Vendor news
Adobe
Adobe has announced a new $25 billion stock repurchase programme aimed at returning value to its stockholders, minimising dilution, and reducing share count over time. Adobe is focused on delivering personalised digital experiences.
Adobe and NVIDIA are collaborating to leverage PDF data for training next-generation large language models (LLMs) using NVIDIA AI technologies. The partnership aims to scale high-performance generative AI capabilities to global enterprises by combining Adobe's PDF services with NVIDIA's retrieval augmented generation (RAG) capabilities.
The new Adobe Express mobile app, powered by Adobe Firefly generative AI, revolutionises content creation by offering features like Text to Image, Generative Fill, and video editing directly within mobile workflows.
Adobe has integrated Firefly generative AI capabilities into Substance 3D Sampler and Stager, enhancing 3D texturing and staging workflows for industrial designers, game developers, and VFX professionals.
Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services will invest over $5 billion to open a cluster of data centers in Mexico amid growing demand for cloud services as more firms adopt new technologies. AWS currently serves clients such as Mexican theatre operator Cinepolis, stock exchange BIVA, airline Aeromexico, and local governments.
AWS will launch data centers in Saudi Arabia in 2026 and plans to invest more than $5.3 billion in the kingdom. The cloud region will enable customers to securely store content and run workloads while offering higher speed for its users.
The 2024 AWS IMAGINE Grant is open to nonprofit organisations and healthcare providers using cloud technology to accelerate their missions, with a focus on supporting innovative projects leveraging machine learning and generative artificial intelligence.
AWS and NVIDIA are collaborating to offer the new NVIDIA Blackwell GPU platform on AWS, enabling faster and more secure multi-trillion-parameter large language model (LLM) inference workloads.
Microsoft
Microsoft has open-sourced Retina, a cloud-native container networking observability platform designed for Kubernetes users, admins, and developers. Retina utilises extended Berkley Packet Filter (eBPF) to provide actionable network insights and deep traffic analysis without requiring changes to applications.
Microsoft and NVIDIA are collaborating to bring the power of the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell 200 Superchip to Microsoft Azure, enabling the acceleration of AI model generation and deployment. The general availability of the Azure NC H100 v5 VM series offers optimised computational tools for mid-range training, inferencing, and high-performance computing, providing flexibility and scalability for diverse AI workloads.
Microsoft Copilot for Security, powered by generative AI, will be generally available worldwide on April 1, 2024, offering faster and more accurate security insights. The introduction of a pay-as-you-go licensing model and new product innovations aim to make Copilot more accessible and beneficial for organisations globally.
Microsoft Copilot in Windows 11 introduces new plugins and skills to simplify tasks and improve productivity, including connections to apps like OpenTable, Shopify, and Kayak.
Microsoft announces the public preview of Microsoft Copilot for Finance, catering to the needs of finance teams by streamlining tasks and providing insights. It aims to address the challenges faced by finance professionals, empowering them to engage in more strategic work by automating workflows and offering data-specific insights.
The collaboration between Microsoft and 1910 Genetics aims to revolutionise drug discovery and development by leveraging advanced AI and next-generation high-performance computing to reverse the declining productivity of pharmaceutical R&D.
Microsoft and Oracle are expanding their collaboration to bring Oracle Database@Azure to Europe and five additional cloud regions, demonstrating their commitment to meeting customer demand for multicloud deployments. The expansion of Oracle Database@Azure to new regions will offer customers the flexibility to migrate their Oracle databases to the cloud, benefit from high performance, and build cloud-native applications using OCI and Azure technologies.
The Whisper model in Azure AI is now generally available, enabling developers to transcribe audio files and derive actionable insights from customer interactions across 57 supported languages.
IBM
IBM Consulting has joined forces with NVIDIA to help clients solve complex business challenges and accelerate their transformation journeys with AI in an open ecosystem.
IBM is launching new sustainability solutions aimed at helping clients reduce their IT carbon footprint, optimise energy consumption, and achieve cost savings within their data center infrastructure. These new offerings from IBM, such as the IT Sustainability Optimisation Assessment, Asset Recovery and Disposition, and Data Erasure Services, support organisations in achieving sustainability goals and contributing to a circular economy.
Usher's new look and IBM have partnered to provide free career readiness training in AI and professional workplace skills to underrepresented youth across the United States. The initiative reflects IBM's commitment to training two million individuals in AI by 2026 and Usher's New Look's dedication to empowering youth through education, public service, and leadership development.
IBM introduces AI-driven enhancements to data resilience capabilities within its storage solutions, aiming to combat ransomware and various other security threats more effectively. IBM's new AI-enhanced FlashCore Module technology and Storage Defender software aim to provide earlier and more accurate detection of cyber threats, particularly ransomware, to help organisations improve data resilience.
Oracle
Oracle announces the general availability of Oracle Database@Azure, a joint Oracle and Microsoft service that allows customers to provision, access, and operate enterprise-grade Oracle database services in Microsoft Azure.
Oracle has released Java 22 with 12 JDK Enhancement Proposals to improve performance, stability, and security, making it accessible to developers of all proficiency levels. The release includes significant updates such as Project Amber and Project Loom features, as well as core libraries and tools enhancements, all aimed at streamlining application development and improving concurrency and error handling.
Oracle has introduced new generative AI capabilities in its Fusion Cloud Applications Suite to enhance decision making and improve the employee and customer experience across finance, supply chain, HR, sales, marketing, and service.
Oracle and NVIDIA are collaborating to provide sovereign AI solutions, enabling countries and organisations to deploy AI factories locally with operational controls to support digital sovereignty. The combination of NVIDIA's full-stack AI platform with Oracle's Enterprise AI offers customers greater control over operations, location, and security to meet data sovereignty goals.
Salesforce
Salesforce has announced the general availability of Pro Suite, an all-in-one offering designed to help small businesses start and scale on the #1 AI CRM. Pro Suite is a flexible, scalable solution that provides marketing, sales, service, and commerce capabilities in a single package.
Salesforce has introduced the Data Cloud Spring '24 Release, featuring fresh innovations aimed at enhancing the usability of data within Data Cloud across Salesforce's CRM applications and platform services. With functionalities such as Data Cloud Related Lists and Data Cloud Triggered Flows, users can now access customer engagement data from a website on every customer record within Salesforce and automate alerts to sales personnel.
SAP
SAP's new composable payment solution, SAP Commerce Cloud, open payment framework, allows retailers to offer a variety of payment options tailored to their unique needs and international markets, enhancing the checkout experience. The no-code, low-code framework gives retailers an adaptive and agile payment system that covers common payment needs and end-to-end payment processes.
SAP and NVIDIA are partnering to integrate generative AI into SAP's cloud solutions, aiming to help customers leverage their business data for automation and personalised experiences.
The collaboration will involve building custom generative AI capabilities within SAP Business Technology Platform, leveraging NVIDIA's AI foundry service and AI Enterprise software.
SAP is enhancing its data analytics offerings with knowledge graph capabilities, generative AI integration, and easy-to-use simulation functionality in SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud.
