Oracle Claims its Total Cloud Revenues Up 28%

On June 17, Oracle announced its earnings for its 2015 financial fourth quarter. This provides an opportunity to evaluate how things are going with its cloud computing plan. in the last part of 2014 Oracle acquired major players in the cloud, like Datalogix, a data analytics firm that counts major corporate players among its clients. The Oracle cloud engine has four distinct parts: Software-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, Infrastructure-as-a-Service and, most recently, Data-as-a-Service. It is hoped that whatever level of solution that a company needs (such as those solutions needed by mid-level companies) Oracle will be able to provide it. Oracle's latest financial report, released just this week, shows how the software giant is performing in the cloud market. Oracle thinks that cloud revenue will last for a longer time, even though it may not show up on its balance sheet as fast.  Oracle CEO,Safra Catz said: "We sold an astonishing $426 million of new SaaS and PaaS annually recurring cloud subscription revenue in Q4," "We expect our rapidly increasing cloud sales to quickly translate into significantly more revenue and profits for Oracle Corporation. For example, SaaS and PaaS revenues grew at a 34% constant currency rate in our just completed Q4, but we expect that revenue growth rate to jump to around 60% in constant currency this new fiscal year." Oracle CEO,Safra Catz said: "Coming into Q4, we forecast selling $300 million of new SaaS and PaaS annual recurring revenue," "We dramatically beat that forecast by selling a cloud industry all-time-record amount of $426 million of new SaaS and PaaS business. That is a year-over-year bookings growth rate of over 200%. As our multi-billion dollar cloud business gets bigger, our SaaS and PaaS revenue growth rates are on their way up to 60% in constant currency. Compare this to our primary cloud competitors' whose own revenue growth forecasts are on their way down to 44% and 22%." Oracle Executive Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison said:"We expect to book between $1.5 and $2.0 billion of new SaaS and PaaS business this fiscal year,"  "That means Oracle would sell more new SaaS and PaaS business than salesforce.com plans to sell in their current fiscal year -- the only remaining question is how much more. Oracle's planned SaaS and PaaS revenue growth rate is around 60% in constant currency; salesforce.com has a planned growth rate of around 20%. When you contrast those growth rates it becomes clear that Oracle is on its way to becoming the world's largest enterprise cloud company." Read More on >>

Alibaba boosting Public Cloud Services Worldwide

Hangzhou, China, June 8, 2015 Aliyun, Alibaba Group's (NYSE: BABA) cloud computing arm, today announced the launch of Marketplace Alliance Program (MAP), a global partnership program that provides enterprises with access to Aliyun's full suite of cloud computing services and international partners. This new program will enable Aliyun to localize its cloud computing offerings by partnering with enterprises in different regions and provide localized hybrid cloud computing services to meet the regional needs of global developers. The initial Aliyun's MAP partners are some of the world's leading technology brands, including American multinational technology company Intel, Singaporean telecommunications company Singtel, Dubai holding company Meraas Holdings, Equinix, a U.S. provider of data centers and Internet exchanges, Hong Kong telco and information technology company PCCW, French website hosting and cloud services provider LINKBYNET, and Hong Kong public utility Towngas. By collaborating with international partners and combining their experience and expertise in local markets, Aliyun is able to reduce infrastructure cost, improve networking efficiency, optimize cloud solutions, pass along savings and provide hybrid cloud services to cloud consumers in internet, finance, energy, gaming, entertainment, healthcare and education. "The new Aliyun program is designed to bring our customers the best cloud computing solutions by partnering with some of the most respected technology brands in the world. We will continue to bring more partners online to grow our cloud computing ecosystem," said Sicheng (Ethan) YU, vice president, Aliyun. Commenting on the scheme, Raejeanne Skillern, general manager of Cloud Service Provider Business at Intel Corporation, said, "For years Intel and Alibaba have collaborated on optimizing hardware and software technology across the data center for Alibaba's unique workloads. As a partner in Aliyun's Marketplace Alliance Program, Intel looks forward to continuing our collaboration to promoting joint technology solutions that are based on Intel Architecture specifically tailored to the rapidly growing market of international public cloud consumers." Aliyun creates sophisticated networking solutions and makes big-data intelligence products and services available to small and medium sized companies, while driving the adoption of cloud services among large enterprises. "As one of the first global partners of Aliyun, Singtel will offer our customers even more choices in cloud infrastructure platforms in China and around the world," said Lim Seng Kong, Singtel's managing director (Global Enterprise Business). "With Singtel's strong Managed Cloud services capabilities, extensive customer reach and strong suite of information and communications technology services, we can also provide the springboard for Aliyun to grow its footprint in the Asia-Pacific, which is one of the fastest growing markets for cloud services." "Worldwide adoption of cloud services continues to rise, with Asia representing one of the fastest-growing cloud markets in the world. Our goal at Equinix is to provide on-demand and direct access to multiple clouds and multiple networks seamlessly around the globe. By joining MAP and offering access to its cloud services on Cloud Exchange, we are one step closer to fulfilling this goal, enabling our multi-national customers the ability to expand their cloud-based applications across Asia, in a secure, direct manner," said Chris Sharp, vice president, cloud innovation at Equinix. "We are honored that Aliyun's scalable and secured cloud technology has chosen to couple with PCCW Globe's extensive geographic coverage, and can thus open up a new vista of opportunities in both developed and emerging markets so as to facilitate productivity and cost effectiveness," said Stephen Pang, PCCW global senior vice president of Asia & CIS. Aliyun has data centers in Beijing, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Silicon Valley, and Dubai (under construction). As of June 30, 2014, Aliyun served more than 1.4 million customers directly and indirectly through independent service providers. According to IDC's report, public cloud spending globally will grow by 25 percent in 2015 to reach USD $21 billion, and private cloud IT infrastructure spending will grow 16 percent over the year to USD $12 billion. This will give a worldwide total cloud spend for 2015 of USD $32 billion, up 28 percent on 2014's USD $26.4 billion. About Aliyun Established in September 2009, Aliyun (Alibaba Cloud Computing) develops highly scalable cloud computing and data management services providing large and small businesses, financial institutions, governments and other organizations with flexible, cost-effective solutions to meet their networking and information needs. A business of Alibaba Group, one of the world's largest e-commerce companies, Aliyun operates the network that powers Alibaba Group's extensive online and mobile commerce ecosystem and sells a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services to support sellers and other third parties participating in this ecosystem.

