IT insights, October: what has been going on in the world of IT

What has been happening in the tech and vendor world in October? We compiled the latest vendor news and trending topics of the past month. It takes just a few minutes to be up to date.

Tech news

These technology updates were announced in October:

Microsoft AI updates: Co-Innovation, Viva, Bing, and Meta

Microsoft is at the forefront of AI innovation, and its latest updates reflect its commitment to collaboration, employee productivity, and real-time search. The corporation is investing in co-innovation, employee experience, and real-time search with its latest AI updates. 

Microsoft AI Co-Innovation Labs provide a collaborative space for startups and companies to experiment and develop new solutions using emerging AI technologies in San Francisco.

Microsoft Viva introduces new AI-powered skills service and multichannel communications hub to improve employee engagement and productivity.

Microsoft's Bing is being integrated into Meta AI's chat experiences, providing real-time search information and more timely answers. The partnership between Microsoft and Meta aims to accelerate innovation in the AI era and deliver powerful AI experiences to popular messaging platforms.

The new Microsoft Teams app is now available for Windows and Mac, offering faster performance, improved user experience, and enhanced collaboration features.

Oracle continues to lead in cloud HCM, ERP, and customer engagement

Oracle has been named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud HCM Suites for 1,000+ Employee Enterprises for the eighth consecutive year, highlighting their strong position in the market. Also, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP has been recognized as a leader in both "Ability to Execute" and "Completeness of Vision" in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprises.

Oracle has been named the top provider in digital customer engagement and experience analytics by Guidehouse Insights. The report recognizes Oracle's holistic solutions that help utilities improve customer satisfaction by delivering personalized service at scale.

IBM accelerates security response and scales AI

IBM has introduced new AI technologies as part of its Threat Detection and Response Services (TDR) to accelerate security response timelines for clients. The TDR Services provide 24x7 monitoring, investigation, and automated remediation of security alerts across hybrid cloud environments.

IBM has released the Granite model series, a collection of generative AI models, to help businesses scale AI and enhance customer interactions. IBM has announced the general availability of the watsonx Granite model series, a collection of generative AI models designed to advance the use of AI in business applications.

Trend Micro: a leader in endpoint security

Cyber security company Trend Micro has been recognized as a leader in endpoint security by Forrester. The company received a maximum score in 12 evaluation criteria, including exploit prevention, malware prevention, and innovation.

Vendor news

Microsoft News: Cyber security, generative AI, cloud computing, and more

Microsoft has made a number of important announcements in recent weeks, spanning a wide range of topics from cyber security to generative AI to cloud computing. Microsoft recently introduced a comprehensive range of Microsoft Security Experts services to help organizations address the increasing number of cyber security threats and talent shortages, for specialist areas such as managed extended detection and response, proactive and reactive incident response, and expert-led security transformation.

Microsoft has announced important updates to its generative AI security product, Microsoft Security Copilot. The product aims to help organizations protect themselves from cyber threats by leveraging the power of AI.

Microsoft is investing A$5 billion in expanding its cloud computing and AI infrastructure in Australia, which will help strengthen the nation's economic competitiveness and create high-value jobs. The investment will also support the growth of the AI industry in Australia, with the potential to contribute A$115 billion a year to the economy by 2030.

Microsoft's Azure AI services offer new features and capabilities for healthcare, providing better patient care and driving business value through unified data analytics.

Microsoft and Mercy are collaborating to use generative AI and other digital technologies to improve patient care and enhance the healthcare experience. The partnership aims to empower patients by providing them with better information and communication tools.

AWS News: entity resolution supports AWS PrivateLink and Service Catalog supports third-party IaC tools

AWS Entity Resolution now supports AWS PrivateLink, allowing customers to establish private connectivity between their data tables and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). This ensures data remains encrypted in transit and at rest, meeting security and data protection requirements.

AWS Service Catalog now supports third-party Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools, allowing customers to create, distribute, and launch AWS resources without having to migrate or change their preferred IaC tooling.

