Editor’s Note: Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM)
Cisco Cutting Jobs as Turnaround Hit by Sales Slowdown (Bloomberg)
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Chief Executive Officer John Chambers’ turnaround effort is sputtering as a revenue forecast falls short of estimates and the company resorts to a second round of job cuts this year. Facing weaker sales outside the U.S., the biggest maker of networking equipment is cutting 4,000 jobs, or 5 percent of the workforce, underscoring the pressures facing the company’s core businesses and profit margins from competitors including Huawei Technologies Co., Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ).
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) is buying Trusteer, a private Israeli cloud-based cyber security software provider that counts many of the largest US and UK banks among its customers. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but IBM, which will form a cyber security software lab in Israel with more than 200 researchers from both companies as part of the deal, is reported to be paying between $800m and $1bn for Trusteer. The acquisition marks a further push by International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), which acquired Q1 Labs, a Massachusetts-based provider of security intelligence software in late 2011, to extend its portfolio of cloud-based security offerings.
HP Helps U.S. Healthcare Provider Improve IT Security and Performance (Marketwire)
Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) today announced that Lake Health, a leader in community healthcare, is using the HP ArcSight platform to proactively improve information security and performance, while preventing disruptions that might impact patient services. Healthcare providers are faced with a myriad of compliance-related requirements, but must make security a priority to secure patient information and ensure minimal system downtime. Lake Health realized its legacy infrastructure was limiting its ability to streamline compliance and address potential security threats that could affect both patient care and system performance. As a result, the healthcare provider chose to implement a security solution that provided a proactive approach to identifying and mitigating threats while supporting the highest quality of patient care and operational efficiency.
Cisco analysts remain positive despite selloff (MarketWatch)
Two-thirds of the brokers covering the stock maintain buy ratings, according to Thomson Reuters data. That bullish sentiment remained despite a selloff in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) that clipped nearly 7% from the shares, which were trading at $24.65 by midday. But despite John Chambers’s grim projections, analysts were fairly positive on the state of Cisco’s business, especially in light of past criticisms that it had overreached by trying to expand to too many arenas and faced growing competitive threats in corporate IT. In fact, ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall upgraded the stock to neutral, saying Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has “managed to remain nimble and grow,” especially compared to many of its other peer companies in the corporate technology space.
HP Unveils Scale-Out, Software-Defined Storage Appliance (SiliconANGLE)
Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) is jumping into the software-defined storage fray with a new scale-out StoreVirtual Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA) that offers data tiering and tight integration with VMware and Microsoft. The beefed-up appliance features auto tiering at the sub-LUN (logical unit number) level, a capability HP brands as Adaptive Optimisation. VSA utilizes this function to automatically migrate hot data to flash and cold data to lower-cost HDDs. Other features of the platform include support for VMware ParaVirtualized SCSI Controllers, Hyper-V integration, and rapid installation and provisioning. Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) claims that the system deploys three times faster and scales capacity at 11 times the speed of competing solutions.
After Losing A CIA Contract, IBM Wins $1 Billion Cloud Deal From Another Government Agency (Business Insider)
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) has signed a cloud computing deal with the U.S. Department of the Interior worth up to $1 billion over the next 10 years. IBM will help the DOI move its tech into the cloud by providing cloud storage and Web hosting. It will also host other apps for the DOI, like SAP, according to IBM’s press release. This huge contract is even bigger than the $600 million contract IBM famously lost to Amazon to build a private cloud for the CIA. International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) is still hoping the CIA will change its mind and choose IBM instead.
