Dell EMC, Microsoft, HPE Named Leaders in Digital Transformation

The global digital transformation market is expected to more than double, exceeding $493 billion, by 2022. That’s according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets, which predicts a compound annual growth rate of 19.1 percent. The market is worth $206 billion today. #DellEMC, #Microsoft and #HewlettPackardEnterprise ( #HPE ) are listed among major vendors in this market. Others include #Cognizant, #SAP, #Adobe Systems, #Accenture, #Capgemini, #IBM, #Oracle, #Google, and #CA Technologies. The market has been segmented into solution and service, with the service segment expected to grow fastest due to the increasing need for professional services and system integration. Based on deployment type, the cloud segment is expected to outpace on-premises during the forecast period. Also, based on end user, SMBs should outpace enterprises in transformation. Based on vertical, education – including academic and research industries – will experience the fastest growth. Vendors are set to benefit from increasing demand for platform independent or cross-platform applications from this vertical. An early adopter of cloud technologies, North America is expected to lead the market this year. Digital transformation requires agile and flexible IT support, which is present in most companies in this region.

http://www.channelpartnersonline.com/2017/09/21/dell-emc-microsoft-hpe-named-leaders-in-digital-transformation/

How Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook Plan to Eliminate Flash

How #Apple, #Microsoft, #Google, and #Facebook Plan to Eliminate #Flash Jonathan Vanian Jul 25, 2017 After over twenty years serving videos and animations to people over the web, #AdobeFlash media player is being put to the rest. #Adobe’s (ADBE, -0.88%) decision, announced Tuesday, to stop supporting Flash comes after several big technology companies like #Microsoft (MSFT, +0.80%) and #Google (GOOG, -3.02%) have already said they would phase out the software in their own products due to its numerous security holes and bugs. These tech giants supported Adobe in its plans to close the curtain on Flash, and all issued their own takes on the announcement and how it will affect their respective customers. Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter. Here’s a rundown on what they are saying and how it affects you. Google As Google notes in a blog post, Flash’s popularity has greatly declined over the years. The search giant noted that three years ago, 80% of people who used its Chrome browsers on desktop computers visited a website that incorporate Flash in some way. Now, however, only 17% of PC and Chrome users visit websites with Flash, and that percentage “continues to decline.” The company said that it would “remove Flash completely from Chrome toward the end of 2020.” Until then, if people visit a site that uses Flash, they will be prompted to give the web site permission to run Flash. Microsoft Microsoft gave a timeline of how it plans to stop supporting Flash for its old-school Internet Explorer browser and its newer Microsoft Edge browser. From 2017 through 2018, people will need to give permission to the Edge browser to run Flash when they visit a website that use the tech. The Edge browser will remember their choice so that they only need to give permission once. Internet Explorer users can continue using Flash without needing to give permission. In mid-to-late 2018, however, the Edge browser will require permission from users to run Flash each time they visit a website that uses Flash. Again, Internet Explorer users can continue to visit website with Flash like they normally do.  Microsoft will then disable Flash by default in its two browsers in middle or late 2019, but people will be allowed to re-enable Flash in those browsers. After re-enabling Flash, people will “will continue to require approval for Flash on a site-by-site basis.” Microsoft plans to eliminate all support for Flash by the end of 2020, and people will no longer be able to run Flash in both the Edge and Internet Explorer browsers. Apple As Apple (AAPL, +0.47%) notes in its blog post on the announcement, Apple has never supported Flash on its iOS-powered mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad. For its Mac lineup of personal computers, Apple said it began moving away from Flash in 2010 when it didn’t pre-install those computers with Flash. Now, if people install Flash onto their Macs, Flash will still remain “off by default.” This means that each time a person uses Apple’s Safari browser to visit a website with Flash, they must give the website permission to run the tech.

