Mirantis Partners with Westcon-Comstor, to reduce Kubernetes Complexity for Customers

The open cloud company Mirantis has announced that it has partnered with Westcon-Comstor for a distribution agreement across APAC that will simplify Kubernetes for its customers. This partnership will help Westcon's partners to ship code faster across Asia-Pacific.

This distribution partnership means that Westcon is now the Mirantis distribution partner in Australia, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

"Mirantis partners with the world’s top cloud infrastructure providers that Westcon-Comstor has extensive experience working with," said EJ La Fontaine, VP and region director APAC of Mirantis. "Westcon-Comstor works with Mirantis’ solutions to eliminate Kubernetes complexity with one consistent cloud experience for app and devops portability, a single pane of glass, and automated full-stack lifecycle management."

A global technology distributor that operates in over 70 countries, Westcon-Comstor creates business value and opportunity by connecting IT vendors with a channel of system integrators, service providers, and technology resellers.

Commenting on the partnership, Patrick Aronson, the Westcon-Comstor executive VP of APAC said that this partnership will help its partners eliminate Kuberenetes complexity for its customer and provide them with a single "consistent cloud experience."

 

Equinix Opens is Fifth Data Center in Singapore

 

Equinix has expanded its presence in Singapore by opening its fifth data center in the Southeast Asian country. The data center is called SG5 and it is designed to focus on sustainability.

In line with Singapore's Green Plan 2030, Equinix has launched its latest SG5 data center, which has green features that is designed with high energy standards. The data center facility is expected to meet the BCA-IMDA Green Mark and LEED certification.

Located on the western side of Singapore the SG5 will allow customers to connect to a broad range of network services and interconnect directly to customers and partners in their digital supply chain.

Announced late last year with an investment of $144 million, Equinix will be the tallest data center in Singapore. The facility will have a capacity of over 1,300 cabinets in 1,710 sq m of colocation space initially. The SG5 is expected to provide up to 5,000 cabinets with a total colocation space of 12,000 sq m at full capacity, in future.

SG5 will be directly connected to the four existing Equinix IBX data centers in Singapore via low-latency dark fiber links and will enable customers to securely interconnect with more than 705 companies in the market.

 

USA’s 5G Leader T-Mobile to offer free Apple TV+ subscription to its customers

T-Mobile never fails to provide outstanding and exciting offers to its customers; today, the telecom giant has announced that its customers will now get a full year of Apple TV+ for free. This offer begins on August 25. All new and existing T-Mobile customers on Magenta and Magenta MAX plans can avail of this deal, and Sprint Unlimited Plus and Sprint Premium customers can also score this deal.

T-Mobile is America's 5G leader, and it offers the first and fast unlimited 5G smartphone plan with Magenta MAX. It also has got the nation's largest, fastest, and robust 5G network. The company's 5G network covers over 305 million people across 1.7 million square miles. It's Ultra Capacity 5G covers around 165 million people and is on track to hit nationwide by this year.

T-Mobile is now fully ready to provide its customers award-winning content which they want to binge-watch by offering free Apple TV+ for one year. Apple TV+ will be featuring brand new original series, movies, and documentaries. It will also have exclusive Apple Originals roll out every month, which is ad-free, and customers can share it among up to six family members.

 

 

Telum from IBM is expected to make its debut in the first half of 2022

The Big Blue IBM has recently made an announcement about its new chip ‘Telum’. The latest addition is touted to help clients make use of the company’s deep learning features at scale. Telum from IBM has a centralized design that will allow the clients to make use of the power of the AI processor to the max for AI-specific workloads. This feature makes it ideal for managing workloads of financial services like loan processing, fraud detection, risk analysis, anti-money laundering, and settlement of trades.

