MTN Foundation, SLOT MD, others encourage youths on creativity

Nnamdi Ezeigbo (MD Slot) with Director, MTN Foundation, Dennis Okoro

Nigerian youths have been charged to be pragmatic in their approach toward addressing issues they might be dealing with in their quest to create and sustain a winning idea for empowerment and development.

In dealing with these issues, the youths have been counseled to “think like there is no box” and show greater ingenuity to counter the challenges.

This counsel was given by the Senior Special Adviser to the Abia State government on Public Communication, Mr. Sam Hart and the Managing Director of SLOT, Nnamdi Ezegbo, at the launch of the MTN Foundation Scholars Alumni and Conference held in Owerri, Imo state.

The conference, billed as an annual event, will bring together the graduate beneficiaries of the MTN Foundation Scholarship schemes: Scholarship for the Science and Technology students (STSS) and Scholarship Scheme for the Blind Students (SSBS).

Rather than sitting back and sulking about the current economic challenges, Hart, who is also the promoter of the ‘Made in Aba’ initiative said the youths, “should not think outside the box but they should think like there is no box. Challenges will come, failure will come but they are necessities to succeed. You need to be resilient to sustain a winning idea and you must believe in yourself.”

On his part, the Managing Director of SLOT, Nnamdi Ezegbo recounting how he started SLOT technologies, advised the participants to always be prepared for challenges because the road to success will never be smooth. Only determination will make them succeed.

Ezegbo went philosophical when he said, “my strategy for operating SLOT is to create solutions. The environment will never be perfect. There is no perfect time for you to strike at success. Every time is the best but you need to understand the times.”

Ezegbo crystallizing the SLOT acronym said, “SLOT means Solution, Leadership, Opportunity and Technology. These are the four principles that drive our existence.”

“The entrance of Tecno into Nigeria was a solution from SLOT to get Nigerians to have a single phone that has multiple SIM. Tecno was created to meet a need and it has become the backbone of my riding to success.”

On leadership, “it is about understanding yourself. You need to create an environment to continue to learn, while at the same time you must identify the unique opportunities you hope to solve with technology,” said Ezegbo.

Admonishing the beneficiaries, Director, MTN Foundation, Mr. Dennis Okoro, said they should see the scholarship as a rare opportunity that must be well utilized. For the alumni Okoro said, “now that you have all gained and have been empowered, it is essential that you show yourselves as worthy ambassadors of the programme. Feel free to exhibit your creativity positively and contribute your quota to the development of the country.”

The conference will also hold in Abuja and Lagos with Tonye Cole, Bolanle Austin-Peters and Chika Ofili confirmed as speakers for the locations.

The aim of the MTNF Scholars Alumni Conference is to give beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme opportunities to meet with successful Nigerian entrepreneurs that will share their success stories of impact and value to inspire them as they launch themselves to the world as agents of value creation and change. The theme of the conference is, “Creating a Winning Idea.”

Via: Guardian

HTC announces Pricing and Availability of VIVE Tracker and Deluxe Audio Strap…braces for LG competition

HTC VIVE™, recognized by the industry as the leading Virtual Reality (VR) product, expanded its VR ecosystem by announcing pricing and availability dates for the Vive Tracker and Vive Deluxe Audio Strap.  The Vive Tracker, built to empower developers and accessory makers to make VR even more immersive, will be available on March 27 for developer purchase through Vive.com. The Vive Deluxe Audio Strap is also said to go on sale for pre-order on May 2, with expected delivery in June. Both products will be available for a suggested retail price of $99.99.

"We see an incredibly strong future for VR, and have created an entire ecosystem around Vive. The Vive ecosystem is evolving, adaptable and will continue to grow to drive the industry forward," said Daniel O'Brien, GM VR, US, HTC Vive. "The Vive Tracker is a key piece of that strategy and when paired with Vive technology and programs such as Viveport and Vive X, represents a significant opportunity for us and our partners to make the Vive ecosystem synonymous with the growth of VR." 

Vive will further expand the industry's leading VR ecosystem by allowing developers to bring real-world objects into VR and dramatically expand the capabilities to create even more amazing VR experiences. Vive has already received over 2,300 applications for the first 1,000 Vive Trackers. Applications crossed a wide spectrum of non-gaming applications of VR areas such as Education, Enterprise, Training, Health and Wellness and more. In fact, nearly 60% of applications were non-gaming or non-entertainment content.

