Vendor news
Amazon Web Services
AWS has formed a $2 billion strategic partnership with the Australian Government to provide a "Top Secret" AWS Cloud (TS Cloud) for enhancing the nation's defence and intelligence capabilities. This effort will drive economic growth and create new job opportunities in sectors like cybersecurity, data analytics, and cloud computing.
AWS Launch Wizard now allows customers to programmatically deploy third-party applications on AWS using APIs or CloudFormation templates, with built-in automation and best practice recommendations. AWS Launch Wizard is available in 29 regions globally, and customers can access resources such as the Launch Wizard Page, User Guide, and API Page for further information.
now offers automated code generation and language translation using machine learning and generative AI. Additionally, GenAI enables the classification of codebase files, language conversion, and the creation of previews for mainframe BMS screens.
AWS has updated its Well-Architected Framework and Lens Catalog to provide expanded guidance on architectural best practices. The update includes more recommendations for AWS services, observability, generative AI, and operating models, as well as additional industry-specific best practices.
AWS Lambda now offers advanced logging controls, allowing users to capture logs in JSON format, adjust log levels, and select the CloudWatch log group.
Meta's Llama 3.1 models are now available on AWS, providing advanced AI capabilities for a variety of applications. These models, including the 405B, 70B, and 8B sizes, enhance tasks like text summarisation, translation, and code generation.
Amazon Web Services has announced the general availability of its new cloud computing chip, Graviton4. This chip offers significant performance improvements and energy efficiency, designed to enhance cloud-based applications and workloads. AWS also announces the general availability of Multi-Node Parallel (MNP) jobs in AWS Batch on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS).
AWS License Manager now integrates with Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM) to provide insight into the use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) on Amazon EC2.
Integration with RHSM allows better management of cost optimisation and compliance of RHEL usage on AWS, including tracking instances launched from custom RHEL images.
AWS Security Hub has expanded its security controls to 418, including new controls for services like Amazon Inspector and Amazon Data Firehose. Additionally, AWS has announced the end of support for Internet Explorer, recommending the use of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari.
Availability updates:
- AWS announces the general availability of Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) support for AWS CloudShell.
- AWS Control Tower customisation frameworks Account Factory for Terraform (AFT) and customisations for AWS Control Tower (CfCT) are available in additional AWS Regions: Asia Pacific (Hyderabad, Jakarta, and Osaka), Israel (Tel Aviv), and Middle East (UAE).
- AWS Network Firewall is available in the AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region, enabling customers to deploy essential network protections for all their Amazon Virtual Private Clouds.
- AWS App Studio, a generative artificial intelligence (AI)-powered service that uses natural language to create enterprise-grade applications, is now available in preview.
- AWS Glue Studio Visual ETL announces general availability of data preparation authoring, a new no-code data preparation user experience for business users and data analysts.
- Amazon EC2 High Memory instances now available in Asia Pacific (Jakarta).
- AWS Private CA now supports ARM architecture in Kubernetes.
- The enhanced search capability in the AWS Artifact Reports console allows for targeted searches based on individual columns, making it easier to locate specific compliance reports.
- AWS Cloud Control API now allows customers to use Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) addresses for their new and existing service endpoints.
- AWS Private Certificate Authority is now available in the AWS China (Beijing) Region, operated by Sinnet, and in the AWS China (Ningxia) Region, operated by NWCD.
Microsoft
The Microsoft Recovery Tool was updated to version 3.1 with enhanced logging and error handling for WinPE and safe mode recovery options, aimed at assisting IT admins in repairing devices impacted by the CrowdStrike Falcon agent issue. The tool offers two repair options. Recover from WinPE for direct system recovery and recover from safe mode for devices that can boot into safe mode, with specific user privilege requirements and BitLocker considerations for both options.
The Microsoft Designer app, now available with a personal Microsoft account, offers AI-powered features to help users create and edit with ease across various Microsoft products.
Microsoft Entra Suite and Microsoft Sentinel offer comprehensive security solutions to simplify and strengthen Zero Trust architectures, providing unified access policies and integrated threat protection. The Microsoft Entra Suite unifies identity and network access security, automates access lifecycle management, and improves the user experience for employees
Microsoft and Lumen Technologies have partnered to enhance AI capabilities and support digital transformation for millions of customers. The partnership aims to improve infrastructure, optimise operations, and create innovative solutions, driving significant advancements in AI and cloud connectivity.
Microsoft announced the general availability of Dynamics 365 Contact Center offering a complete but fully-composable solution for contact centres.
Microsoft has partnered with Mass General Brigham and the University of Wisconsin–Madison to advance AI foundation models for medical imaging. This effort leverages Microsoft's Azure AI platform and Nuance's radiology applications to enhance image analysis and reporting, ultimately contributing to better healthcare delivery.
Microsoft Bing has introduced a new generative search experience that integrates generative AI and large language models with traditional search results. This new feature provides dynamic, AI-generated responses to queries, enhancing the user experience by offering detailed, easy-to-read information alongside standard search results.
TAL and Microsoft entered a new three-year strategic agreement, aimed at utilising advanced technology to enhance customer, partner, and employee experiences in the life insurance sector. The deal includes access to new technologies such as Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Copilot solutions, and GitHub Copilot, enabling TAL to develop differentiated solutions for employees and customers.
