Home › Posts tagged investing

Tag: investing

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

LEAP, one of the biggest tech events in the Middle East took place recently in Riyadh for the second year with more than 172,000 people in attendance. During the opening, Abdullah Alswaha, the Minister of Communication and Information Technology of Saudi Arabia has announced that the Arab kingdom has received US$9 billion in investments to support future technologies, digital entrepreneurship, tech startups, and enhance the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s position as the largest digital market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Some of the world’s biggest tech companies have already invested in the Kingdom, with Microsoft investing $2.1 billion in a global super-scaler cloud, and Oracle investing $1.5 billion to expand its MENA business by launching new cloud areas in the Kingdom. Huawei has invested $400 million in cloud infrastructure for its services in the Kingdom, while Zoom has partnered with Aramco to launch a cloud area in the Kingdom.

These investments are part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan, which aims to diversify the economy away from its reliance on oil. The plan seeks to attract foreign direct investment and position Saudi Arabia as a leader in technology and innovation.

“A few days ago it was announced that KSA has the most productive economy in the world. the GDP is increasing more than any other country in the world, they have an ambitious plan to change. All of Saudi Arabia wants to be leaders across tech or any other area that is relevant in the world of science and technology. I think that if any company has an interest to be at the forefront of innovation, Saudi Arabia is a leader in that, with NEOM project, or KAUST University and different projects across the Kingdom. In order to make this a reality we need to rely on technology and technology is going to be the driver behind all of that so LEAP is the biggest tech event in Saudi and everybody needs to be here,” Jason Roos, CIO at KAUST University explained at LEAP.

The NEOM project is just one example of the Kingdom’s ambitious plans. NEOM is a new economic-technological area being promoted by Saudi Arabia in the northwest of the country, facing the Sinai Peninsula. The project aims to shift the economic focus from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, taking advantage of the proximity with Egypt, Jordan, and Israel, and to rival the urban innovations of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha.

In conversations with different IT vendors at LEAP, CIO Middle East had the opportunity to discuss with Fady Richmany, Regional VP and General Manager, SEEMEA at Commvault, about the huge potential for the Saudi market. “As one of the top markets in the region, it is also poised to become one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, with the implementation of Saudi Vision 2030 and the government’s modernisation efforts also driving the creation of more sustainable operations across all industries, as well as accelerating the nation’s digital transformation”, he added. 

Recent reports suggest that Saudi Arabia is likely to spend $34.6 billion on information and communications technology, positioning it as a leader in the MENA region’s digital economic transformation. Companies like Commvault have been operating in the Kingdom for many years and are supporting key KSA entities on their digital transformation journeys.

With its ambitious plans and investments in technology, Saudi Arabia is becoming an attractive destination for tech companies looking to expand their operations and invest in emerging markets. The Kingdom’s commitment to innovation and digital transformation makes it a leader in the region and a key player in the global tech industry.

Saudi Arabia’s dedication to technology is positioning it as a leader in the MENA region’s digital transformation. With investments from major tech companies and ambitious plans like NEOM, the Kingdom is well on its way to diversifying its economy and becoming a major player in the global tech industry.

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , ,

In many ways, the manufacturing industry stands on edge—emerging from a pandemic and facing all-time highs in demand yet teetering on inflation-related economic uncertainty and coping with skilled labor shortages. Answering these concerns, smart factories are moving to another edge: edge computing, where operational data from Internet of Things (IoT) sensors can be collected and processed for insights in near-real-time. 

Citing an impactful list of benefits, from enhancing production quality and protecting worker safety to filling knowledge gaps and preventing maintenance issues, nearly 70% of manufacturing IT is set to be deployed at the edge within the next two years.[1] To get the most from their investments, factories of the future will need to be driven by data and optimized with artificial intelligence (AI). 

For manufacturers, it’s important to understand the advantages and challenges of edge computing and to discover why smart factories are becoming AI-optimized. There’s also an opportunity to explore how new manufacturing technologies can help build a bridge between information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT)teams.

The Lowdown on Edge Computing 
As new enterprise IT infrastructure deploys at the edge instead of in corporate data centers, there’s one main trigger for this shift. Data. A lot of it. Streaming in from sensors and other IoT devices installed throughout the factory, most legacy IT infrastructure is not designed to capture and process this volume of data in real-time. An edge computing architecture can begin to help solve these problems.

