Category Archives: Cloud Computing
3 Top Tech Stocks to Buy in January – The Motley Fool
By all counts, 2019 has been a great year for investors. After 2018 gained the dubious honor of being the first negative calendar year return for stocks since 2008, the S&P 500 rallied 29% higher. Tech stocks are doing even better, notching a 48% return with just days left before the end of the decade -- as measured by the NASDAQ 100 Technology Sector.
As the 2020s begin, technology -- specifically of the cloud computing variety -- is still one of the primary forces driving the market and the economy higher. Here are three buys for January: Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Appian (NASDAQ:APPN), and Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET).
There has arguably been no other company in more hot water with consumers and regulators over the last few years than Facebook. Security scandals, privacy concerns, and now government scrutiny over anticompetitive practices (though other tech titans are lumped in with that as well) have taken a toll. Nevertheless, Facebook's platform is as popular as ever, even posting monthly user growth in North America again -- albeit small, at only 1% -- during Q3 2019. Global monthly active users were up 8% during the period, and advertising revenue was up 29%.
Image Source: Getty Images
As a result of that continued growth, the stock climbed a wall of worry and rallied 58% in 2019. Even after that, shares still look attractive to me. Facebook has generated $19.6 billion in free cash flow (money left after operating and capital expenses are paid) over the last year, which values its shares for 30.6 times that profitability metric. That isn't particularly cheap, although it does include a record $5 billion Federal Trade Commission fine and ongoing expenses the company has been incurring to update its advertising platform's privacy and safety features.
All the while, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his management team expect at least 20% top-line growth in 2020 and for operating expenses to grow in the high teens to low 20% range -- which should equate to strong profitability gains in the year ahead. That makes Facebook one of the fastest-growing tech titans out there, and one of the cheapest.
Data by YCharts.
Another big winner in 2019 was cloud-based low-code software developer Appian, albeit the ride has been far bumpier than Facebook's. After the small company more than doubled in value through the late summer months, shares have steadily declined since then and are now sitting atop "only" a 45% calendar-year gain.
A backtracking stock isn't exactly a welcome situation, but it is a healthy one. Appian's results are being driven by growth in subscription services, primarily user growth on its low-code platform -- a type of toolbox that allows software developers to drag and drop pre-built lines of code to quickly develop an application. With full-year subscription revenue growth conservatively pegged at $154 million (a 33% to 34% annual increase), shares are back at a reasonable level.
Of course, investors should be aware that Appian operates in the red, foregoing profits to maximize growth now. As the last year has made evident, that can make for some wild share price action. However, Appian has a long runway of growth ahead of it, with spending on public cloud services expected to continue growing by double-digits for the foreseeable future.
Organizations need help developing and deploying all of those new digital tools, too, as they suffer from a backlog of tech projects and a shortage of IT talent. Appian is primed to be able to help. Ahead of the company's Q4 earnings report (likely due at the end of January or early February), now looks like the time to pick up a few shares on the pullback.
Image source: Getty Images.
Speaking of the cloud, it's been a rough year for companies involved with the construction of data centers. Small (at least compared to network hardware giant Cisco) components maker Arista Networks is going to end the year with a flat stock performance, erasing a more than 50% gain early on in 2019.
The reason? The "cloud titans" -- think Amazon's AWS, Microsoft's Azure, Alphabet's Google Cloud, and even Facebook's advertising platform-as-a-service -- slowed down their data center construction significantly. The hardware and services provider overcame those challenges, though, and posted 19% revenue growth through the first three quarters of 2019 and 29% earnings-per-share growth. Not bad at all.
However, management forecast a flat year for revenue from its largest customers in 2020, news that investors were none too happy to hear from the growth stock. Its 400G networking technology deployments are also getting pushed back into 2021, further darkening the outlook for the new year. Shares now trade for just 18.3 trailing-12-month free cash flow.
