Amazon.com Inc is teaming up with VMware Inc to let customers combine VMware’s software for corporate networks with Amazon’s Internet-based cloud-computing services, a bid by Amazon to better compete with rival Microsoft Corp in hybrid cloud solutions.
VMware will deliver, sell and support a product that lets customers use their existing VMware software with access to Amazon’s cloud-based storage, database and analytic software, the companies said in a statement on Thursday.
Hybrid solutions allow customers to run applications on their own servers and through various remote cloud-based applications simultaneously.
Called VMware Cloud on AWS, the product is to be available in the middle of next year.
It will appeal to companies that want the flexibility and capacity of managing data via the cloud, the companies said.
Amazon is trying to maintain its lead in the cloud-computing market over rivals Microsoft, Alphabet Inc’s Google and IBM Corp as more companies transition from using their servers to renting computing power and data space hosted remotely, which they access via the Internet.
Movie-service Netflix Inc is a prominent example of a Web company powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
VMware is shifting its cloud strategy to focus on selling products that work with existing leaders, rather than trying to establish itself as an alternative to the Amazons of the world.
As more companies run applications on rented servers over the Internet, providing services that link the different technologies customers use is a growing opportunity for VMware.
The alliance is a “very powerful collaboration” that gives companies flexibility in deciding whether to transition their data to the public cloud while maintaining investments they’ve made in on-premise data centers, Morningstar Inc analyst Tim Feeney said.
“Essentially, the process of managing the hybrid cloud environment is significantly less of a hassle now,” Feeney said. “This is a very powerful move for Vmware, because IT managers are more likely to retain VMware’s services for longer.”
VMware chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger said he sees hybrid solutions providing business opportunities for decades into the future while the on-premise data business slows.
The Amazon partnership could be a blow to IBM, which has its own deal with Vmware.
IBM said in a statement that 1,000 clients are already using the IBM cloud with software from VMware and the partnership has created “significant momentum.”
Microsoft, responding to the Amazon-VMware agreement, said AWS is behind in offering hybrid cloud solutions.
“Microsoft Azure has always been hybrid by design, based on our decades of enterprise experience,” the company said in the statement. “True hybrid cloud isn’t just connectivity, it’s consistency across development, management and security.”
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”