Here’s how edge computing works: a percentage of storage and compute resources move closer to the source of the data and away from the data center. Previously, raw data was transmitted to the data center and then processed and analyzed there, which could take hours or days to complete. With edge computing, those functions are performed much closer to where the data is created, such as on the factory floor. This allows teams to receive and review business intelligence and make changes in near-real-time rather than waiting hours or days to glean insights from data.[2] 

As with any advancement in technology, edge computing comes with benefits and drawbacks. The sheer volume of data available, for instance, prompts heightened expectations for real-time insights. Many innovative manufacturers implementing edge computing have called upon AI to help process data quickly and deliver those insights. 

Inside the AI-Optimized Factory

When manufacturers take AI to the edge, the results include an impressive list of benefits from fewer accidents, defects, or breakdowns to a closure of knowledge gaps. Organizations have demonstrated and reported a greater ability to protect workers, enhance production quality, avoid maintenance issues, and fill skills gaps. 

To keep workers safe while operating machinery, for example, companies can monitor activities via AI computer vision. The system will raise alerts or otherwise intervene if there is human error or equipment malfunction. 

For predictive maintenance, AI can use sensor data to proactively identify problems and save technicians the time it takes to discover or diagnose equipment failures. This type of modern intervention can keep processes and equipment moving at peak performance, avoiding disruptions, and reducing maintenance costs.

Defects cause problems for a company’s brand and bottom line. By using AI computer vision to track the movement of parts throughout the production cycle, any quality issues can be flagged and traced to their origin—whether it’s related to process or components—in real-time. 

Specialists are in demand and often reside offsite. But an AI solution that uses augmented reality can take specialists on a virtual visit, enabling them to evaluate a situation and/or be a guide to onsite staff. Some implementations even have AI capabilities for reading a situation and making recommendations when specialists are unavailable. 

Dell Technologies customers have reported[3] some of their real-world successes using AI at the manufacturing edge as:

Reduced data center footprintOutput increaseFaster error detectionTerabytes of data ingested, stored and analyzed per day in near real-timeImmediate anomaly detectionReduced data storage expenditures

When IT and OT Worlds Collide

Introducing new technologies to the manufacturing space also presents an opportunity to bring Informational Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) teams together.  Traditionally, IT has been removed from the day-to-day operations of the factory but as technologies become more advanced and integrated into the factory (via IoT sensors, streaming data capture and storage, real-time analytics and AI), there is a need these two teams to work more closely together. 

For manufacturers, this means uniting the physical world of machines, devices, and industrial equipment with the digital world of servers, networks, and applications. Each world holds its own distinct sets of data, modes of operation, and teams of skilled staff. [4] Bringing them together would be a force multiplier for enterprise and industrial operations, merging business processes and controls with insights. 

When convergence is achieved, manufacturers are able to make decisions backed by holistic understanding and quickly respond to critical concerns. They also see significant gains in areas such as regulatory compliance, process automation and business intelligence.[5]

A Cohesive Edge Strategy

To create and maintain the factories of the future, smart manufacturers are investing in edge technology that meets their specific demands. This starts with a strong foundation of storage, hardware, software and general infrastructure, and security—everything required to support the journey, from ingesting edge data to generating business outcomes. 

Many leading manufacturers are partnering with Dell Technologies to simplify deployment, integration, security, and management. They are opting for the configured systems built by manufacturing AI experts and adopting engineering-validated solutions designed for smart manufacturing use cases that do not require onsite AI expertise. The measurable results—better, faster insights at the point of need—provide a competitive advantage for manufacturing organizations of all sizes.

Learn more about solutions for AI at the manufacturing edge by clicking here.  

[1] 451 Research sponsored by Dell Technologies, S&P Global Market Intelligence, August 2021

[2] https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatacenter/definition/edge-computing

[3] https://www.delltechnologies.com/asset/en-us/products/ready-solutions/briefs-summaries/ai-edge-manufacturing-ebook.pdf

[4] https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/definition/IT-OT-convergence

[5] https://www.yash.com/blog/benefits-and-challenges-of-it-ot-convergence-in-manufacturing/

IT Leadership

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , ,

By Olaf de Senerpont Domis, senior editor at DataStax

Premji Invest is an evergreen fund formed to support the Azim Premji Foundation, which was founded by Azim Premji, the former chairman of IT services consultancy Wipro. Premji Invest deploys a “crossover format” (investing in both private and public companies) across the technology, healthcare, consumer, and FinTech landscapes; it has backed market leaders like Outreach, Sysdig, Heyday, Anaplan, Coupa, Moderna, Carta, Flipkart, Looker (acquired by Google), and DataStax. Premji Invest-US managing partner, Sandesh Patnam, established Premji Invest’s US presence in 2014 in Menlo Park, California.