"Building an object that can be tracked alongside the Vive can be complex," said Joe Ludwig of Valve. "But the Vive tracker makes tracking objects in VR so simple that anyone can do it. We're thrilled that HTC has developed this product and we're looking forward to seeing what people build."

But in a new twist in the virtual reality market, Valve has announced that South Korean electronics corporation LG will be producing a new VR headset for the SteamVR tracking system. A prototype of the head-mounted display will be shown at GDC this week, where LG will take feedback from developers before it settles on the design of commercial units.

"The LG HMD prototype is designed to deliver a high fidelity, next generation VR experience," reads Valve's press release. Back when the HTC Vive was announced, it appeared weird that and a little curious that the software and tracking technology were called SteamVR but the headset itself was branded HTC. But Valve's intentions soon became clear: to build tracking technology that other hardware companies can take advantage of, not to sell a single package like the Oculus Rift.

Pricing and other details will be announced at "a later date." Given that the headset is still in the prototype stage, so it could be a year or more off. Still, it's exciting that an HTC Vive and Oculus Rift competitor is emerging so soon. 

Accenture Announces Set To Buy Digital Agency, SinnerSchrader

Consulting firm Accenture has announced that it has agreed to purchase a 62% majority of SinnerSchrader AG, a digital agency in Germany, from co-founder and CEO Matthias Schrader, CFO Thomas Dyckhoff, and other shareholders at 9 euros per share.

Accenture also announced its intention to launch a public tender offer to all remaining shareholders at the same price. This represents a premium of 58% over the 12-month volume-weighted average share price and 31% over the 3-month volume-weighted average share price before announcement. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the first half of CY 2017.

Accenture and SinnerSchrader have also signed an agreement outlining the relationship between SinnerSchrader and Accenture Interactive that aims to jointly develop digital transformation solutions through the combination of consulting, design and technology.

Under the terms of the agreement, Schrader will retain his role as CEO of the company and, after a transition period, lead the joint digital agency business of Accenture Interactive in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. While Deutsche Bank acts as financial advisor to Accenture for the transaction, SinnerSchrader has retained M.M.Warburg & CO as financial advisor.

With this acquisition, Accenture will take another major step in expanding its digital agency, Accenture Interactive, in Germany. The acquisition will strengthen Accenture Interactive’s capabilities in customer experience design as well as development of digital strategies and mobile offerings, and deepen its eCommerce and content marketing offerings.

Accenture Interactive is the world’s biggest and fastest-growing digital agency, according to the latest agency ranking by Advertising Age. It offers digital customer experience services ranging from creative to technology, spanning experience design, marketing, content and commerce.

SinnerSchrader will be Accenture Interactive’s tenth acquisition globally since 2013. Most recently, Accenture bought London-based creative agency Karmarama. Other acquisitions include global design and innovation consultancy Fjord which also has studios in Berlin and Zurich.

“With SinnerSchrader, we continue to build out Accenture Interactive’s position as a leading digital customer experience agency”, said Brian Whipple, head of Accenture Interactive. “We combine design, innovation and the culture of an agency with the integration, scale, and technology of Accenture – and a laser-focus on helping clients create great customer experiences.”

“The planned acquisition will benefit our clients and employees as well as our shareholders,” said Matthias Schrader, co-founder and CEO of SinnerSchrader. “Linking our interdisciplinary culture spanning consulting, design and technology with the global organization, technology skills, and industry expertise of Accenture and Accenture Interactive will enable us to service our clients more broadly and on a global scale. Our talents will have access to new and exciting projects and career opportunities.”

“Technology and consumer expectations are changing fast, challenging companies every day to create meaningful experiences for their customers,” said Rainer Balensiefer, head of Accenture Interactive Germany, Austria and Switzerland. “This is an area where Matthias Schrader and his team have significant expertise and experience, which we will leverage to jointly drive our clients’ digital businesses.”

“SinnerSchrader’ highly sought-after skills will go a long way in securing our position as one of the leading providers for digital transformation in Germany,” said Frank Riemensperger, country managing director of Accenture Germany. “We are pleased to welcome the SinnerSchrader team and its distinctive digital agency culture.”

Qualcomm Hit with More Apple Lawsuits

Chipmaking giant Qualcomm is facing yet more accusations that its business practices are unfair and anticompetitive, with Apple filing lawsuits in the U.S. and China. Last week, Apple filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court for the Southern District of California alleging that Qualcomm's practices have cost Apple nearly $1 billion in damages. That complaint came on the heels of two other lawsuits -- one seeking more than $145 million in damages -- against Qualcomm that Apple filed last week in China.

