and analytics. Enterprise also includes priority support. Pricing wasn't disclosed.

More:

• OpenAI launches ChatGPT Enterprise

HPE to acquire Juniper Networks for $14B: What it means

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it will acquire Juniper Networks in a deal valued at $14 billion, or $40 per Juniper share. HPE said the purchase will strengthen its networking business and complement its edge-to-cloud strategy.

According to HPE, Juniper will give the company a higher growth business with more free cash flow and margins. HPE will also continue to invest in AI and cloud. With Juniper in the fold, HPE said networking will represent 31% of pro forma annual revenue and more than 56% of operating income.

For HPE, Juniper also enables it to build out AI-focused networking gear. Networking will be included in HPE's hybrid cloud and AI tools delivered through HPE Greenlake. Juniper can also be leveraged in HPE's high-performance computing efforts.

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Juniper was projecting revenue growth of 5% to 6% for fiscal year 2023, which was scheduled to be reported Jan. 30, with earnings per share growing at a double-digit clip. Exiting the third quarter, Juniper had an annual revenue run rate of $5.6 billion.

The deal is expected to close in late 2024 or early 2025. If the deal is terminated, HPE will pay Juniper a $815 million fee. 

Key items to note:

• HPE plans to combine Juniper Networks with its HPE Aruba Networking and design an HPE AI interconnect fabric.
• The company said it will create better user and operator experiences with AI.
• HPE said the combination will be accretive to non-GAAP EPS in the first-year post-closing.
• The combination of the two companies is expected to create run-rate annual cost synergies of $450 million within 36 months post-closing.
• Juniper CEO Rami Rahim will lead the HPE networking business and report to HPE CEO Antonio Neri.

Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller said:

"HPE did not have the critical mass with Aruba for SD-WAN and now it has it. And HPE lacked cloud revenue with the 'AI' and SD-WAN business from Aruba so the deal makes sense. Antonio is a smart guy and plays with the hand he has. 

Basically, HPE has to outexecute Dell in the shrinking on-premises market. HPE is finding more future revenue beyond on-premises than Dell is ... for now."

In a statement, Neri said:

"This transaction will strengthen HPE’s position at the nexus of accelerating macro-AI trends, expand our total addressable market, and drive further innovation for customers as we help bridge the AI-native and cloud-native worlds, while also generating significant value for shareholders."

HPE said it will fund the purchase with $14 billion in term loans that will be replaced by a combination of new debt, convertible preferred securities and cash. HPE said it plans to reduce leverage 2x in two years post close.

On a webcast, Neri said:

"HP will be a new company where networking will be the core foundation of everything we do. We're going to accelerate what we call an AI driven agenda. And that will allow us to capture this massive inflection point.

Rahim said:

"We were born in the era of the internet, and we built the products to help the internet scale for what it is today. Fast forward to today. The biggest inflection since the dawn of the internet itself is artificial intelligence. That's AI and the thing that I am most excited about with this combination is that we will be able to bring the depth and the breadth of the portfolio is necessary. To capture the full market opportunity that AI presents in front of us."

Other items from the conference call:

• Neri was asked whether HPE and Juniper could collaborate ahead of closing. Neri said: "we have to collaborate with the regulators to make sure we do the utmost to accelerate the closing a transaction. That's a very standard process. And, you know, our goal is to get this transaction close as quickly as possible. Both companies have to stay focused on the respective customers and plans."
• Rahim said he was bullish on the combination of Juniper and Ariba. He also said there's a big data center play. "I'm equally excited about the AI data center opportunity where today you can complement the Juniper networking high performance silicon capabilities with compute, storage, networking, Slingshot and the automation capabilities in a way that I think it will be completely unparalleled," he said.
• The security lineup. Rahim and Neri said there is an opportunity to combine security portfolios on-premises, data center, edge and cloud. "Security is a very big part of the competitive thesis here," said Rahim.
• Neri said HPE with Juniper can offer a full lineup of gear and silicon for cloud and AI workloads with edge and supercomputing. 

