Bankruptcy, workforce reductions, cloud, strategy, edge
It was another week that showed the diversity within the sector.
Earnings season has drawn to a close and we are still looking at some of the results. Steadiness is a recurring theme amid an overall sector profile that is healthy. But it is not all roses as the sector transforms. And in the past week, one of the providers that has been giong through a painful transition is Sungard Availability Services. Sungard will file for bankruptcy as it looks to restructure its debt and position for growth or other strategic moves.
Other pockets within the sector are experiencing changes amid shifting market currents. There was a workforce reduction at Oracle Cloud recently, and in the past week, word is that Web.com is cutting its workforce down as well.
Elsewhere on the cloud side, Google has been making changes and there are hints emerging about its new strategy and approach. A certain degree of specialization and verticalization is coming and more details are going to be emerging in the coming weeks. We also came across the growing number of consultingshops that now support or focus exclusively on Google Cloud.
Meanwhile, there were other strategic developments of note. Faction secured another round of funding and Digital Realty closed its joint venture with Brookfield Infrastructure.
Finally, it was relatively quiet on the edge side of things. But Packet continues to set up partnerships with cutting edge technology vendors to enable performance-oriented edge compute that aims to not just differentiate, but deliver on the farther reaches of the edge.
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