That looks like one of the best bargains in tech to me. The cloud is still growing fast, and Cisco's reports indicate that web traffic will grow by over 20% a year through 2022. Data centers will need to be built and old ones upgraded to account for all of that new data. The mood may have soured on Arista in the short term, but this will still be a fast-growing tech stock in the years ahead.
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3 Top Tech Stocks to Buy in January - The Motley Fool
Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Size, Outlook on Key Growth Trends, Factors and Forecast to 2026 – ReportsPioneer
New Jersey, United States, The report is a brilliant presentation of critical dynamics, regional growth, competition, and other important aspects of the Healthcare Cloud Computing Market. The factual, unbiased, and thorough assessment of the global Healthcare Cloud Computing market presented in the report assures players of access to much-needed information and data to plan effective growth strategies. The report has made a brilliant attempt to provide a comprehensive research study on industry value chain, major companies, deployment models, and key opportunities, drivers, and restraints of the global Healthcare Cloud Computing market. It shows how the global Healthcare Cloud Computing market will advance or lack growth during each year of the forecast period. Readers are offered with detailed and near-accurate predictions of CAGR and market size of the global Healthcare Cloud Computing market and its important segments.
Global Healthcare Cloud Computing Market was valued at USD 18.83 Billion in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 68.71 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 17.47% from 2019 to 2026.
Besides an exhaustive evaluation of leading trends of the global Healthcare Cloud Computing market, the report offers deep analysis of market development and future market changes. It includes Porters Five Forces analysis, PESTLE analysis, and qualitative as well as quantitative analysis for complete research on the global Healthcare Cloud Computing market. It closely focuses on technological development of the global Healthcare Cloud Computing market and its impact on the business of market players. With the help of the report, players will be able to become familiar with production and consumption trends of the global Healthcare Cloud Computing market.
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Top 10 Companies in the Global Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Research Report:
Vendor Landscape Analysis
The competitive landscape of the global Healthcare Cloud Computing market is extensively researched in the report. The analysts have largely concentrated on company profiling of major players and also on competitive trends. All of the companies studied in the report are profiled on the basis of production, revenue, growth rate, markets served, areas served, market share, and market growth. The report will help readers to study significant changes in market competition, the level of competition, and factors impacting future market competition. It discusses important target market strategies that leading players are expected to adopt in future. In addition, it throws light on future plans of key players.
Market Segmentation
The report offers deep insights into leading segments of the global Healthcare Cloud Computing market and explains key factors helping them to collect a larger share. It provides accurate growth rate and market size achieved by each segment during the forecast period. This will help players to identify lucrative segments and plan out specific strategies to gain maximum profit from them. The report also includes sales growth, revenue, and price changes observed in important segments. Most importantly, the segmental analysis equips players with useful information and data to make the best of opportunities available in different segments.
Regions Covered in the Global Healthcare Cloud Computing Market:
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Table of Content
1 Introduction of Healthcare Cloud Computing Market
1.1 Overview of the Market 1.2 Scope of Report 1.3 Assumptions
2 Executive Summary
3 Research Methodology of Verified Market Research
3.1 Data Mining 3.2 Validation 3.3 Primary Interviews 3.4 List of Data Sources
4 Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Outlook
4.1 Overview 4.2 Market Dynamics 4.2.1 Drivers 4.2.2 Restraints 4.2.3 Opportunities 4.3 Porters Five Force Model 4.4 Value Chain Analysis
5 Healthcare Cloud Computing Market, By Deployment Model
5.1 Overview
6 Healthcare Cloud Computing Market, By Solution
6.1 Overview
7 Healthcare Cloud Computing Market, By Vertical
7.1 Overview
8 Healthcare Cloud Computing Market, By Geography
8.1 Overview 8.2 North America 8.2.1 U.S. 8.2.2 Canada 8.2.3 Mexico 8.3 Europe 8.3.1 Germany 8.3.2 U.K. 8.3.3 France 8.3.4 Rest of Europe 8.4 Asia Pacific 8.4.1 China 8.4.2 Japan 8.4.3 India 8.4.4 Rest of Asia Pacific 8.5 Rest of the World 8.5.1 Latin America 8.5.2 Middle East
9 Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Competitive Landscape
9.1 Overview 9.2 Company Market Ranking 9.3 Key Development Strategies
10 Company Profiles
10.1.1 Overview 10.1.2 Financial Performance 10.1.3 Product Outlook 10.1.4 Key Developments
11 Appendix
11.1 Related Research
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Highlights of Report
About Us:
Verified market research partners with clients to provide insight into strategic and growth analytics; data that help achieve business goals and targets. Our core values include trust, integrity, and authenticity for our clients.