In its press release, IBM had mentioned that Telum is expected to be released in the first half of 2022, and the company’s main aim now is to improve its offering by 2.5 percent year after year for a decade. The chip features eight processor cores, and it runs at 5GHz plus clock speed, well-crafted to meet the demands of enterprise-level workloads. 32MB cache per core is expected, and the chip has a completely redesigned cache along with a better chip-interconnection infrastructure. Telum also contains more than 22 billion transistors and over 19 miles of wire on several metal layers. Recent reports from Federal Trade Commission show that companies lost more than $3.3 billion in 2020. Telum is expected to reduce that number in the coming years.

 

 

Tesla to Build a Humanoid Robot Prototype by Next Year

 In a recent announcement, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk has stated that it will be building a humanoid robot called Tesla Bot. Musk said that the company is good at sensors and batteries, and they will soon have a prototype by the end of next year that looks precisely like a humanoid robot. This announcement was made on AI Day, in which a series of tech talks were hosted by Tesla in California.

Also, Tesla is working on other exciting new products scheduled for years into the future to energize backers, including employees, customers, and investors. Musk said that the humanoid robot is the future as it can work and perform repetitive tasks that only humans can do today. It will undoubtedly have a great chance to transform the world economy by driving labor costs down.

Musk also added that the robot, code-named "Optimus," will be working on the same chips and sensors that Tesla's cars use prior for self-driving features. The robot will be around five foot eight inches tall, with a digital screen where the head is for helpful information. Tesla is designing these humanoid robots so that humans can do day-to-day tasks with ease.

 

Tech giant Microsoft has recently invested $5 million in OYO at a $9.6 billion valuation

US-based tech giant Microsoft has recently made a deal with Oyo to invest $5mn. SoftBank backs Oyo, and the latest deal is being considered as one of the biggest strategic alliances by both companies. Even though the sale might look small from the outside, the objective, however, is very wide. This includes allowing the key investors to show the value on paper on the basis of this new deal. Various reports suggest that both the companies have drawn the deal without giving away much information regarding the transaction.

The indications of the new deal were given three weeks ago in the media when Oyo issued its IPO. As of now, Oyo has allotted five equity shares for the tech giant, and along with that, 80 preference shares were also issued at $58,490 per share. As the company goes forward, it will be getting more money from the tech giant. Previously when Oyo raised funds from Hindustan Media Venture Ltd, the company was valued at $9 billion, and it raised $7 million. However, it must be noted that Oyo’s valuation significantly fell from $10 billion in November 2019 to $8 billion in August 2020. The sharp decline in valuation was mainly due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

 

The retail segment will have to wait a little more to recover from covid impact completely

Following the completion of the company’s massive expansion plans in May, the Javits Center in Manhattan managed to host its first trade show since last year’s pandemic lockdowns. From 8th to 11th of August, buyers and wholesale vendors convened at the trade show. Various consumer products were featured in the event, and it was sorted and put into ten sections like handmade designer-makers, artisan resource, accent on designs, home design with tabletop, gifts with stationery, luxury wellness, and lifestyle.

By looking at the feedback given by the participants of the trade show, it can be intercepted that almost every business was in some way affected by the pandemic — both negatively and positively. The ongoing pandemic has proved that the retail segment is resilient against any adversaries, and it can step up its game and recover. Many digital-first brands also have managed to open new in-person stores, and the wholesale sector has also come up with new competitive products. To cater to the customer’s need effectively, the retailers must deliver their best and create better offerings. As of now, it is very difficult to predict when the retail segment will completely recover because of various unpredictable and unknown factors.
 

 

Facebook's New Program to Help Small Businesses Gain Access to Loans in India

In partnership with the online lending platform Indifi, Facebook has launched a new program 'Small Business Loans Initiative,' to help SMBs across India gain quick access to business loans. This program will help businesses across the country avail credit through independent lending partners.

The Small Business Loans Initiative's timing is laudable since India's small and medium businesses have suffered great losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Facebook has also announced that it will receive no revenue or gain any benefits through this program.  