We recently spoke with Sandesh to learn more about the firm’s investment strategy and his excitement about the database market.

What’s Premji Invest’s investment strategy?

We deploy a direct crossover investment strategy with a roughly equal split between mid- to late-stage growth equity and public equities. Our evergreen structure informs and supports our long-term duration investment approach: We think in 5- to 15-year horizons. While many investors view an IPO as a potential point of exit, we see the opposite. We’ve often participated meaningfully in the IPO events of standout members of our private portfolio and continued our partnership well beyond going public. We have a team in India and a team in the US, which I set up about 8-and-a-half years ago. We’re active investors and look to partner with the founders and management teams that are on a mission to create enduring companies.

What qualities do you look for in investments?

We want to invest in companies that thrive in the public markets. On the flip side, our public portfolio in many ways reflects our private practice conviction. We have deep private and public practices that operate under one hood, so it’s through this continuity that we understand the durability of a business model, pricing, quarterly cadence, value creation, and the rigor of a team. All these metrics are easier said than accomplished, but they’re a clear proxy for quality.

We also want to see significant product-market fit. I usually use the term “wild market fit.” A lot of companies can spend a lot of dollars and get a “push-based” model, but that can generate false positives. We want to see significant market “pull.” That requires some level of codification of the go-to-market strategy and process. A lot of companies have heroic sellers or unique customers — but still fail after lots of misspent dollars.

Why invest in the database market?

We’ve all heard software is going to eat the world. But more importantly, I’d say that AI [artificial intelligence] and ML [machine learning] are going to eat software. There are a lot of companies that build software that are often fairly basic workflow tools. For software to be actionable, data must be at the center. If you think of the way the world is headed with AI and ML, how is that going to get more intelligent? What is the basis of ML? In these cases, the most important aspect is: Can you organize your data and can you learn from it and piece together information in real-time that can take real action on that data?

There’s a second element that we look for: With the speed and volume at which we are accreting data, can it be stored in an efficient way? If so, your AI and ML can get better over time, so all software should be predictive in some way.

Why is the database market more interesting today than ever before?

The need for real-time information. Ecommerce, ad spend, and real-time events that happen once need to be moderated. If you don’t have the right instrumentation and analytics, provided on a real-time basis, you’re going to fall behind. 

Think about the companies that have taken share and disrupted industries; think of all the things Amazon has done and Netflix has done — all the things that the tech challengers have done to existing businesses. They all stem from the fact that they were able to instrument their business much more so than others.

At Amazon, the office of CFO is, in many ways, more like the office of the CRO [chief revenue officer]. Amazon can instrument its business at the SKU level. Think about toothpaste with a particular flavor that’s sold in the Northeast. Amazon can tell you what the profit contribution is, what the cycle of buying is, who the potential buyer is, what the supply chain logistics look like. You start breaking that down at the SKU level, and that enables the promotion of certain products in certain geographies and enables you to make specific contribution margin decisions and make near-perfect promotions.

When you think about how that’s even possible, then you start understanding the power of AWS. But you also understand that underneath AWS is the power of a very dynamic, highly distributed database. The relevance of the right data model and the right database and the impact it has on businesses is much more pronounced today. You can say that data is destiny, but I’d add that the right database is destiny — it really impacts the business model in a very profound way.

Learn more about DataStax here.

About Olaf de Senerpont Domis:

DataStax

Olaf is senior editor at DataStax. He has driven awareness via content marketing roles at Google and Apigee. Prior to that, he spent two decades as a journalist, reporting on the financial services industry and technology M&A.

Data Management, IT Leadership

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Despite its potential for relieving pressure on the workforce, automation in the workplace is often seen negatively, as a cause of job losses or a growing skills gap. Yet, done well, automation can provide critical support that frees people up to focus on more impactful work — and can lead to happier, more motivated and productive employees.

At a time when burnout has become a major issue — with Future Forum data showing 40% of workers globally experience it — automation can also help employees by simplifying work and saving them time.

So, how can IT leaders help reduce the cognitive load and automate common tasks such as creating sales decks using Salesforce data or raising purchase order requests? One way is through the digital headquarters (HQ).

Making automation a reality with the digital HQ

The key to effective workplace automation is keeping it simple and empowering end users. If a system is too complicated to set-up it becomes a burden on the tech team and is not scalable.