Qualcomm is also facing allegations of unfair and anticompetitive practices by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The FTC filed a complaint against the chipmaker in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Jan. 17.

The complaints center on Qualcomm's pricing and patent royalty arrangements for its broadband processors that enable mobile phones to connect with cellular networks. Qualcomm's modem chip design was used to help establish standards for the telecom industry. In return for that standardization, Qualcomm committed to licensing those technologies to other companies on FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms.

However, Apple's complaints contend that Qualcomm is charging it royalties for "technologies they have nothing to do with." That statement, contained in an email Apple sent to a number of press outlets last week, continued, "The more Apple innovates with unique features such as TouchID, advanced displays, and cameras, to name just a few, the more money Qualcomm collects for no reason and the more expensive it becomes for Apple to fund these innovations."

Apple said in the email, "Qualcomm built its business on older, legacy, standards but reinforces its dominance through exclusionary tactics and excessive royalties. Despite being just one of over a dozen companies who contributed to basic cellular standards, Qualcomm insists on charging Apple at least five times more in payments than all the other cellular patent licensors we have agreements with combined."

Most recently, Qualcomm has gone even further, withholding "nearly $1B in payments from Apple as retaliation for responding truthfully to law enforcement agencies investigating them," Apple added.

Apple's two complaints in China make similar allegations, according to a report yesterday by Reuters. Those lawsuits accuse Qualcomm of abusing its dominant position in the global chip industry and failing to license its technologies fairly as it had agreed to do.

In a statement issued yesterday, Qualcomm said it had not yet seen the two lawsuits filed in China. The statement included comments from Qualcomm executive vice president and general counsel Don Rosenberg.

"These filings by Apple's Chinese subsidiary are just part of Apple's efforts to find ways to pay less for Qualcomm's technology. Apple was offered terms consistent with terms accepted by more than one hundred other Chinese companies and refused to even consider them," Rosenberg said. "These terms were consistent with our NDRC Rectification plan. Qualcomm is prepared to defend its business model anywhere in the world."

During yesterday's Q1 2017 earnings call, in which Qualcomm reported year-over-year revenue growth of 4 percent and Q1 revenues of $6 billion, CEO Steven Mollenkopf noted, "Apple's complaint contains a lot of assertions. But in the end, this is a commercial dispute over the price of intellectual property. They want to pay less than the fair value that Qualcomm has established in the marketplace for our technology, even though Apple has generated billions in profits from using that technology."

In December, the Korea Fair Trade Commission imposed a fine of 1.03 trillion won ($880 million) on Qualcomm for what it called an "unfair business model" for licensing technology at the handset rather than chip level. In 2015, the European Commission also launched two antitrust investigations into "possible abusive [behavior]" by Qualcomm in connection with its pricing and licensing practices for modem chipsets.

Hyosung opens new ATM service ops center, aims high for growth

Even as the protracted Diebold Nixdorf and Nautilus Hyosung America patent infringement claims continues into its 2nd year, Nautilus Hyosung America (Hyosung), the largest and fastest growing ATM provider in the United States, has announced the opening of a new "NASA-inspired" operations center.

The SOC functions as a 24/7 monitoring and support group for Hyosung customers and field service engineers, according to a company press release.

The new Service Operations Center supports 32 workstations in theater style seating, facing a 29' x 9' high-definition Galaxia LED display surrounded by six separate 75" LCD monitors. The central screen displays real-time data on existing service requests and shows agents the geographic distribution of calls, FSE assignments, status of the request and aging information along with the location of Hyosung Field Service Engineers. The additional screens present details which help agents optimize routing and schedules to best serve our customers.

The central screen displays real-time data for existing service requests and shows the geographic distribution of calls, field service engineer assignments, request status, aging information and FSE locations. The additional screens display details that agents can use to optimize routing and schedules, the release said.

"Customers can now contact the SOC 24-hours a day to request service or updates on existing calls," said Tony Manno, VP of service at Hyosung America, in the release. "All while our direct FSEs work with our internal SOC agents to manage and update the service requests in real-time."

The Hyosung SOC team has grown nearly 70 percent over the past year, and the company's direct service organization comprises 267 FSEs servicing 8,800 ATMs and teller cash recyclers in 32 states.  The company said it recently contracted retail ATM service for more than 1,200 locations, and expects to have 425 FSEs servicing more than 16,000 ATMs in 42 states by year-end.