• Rahim said that Juniper's Junos OS would garner more investment and is the company's "crown jewel.

• The companies were asked about customer service organizations and combining teams. Neri said HPE has kept Aruba's industry focused services team and said the goal is to maintain Juniper's customer services teams.

Juniper had aligned its business around three primary use cases including automated wide area networking, cloud-ready data center and AI-driven enterprise. The company had also been targeting routing in edge, core and 5G networks.

In addition, Juniper also launched Mist AI, a cloud-first AIOps platform that included end-to-end security. Juniper also has recently outlined its software business as it aimed to move beyond networking gear.

Here's a look at Juniper's vision that will now be incorporated into HPE.

Automation of IT processes, security, governance, analytics top AI use cases, says IBM survey

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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The most popular AI use cases include automation of IT processes, security and threat detection, governance and business analytics or intelligence, according to an IBM survey.

IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2023, a survey conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM, found about 42% of enterprises with more than 1,000 employees use AI in their businesses. And 59% of AI early adopters say they will boost spending and accelerate adoption.

The IBM survey of 8,584 IT professionals around the world was conducted in November 2023.

Here's a look at the use cases surfaced in the IBM survey with percentage of respondents.

• Automation of IT processes (33%)
• Security and threat detection (26%)
• AI monitoring or governance (25%)
• Business analytics or intelligence (24%)
• Automating processing, understanding, and flow of documents (24%)
• Automating customer or employee self-service answers and actions (23%)
• Automation of business processes (22%)
• Automation of network processes (22%)
• Digital labor (22%)
• Marketing and sales (22%)
• Fraud detection (22%)
• Search and knowledge discovery (21%)
• Human resources and talent acquisition (19%)
• Financial planning and analysis (18%)
• Supply chain intelligence (18%)

Other findings include:

• 38% of IT professionals at large enterprises say they are deploying generative AI and another 42% are exploring it.
• Companies in the financial services industry are most likely to be using AI. Telecommunications is second in adoption.
• 85% of respondents in China said they are accelerating the AI rollout followed by India at 74%.
• 33% said limited expertise is the biggest barrier to accelerating AI adoption with 25% citing data complexity.
• 57% said data privacy is the biggest concern holding back generative AI adoption.

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Walmart CEO McMillon highlights adaptive retail, applied AI at CES 2024

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

Read more

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon highlighted the retailing giant's approach to adaptive retail and how it is applying generative AI across its company and to customers.

Speaking at CES 2024, McMillon said: "We love what technology can do, but we're building it in a way that creates better careers at the same time. It creates better customer experiences and a stronger business."

He said the company has to put humans at the center of its technology investments. Walmart executives highlighted everything from app innovations for its stores as well as Sam's Club. The company also said it is rolling out a generative AI assistant for its associates and how it is leveraging predictive analytics in the supply chain.

Here's a look at Walmart's key points from McMillon's CES 2024 talk.

• The company outlined My Assistant, a generative AI assistant that rolled out to 50,000 campus associates late year. Now the company is launching in more countries including Canada, Mexico and Chile.
• Walmart said it is developing generative AI search, built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and retail models built by the retailer. These tools will show up in the Shop with Friends feature in the Walmart app and include virtual try-on capabilities. Walmart also highlighted InHome Replenishment, which uses a personalized replenishment algorithm for customers.
• The company said it will offer drone delivery for up to 75% of the Dallas-Fort Worth population via a partnership with Wing and Zipline.
• And Sam's Club will offer Scan & Go easy exits as a feature to customers in pilots across 10 Sam's Club locations. Scan & Go has been available to all Sam's Club members. Walmart is enhancing the service with AI and computer vision to enable members to bypass the exit receipt check. 

