IDC: Vendor revenue for cloud infrastructure dipped in 3Q19

Vendor revenue from sales of IT infrastructure products (server, enterprise storage, and Ethernet switch) for cloud environments, including public and private cloud, declined 1.8% year over year in the third quarter of 2019 (3Q19), according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker. The decline was softer than the dip experienced in 2Q19, and leading IDC to slightly increase its forecast for total spending on cloud IT infrastructure in 2019 to $65.4 billion, which represents flat performance compared to 2018.

IDC said the decline in cloud IT infrastructure spending was driven by the public cloud segment, which was down 3.7% year over year, reaching $11.9 billion; sequentially from 2Q19, this represents a 24.4% increase. As the overall segment is generally trending up, it tends to be more volatile quarterly as a significant part of the public cloud IT segment is represented by a few hyperscale service providers.

Some highlights:

• Vendor revenue in the public cloud IT segment is expected to reach $44 billion in sales for the full year 2019, a decline of 3.3% from 2018. 
• Vendor revenue in the private cloud IT segment increased 3.2% year over year, reaching nearly $5 billion. IDC expects spending in this segment to grow 7.2% year over year in 2019 to $21.4 billion.
• The IT infrastructure industry is approaching the point where spending on cloud IT infrastructure consistently surpasses spending on non-cloud IT infrastructure. In 3Q19, cloud IT environments accounted for 53.4% of vendor revenues. However, for the full year 2019, spending on cloud IT infrastructure is expected to stay just below the 50% mark at 49.8%. This year (2020) is expected to become the tipping point with spending on cloud IT infrastructure staying in the 50+% range.
• Vendor revenue for Ethernet switches is the only segment expected to deliver visible year-over-year growth in 2019, up 11.2%, while spending on compute platforms will decline 3.1% and spending on storage will grow just 0.8%. Compute will remain the largest category of cloud IT infrastructure spending at $34.1 billion.
• Sales of IT infrastructure products into traditional (non-cloud) IT environments declined 7.7% from a year ago in 3Q19. 
• For the full year 2019, worldwide spending on traditional non-cloud IT infrastructure is expected to decline by 5.3%. 
• By 2023, IDC expects that traditional non-cloud IT infrastructure will only represent 41.9% of total worldwide IT infrastructure spending (down from 51.6% in 2018). 
• Geographically, declines in the U.S., Western Europe, and Latin America were driven by overall market weakness; in these and some other regions 3Q19 softness in cloud IT infrastructure spending was also affected by comparisons to a strong 3Q18. In Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), the second largest geography after the U.S., spending on cloud IT infrastructure increased 1.2% year over year, which is low for this region. However, it is in comparison with strong double-digit growth in 2018. Other growing regions in 3Q19 included Canada (4.9%), Central & Eastern Europe (4.6%), and Middle East & Africa (18.1%).

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS45899920

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Ultra-fast Optical Mesh for Terrestrial, Airborne and Space Applications

BridgeComm is working with Boeing HorizonX on optical wireless communications (OWC) for one-to-many connectivity at 10-100+ Gbps. The two companies are collaboratively on OWC that provides bi-directional, ultra-high-speed mesh connectivity for terrestrial, airborne and space systems.

“Boeing has been a great partner for BridgeComm, beginning with Boeing HorizonX Ventures’ investment in 2018 to a broader strategic relationship,” says BridgeComm CEO Barry A. Matsumori. “We’re excited to expand our partnership by pioneering OTM technology for terrestrial, airborne and space systems.”

“The One-to-Many technology that Boeing and BridgeComm are developing is a game changer for businesses and other organizations that need the ultra-fast, ultra-reliable connectivity that will complement traditional radio frequency systems,” says Dr. Bruce Chesley, senior director of Strategy for Boeing’s Space and Launch business. “OTM will revolutionize the way these organizations communicate, and in the process will create a communications system designed for long term growth.”

http://www.bridgecomminc.com

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Turkcell establishes AI principles

Turkcell has announced a set of AI Principles that commit to the ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence technologies.

During the press conference held at Turkcell HQ, the company shared its following principles:

1. We are human and environment centric
2. We are professionally responsible
3. We respect data privacy
4. We are transparent
5. We are security-based
6. We are fair
7. We share and collaborate for a better future

“AI should be raised like children and we commit to teach better as responsible parents,” says Omer Barbaros Yis, Turkcell CMO. “Today we share our principles and our commitment to help AI have socially beneficial impacts for our customers and society at large. We are proud to become the first company to contribute to AI ethics in Turkey. The field will continuously expand and we will witness its transformative impacts in our daily lives. Backed by our experience in digital transformation and creating next-generation technologies, we will continue to drive a positive direction towards its advancement and help overcome public concerns about the field.”