Hyosung is the North American subsidiary of South Korea-based Hyosung, Inc., a global leader in providing ATMs to the retail off-premises and financial institution markets. Since entering the North American market in 1998, Hyosung has become the largest provider of ATMs in the United States.

New Signature Expands...Acquires Paradigm Systems

New Signature, a  full stack Microsoft partner focused on delivering innovative technology solutions that solve human challenges and drive transformation for businesses, has announced its acquisition of Paradigm Systems Ltd., a specialist Microsoft partner based in the UK, delivering end to end managed services on Microsoft Azure and Office 365. The addition of Paradigm Systems will elevate New Signature's existing portfolio of offerings by providing scale and expertise in the delivery of infrastructure and application managed services.

"We are proud to have Paradigm join the New Signature team and be the first acquisition in our UK expansion effort," said Dan Scarfe, New Signature UK CTO. "The talented Paradigm team have the same dedication to providing great results for customers as we have in New Signature. It really was a deal that made total sense."

Paradigm's team will enable New Signature to deliver on more complex engagements with customers of all sizes. New Signature and Paradigm have collaborated in the past to deliver unique solutions to large global enterprises. The Paradigm Systems team has deep expertise in Microsoft Azure, which has seen tremendous market growth this year and will continue to provide great opportunities to support New Signature's expansion of its infrastructure and application transformation business.

"We are honoured and excited to join the formidable team at New Signature, who are already a recognised and proven world leader in the Microsoft Cloud arena. Becoming part of a global business will unlock new opportunities for us and deliver an even greater range of capabilities to our existing customers," says Mike Brown, CEO Paradigm Systems.

The addition of Paradigm will further enable New Signature to deliver on its stated mission-to deliver innovative technology solutions that solve human challenges. A core principle for New Signature and Paradigm is the coupling of professional and managed services to empower customers and enable them to focus on their business needs instead of the ongoing management of technology systems. An example of this approach of empowerment and enablement can be experienced through the New Signature Cloud Management Portal which gives customers the ability to managed Azure spend and check their health of their Azure and O365 environments.

"Bringing together our talented teams was an easy decision as we already knew great synergy existed between the teams, in both our approach to delivering value to customers and with our clearly aligned culture and mission," said Paul Cosgrave, New Signature UK MD.

Huawei Developing New Voice Assistant to Take On Siri

Huawei, currently the world's third largest smartphone manufacturer, is planning on developing its own voice assistant to compete with Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Alphabet's Google Assistant, reports Bloomberg.

The company is said to have more than a hundred engineers that are in the early stages of developing the AI assistant. Sources that spoke to Bloomberg say Huawei plans to implement Chinese language support and target domestic users while Huawei smartphones continue to work with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa outside of China.

Huawei has been stepping up its efforts to compete with Apple, Samsung, and other major smartphone players in recent months. After dethroning Xiaomi to become the world's third largest smartphone maker, Huawei has now set its sights on Apple, and its own voice assistant could help set it apart.

According to Huawei consumer head Richard Yu, the company wants to become the number one smartphone manufacturer in the world by 2021. To do that, Huawei will need to break into the U.S. market, something that it hasn't yet managed to do.

Huawei does not currently have carrier agreements with the four major carriers in the United States, making it difficult for customers to acquire Huawei smartphones, but Huawei executives are aiming to change that in the future.

To better compete with Apple, Huawei recently launched an ad campaign that uses Justin Long, well known for his role in Apple's popular "Get a Mac" campaign. Long is currently promoting Huawei's most recent device, the Mate 9.

Via: Bloomberg

KPMG And Microsoft Announce New "Blockchain Nodes"

KPMG International and Microsoft Corp. have announced the launch of joint Blockchain Nodes, which are designed to create and demonstrate use cases that apply blockchain technology to business propositions and processes.  The first joint Blockchain Nodes are in Frankfurt and Singapore, with future plans for a location in New York.

The KPMG and Microsoft Blockchain Nodes --innovation workspaces-- will expand on a global alliance, which combines Microsoft's technical expertise with KPMG's deep industry and blockchain application knowledge, together with strong connections to the start-up and developer communities. A blockchain is a distributed database that maintains a continuously growing list of ordered records called blocks. Each block contains a timestamp and a link to a previous block. By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data — once recorded, the data in a block cannot be altered retroactively. Blockchains are "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way. It is usually used as public ledger of all Bitcoin transactions that have ever been executed.