Adobe
The latest releases of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop introduce innovative features powered by Firefly-enabled AI, accelerating creative workflows and empowering designers to work more efficiently. To accelerate creative workflows, Illustrator is introducing new tools including all-new Generative Shape Fill.
IBM
IBM is making Mistral Large available on the watsonx.ai platform, expanding access to high-quality foundation models for enterprises and allowing customisation and integration with business solutions. Mistral Large offers advanced capabilities such as multilingual support, coding proficiency, and built-in guardrail features, making it a powerful model for enterprise tasks.
IBM Consulting has earned the AWS Generative AI Competency, highlighting its focus on helping clients harness the power of AWS generative AI services to drive business transformations. The partnership between IBM Consulting and AWS is driving innovation in generative AI, with upgraded solutions and joint labs to accelerate transformation across industries.
IBM and JLL have partnered to offer a sustainability solution powered by IBM Envizi technology to address the challenges faced by organisations in the commercial real estate sector.
ASMPT and IBM have extended their collaboration to advance thermocompression and hybrid bonding technology for chiplet packages, aiming to drive innovation in AI computing.
Chiplet packaging technology aims to deconstruct SOCs into smaller chips for potential benefits such as improved energy efficiency and faster system development cycle time.
IBM has completed the acquisition of StreamSets and webMethods from Software AG, adding new data ingestion and integration capabilities to its software portfolio. The acquisition aims to address the growing complexity of applications and data in hybrid cloud environments, providing clients with modern and comprehensive integration platforms for AI-driven innovation.
Oracle
Oracle announces the availability of Oracle's Exadata Exascale, a cloud-based data architecture offering extreme performance for all Oracle Database workloads, including AI, analytics, and transactions. Exadata Exascale provides elastic, pay-per-use resources, intelligent storage cloud, AI capabilities, OLTP support, analytics scaling, and intelligent database clones. It aims to reduce infrastructure costs by up to 95%.
Oracle's AI-supported Argus and Safety One Intake solutions offer enhanced capabilities to help life science organisations meet evolving regulatory requirements and handle increasing adverse event case workloads more efficiently. These enhancements aim to automate workflows, optimise efficiency, and ensure regulatory adherence.
The combination of Oracle’s powerful cloud infrastructure and Palantir’s decision acceleration platforms allows customers to rapidly scale AI capabilities while meeting regulatory, performance, and security standards. Oracle's distributed cloud offerings, including sovereign cloud options, provide customers with flexible compute infrastructure for efficiency, performance, and security when deploying Palantir's Foundry and AIP.
Oracle's supply chain solutions have been recognised as leaders in transportation management, supply chain planning, and warehouse management by trustworthy analyst reports.
Oracle has launched HeatWave GenAI, featuring in-database large language models (LLMs), automated in-database vector store, and scale-out vector processing. This enables contextual conversations in natural language based on unstructured content, allowing customers to leverage generative AI without the need for AI expertise or moving data.
Oracle announces the general availability of the Oracle Clinical Digital Assistant for ambulatory clinics in the US. This mobile offering utilises generative AI, clinical intelligence, voice and screen assistance, and simplified workflows to enable providers to focus on patient care.
Salesforce
Salesforce has introduced Einstein Service Agent, an autonomous AI agent that can handle a broad range of service issues without preprogrammed scenarios, making customer service more efficient. It uses generative AI to provide natural language responses based on trusted business data and can engage with customers 24/7 across various channels.
Salesforce and Workday have formed a strategic partnership to launch a new AI-driven Employee Service Agent. This collaboration aims to streamline HR processes and enhance employee experiences by integrating Workday's human capital management capabilities with Salesforce's AI technology.
Salesforce introduced Einstein Service Agent, its first fully autonomous AI agent, designed to outperform conventional chatbots. This AI agent can comprehend and address a wide array of service issues without needing preprogrammed scenarios, significantly enhancing the efficiency of customer service operations.
MuleSoft has announced the open beta for AsyncAPI support in Anypoint Platform, enabling businesses to adopt event-driven architectures (EDAs) and build end-to-end integrations for event-driven applications.
Salesforce has updated its Starter and Pro Suite UI to provide a simpler, more accessible, and visually appealing user experience for small and growing businesses. The enhanced UI features streamlined navigation, improved use of colours, and inviting design elements to help users focus on key tasks and increase efficiency.
Tableau has been recognised as a Leader in the 2024 Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms for the 12th consecutive year by Gartner. Tableau continues to innovate by introducing over 140 product innovations across cloud, server, and desktop, with a focus on leveraging AI and quality data to make trusted insights accessible.
SAP
SAP's industry-leading capabilities are acknowledged in GRC analytics, internal audit, third-party risk, conduct risk and control, enterprise GRC, and operational risk, positioning the company as a comprehensive solution provider. SAP is recognised as a leader in the integrated Governance, Risk, and Compliance (iGRC) solutions market, with strong capabilities across multiple GRC categories.
SAP has been named a leader among 18 vendors in the first-ever IDC MarketScape: worldwide carbon accounting and management applications 2024 vendor assessment. Also, SAP has been named a leader in B2B and B2C IDC digital commerce reports.