“FICCI lauds Facebook efforts of empowering the MSME sector with the right opportunities, skills, and solutions. FICCI has always advocated for stronger private sector participation for the growth of India’s MSMEs and welcomes the launch of Facebook's Small Business Loans Initiative to make access to credit more easily available to the industry," commented Uday Shankar, president, FICCI.

If a business applies for a loan through the Small Business Loans Initiative, it can expect INR 500,000 to INR 5,000,000 in loans. If approved by Indifi, loans can be availed in 3 working days of completing all documentation. Applications are being accepted with no collateral through a quick online application.

The interest range on the loans through this program will be between 17-20 percent p.a. A woman-owned business can receive 0.2 percent reduction on the applied interest rate. Business owners who apply through this program can get the application confirmation within one working day of applying.

Facebook has rolled out this program for registered businesses across 200 towns and cities of India.

 

 

Paytm Partners with HDFC Bank in India

Paytm has announced a partnership with HDFC Bank in India to expand its digital banking services in the country. The partnership will see HDFC Bank build solutions for PoS machines, credit products, and payment gateways. This will include Paytm Postpaid, Eazy EMI and Flexi Pay.

The partnership between the two big players in the Indian financial space will empower businesses and help them scale.

“As India’s largest issuing and acquiring bank, we have always endeavored to personalize our offerings to customers-consumers, businesses and corporate houses. Through this partnership we will also be jointly delivering enhanced SmartHub solutions to the market. We believe that this is the start of a great partnership and the cumulative strength of both HDFC Bank and Paytm will help us strengthen our respective leadership positions,” said Parag Rao, Group Head–Payments, Consumer Finance, Digital Banking & IT, HDFC Bank.

The private sector bank's SmartHub solutions is a platform that offers merchants with many options to access tools for their needs like banking, payments, lending, and business solutions.

In addition to this, HDFC Bank will sell Paytm's payment solutions in the Indian market. Both the companies will also launch a co-branded PoS product for the retail sector jointly.

 

Microsoft all set to launch its Next-Generation Windows on June 24

US-based tech giant Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella, in a recent press meet, has stated that the company will be launching its next-generation Windows on June 24 through a virtual event. Microsoft's new Windows update will unlock economic opportunities for developers and creators. Microsoft will be unveiling more details and features about the latest Windows update at this event later this month. Reports state that the Windows is codenamed internally as 'Project Sun Valley' and will bring a UI overhaul with a brand new Windows app store.

Microsoft has listed a new event on its website that is scheduled for June 24. The company has also posted a tweet on its Twitter handle about the event that's coming 'next for Windows' and an image attached to the event hinting that there might be a slight change to the Windows logo. Users can enter the event page and schedule a reminder for the Microsoft unveil.

CEO Nadella has stated that the next-generation Windows update will be the most significant. The company will be sharing substantial updates about the new Windows that will unlock greater economic opportunities for both the developers and creators. "I've been self-hosting it over the past several months, and I'm incredibly excited about the next generation of Windows," said Nadella.

 

Salesforce to reopen its office headquarters located in San Francisco this May

In a recent announcement, Salesforce, Inc., an American cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management services, has stated that it will reopen its San Francisco-based headquarters this May. However, the employees can still work remotely throughout 2021. Company president and Chief People Officer Brent Hyder have said that the company would decide how and when to reopen each location based on guidance from health officials and medical experts.

The company has also stated that it will open its offices in Palo Alto and Irvine, California, and more in the coming months. Regardless of whether a local office is reopened or not, the company will extend the option to all its employees to continue working from home till December 31, 2021. The company has planned a phased reopening stage; thereby, the offices will gradually reopen from 20 percent to 75 percent capacity, depending on the Covid data rating.

At this stage, the company will allow both vaccinated and non-vaccinated employees to work with them, and they will continue to follow safety protocols and provide testing when required. To date, 17 Salesforce offices are open globally and most of which are in the Asia Pacific.