"The Blockchain Nodes will play a critical role in identifying new applications and use cases that blockchain can address," said Eamonn Maguire, global and US leader for KPMG's Digital Ledger Services. "They will enable us to work directly with clients to discover and test ideas based on market insights, creating and implementing prototype solutions that use this innovative technology."

With a priority focus on applications for financial services, plans are for the Blockchain Nodes to further examine how blockchain technology can optimize business processes and models for healthcare and the public sector, and potentially other industries in the future.

"Together with KPMG's experience in successfully transforming business models, we are pursuing innovative applications of blockchain technology that will help our customers worldwide achieve their strategic goals," said Marley Gray, principal architect program manager, Azure Blockchain Engineering at Microsoft. "The global availability of our Microsoft Azure cloud platform, the hybrid cloud architecture, and multi-tiered security address the specific compliance requirements of clients and help accelerate the use case process."

Jens Rassloff, KPMG's global head of Alliances, added, "The Blockchain Nodes and the Microsoft alliance enable fresh approaches to solving clients' complex issues as well as opening the door to new opportunities. We are also inviting the start-up ecosystem to participate in use case development, which will help enable a greater range of solutions for the challenges blockchain implementation presents for financial institutions and other industry players."

Last September, KPMG announced the introduction of its Digital Ledger Services, a comprehensive suite of services designed to help financial services companies realize the potential of blockchain capabilities -- providing faster and more secure transactions, streamlining and automating back office operations, and reducing costs by utilizing blockchain-based technologies.

KPMG also announced the expansion of its strategic alliance with Microsoft to work on blockchain initiatives – with Microsoft providing the Blockchain as a Service platform on Microsoft Azure and KPMG providing its comprehensive suite of services – which will help clients efficiently and securely move to the cloud for storage, while adopting disruptive blockchain technologies.

Mastercard expands payment options for merchants...announce Masterpass Kenya success

Mastercard has announced that its card-on-file service Masterpass is now accepted at more than 10,000 small- and medium-sized merchants that use Sage Payment Solutions, a value added payment solution provided by Sage North America. The partnership enables merchants to use Masterpass to simplify the digital payments process for customers.

The partnership aims to simplify Masterpass acceptance for merchants, which helps smaller businesses provide additional payment options to their customers easily and often at minimal cost.

“Small and medium size businesses play an important role in displacing cash and driving digital payment growth,” said Linda Kirkpatrick, executive vice president, Merchants and Acceptance, U.S. “Our collaboration with Sage Payment Solutions means that thousands of smaller merchants will now have access to a new, secure checkout option to advance their business and remove friction at the point of sale.  This agreement reinforces the commitment we’ve made at Mastercard to increase acceptance by bringing the safest and best payment technologies to all merchants.”

 “We know that small businesses and their customers expect a frictionless buying experience from anywhere and need an affordable, dependable payment solution to provide this,” said Paul Bridgewater, CEO, Sage Payment Solutions. “Working with Mastercard, we’re able to keep both merchants and their customers ahead of change, providing simple, intuitive technology that enables the selling and buying of goods from anywhere via any type of payment system. This partnership represents an important step towards our ambition of helping customers take on what’s now and what’s next in their business.”

With the successes recorded with the solution, Mastercard is also committed to empowering over 150,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in Kenya within 2017 by giving them access to Masterpass QR. The mobile driven, Person-to-Merchant payment solution will be introduced through various financial institutions and other partners in the market from February onwards.

Delivering efficient, secure and cost effective acceptance solutions to Kenyan MSMEs is an essential step to providing the level of support required to grow and develop their businesses. With at least 80 percent of the country's most critical jobs are created by MSMs, according to Kenya's Micro and Small Enterprises Authority, it is vital to introduce solutions that drive operational efficiency in these businesses.

The regional commitment to impact over 150,000 MSMEs in Kenya within 2017 is in support of the Mastercard global goal of connecting 40 million micro and small merchants to its electronic payments network by the end of 2020. This expands on the company's Universal Financial Access 2020 commitment made in 2015.

Masterpass QR provides a fast, convenient and secure payment solution for consumers and a reliable and instant acceptance offering for merchants. Cash is no longer required, making transacting safer for merchants who will not need to worry about carrying large sums of cash around with them.

