Vendor news
Amazon Web Services
AWS plans to invest $2 billion in a data centre campus in Sunbury, Ohio. This data centre is a part of AWS's broader $7.8 billion commitment to Ohio through 2030. The project aligns with the company's strategy to expand cloud infrastructure in the region.
AWS has launched 197 new services and features, showcasing their commitment to innovation and expansion. The strategic collaboration with Anthropic for developing AWS Trainium chips and deploying Claude models in Amazon Bedrock reflects a focus on advancing generative AI technologies.
The new version of AWS Systems Manager provides centralised visibility and troubleshooting for managed and unmanaged nodes across different infrastructure types and environments. Users can leverage Amazon Q Developer for natural language queries and rapid insights about managed nodes, along with one-click troubleshooting for SSM Agent issues.
AWS has expanded in Qatar with the launch of a new Amazon CloudFront edge location in Doha, offering a secure and scalable content delivery network. This edge location offers the benefits of CloudFront, a secure and scalable content delivery network for static and dynamic content, APIs, and video.
The integration of AWS re:Post Private with Amazon Bedrock marks a new era of collaborative intelligence, blending human expertise and AI capabilities for collective wisdom within customer organisations.
AWS Security Hub has added 7 new security controls, bringing the total number of controls to 437, including checks for public access to Amazon SNS topics and AWS KMS keys.
Users can enable the new controls by turning on the relevant standards, and Security Hub will automatically evaluate their security posture and monitor resources.
AWS CloudTrail Lake now offers comprehensive dashboard capabilities, including AI-powered insights and 14 pre-built dashboards for security and operational monitoring.
AWS was named a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure.
Availability updates:
- AWS Systems Manager now supports instances running Windows Server 2025, Ubuntu Server 24.04, and Ubuntu Server 24.10
- AWS announced the general availability of Amazon Q Developer’s AWS account resources chat capability in the AWS Console Mobile Application.
- AWS Shield Advanced, AWS Wickr and AWS Glue is now available in Asia Pacific (Malaysia) region.
- AWS announces general availability of AWS Chatbot SDKs.
- AWS support case management is now available in AWS Chatbot for Microsoft Teams and Slack.
- AWS IoT SiteWise announces new generative AI-powered industrial assistant.
- AWS App Studio is now generally available.
- AWS announces availability of Microsoft Windows Server 2025 images on Amazon EC2.
Microsoft
The 2024 release wave 2 for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform introduces advanced Copilot capabilities and autonomous agents, empowering organisations to optimise business processes and enhance customer engagement. The latest enhancements in Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, Service, and Finance are automating routine tasks and providing actionable insights, leading to significant time savings and improved workforce efficiency for organisations.
Microsoft announced SQL Server 2025, an enterprise AI-ready database designed to bring AI capabilities to customers' data estates, with a focus on security and performance. The new release emphasises best-in-class security and performance, with features such as Microsoft Entra managed identities, performance enhancements, and change event streaming for real-time application integration.
Microsoft announced the general availability of Windows Server 2025, emphasising its advanced security features, improved performance, and enhanced cloud agility. The release introduces robust security measures, including Active Directory enhancements and SMB hardening, to protect against evolving cyber threats.
Adobe
Adobe's new Acrobat for Nonprofits offering provides access to comprehensive document and e-signature tools. Nonprofit organisations can leverage Adobe's creative and document management solutions, including Acrobat, to streamline operations, manage confidential information, create fundraising collateral, and design engaging educational assets.
Adobe and benny blanco are collaborating to provide small businesses with custom marketing templates, aimed at helping them stand out and grow. The new benny blanco template collection in Adobe Express features bold and playful designs to make it easy for small businesses to create professional-looking content.
IBM
IBM Cloud and AMD are collaborating to deploy AMD Instinct MI300X accelerators as a service on IBM Cloud to enhance performance and power efficiency for Gen AI models and HPC applications for enterprise clients. The collaboration aims to provide support for large model inferencing, enhanced performance, and security by leveraging IBM Cloud's security and compliance capabilities.
IBM Quantum has achieved a significant milestone by enabling Qiskit to accurately run certain classes of quantum circuits with up to 5,000 two-qubit gate operations, allowing for expanded explorations in scientific problem-solving. The advancements in Qiskit software, including new services and tools, are empowering a global network of experts to build next-generation algorithms for scientific research, integrating quantum and classical resources.
IBM has been recognised as a leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Custom Software Development Services, highlighting its expertise in cloud development and generative AI. It was also named a leader in the 2024 IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Machine Learning Operations
Oracle
Oracle Database@Azure is available for the first time in South America and is now generally available in nine Microsoft Azure regions. New services and capabilities will help customers meet data governance and compliance requirements.
Oracle has been recognised as a leader in the IDC MarketScape Worldwide Cash Management Systems 2024 Vendor Assessment for its comprehensive and configurable SaaS cash management portfolio with embedded AI and ML.
Salesforce
Salesforce introduces Agentforce Testing Center, allowing teams to test, deploy, and monitor AI agents at scale in a secure and repeatable manner. New Data Cloud Sandboxes and Digital Wallet enhancements enable safe testing of AI agents and transparent usage monitoring to optimise costs.
Salesforce has been named a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce. This is the ninth consecutive year that Salesforce has been recognised for its execution and vision in this space.
Salesforce announced that Slack has been recognised as a leader in team collaboration applications by the latest IDC MarketScape report, highlighting its innovative no-code workflows and wide array of integrations.
SAP
SAP S/4HANA cloud is a leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprises and the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises.
For the 10th time in a row, SAP has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce and has been recognised as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud HCM Suites for 1000+ employee enterprises.
Gartner has recognised SAP as a visionary in its 2024 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platform.
