IBM has reported earnings of $21.8bn for the fourth quarter of 2016, as the company shifts from its traditional business to cloud and artificial intelligence (AI)-based products and services.
The company said its cloud revenue for the full year was $13.7bn, up 35%, while revenue in its cognitive solutions business, which includes software and transaction processing software revenues, grew by 1.4% to $5.3bn. Sales in this business were driven by demand in cloud, analytics and security, it said.
For the fourth quarter, IBM reported a decline in revenue for its global business services, which includes consulting, global process services and application management, of 4.1% to $4.1bn, while its technology services and cloud platforms business, which includes infrastructure services, technical support services and integration software, grew by 1.7% to $9.3bn. Here, growth was driven by strong hybrid cloud services, analytics and security performance, said IBM.
Meanwhile, IBM’s revenue in systems, which includes systems hardware and operating systems software, declined by 12.5% to $2.5bn.
During the earnings call, senior vice-president and CFO Martin Schroeter attributed the decline in systems earnings to a shift in IBM’s strategy. In a transcript of the call, posted on the Seeking Alpha financial blogging site, Schroeter said: “For systems, our revenue and gross profit performance were driven by growth in z Systems, offset by power and storage declines. These results reflect the reinvention of our core systems for work in a new era of computing.
“We have optimised our systems to drive new types of workload, like blockchain and instant payments. We are expanding our footprint, building new capabilities and solving new types of problems for our clients. And though we are facing some shifting market dynamics and product transitions in both power and storage, our portfolio overall remains optimised to address the demands of an era of cognitive and cloud computing.”
Schroeter said the company was positioning itself to solve real world business problems by using AI and its cognititve system, Watson. “The debate about whether artificial intelligence is real is over, and we’re getting to work to solve real business problems,” he said.
“As we move into this new era, it is important to understand what enterprise clients are looking for. They need a cognitive platform that turns vast amounts of data into insights, and allows them to use it for competitive advantage. They need access to a cloud platform not only for the capability, but for speed and agility. And they need a partner they trust, and who understands their industry work and process flows.”
Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer, said the company’s shift from its core business to so-called “strategic imperatives” accounted for 40% of the company’s earnings.
By comparison, IBM’s core business areas declined by about 9%. This means the company is spending more time pushing the benefits of cloud and AI to its customers.
Rometty said: “IBM Watson is the world’s leading AI platform for business, and emerging solutions such as IBM Blockchain are enabling new levels of trust in transactions of every kind. More and more clients are choosing the IBM Cloud because of its differentiated capabilities, which are helping to transform industries, such as financial services, airlines and retail.”

© Source: http://www.computerweekly.com/news/450411363/IBM-results-show-shift-to-AI-and-cloud-business-focus
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Professionals in IT security or data analytics roles should expect to see significant pay rises in 2017, according to research.
A study by recruitment firm Robert Walters found that salaries for IT security professionals would increase by 8% over the next year, and data analysts would see a 4% pay rise over the same period.
James Murray, associate director at Robert Walters, said this could be due, in part, to an increase in high-profile data breaches and the need for data insight.
“Senior stakeholders are acutely aware of the impact data breaches can have on a company’s image and their finances and, as a result, they are willing to offer high salaries to top-calibre candidates,” he said. “Senior business leaders are also increasingly coming to recognise the pivotal role that data science and analytics can have on driving cost efficiencies and allowing businesses to grow in a sustainable way.”
But there is still a shortage of skilled workers in the tech sector, and firms often complain that graduates are leaving university without the necessary skills to fill a role.
Industry body Tech UK recently called on the government to implement a plan to tackle the growing skills gap in big data, while cyber skills shortages are putting firms at increased risk of attack .
As cyber security specialists and data scientists are in high demand and low supply, the cost of these employees is rising.
To combat this in the cyber, data analytics and business intelligence space, employers are searching for junior or mid-level employees to fill roles, and data analysts at this level are seeing the biggest pay rises.
Murray said: “Due to the shortage of candidates with this skillset, we expect an increase in salaries and a lucrative contract market for data engineers. To keep salary costs down, hiring managers are increasingly looking for junior professionals with the potential to grow into more senior roles within the team.”
Salaries for junior information security analysts have seen a 15% increase from a year ago, while mid-level security professionals have seen an 8% pay rise.
The same pattern can be seen in junior data scientist roles, for which there has been a 9% year-on-year increase in average pay.
But although these jobs are highly technical, many argue that firms need workers with both soft and technical skills for their IT teams as technology becomes part of every worker’s remit.
Murray added: “IT security specialists with strong technical competencies are highly sought after, but those who can also demonstrate strong communications and stakeholder management skills will stand out from the competition.”
Many argue there should be more focus on collaboration between universities and industry to ensure graduates are leaving courses with the skills they need for tech roles.
Apprenticeships have also been suggested as an alternative to tech-specific degrees , because they help young people learn skills on the job and employers can ensure they are learning the skills they need for a specific role.

© Source: http://www.computerweekly.com/news/450411394/Pay-rises-tipped-for-IT-security-and-data-analysis-roles-in-2017
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Microsoft has started 2017 by rolling out Windows 10 builds 15002 and 15007 to end users, giving developers a new UWP architecture for Edge’s multi-process model, click-to-run Flash content and updated support for WebVR.
EdgeHTML, Microsoft’s HTML rendering engine, includes a number of updates with the 15002 release. Most notable among them is support for Content Security Policy 2.0. The specification helps developers create a whitelist of sources of trusted content, and only allows the browser to execute or render resources from the trusted sources.
CSP 2.0 diverges from the original level in several important ways, including workers having their own policy, as distinct from the protected resource that loaded them, and controlling a protected resource’s ability to load Workers via child-src rather than script-src .
The release also includes added support for WebVR APIs by default. The experimental JavaScript API provides access to Virtual Reality devices, such as the Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, or Google Cardboard from the browser. Work to complete support for the WebVR APIs continues in the 15007 build.
Other updates include enabling the independent rendering of HTML5 video elements by default, as well as enabing Media over Fetch and XHR over Fetch by default. In addition, the release brings limits to setTimeout() and setInterval() callbacks of once per second for cross-origin iframes when not in view. The change is a move to improve the Edge browser’s energy consumption.
New in Microsoft’s Edge app itself is a new UWP architecture for Edge’s multi-process model, coming with both a new visual tree and a new input model. According to Microsoft , these changes „will help improve stability and input responsiveness and make the browser UI more resilient to slow or hung web page content. “
Edge is also following the lead of Chrome, Safari and Firefox and restricting Flash content. Where Chrome rewrites YouTube Flash embeds and automatically uses HTML5 instead, Edge has extended its click-to-run functionality for Flash.
In the blog post Extending User Control of Flash with Click-to-Run , Crispin Cowan — senior program manager and security guru — says:
Sites that support HTML5 will default to a clean HTML5 experience. In these cases, Flash will not even be loaded, improving performance, battery life, and security. For sites that still depend on Flash, users will have the opportunity to decide whether they want Flash to load and run, and this preference can be remembered for subsequent visits.
Also available for developers is support for the new Payment Request API. While this is currently in a preview state, it aims to improve online checkout by storing payment and shipping info in Microsoft Wallet.
For the full list of changes since the last Windows 10 release, check out the Edge Release Notes .

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