MSMEs have traditionally struggled with the cost of installing payment infrastructure such as point-of-sale devices, as well as with issues of security surrounding payment. Masterpass QR combats these challenges in a simple and user-friendly manner helping to stimulate the economy by digitizing a sector previously solely dependent on cash-based transactions.

"Kenyans are entrepreneurial by nature, and there are incredibly exciting business ideas coming from the region. We want to help these business owners to grow and prosper by delivering solutions that meet the needs of these business owners," said Daniel Monehin, Division President for Sub-Saharan Africa and head of Financial Inclusion for International Markets at Mastercard.

Mastercard is committed to financially including micro merchants across Africa by working with various partners across a multitude of sectors. Masterpass QR is currently being rolled out in Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania and will soon be in a number of countries across the continent. It drives efficiency and transparency for MSMEs, something many business owners in Kenya are not able to achieve currently.

Monehin said, "Kenya is leading the charge in financial inclusion, with the World Bank reporting that 75 percent of its citizens over the age of 15 having a bank account. Masterpass QR has the potential to drive that number up further and more rapidly due to the penetration of mobile devices in the market. Technology is playing an important role to ensuring all citizens have access to solutions that help move them beyond cash."

AMD Vega Preview Could Be Planned For February 28th "Capsaicin & Cream" Live Event

AMD has just announced via its eventbrite portal that it will be holding a special live-streamed event for graphics technology at GDC on the 28th of February. The company has not made any specific mention of Vega in its press release, although we know the company has developer sessions scheduled at GDC to talk specifically about Vega technologies and architecture-sepcific optimizations. AMD engineers also have at least one scheduled session that we know of to talk about the company’s hotly anticipated Ryzen CPUs.

The brand new graphics architecture is set to power the company’s next generation family of high-end Radeon graphics cards. Vega is AMD’s latest 14nm graphics architecture and represents the most significant leap forward for the company in half a decade. The performance demos that AMD has showcased of Vega so far have painted a picture of an enthusiast class chip, the fastest that the company has ever built, going toe-to-toe with NVIDIA’s GTX 1080.

"Our feature-packed show will be highlighted by the hottest new graphics and VR technologies propelling the game industry forward—with previews of the summer’s hottest PC games and VR experiences from the biggest names in the business," AMD says.

The event will take place on February 28 at the 2017 Game Developers Conference (GDC). There will be a Capsaicin livestream that kicks off at 10:30 AM Pacific (1:30 PM Eastern) from Ruby Skye, a theater-turned-club that is a popular destination in San Francisco, California.

With Ryzen set to release on the same day or not long after, it's a safe bet that AMD will showcase its new CPU architecture extensively during the event. However, there's speculation that AMD will also use Capsaicin as a launchpad for Vega. It would probably still be another couple of months before Vega cards released to retail, but detailing the GPU architecture and showing off demos would certainly drum up excitement.

Ryzen CPUs are slated for an official launch on March 2nd while Vega GPUs are officially slated for release in the second quarter of 2017.

Cloudera Announces General Availability of Apache Kudu In Cloudera Enterprise 5.10

Cloudera, the global provider of the fastest, easiest, and most secure data management, analytics and machine learning platform built on the latest open source technologies, has announced that Apache Kudu, the open source software (OSS) storage engine for fast analytics on fast moving data, is now shipping as a generally available component within Cloudera Enterprise 5.10. Kudu simplifies the path to real-time analytics, allowing users to act quickly on data as-it-happens to make better business decisions.

“Real-time data analysis has been a challenge for enterprises because it required a complex lambda architecture to merge together real-time stream processing and batch analytics. Kudu dramatically eases that architecture with a single storage engine that addresses both needs,” said Charles Zedlewski, senior vice president of products at Cloudera. “The high-demand workloads in place today, which include a growing number of new machine-learning models, can identify cybersecurity threats, predict maintenance issues in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and bring much more accuracy to all types of online reporting.”

Kudu was designed from the ground up to take advantage of innovation in the hardware landscape, which has seen solid state storage, memory, and RAM become more affordable. As a standalone storage engine, Kudu has already proven itself for mission-critical production use in clusters with hundreds of nodes handling many millions of inserts per second. Kudu is purpose-built to enable use cases that require fast, large-scale analytic scans while supporting rapidly updating data - necessary for handling time series data, machine data analytics, online reporting, or other analytic or operational workload needs.

