Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?
1 — Walmart will use Microsoft’s cloud tech to battle Amazon.
This week, Walmart entered into a strategic partnership with Microsoft for wider use of cloud and artificial intelligence technology. The five-year agreement will leverage the full range of Microsoft’s cloud solutions, including Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365, to make shopping faster and easier for customers. As part of the partnership, Walmart and Microsoft engineers will collaborate to migrate a significant portion of walmart.com and samsclub.com to Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure. (Source: U.S. News & World Report)
Why this is important for your business:
Walmart and Microsoft’s partnership creates two opportunities for small businesses. For starters, it indicates a greater push into online sales for the retail giant in its ongoing battle against Amazon and that means more need for merchants and products provided by small businesses. Second, Walmart’s move validates the growth and reliability of Azure, a cloud-based platform that many small businesses already rely on for their online applications. If you’re not sure of the platform’s reliability or secure, you can take comfort that more giant companies like Walmart are moving towards it.
2 — The Department of Energy will award nearly $100M in small biz tech R&D grants.
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced that it will award 95 grants worth a total of $95 million to 80 small businesses located in 26 states as part of its Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. (Source: ExecutiveGov.com)
Why this is important for your business:
Many small businesses forget that the government – particularly its more technical branches - has hundreds of millions of dollars of funds available to help them grow their businesses, invest in technologies and create new technologies that the government may buy. The Department of Energy’s program is but one of many offered that could create opportunities for small companies.
3 — Apple updates its MacBook Pro with new processors and better keyboards.
This week, Apple updated some of its MacBook Pro computers. The biggest change is the upgrade to Intel’s latest eighth-generation processors, which now ship in the 15-inch and 13-inch MacBook Pro models. Apple says users should see up to a 70 percent performance boost on the 6-core 15-inch model and up to 2 times the performance on the highest-end 13-inch model. (Source: CNBC)
Why this is important for your business:
Many employees at small businesses rely on the Macbook for their computing needs and an upgrade like this promises to speed up the device’s performance and therefore help increase productivity.
4 — A company that makes debugging software raises $14M.
Undo, which for many years has sold debugging tools with its program execution capture and replay technology to help others diagnose software failures, has closed a $14 million Series B round. Founded in 2005, the startup now has more than 30 paying customers for what it describes as its “record, rewind and replay” debugging technology. They include SAP HANA, Mentor Graphics, Cadence, and Micro Focus. (Source: Tech Crunch)
Why this is important for your business:
The company’s technology promises to significantly improve the software debugging process and enable better and more reliable applications to hit the market quicker. “Our main competitor is the status quo — engineering organizations that do not evolve with the times,” the company says. “Old-school debugging techniques (e.g. print, logging, core dump analysis) have been around for decades. 2000 was all about static analysis. 2010 was about dynamic analysis, 2020 will be about capturing software failures ‘in the act’ through capture and replay technology.”
5 — A tech blogger says that “retro” technology still makes sense for some IT projects.
Tech Republic writer Mary Shacklett thinks that “retro” technology still has a place in the world. “Sometimes, retro solutions are the most effective way to attack nagging IT problems. In these three situations, they could make sense: 1) If the technology solves most of your problems and can pay for itself. 2) When you define your initial business case for new technology but first look downstream for what might be needed. 3) When legal requirements for uninterrupted data custody require a more traditional, on-premise data storage solution rather than the cloud.” (Source: Tech Republic)
Why this is important for your business:
I agree! Sometimes old school is better than new and you may find that using tried and true technology has a greater return-on-investment than anything else. Just because it’s newer doesn’t mean it’s better.