http://fortune.com/2017/07/25/apple-microsoft-google-facebook-flash/

Huawei reckons it can strong ARM its way into AI world with new chips

Chinese systems colossus #Huawei claims it is developing chips optimized for artificial-intelligence tasks. The silicon will combine an application CPU, a graphics processing unit, and a hardware engine for accelerating #machinelearning algorithms, it's reported. Technical details are scant, unfortunately. The components will be unveiled later this year, we're told. Huawei Consumer Business Group CEO Richard Yu hopes the technology will help the electronics giant compete against Google and Apple in the realm of AI processor development. In other words, Huawei wants you using its specialized chips for running artificial intelligence code, be it on a phone or whatever, and not #Apple 's nor #Google 's. As you probably know, Huawei produces system-on-chips, and has its own fabless semiconductor subsidiary, HiSilicon, located in Shenzhen, China. It has purchased licenses to use various ARM CPU core designs, and developed Kirin chips for use in Huawei's smartphones and tablet computers. So far, so Apple. The Chinese goliath has an AI research partnership with the University of California at Berkeley, bringing together Berkeley's AI Research facility (BAIR) and Huawei's Noah's Ark Lab. The alliance is looking at deep learning, reinforcement learning, machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. #BAIR also works with #Facebook, #Microsoft, #Samsung, #Sony, #Adobe, #Amazon, #Yahoo!Japan, #Nvidia, #Intel, and #Siemens. Noah's Ark Lab has facilities in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and its research areas include: Machine learning Data mining Speech and language processing Information and knowledge management Intelligent systems A branch will be opened in Paris, we're told, and it will do research on intelligent telecommunication networks using machine learning

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/20/artificially_intelligent_huawei_chippery/

3 Reasons Apple Should Not Pay $90 Billion For Adobe Systems

#Apple has $250 billion in cash. Does that mean it should acquire #Adobe Systems? As an Adobe shareholder, I think that is a terrible idea. (I have no financial interest in Apple securities). To be sure, Apple has a growth problem. Its 2016 revenues fell about 8% from the year before -- a far worse performance than Adobe's 23% 2016 revenue growth. And it has never in the past used acquisitions as a way to solve such problems. Instead, Apple has innovated -- taking a chunk of the MP3 player market with its iPod, the smart phone market with the iPhone, and the tablet business with the iPad.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2017/05/24/3-reasons-apple-should-not-pay-90-billion-for-adobe-systems/?c=0&s=StockWatch

Softchoice Recognizes Dell-EMC, Microsoft, Lenovo, Adobe, VMware and AWS with Partner Impact Awards

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- #Softchoice, a leading North American provider of IT solutions and managed services, is pleased to announce that #DellEMC has been recognized as their Partner of the Year for a third straight year. #Softchoice also recognized #Microsoft, #Lenovo, #Adobe, #VMware and #AmazonWebServices with its highest partner honors at its Impact Awards ceremony yesterday – part of the annual Softchoice Launch conference.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170113005684/en/Softchoice-Recognizes-Dell-EMC-Microsoft-Lenovo-Adobe-VMware

Microsoft And Google Start Slowly St

For years, tech writers have been announcing the impending demise of the #AdobeFlash plug-in. It's still not dead heading in to 2017, but #Microsoft and #Google are getting ready to introduce changes that will accelerate the process.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/leemathews/2016/12/16/microsoft-and-google-start-slowly-strangling-adobe-flash-to-death/#872551ab931f

Yes, Google Chrome Is Dumping Adobe Flash This Year

#Google GOOG 0.02% #Chrome plans to kick the software, known for its bugginess and perennial security flaws, to the curb this year. The team behind the popular web browser reiterated its commitment to ditching #Adobe ’s ADBE 1.04% multimedia-friendly tool by 2017 in a blog post on Tuesday. The Chrome browser will begin blocking the majority of the web’s Flash—more than 90%—next month, the company said. By December, the browser will make Flash’s replacement, HTML5, a markup language for displaying media on web pages, its default. (Sites that support only Flash will require a person’s permission to run.)

http://fortune.com/2016/08/10/google-chrome-adobe-flash-2/

Apple just banned some versions of Adobe Flash from its computers

With his “Thoughts on Flash” letter back in early 2010, late #Apple CEO @SteveJobs waged a war on #Adobe that the media couldn’t get enough of. Beyond the hype, however, #AdobeFlash platform really had become a resource hog that was a terrible burden on developers, and that wreaked havoc on PC performance. Thanks to the war Jobs waged, two things have happened in recent years: Flash has become far less popular as better technologies moved in to replace it, and the Flash platform has improved.

http://bgr.com/2015/10/21/adobe-flash-player-for-mac-safari-download-blocked/