With most businesses still navigating the shift to hybrid, the one office that every employee comes into each day is the digital HQ — a single digital space where workflows between your people, systems, partners and customers. In transforming how teams work, communicate and collaborate, the digital HQ sits at the heart of automation initiatives, with free-flowing conversations built around specific projects or teams taking place in channels.

Heading into a tough economic climate, it’s more important than ever for organisations to keep teams motivated and engaged, so they are able to perform and deliver results quickly. Automation within the digital HQ is a major step towards this — empowering employees to liberate their time from manual tasks and helping them breeze through multiple requests that might otherwise perforate their day.   

Offering a no-code solution that everyone can use, Slack’s Workflow Builder hands control back to the team, boosting efficiency in the process. Just ask telecommunications giant Verizon, who used Slack’s digital HQ — alongside automations — to improve output and employee experience.

Slack

Personalised problem-solving

Verizon’s Planning and Engineering team were the first to identify the potential of Slack’s Workflow Builder to bring solutions to, not just their own department, but the whole company. This is because Workflow Builder is an easy-to-use tool that requires no coding experience, with over 400,000 people around the world having built workflows so far — 80% of whom are in non-IT roles. It was therefore easy for Verizon to see its potential to give teams autonomy in solving their own pain points.

Verizon launched the Citizen Builder Programme, encouraging staff to leverage automated workflows to create solutions. This level of personalised problem-solving meant issues were resolved with far greater precision than if another team had been tasked with the job. With one impactful example being how Verizon’s Wireline Network Operations team used Slack’s Workflow Builder to coordinate field technicians for last-mile service calls. Automating parts of this process not only reduced the load on the team but also led to more accurate customer appointment times — all without adding any additional pressure to Verizon’s IT team.

With an expansive telecommunications operation, and a reputation for excellent customer service, Verizon faces a huge amount of admin every day. But with Slack’s Workflow Builder, they have ensured it doesn’t take its toll on workforce motivation, and satisfaction isn’t reserved exclusively for its customers.

For more information on how Slack’s Digital HQ can help your business click here.

Application Performance Management, Change Management, Networking, Remote Work

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , ,

By Hock Tan, Broadcom President & CEO

In October I shared my thoughts about what a combined Broadcom and VMware will mean for customers. I wrote about the conversations I’ve had to date, the future of multi-cloud, and our philosophy on pricing, and I reiterated Broadcom’s commitment to keeping customers at the center of our business.

Nonetheless, I’ve continued to see questions in press reports about whether we intend to raise prices on VMware products. The answer is simple: No.

Given the continued interest, I wanted to expand on my thoughts about the pending transaction and share more on how Broadcom will support VMware customers and innovate VMware products once the transaction closes.

Building on Our Commitment

It’s important to remember that Broadcom is an engineering-first company. Our commitment to innovating leading-edge technology, ensuring successful deployments of our solutions, and delivering value for our customers is what drives our growth.

The addition of VMware will further Broadcom’s commitment in each of these three areas.

Our business model is predicated on adding long-term value to our products and improving them over time. Following the transaction’s close, we’re going to focus on making VMware’s products better for all of our customers, including enterprise customers who want products that are even easier to use. And, to be clear, we intend to continue serving customers of all sizes. VMware has a robust partner ecosystem that we will build upon to help us serve even the smallest companies. In short, we plan to take a “no customer left behind” approach.

Innovating for Success

How will we spur higher growth and drive customers of all sizes to buy more VMware products than ever before? We’ll do it the way we’ve always done it: through our laser-focus on execution and innovation.

Broadcom has the scale and capacity to invest major resources in R&D innovation and build on VMware’s talented team by recruiting the best engineers — an advantage that has historically allowed us to develop better technology and product solutions than the competition, whether it’s in broadband, ethernet switching, or endpoint protection.

By investing and innovating in infrastructure software and VMware’s broad portfolio — including multi-cloud and cloud-native capabilities — we will bring our customers greater flexibility and deliver new solutions to help them connect, scale and protect their IT infrastructure. 

Post-close, we intend to apply this formula for success by investing in and operating VMware with a concerted focus on growth and innovation, while furthering our track record of delivering consistent, justifiable value with our fairly priced solutions.

Greater Customer Choice

As we look to our shared future, we know what goes into successful customer relationships. We also know that if customers don’t find consistent value in the solutions we deploy, they’ll go elsewhere.

Don’t just take my word for it. IDC highlighted in a recent report that any vendor looking to cultivate successful customer partnerships has to first offer products, support and services that translate into real value.