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Zinier raises $90M for AI-driven automation

Zinier, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, raised $90 million in Series C funding for its efforts to transform field service workforces with AI-driven automation.

Zinier said its intelligent field service automation platform, called ISAC, helps organizations work smarter—from the back office to the field—to solve problems more quickly, fix things before they break, and maintain the services that we rely on every day.

“Services that we rely on every day - electricity, transportation, communication - are getting by on centuries-old infrastructure that requires a major upgrade for the next generation of users,” said Arka Dhar, co-founder and CEO of Zinier. “A field service workforce powered by both people and automation is necessary to execute the massive amount of work required to not only maintain these critical human infrastructures, but to also prepare for growth. Our team is focused on enabling this transformation across industries through intelligent field service automation.”

New investor ICONIQ Capital led the round with new participation from Tiger Global Management, and return investors Accel, Founders Fund, Nokia-backed NGP Capital, France-based Newfund Capital and Qualcomm Ventures LLC. The funding will support global customer adoption and expansion of Zinier’s AI-driven field service automation platform, ISAC.

http://www.zinier.com

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Pivotal Commware ships 5G repeater for window mounting

Pivotal Commware announced the commercial shipment of its 28 GHz Pivotal Echo 5G subscriber repeater to a Tier 1 mobile network operator in the United States. The unit acts as a wireless portal between indoor and outdoor environment, facilitating the delivering of fixed wireless access (FWA) to homes and enterprises by a mobile operator.

The Echo 5G is a self-installable, on-the-window, precision beamforming repeater designed to counteract mmWave penetration, reflection, and structural shadowing losses so it can gently flood an interior with mmWave signal.

“Pivotal and its customers believe that the immersive 5G experiences people and businesses want in media, health, retail and so much more, are possible only with the massive bandwidth available at mmWave frequencies,” said Brian Deutsch, CEO of Pivotal Commware. “Echo 5G has solved the mmWave indoor penetration challenge. Now, mmWave license holders worldwide can boost their service to its full potential.”

Pivotal’s next product, an outdoor network repeater called Pivot 5G, will be introduced in the first half of 2020.

http://www.pivotalcommware.com

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5G Future Forum aims for mobile-edge computing

A new 5G Future Forum is getting underway with the backing of America Movil, KT, Rogers, Telstra, Verizon and Vodafone to develop uniform interoperability specifications to improve speed to market for developers and multinational enterprises working on 5G-enabled solutions. In addition, Forum participants will develop public and private marketplaces to enhance developer and customer access to 5G, and will share global best practices in technology deployment.

"5G is a key enabler of the next global industrial revolution, where technology will transform how we live and work. It's critical that technology partners around the world unite to create the most seamless global experience for our customers," said Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO of Verizon. "We are proud to join with our fellow 5G leaders to unlock the full potential of applications and solutions that will transform with 5G's fast speeds, high reliability, improved security and single-digit latency."

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Joby Aviation raises $590M for its VTOL aircraft

Joby Aviation, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, raised $590 million in Series C funding for its development of an electric air taxi.

Joby Aviation is working on an all-electric VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft for the launch of the emerging on-demand urban air taxi market. The company says its aircraft is capable of speeds of 200 miles per hour and can fly over 150 miles on a single charge.

“We are building a new system for transportation to transform your daily life, at greater safety and, in time, at a similar cost to driving,” said Joby Aviation founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt. “This collaboration with Toyota represents an unprecedented commitment of money and resources for us and this new industry from one of the world’s leading automakers. Toyota is known globally for the quality and reliability of their products driven by meticulous attention to detail and manufacturing processes. I am excited to harness Toyota’s engineering and manufacturing prowess helping to drive us to achieve our dream of saving a billion people an hour a day.”

The funding round was led by Toyota Motor Corporation. Prior investors, including SPARX Group, Intel Capital, Capricorn Investment Group, JetBlue Technology Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, and AME Cloud Ventures, also contributed to the round, and were joined by new investors Baillie Gifford and Global Oryx (ALJ family’s investment arm). Shigeki Tomoyama, the Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor Corporation, will join Joby Aviation’s board of directors.

Joby Aviation has now raised $720 million to date.

https://www.jobyaviation.com/

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