IBM and Amazon Web Services are expanding their partnership to help clients utilize generative artificial intelligence (AI). IBM Consulting plans to train 10,000 consultants on AWS generative AI services by the end of 2024.

Oracle news: AI, cloud, and expansion in Mexico

Oracle has this month announced several significant new developments that demonstrate its commitment to innovation and customer success in the areas of AI cloud computing, and global expansion.

Oracle has announced that NVIDIA AI Enterprise and the NVIDIA DGX Cloud AI supercomputing platform are now available through the Oracle Cloud Marketplace. This allows customers to easily access NVIDIA's platform for AI development and deployment on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

Oracle NetSuite introduces generative AI-powered capabilities to help organizations leverage company-specific data and create contextual and personalized content across various departments. NetSuite Text Enhance streamlines processes and automates the generation of context-sensitive content, benefiting finance, supply chain, sales, marketing, HR, and customer support teams.

Oracle has opened a second cloud region in Mexico in partnership with TELMEX-Triara, becoming the first hyperscaler to have two cloud regions in the country, providing greater access and resiliency to organizations.

Tech news

Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare unveils AI-powered innovations to enhance patient care, streamline workflows, and empower healthcare professionals. New healthcare AI models in Azure AI Studio enable organisations to rapidly build and deploy tailored AI solutions for diverse data types, from medical imaging to genomics and clinical records.

Microsoft and Rezolve AI have partnered to bring advanced AI solutions to retailers through Microsoft Azure Marketplace, with extensive go-to-market and co-sell support. The collaboration aims to empower retailers with scalable AI solutions that address friction in eCommerce and digital channels, providing personalised customer interactions and operational efficiencies.

Siemens and Microsoft have enhanced the Siemens Industrial Copilot to handle challenging industrial environments at scale, with over 100 customers in Europe and the US already benefitting from its efficiency improvements. thyssenkrupp Automation Engineering plans a global rollout of the Copilot in 2025, empowering over 120,000 engineers with Gen AI.

IBM has launched the Guardium Data Security Centre, which provides unified data security capabilities for hybrid cloud, AI, and quantum-related risks. The centre includes AI Security and Quantum Safe software to protect AI deployments and encrypted data from potential cyberattacks.

Adobe announced a global initiative to provide AI literacy, content creation, and digital marketing skills to 30 million learners by 2030 through the expansion of the Adobe Digital Academy. The programme will offer training, certifications, and access to Adobe Express, collaborating with Coursera, NGOs, K-12 schools, colleges, and alternative education organisations.

Analyst predictions

Gartner predicts growth of worldwide IT spend

Gartner shares its latest insights on IT spending, digital leadership, generative AI, and security and forecasts that worldwide IT spending to grow 8% in 2024.

Other recent announcements include:

• over 2,400 CIOs Reveals that 45% of CIOs are driving a shift to co-ownership of digital leadership
• 55% of organisations are in piloting or production mode with generative AI
• More than 80% of enterprises will have used Generative AI APIs or deployed Generative AI-Enabled applications by 2026
• 78% of organizations have centralized customer data management within IT teams
• Global security and risk management spending to grow 14% in 2024

IDC predicts strong growth for emerging technologies

IDC has released its latest predictions for spending on emerging technologies in the coming years. The analyst firm forecasts that spending on AI solutions will reach $500 billion in 2027, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 73.3%.

Other key insights this month include:

• Spending on GenAI solutions will reach $143 billion in 2027 with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 73.3%
• Asia/Pacific Customer Experience Services spending to hit US$43.8 million by 2027 amidst volatile market
• Future of Work Technologies to reach US$196.2 billion by 2026
• Cloud Infrastructure spending continued to grow in the second quarter of 2023 led by spending on shared cloud infrastructure
• European ICT spending remains strong, with signs of even greater market expansion next year
• Japan’s Edge Infrastructure market soars with a 12.1% year-on-year increase, expected to hit ¥2.4 trillion yen by 2027
• 26% of Digital Native Businesses in Asia/Pacific have already invested in Generative AI