Analysts with high expertise in data gathering and governance utilize industry techniques to collate and examine data at all stages. Our analysts are trained to combine modern data collection techniques, superior research methodology, subject expertise and years of collective experience to produce informative and accurate research reports.
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Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Size, Outlook on Key Growth Trends, Factors and Forecast to 2026 - ReportsPioneer
The Cloud infrastructure race who is better: AWS or Azure? – TechiExpert.com
The dawn of cloud computing has proven to be an essential event in this digital era. Having an on-site data centre is not a necessity now. It has led to substantial cost savings and improved agility for organizations.
A newmodel of business has emerged called the Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) model. Here athird-party service provider takes care of providing hosting, maintaining coreinfrastructure which includes hardware, software, storage and servers for thecustomer.
Techbehemoths like Amazon, Microsoft and Google, have plunged into the market ofIaaS and have upped the ante. These three bigwigs have addressed the datasovereignty and security concerns which thwarted the growth of cloud servicesin its initial days. The market size for IaaS is estimated to be around $32.4billion in 2018, which was a growth of 31.3% from 2017.
Amazon has traditionally dominated the market for IaaS, but Microsoft and Google are quickly gaining ground. While the new CEO Satya Nadella has ushered Microsoft into a Cloud first era, Google is not much behind in the race with its GCP(Google cloud platform). Alphabet, Googles parent company has spent $ 6 billion on R&D in the fourth quarter of 2018. Which is a 40% increase YOY, most of the spending was on future technologies like cloud and AI.
Microsofthas increased prices of its on-site only office 2019 packages by 10%,announcing a clear push towards the cloud strategy.
With competition rife amongst the Big Threeof the cloud computing world, customers are bound to benefit. In this article,we shall compare the three cloud services provided by Microsoft, Amazon, andGoogle.
Theleading computing service of the Amazon web services framework is the amazonelastic compute cloud. The database administrators can optimize for costs usingthe ECC with other Amazon web services which promote the right amount offlexibility and compatibility. The ECC platform could be scaled up or scaleddown within minutes allowing the administrators to optimize their resources.The ECC allows the administrators to deploy thousands of server instancesimmediately.
Amazongives you the power of machine learning using its AWS auto-scaling monitor. Themonitor continually monitors your current requirements and adjusts its capacityaccordingly, without increasing the price. Amazon guarantees 99.99% serviceavailability as a part of their service level agreement(SLA).
Apartfrom this, Amazon offers Amazon Elastic Container service, which supportsDocker containers. With this feature, you could manage the IP address of yourwebsite, access security groups, Cloudtrail logs, Cloudwatch events and Querythe state of your application.
A network of virtualmachines powers the Azure computing feature, which includes development, appdeployment, datacenter extensions, and testing. The Microsoft Azure iscompatible with Windows, SQL, SAP, Oracle and Linux. Azure offers a hybridmodel consisting of an on-premise data centre and a public cloud.
A serverless containersystem called the Azure Kubernetes Service(AKS) allows containerizedapplications which can be deployed and managed faster. The AKS allows forcontinuous delivery and continuous integration experience. It will enable variousteams working in a virtual office to work on a single platform.