In the report, IDC shared a comment from a CIO of a large, global financial services company who noted that, “This acquisition is unique, and it makes sense for [Broadcom and VMware] to form one organization that can increase productivity and deliver a more complete customer experience. Together, Broadcom and VMware will give us [customers] more power to modernize and transform our IT infrastructure to meet the needs of an ever-evolving world, ensuring secure, reliable, and flexible, choices.”

This CIO is exactly right. As workloads continue to grow rapidly across environments and multi-cloud options expand, a combined Broadcom and VMware will be focused on giving customers greater choice and flexibility over where and how they run their critical operations. We will invest in and innovate VMware’s products to create the next generation of technology that solves customers’ most complex IT challenges.

To stay updated on the news about the transaction, click here.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This communication relates to a proposed business combination transaction between Broadcom Inc. (“Broadcom”) and VMware, Inc. (“VMware”).  This communication includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended.  These forward-looking statements include but are not limited to statements that relate to the expected future business and financial performance, the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction, the anticipated impact of the proposed transaction on the combined business, the expected amount and timing of the synergies from the proposed transaction, and the anticipated closing date of the proposed transaction.  These forward-looking statements are identified by words such as “will,” “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “should,” “intend,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “aim,” and similar words or phrases.  These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and beliefs of Broadcom management and current market trends and conditions. 

These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that are outside Broadcom’s control and may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: the effect of the proposed transaction on our ability to maintain relationships with customers, suppliers and other business partners or operating results and business; the ability to implement plans, achieve forecasts and meet other expectations with respect to the business after the completion of the proposed transaction and realize expected synergies; business disruption following the proposed transaction; difficulties in retaining and hiring key personnel and employees due to the proposed transaction and business combination; the diversion of management time on transaction-related issues; the satisfaction of the conditions precedent to consummation of the proposed transaction, including the ability to secure regulatory approvals on the terms expected, at all or in a timely manner; significant indebtedness, including indebtedness incurred in connection with the proposed transaction, and the need to generate sufficient cash flows to service and repay such debt; the disruption of current plans and operations; the outcome of legal proceedings related to the transaction; the ability to consummate the proposed transaction on a timely basis or at all; the ability to successfully integrate VMware’s operations; cyber-attacks, information security and data privacy; global political and economic conditions, including cyclicality in the semiconductor industry and in Broadcom’s other target markets, rising interest rates, the impact of inflation and challenges in manufacturing and the global supply chain; the impact of public health crises, such as pandemics (including COVID-19) and epidemics and any related company or government policies and actions to protect the health and safety of individuals or government policies or actions to maintain the functioning of national or global economies and markets; and events and trends on a national, regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive and regulatory nature.

These risks, as well as other risks related to the proposed transaction, are included in the registration statement on Form S-4 and proxy statement/prospectus that has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) in connection with the proposed transaction.  While the list of factors presented here is, and the list of factors presented in the registration statement on Form S-4 are, considered representative, no such list should be considered to be a complete statement of all potential risks and uncertainties.  For additional information about other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Broadcom’s and VMware’s respective periodic reports and other filings with the SEC, including the risk factors identified in Broadcom’s and VMware’s most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Reports on Form 10-K.  The forward-looking statements included in this communication are made only as of the date hereof.  Neither Broadcom nor VMware undertakes any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law.

No Offer or Solicitation

This communication is not intended to and shall not constitute an offer to buy or sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any securities, or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.  No offering of securities shall be made, except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended.  

Additional Information about the Transaction and Where to Find It

In connection with the proposed transaction, Broadcom has filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-4 that includes a proxy statement of VMware and that also constitutes a prospectus of Broadcom.  Each of Broadcom and VMware may also file other relevant documents with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction.  The registration statement  was declared effective by the SEC on October 3, 2022 and the definitive proxy statement/prospectus has been mailed to VMware’s stockholders. This document is not a substitute for the proxy statement/prospectus or registration statement or any other document that Broadcom or VMware may file with the SEC.   INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT, PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS THAT MAY BE FILED WITH THE SEC, AS WELL AS ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS TO THESE DOCUMENTS, CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY IF AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN OR WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION.  Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the registration statement and proxy statement/prospectus and other documents containing important information about Broadcom, VMware and the proposed transaction, once such documents are filed with the SEC through the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov.  Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Broadcom may be obtained free of charge on Broadcom’s website at https://investors.broadcom.com.  Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by VMware may be obtained free of charge on VMware’s website at ir.vmware.com.