Is Microsoft buying Saleforce?

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella has made some bold moves since taking over the world's largest software company last year. But nothing like a $50 billion-plus acquisition. At least one analyst sees it as a real possibility. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter, that Salesforce.com hired financial advisors upon being approached by potential buyers. While much of the speculation immediately turned to rival Oracle, Alex Zukin of investment bank Stephens says Microsoft makes the most sense. Nadella has made cloud computing his No. 1 priority as CEO, and even projected at a company conference this week that Microsoft could reach $20 billion in cloud revenue by 2018, up from a current annualized rate of $6.3 billion. The centerpiece of growth is Azure, the cloud hosting platform that competes with Amazon Web Services. Microsoft and Salesforce tightened their relationship in December, making it easier to run Salesforce on Windows Mobile phones and in Office. Owning Salesforce would enable Nadella to control the entire cloud suite. More on >>

Tguila UK delivering cloud solutions for Salesforce acquired byAccenture

London, May 6, 2015 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has today acquired Tquila UK, a leading independent Salesforce consulting services provider. This is part of a strategic move to strengthen Accenture’s position as a provider of Salesforce services and cloud implementations. Tquila is one of the largest Salesforce partners in Europe and specialises in delivering cloud solutions powered by the Salesforce1 Platform. As a result of the acquisition, Tquila will become part of Accenture’s Emerging Platforms business within Accenture Technology. The addition of more than 100 Salesforce skilled staff from Tquila will more than double the number of Accenture’s Salesforce skilled people in the UK, making it one of the largest Salesforce capabilities in the UK with approximately 185 skilled consultants. “We have seen significant growth in SaaS as more companies adopt the cloud and digital strategies to collaborate better, drive greater operational efficiencies and accelerate the development of new products and services,” said Emma McGuigan, managing director, Accenture Technology, UK and Ireland. “One key factor for our continued success in delivering Salesforce solutions depends on having the right skilled professionals to meet the growing demand. With Tquila on board we have the critical mass to more proactively target big opportunities both in the UK and Europe, which will extend our position in the region.” “Being able to offer deep technology skills coupled with industry-experience at scale is critical to getting ahead in the market,” said Mark Wakelin, CEO, Tquila. “As one of the largest pure-play Salesforce partners in Europe, we have those skills, and Accenture has the scale. By joining Accenture, we can offer our Salesforce expertise and experience to an even wider range of clients.” Founded in 2010, Tquila is a privately held company headquartered and operating out of London. It delivers a full range of services from strategy, consulting, implementation and integration, through to custom application development, governance and support. The company helps global clients get the most from their investments and has more than 100 dedicated Salesforce professionals and over 270 certifications. Prior to this acquisition by Accenture, Salesforce Ventures was an investor in Tquila. Accenture is a global leader in Salesforce implementation services. It has more than 5,000 skilled Salesforce consultants globally – including more than 1,900 certified consultants. In the last year, Accenture has worked with more than 250 unique client organizations to deliver enterprise solutions based on Salesforce and has six Fullforce Master designations. About Accenture Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 323,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$30.0 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2014. Its home page is www.accenture.com. Read more on >>