Amazon is ahead in the race forintegrating IoT and AI into the cloud. Amazons lex interface allows you to usethe same technology which has is used in its groundbreaking voice assistantAlexa. Amazon even allows you to use the power of Sagemaker, and you can use itfor deploying machine learning and for staff training. Amazons Lambdaserverless environment is a boon for companies which who wish to completelyuntether themselves and deploy their apps from Amazons serverlessinfrastructure.
In 2015 Amazon launched itsmachine learning service, which helps developers in creating machine learningmodels. One year later, Amazon launched services like AWS Rekognition andPolly.
Microsoft has its own resource formachine learning called the Microsoft Azure Machine learning studio. Thebenefit of Azure Machine learning studio is that it allows the developers touse complex machine learning models through a simple graphical UI.
Storage is one of the criticalfunctions of any cloud service. Both Azure and AWS have excellent storagecapabilities, with both service providers giving necessary facilities like RESTAPI and server-side data encryption. Blob storage is the name given by Azure toits storage mechanism while the storage mechanism of AWS is called S3(simplestorage service). Automatic replication across various regions and highavailability are the characteristics of the AWS storage solution. Both AWS andAzure use the block-storage function. In the block-storage service, the data isdivided into small, equally sized pieces of data called blocks. This allows forfaster access to the data. Amainfrastructurezon EBS(elastic block storage) isthe block storage service of AWS, which acts as a primary storage device forAmazon EC2. While there are Azure virtual disks which connect to the AzureVirtual Machines using block storage.
Both AWS and Azure provide youwith high availability through replication of your VM files to variousdifferent zones. In case your VM is damaged it is replicated quickly. AWS even givesyou the option of taking snapshots of the VM to use them as backups at an extrafee.
Azure provides you with the optionof launching your own operating system using a VHD file. You can upload the VHDfile to a blob and launch it as a VM. The thing is that once you delete your VMin Azure, the uploaded VHD file also becomes unusable. This is not the casewith AWS.
Hybrid cloud is a strategy in which companies choose to use a combination of different infrastructure environments like public cloud service providers and on-site servers. This approach is taken by companies who cannot afford to use 100% cloud infrastructure due to data residency concerns for e.g.:- banks.
Microsoft is well- establishedamongst enterprises as a good option for hybrid cloud infrastructure. ThroughAzure stack, businesses can easily use various Azure cloud service throughtheir own data centre. The azure stack provides you with the freedom ofdeploying your applications either on Azure cloud or on your own datacentrewithout the hassle of rewriting the code.
Using Azure stack, your companycan avail a host of services like virtual machines, networking, storage, loadbalancing, VPN gateway, containers, functions and active directories on yourown datacenters. The hardware support is provided by a lot of vendors likeDell, Cisco, Lenovo, and Huawei. The pricing is flexible, starting at rates aslow as $0.008 per virtual CPU per hour.
AWS launched its own hybridinfrastructure by the name of Outposts in 2018 at reinventing conference. AnAWS Outpost is a fully managed infrastructure service wherein AWS provides aset of pre-configured hardware and software to the on-site location of thecustomer. These racks use the same equipment which powers AWS in all theregions that amazon services. These Outposts can be configured with a varietyof EC2 instances and EBS volume storages. Customers can utilize AWS outposts tolaunch and manage a range of AWS services like ALB for load balancing, ECS, EKS for containersand EMR for big data along with RDS. Outposts allow the customers to use thesame AWS management console, SDK(Software Development Kit) and CLI(Command-LineInterface) tools which AWS provides today.
Pricing acts as a significantdeterminant for those who are considering a move to the cloud infrastructure.With competition rife between various cloud infrastructure providers, thepricing has seen a constant downward trend. If you take a look, the prices areroughly the same, but a detailed comparison is difficult as both offer slightlydifferent pricing models and come up with many special offers and discounts tolure more users.