Suresh Kumar, Walmart's Global CTO, outlined how AI is used in the supply chain. He said:

"A modern supply chain requires a built-in intelligence that can do two things. Number one, it can forecast what customers want and when they want it. And number two, it can orchestrate the movement of very different products that need to be stored in very different ways.

Forecasting customer demand needs to happen very accurately, but far enough out for our suppliers.

We built an industry leading forecasting system that is smart. It's automated and it uses a patent pending machine learning model that predicts customer behavior, and it helps us accurately forecast how much of a product is needed and where. It incorporates dozens of different types of data like historical sales data, but also things like weather forecasts popularity and how an item is trending on social media. We also built artificial intelligence into how we orchestrate the optimal movement of our inventory. The main job is to have the product where our customers needed the most."

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Medtronic aims to leverage medical device data for AI-enabled care

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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Medtronic has formed an AI center of excellence as the company aims to advance AI-enabled healthcare based on data from its medical devices.

Speaking at the JP Morgan Stanley 42nd Annual Healthcare conference, Medtronic CEO Geoffrey Martha outlined the company's plans in AI. Martha said the company's move to create an AI center of excellence is aimed at centralizing key data assets including millions of patient datasets, regulatory experience, analytics knowhow, and medical device expertise.

In a nutshell, many of Medtronic's devices today include algorithms and models. The Medtronic AI-enhanced portfolio includes GI Genius, which uses AI for endoscopy, Touch Surgery Enterprise, AiBLE for neurosurgery, MiniMed 780G System for diabetes management, and LINQ, an insertable cardiac monitor.

Medtronic, which is optimizing its supply chain, automating and cutting costs, is betting that AI can be a growth market for the medical device giant.

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Martha said:

"We're harnessing the power of AI today for using clinical decision support, creating new indications and delivering personalized treatments. We’re uniquely positioned to advance AI and med tech."

Martha said the company's data sets across multiple points of care can be valuable to hospital systems. "We have the data and analytics expertise, and we're continuing to build on that. And this is across multiple disease areas. And we've been working very closely with the regulators on this. We spend a lot of time with regulators around the world, especially the FDA on how to think about AI and health care," said Martha, who added the company is planning to leverage common platforms to scale.

Martha added that's it's early, but Medtronic is already seeing the promise in training models with its data.

"This isn't about ChatGPT. I mean we have to train the models ourselves with a lot of high-quality data, but the impact is amazing here. And I think as we move forward, you're going to hear more and more about this from us," said Martha.

CFOs eye hybrid work, automation, digital transformation in 2024, says Deloitte

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

Read more

Chief Financial Officers are bullish on automation, digital transformation and hybrid work arrangements even as they have become more pessimistic in other areas, according to Deloitte's fourth quarter CFO Signals report.

The top line takeaways from the report are notable on multiple fronts. Consider:

• CFOs rating the North American economy favorably in the fourth quarter fell to 47% from 57% in the third quarter. CFO have lowered growth expectations for revenue, dividends, earnings and hiring.
• 35% of CFOs see US equities as overvalued.
• 51% said 1% to 10% of their company’s growth in the next three years will come from mergers and acquisitions.
• 87% of CFOs said they won't use digital currencies for business.

While those prognostications are notable, the way CFOs plan to operate is the most tangible part of Deloitte's CFO Signals report for the fourth quarter.

• 80% of CFOs agree that they will embed more automation and digital technologies into operations.
• 65% of CFOs agree that they will deploy digital technologies to automate certain jobs previously performed by humans.
• 81% of CFOs agreed that automation will free people for higher value activities.

While this automation and transformation is starting, CFOs also intend to embrace remote work more, outsource and cut real estate. 

• 65% of CFOs said they will offer hybrid work in 2024.
• 41% of CFOs expect to have a smaller real estate footprint, but 38% disagreed with that statement.
• 35% plan to increase outsourcing.
• 66% of CFOs said they won't use more part-time or gig workers to offset a decrease in full-time positions.
• 42% expect to hire more workers than they let go and 33% will do the opposite.

More:

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