“Apache Kudu is a prime example of how the Apache Hadoop® platform is evolving from a sharply defined set of Apache projects to a mixing and matching of open source and proprietary technologies that form, in essence, a big data operating environment,” said Tony Baer, principal analyst at Ovum. “Kudu bypasses the hurdles associated with complex lambda architectures to address use cases involving fast-changing data, where the ability to rapidly modify and update the database are critical.”

Beta programs for select Cloudera customers, directly and through partners, have driven Kudu into critical production environments. Further adoption is anticipated among Cloudera’s customer base to address the ever-increasing number of use cases that require real-time analytics.

"Achieving compliance and operational reporting alongside analytical success requires both the ability to process large amounts of data to find trends, and to detect and respond to anomalies quickly,” said Michael Reed, director of enterprise information management at Meridian Health. “We're excited about the potential of Kudu to allow us to do analytical and real-time operations in a single place to help us to simplify the systems that we build.”

In addition to Kudu, Cloudera 5.10 (and the release of Cloudera Director 2.3) continues to enhance enterprise-grade capabilities for cloud deployments and improve cost-efficiencies in these environments. New capabilities include:

In September of 2015, Cloudera announced the public beta release of Apache Kudu, and two months later, Cloudera donated Kudu to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) to open it to the broader development community - garnering contributions from engineers at State Farm, Xiaomi, Intel, and others. Kudu is now generally available and shipping as a standard component of Cloudera Enterprise, giving customers a robust set of storage engines - NoSQL, HDFS, object store, and relational - to meet the specific needs of their use case.

Cloudera is a technical partner to Kropmann Communications for the African market.

Ceragon in $60m India backhaul orders for IP-20 platform despite Lowered Stock Rating

Israeli wireless backhaul specialist Ceragon Networks Ltd., has been selected again by a tier 1 mobile operator in India, placing over USD 60m in new orders so far in 2017 to expand 4G LTE service coverage and increase network capacity, the company said.

Though the identity of the Telco was not revealed, the delivery requirements for these orders and Ceragon´s understanding of the customer´s aggressive network expansion goals, the company´s preliminary expectation for revenues in the first half of 2017 has been increased by USD 20 to USD 25m, with most of the impact expected in the second quarter of 2017.

During its most recent results conference call in November 2016, management indicated that revenues were expected to stabilize in a quarterly range of around USD 75 to USD 80m over the next several quarters, with the possible exception of a seasonal dip (referring to typical seasonality in the first quarter). The significance of these orders serve to increase Ceragon management´s confidence that it can reach or exceed its previously stated goal of a 40% increase in non-GAAP net profit for 2017 compared to 2016.

The IP-20 Platform enables the operator to connect 4G LTE sites across the network, delivering HD multimedia services across India to subscribers. The new wave of IP-20 Platform wireless backhaul deployments aims to support the mobile operator´s goal to vastly increase 4G service coverage and increase network capacity.

Ceragon Networks helps operators and other service providers worldwide increase operational efficiency and enhance end customers´ quality of experience with innovative wireless backhaul solutions.

More importantly for Ceragon is the fact that this is happening despite being downgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Monday.

According to Zacks, “Ceragon Networks Ltd. is a leading provider of high-capacity wireless backhaul solutions for cellular and fixed wireless operators, enterprises and government organizations. Ceragon’s modular FibeAir product family is recognized as the gold standard for backhaul transmission and is also one of the top solutions chosen by cellular operators for SONET/SDH rings. A scalable, future-proof solution for wireless transport of broadband services, FibeAir operates across multiple frequencies for IP and SONET/SDH protocols, supporting the emerging needs of next-generation networks that are evolving to all-IP based services, including triple-play. It leads the market in IP backhaul, offering a unique, native IP solution that provides the efficient, robust connectivity required for WiFi, WiMAX and converged networks.”

Ceragon Networks has a 1-year low of $0.89 and a 1-year high of $3.88. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $2.74 and its 200 day moving average is $2.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $263.44 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.24 and a beta of 1.16.

Ceragon Networks last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 14^th 2016. The company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.04 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $79.13 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $77.57 million. Ceragon Networks had a net margin of 3.23% and a return on equity of 6.93%.

Ceragon Networks’s quarterly revenue was down 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.05 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ceragon Networks will post $0.14 EPS for the current year.

CG Asset Management Selects Indata’s iPM Epic Software Suite

INDATA, a leading industry provider of software, technology and services for buy-side firms, has announced that CG Asset Management, a London-based independent investment manager with more than $2 Billion in AUM, has successfully implemented INDATA’s iPM Epic platform. The cloud-based platform will be utilized by CG for OMS & front office, IBOR, compliance, portfolio accounting and data management.