Both Azure and AWS offer free totry services which let you test the cloud waters, helping you in decidingwhether the cloud is for you.
It helps if there are proven usecases of companies using cloud infrastructure successfully. Being the oldestservice provider in the IaaS sector, AWS is at a clear advantage here withnames such as Netflix, Astrazeneca, Newscorp, Airbnb, Nike, Lonely Planet andPfizer amongst an extensive list of customers who have chosen AWS as theirpreferred partner.
Azure has also got reputedcustomers in its kitty, which includes Ford, NBC News, Easyjet, Pearson,Wallmart, Twitter, Verizon, to name a few.
The choice of the ideal IaaSprovider really depends on your needs, and there is no one-size-fits-allsolution here. Both the solutions are offered by world-renowned companies whoprovide a high-level of security, free look-in services for you to try,excellent support and pay-as-you-use pricing.
AWS will suit your company if youwant to go with a company which has the highest experience with cloud. AWS alsohas a more significant global reach than Azure. AWS offers better flexibilityand a more comprehensive range of services than Azure. AWS is especiallycos-effective and suitable if you are a large organization.
Azure will prove to be a good fitfor companies who have most of their apps and platforms on Microsoft productslike Windows and if you are a startup who is migrating to cloud for the firsttime.
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The Cloud infrastructure race who is better: AWS or Azure? - TechiExpert.com
Centilytics Becomes the First Cloud Management Platform to Introduce Flat Fees and Widget-Based Pricing – EnterpriseTalk
In the cloud management industry, Centilytics becomes the first management platform that offers widget-based pricing. Its a well-known fact that Cloud Computing has almost limitless benefits. Moreover, cloud vendors bring innovative benefits to attract customers; and this strategy is working quite well. Today, cloud computing is becoming a preferred choice by entrepreneurs, whether for a startup or a well-established enterprise.
It was all a walk in the park up until the first data breach, or an unexpected cloud bill that can shrink the numbers in the bank account, ergo the dawn of cloud management. Gartner was the first that advocated the importance of a cloud management platform. They acknowledge that a management platform is needed to see through the complexities of the cloud. It should be equipped to protect the users data under industry defined regulations and provide solutions for any additional cost overhead.
Cloud Management Platforms (CMP) can safeguard the data and prevent cost leakages from the accounts.
Read more: nOps Introduces Partner Version of SaaS Cloud Management Offering
Typically, a CMP charges a percentage fee on the cloud consumption; In other words, thats a part of savings.
Which seems to be a conflict of interest, doesnt it?
On a percentage pricing model, the CMPs revenue becomes directly proportional to cloud spending. It means theyll earn more when the cloud bill increases.
This conflict has been generalized and never been visible because users have gotten used to it.
Cloud already has a complex pricing model, and in no way, percent pricing going to ease that complexity.
When Centilytics (an Intelligent Cloud Management), noticed this conflict, it went ahead. It introduced a flat fee model for its customers.
Read more: Icelandic Biotech Firm Selects ValGenesiss Cloud-Based Electronic Validation Lifecycle Management System For a Paperless
Centilytics is the only CMP that eradicates the conflict of interest by charging one fixed amount, which is independent of increased bills.
The users have finally understood the conflict and are now moving away from the percentage pricing. Not only did the previous pricing take away a chunk of there savings but also that they had to pay for the whole platform, even for the services that they were not using.
Centilytics, yet again, disrupt the market by introducing a widget-based pricing model. To offer this pricing,The entire Centilytics platform was broken down to 5 products, 12 services, and 2200+ widgets.
With widget-based pricing, the users can pick and choose only those services which they require. They also get the capability to bundle widgets as per their unique infrastructure requirements.
This model eliminates the need to pay for the entire platform and genuinely save money.
