This Week in Enterprise Tech, Week 19

Hyoun Park of Amalgam Insights and Charles Araujo of the DX Institute take on the CIO office ramifications of recent announcements including
the FinOps Foundation’s launch of FOCUS 1.0 for Cloud Billing Unification
Oracle Autonomous Database on Microsoft Azure
the United States’ Federal Trade Commission Accusing Adobe of hiding early termination fees
the Biden administration banning US sales of Kaspersky software over Russia ties
whether Poolside’s new $400 million raise makes Paris another Silicon Valley, and
enterprise considerations for AI as Apple focuses on more personalized AI.
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FinOps FOCUSes on Cloud Billing Unification
Hyoun Park and Charles Araujo reflect on the evolution of cloud billing at the FinOps X show in San Diego, highlighting a new collaboration among Amazon, Microsoft, and Google on billing specifications and their collective market response to mounting pressure on cloud providers to enhance cost transparency. They discuss the potential for these standards to expand beyond cloud services to encompass other IT expenses, aiming to simplify enterprise billing complexities.
FinOps Foundation: www.finops.org/insights/focus...
Oracle Cloud and Microsoft Azure Get Friendlier
Charles Araujo and Hyoun Park discuss Oracle's recent move to bring their autonomous database to Azure data centers. This collaboration allows Azure customers to run Oracle databases on Azure infrastructure, marking a significant partnership between the two tech giants. They see this as a strategic play by Oracle to maintain relevance in cloud services while leveraging Microsoft's widespread adoption. Charles views it as a smart move for both companies, emphasizing Oracle's focus on their core database strength rather than competing directly as a major cloud provider.
Oracle: www.oracle.com/news/announcem...
FTC Takes On Adobe Early Termination Fees
Charles Araujo and Hyoun Park note how Adobe was one of the first champions of subscription sales for Software as a Service. But their lack of transparency over early termination fees has gotten the Federal Trade Commission’s attention. This may be an opportunity for IT expense and SaaS management pros over the next 12-18 months. This action also demonstrates the challenge Adobe faces as a company that has seen success both in enterprise and consumer/prosumer markets.
FTC: www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/...
Biden Administration Bans Kaspersky Antivirus
Hyoun Park and Charles Araujo note that 2024 is a US election year and both major candidates have faced political pressure associated with software, which has driven the politicization of Tiktok as well as this new ban on Kaspersky security software in the United States based on its Russian roots. United States-based IT departments need to take account of this aspect of geopolitics and identify both perceived and actual compliance issues that may be related to Russian and Chinese ownership and operations of current vendors.
Reuters: www.reuters.com/technology/bi...
Mon Dieu, Is Paris the New Silicon Valley?
Hyoun Park and Charles Araujo noted that Poolside is currently raising $400 million to support a coding CoPilot, making it just the latest in a series of Paris-based startups to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in this AI gold rush. With Poolside, Mistral, and H, is Paris now the European Silicon Valley for AI?
TechCrunch: techcrunch.com/2024/06/20/poo...
Apple Takes a Privacy-Focused Approach to AI
Charles Araujo and Hyoun Park saw that Apple recently announced “Apple Intelligence” which takes a private cloud and device-centric view of AI. Ideally, Apple is seeking to provide a personalized approach to AI where consumers may be able to support some or all of their AI capabilities on their device without the challenges of public cloud security and governance. But can Apple create the small models that will be performant and provide the Apple magic on phones? And, given Apple’s track record with search and Siri, can Apple actually deliver on AI?
MIT Technology Review: www.technologyreview.com/2024...