Image by Suzanne Calkins
Wheelin’ and dealin’
- NinjaTech AI, which seems like a not-OK name for a company in 2024, is using machine learning chips from AWS for its new service, Ninja. (Wow, they’re really leaning into this.) Ninja can plan and execute (as ninjas sometimes do) everyday tasks such as scheduling meetings, conducting research, and completing coding tasks. I’ve heard humans also do this, but who needs them anymore!
- HashiCorp and AWS are expanding their strategic collaboration to do stuff like create policy about architecting and configuring Terraform on AWS. You can count me out of that one. I’d rather blow-dry my eyeballs.
- Will AT&T actually work in my neighborhood now that it’s moving its 5G to Microsoft? Microsoft is acquiring AT&T’s Network Cloud Technology and staff “to eventually handle all of the wireless carrier’s 5G traffic.” It’s worth noting that both AWS and Microsoft are competing for huge telecom clients as the industry deploys new 5G networks, but so far those deals “aren’t yet generating substantial revenue.”
- MediaTek, a Taiwanese chip designer, is designing an ARM-based chip that will run Microsoft Windows OS. MediaTek stock has risen following this news, and I am willing to bet Nancy Pelosi—I mean her husband—conveniently bought some of that stock on a total whim, just total dumb luck, the week prior.
- SAP has committed to using three types of AWS chips to support its SAP HANA Cloud.
- To ensure capacity meets the demands of OpenAI users, Microsoft will run some of its workloads on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.🤯
Gossip (for nerds)
- Microsoft, NVIDIA, and OpenAI are facing an antitrust investigation in the US. The goal is to determine if the arrangements among these companies are meant to shut out competition in the AI industry. Apparently, that isn’t plainly obvious and we need a whole investigation for it.
- Microsoft is cutting around 1,000 jobs in its Azure and HoloLens divisions. It needs to free up resources for AI initiatives.
- AWS re:Inforce 2024 had a big security theme—what timing, given Microsoft’s highly public flailing and floundering in the space. The cloud provider announced it will push multi-factor authentication and hosted many sessions around security best practices.
World domination
- If the government wants to monitor Microsoft’s AI dominance, then the company will just go to Sweden, which has better meatballs anyhows. Microsoft is investing $3.2B to expand its AI infrastructure in places like Staffanstorp, which sounds like one of the houses in Harry Potter.
- Is AWS the next Eurovision contestant? Break out the mullets and costumes that make you feel weird inside, because the cloud provider is setting up (more) shop in Italy, Spain, and Germany. After dedicating 15.7B Euros to its Spain Region, Germany is ponying up 8.8B Euros to scale its Frankfurt Region and will either expand its Milan data center or build a new one somewhere else in the boot. This is like my semester abroad, but without the absinthe and space brownies!! And without the data centers. Even I had limits.
- AWS is also launching a Region in Taiwan. This is…a choice that interests me (although, Warren Buffet can be wrong).
- French telecom provider Orange is partnering with AWS to offer cloud computing in Morocco and Senegal. Orange will use the AWS Wavelength platform and rely on its own data centers to provide services, since these are the only two places on earth that AWS hasn’t stomped on with data centers. YET.
- Norwegian-owned telecom Telenor Group is using AWS technology to create a sovereign cloud environment. Together, they’ll offer customers security and sovereignty solutions. Also, these dudes look chill and nice, just hangin’ outside corporate HQ talking about Norwegian things like Vikings and fjords. I bet they do cool sovereign stuff.
Ma’am, I’m going to have to call security
- Summer is the perfect time for grilling out, and I don’t just mean on the BBQ—Microsoft president Brad Smith was part of a good grilling from the House of Homeland Security Committee following cyberattacks on the federal government. A ProPublica investigation found that Smith and co. ignored important warnings that could have, if heeded, prevented the breach. The government was like Will you PRETTY PLEASE stop doing that shiz and Smith was like YES ALL EMPLOYEES WILL CARE NOW, I PINKY PROMISE.
- Probably the biggest drama this past month was Microsoft’s “embarrassing” backpedaling of its Recall software on Copilot Plus PC, which can screenshot everything someone does on the new Qualcomm-powered laptops. Researchers labeled it a “security disaster” (Microsoft broke its pinky promise!!) because it makes stealing information a piece of cake for hackers. Microsoft rolled it back “in secret” and is now testing it. Can we just love the fact that a product named “Recall” was recalled? Like, immediately?
- Well, just cut off that pinky because a researcher found a bug that allows hackers to spoof real Microsoft corporate emails, which means they can send phishing emails using real people’s email addresses. It only works when sending to Outlook addresses, which is only a few hundred million people, so…. (At the time of reporting, the bug hadn’t been patched.)
Professional pivots
- Now settled in his new position as CEO of AWS, Matt Garman shared some important details on sales team structure and executive changes. Settling out is Bratin Saha, a former AI general manager at AWS who has worked on Amazon Bedrock and other AI products. He‘s now the chief product and technology officer at DigitalOcean, a nascent but promising cloud competitor, according to analysts.
- The director of Amazon EC2 product management, Chetan Kapoor, also told AWS peace out after eight years with the company. Nobody knows where he’s going—oh Chetan, you feather in the wind, you.
New stuff
- AWS introduced two new AI certifications for professionals who want to
serve the AWS overlordsbuild a career in AI. These free or low-cost training courses (Machine Learning Engineer and AI Practitioner) are meant to provide the “lack of expertise” businesses need to deploy and monitor models. - Microsoft announced some updates to Microsoft Fabric at Build 2024 that include customized workflows, a new module called Real-Time Intelligence, and the availability of Copilot for Power BI.
- SAP has integrated its AI Core with foundation models in Amazon Bedrock, which it claims will help businesses improve their ERP platforms by driving efficiency. Gotta drive efficiency—otherwise, why are we on this rock?
- Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet model is now available in Amazon Bedrock. I was going to throw a party but instead decided to get a cup of water from the kitchen.
- After I hydrate, maybe I can plan something special to celebrate the fact that Amazon Connect now has an Analytics Data Lake. CAN YOU IMAGINE THE INSIGHTS!?! I want to get hired as a data center analyst so I can create charts that show how many times a day angry customers use the phrases “This is bullshit” and “I’ve been on hold for 40 goddamn minutes” and stuff like that. First stop on the resume train: American Airlines.
- As we descend into the eighth circle of hell, you’ll find AI-driven contact centers, where tortured souls wait forever to speak with someone but never will. Microsoft is taking Copilot to call centers to help chatbots scan manuals so they can better answer questions and field customer calls.
- Not that anyone cares, especially me, but it’s now easier to manage the entire machine learning lifecycle if you’re a developer on AWS with the fully managed MLflow on Amazon SageMaker.
- There are two new previews from Microsoft: a flex consumption plan for Azure Functions and a premium version of Azure Bastion virtual machine. Truly, truly life-changing.
Best Friends Forever
- An expanded collaboration between Microsoft and product design software provider Ansys will allow customers to deploy Ansys Access on Azure through the Azure Marketplace.