Founded in 2000 and having experienced significant growth, CG began to evaluate solutions to provide more efficiency for its dealing and compliance processes. The priority for CG was to have a fully integrated front office solution that included a robust OMS as well as a comprehensive pre- and post-trade compliance module to accommodate its multi-strategy investment approach, including significant global fixed income. CG was also looking for a full shadow accounting capability in line with industry best practices of keeping a parallel and independent IBOR separate from its custodians from a portfolio accounting standpoint.

An important feature for CG was that the system chosen would beicloud-based. Having evaluated other third-party IT providers, CG was introduced to Lanware, INDATA’s UK Technology partner and the prospect of having both CG’s IT and mission-critical investment software under one umbrella reinforced INDATA’s credentials. Equally important for CG was the ability to have a fully automated process that incorporated external market data and custodial feeds.

“We were looking for a fully-integrated solution which provided as much automation as possible so that we could focus on our business of investing and not the overhead of making all of our systems and IT work together. INDATA’s iPM Epic solution fulfilled these requirements,” commented Richard Goody, Director of Risk and Compliance at CG Asset Management. “With the system in place we now have an automated workflow. From seeing our funds’ current and historical investments and cash positions, cash forecasting, trading electronically with our brokers, checking compliance and back office reporting; we have a solution that combines robust front office tools, compliance controls and an independent book of records separate to our funds’ administrator.”

“It has been a pleasure working with CG Asset Management and we are very pleased that they have chosen our system,” commented David J. Csiki, President of INDATA.  “We greatly value our relationship and look forward to serving CG in the next phase of their continuing growth.”

SAP adds new EIM as it partners UPS for On-Demand Manufacturing

SAP has renewed its enterprise information management (EIM) portfolio with a series of updates aimed at helping organizations better manage, govern and strategically use and control their data assets. "By effectively managing enterprise data to deliver trusted, complete and relevant information, organizations can ensure data is always actionable to gain business insight and drive innovation," says Philip On, vice president of Product Marketing at SAP.

The additions to the EIM portfolio are intended to provide customers with enhanced support and connectivity for big data sources, improved data stewardship and metadata management capabilities and a pay-as-you-go cloud data quality service, he adds.

The updates to the EIM portfolio include the following features:

SAP Data Services – Providing extended support and connectivity for integrating and loading large and diverse data types, SAP Data Services includes a data extraction capability for fast data transfer from Google BigQuery to data processing systems like Hadoop, SAP HANA Vora, SAP IQ, SAP HANA and other cloud storage.

SAP Information Steward – The latest version helps speed data resolution issues with better usability, policy and workflow processes. One could immediately view and share data quality scorecards across devices without having to log into the application.

SAP Agile Data Preparation – To improve collaboration capabilities between business users and data stewards, SAP Agile Data Preparation focuses on the bridge between agile business data mash-ups and central corporate governance. It allows users to share, export and import rules between different worksheets or between different data domains.

SAP HANA smart data integration and smart data quality – The latest release of the SAP HANA platform features new performance and connectivity functionality to deliver faster, more robust real-time replication, bulk/batch data movement, data virtualization and data quality through one common user interface.

SAP Data Quality Management microservices – This new cloud-based offering is available as a beta on SAP HANA Cloud Platform, developer edition. It's a pay-as-you-go cloud-based service that ensures clean data by providing data validation and enrichment for addresses and geocodes within any application or environment.

"As organizations are moving to the cloud and digital business, the data foundation is so important," On says. "It's not just having the data, but having the right data. We want to give them a suite of solutions that truly allow them to deliver information excellence from the beginning to the end."

Also as part of its enhancement moves, SAP, along with partners such as UPS, are moving their vision for on-demand manufacturing another step forward by making the SAP Distributed Manufacturing application available to customers as part of an early access initiative.

SAP and UPS’ distributed manufacturing collaboration melds SAP supply chain solutions, Internet of Things technologies and machine learning capabilities along with UPS designed additive manufacturing capabilities and logistics networks to enable companies to tap into the advantages of on-demand manufacturing. The initiative, part of SAP’s Leonardo IoT portfolio, promises to deliver an end-to-end digital manufacturing process and network aimed at helping manufacturers leverage 3D printing technologies more broadly and efficiently to accelerate product development and fuel internal innovation, according to SAP officials.