Participants in the Solicitation

Broadcom, VMware and certain of their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies in respect of the proposed transaction.  Information about the directors and executive officers of Broadcom, including a description of their direct or indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, is set forth in Broadcom’s proxy statement for its 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on February 18, 2022, and Broadcom’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021, which was filed with the SEC on December 17, 2021.  Information about the directors and executive officers of VMware, including a description of their direct or indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, is set forth in VMware’s proxy statement for its 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on May 27, 2022, VMware’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 28, 2022, which was filed with the SEC on March 24, 2022, a Form 8-K filed by VMware on April 22, 2022 and a Form 8-K filed by VMware on May 2, 2022.  Other information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitations and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, are or will be contained in the proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction when such materials become available.  Investors should read the proxy statement/prospectus carefully before making any voting or investment decisions.  You may obtain free copies of these documents from Broadcom or VMware using the sources indicated above.

About Hock Tan:

Broadcom Software

Hock Tan is Broadcom President, Chief Executive Officer and Director. He has held this position since March 2006. From September 2005 to January 2008, he served as chairman of the board of Integrated Device Technology. Prior to becoming chairman of IDT, Mr. Tan was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Integrated Circuit Systems from June 1999 to September 2005. Prior to ICS, Mr. Tan was Vice President of Finance with Commodore International from 1992 to 1994, and previously held senior management positions with PepsiCo and General Motors. Mr. Tan served as managing director of Pacven Investment, a venture capital fund in Singapore from 1988 to 1992, and served as managing director for Hume Industries in Malaysia from 1983 to 1988.

IT Leadership

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

When it comes to IT resourcing during tough economic times, cutting costs in the wrong places can be dangerous. Short-term money-saving steps can be counter-productive – actually damaging the brand in the long term. Smart companies, however, are building powerful third-party Technology partnerships to maximise budgets and simplify their IT operations, so they can continue to grow and innovate.

Here are five key reasons why a third-party IT partnership makes sense:

Delivering a hybrid working environment

‘Work from anywhere’ is the new mantra for all forward-thinking organisations, but delivering a hybrid working environment in-house can be risky and expensive. Partnering with a trusted third-party, however, can help you deliver the following benefits safely and without breaking the bank: 

Hybrid working significantly reduces real-estate footprint and costs. Recent research by IWG suggests that firms can save up to £8,100 per employee annually.A recent study by PWC also suggests that hybrid working can boost productivity.Hybrid working models are also an investment in the future, providing resilience against future crises, such as a spike in covid-19 infections and public transport strikes.Retaining talent with slick hybrid cloud experiences

Collaboration, effortless productivity and user-friendly workplace tools are key to ensuring employee satisfaction in the ‘work from anywhere’ era. Get this wrong and your brightest talent is likely to vote with its feet.

Seamless hybrid-cloud experiences, however, ensure staff have the information and apps they need to get their job done with minimum fuss and from any location. Cloud-powered home working can also improve employee work/life balance, save staff as much as £300 a month on travel and ultimately boost employee retention.

Cutting costs and boosting innovation

Organisations with on-prem servers might think they can’t afford cloud migration with a recession on the horizon. The fact is they can’t afford not to. With guidance from a trusted third-party IT partner, organisations can find the most cost-effective mix of private/public/hybrid cloud, simplifying their complex IT systems, delivering significant long-term savings, while also boosting innovation.

That’s because the right cloud mix reduces capital expenditure on hardware as well as ongoing maintenance. It also increases enterprise agility and innovation, because cloud apps are faster and more cost effective to spin up and down, enabling businesses to experiment with new products and services.

Ensuring systems reliability and availability

Whether you’re providing IT services to external customers or internal stakeholders, systems reliability and availability are key to building your brand. Leading public cloud providers generally offer a 99.9% systems uptime guarantee, they maintain three copies of data at all times in different data centres, provide automatic access to backup servers to minimise downtime, and host apps on at least two servers in case of hardware failure. Few, if any on-premise data centres, can offer anywhere near these levels of reliability and availability without incurring huge cost.

Maintaining and increasing cybersecurity

Working with a trusted IT partner will enable you to audit your cyber security, ensure your resources (both in-house and out-sourced) are aligned to the real-world risks and your in-house cyber security team is focused on core risk-management activity.

With a recession looming and budgets being squeezed, IT leaders face a huge challenge, and they can’t do it alone. The answer is to reach out to a third-party IT provider and explore the benefits, cost efficiencies and opportunities that a sensitive mix of out-sourcing can deliver.

Contact Intercity now to find out how they can help your IT function prepare for the recession.

Education Industry, Hybrid Laptops, IT Management