Read more: Cloudentity Releases CIAM.next, a Microservices Based Consumer Identity Access Management Platform for Privacy, Consent
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Centilytics Becomes the First Cloud Management Platform to Introduce Flat Fees and Widget-Based Pricing - EnterpriseTalk
Five Technology Trends in 2020 that Will Affect Your Business – eWeek
By now youve seen a lot of predictions for the wonderful things that will happen in the year 2020. This is partly because weve reached the point where technology changes are compounding by building on each other. But its also partly because the idea of 2020 grabs the imagination because it sounds cool. The challenge is knowing which prediction is which.
For example, and I know this will be a crushing disappointment, were not going to see flying cars in 2020. Like many things that wont happen in 2020, flying cars depend on more than just the technology. They also depend on government regulators. To get an idea how that affects progress, just look at how long its taken to get drone regulations figured out.
In fact, government regulation may be the most important new development to come in 2020--which brings us to the first big thing to look out for
The California Consumer Privacy Act went into effect on Jan. 1, 2020. It was inspired by Europes General Data Protection Regulation, and it governs how entities doing business in California handle consumer privacy. About half of the states in the U.S. are in the process of enacting their own privacy laws, and as youd expect, theres little commonality among them. And of course the federal government is considering privacy legislation.
As you would expect in this age of heightened partisanship in Congress, there are two bills--one of which from the Republicans, which is actually more strict than the California law--and which overrides state provisions. The Democrats in Congress have their own bill, which is somewhat different from the Republican bill and which does not override state laws. With the bill the Democrats are proposing, youd have to comply with the federal bill and with all of the different state laws where you do business.
The long-awaited 5G expansion will finally take hold in 2020, but it may not be the 5G you were expecting. T-Mobile kicked off the expansion in December 2019, and AT&T followed suit by announcing that it will launch widespread 5G early in 2020. But in both cases these are low-band 5G deployments. T-Mobile launched its nationwide 5G in the 600 MHz band, and AT&T is launching in the 850 MHz band.
Both carriers are able to cover large areas with these relatively low frequencies, but those blazing speeds youve heard about for 5G wont be there. That high-speed communications will have to wait for widespread millimeter wave signals, and because of the vast number of cells required, wont appear for at least five years. Meanwhile, carriers will begin implementing mid-band 5G, but that wont really be under way in 2020.
Youve heard a lot about autonomous cars, and youll hear more as some moron kills himself or someone else while sleeping in his Tesla as it plows through a construction zone or blows past a school bus. But theres more to autonomy than self-driving cars. What will matter more to your business are autonomous trucks and delivery vehicles. Autonomous tractor-trailers are already being routinely tested on public highways in Virginia with good success, as are autonomous buses.
Its in handling routine driving tasks, whether its between trucking terminals, on shuttle bus routes or whether its handling delivery of materials from the warehouse to production where autonomy shines. Municipalities are already being asked to approve autonomous shuttle busses, and state highway departments are seeing the first requests for commercial autonomous trucks. This is a trend that will accelerate during 2020, because it presents a clear business case and a solution thats already available.
The differences between the edge and the cloud will begin to fade away. Computing power will be placed where it makes the most sense, and because of improvements in networking, such differences will simply not matter. You will see more of whats called distributed clouds, where the computing power for public clouds arent limited to the cloud providers data center. You will also see more emphasis on edge computing with the processing power located near to where the work is being done.
While the main data centers of the cloud providers will still be there, the distributed cloud will be located elsewhere, including at the edge. This will enable edge computing and cloud computing to realize the speed and reduced latency that todays platforms require, while still supporting the services that are critical to the success of cloud services.
Artificial intelligence has become a looming possibility to futurists who worry that the machines will take over. However, in real life, AI and machine learning will become critical to the handling of ever-increasing complexity in IT. AI is already starting to become a major factor in dealing with security because it can link widely disparate events to determine trends. But AI can go far beyond that.
IBM, Microsoft and Google are already providing access to AI in their cloud services and are continually adding features and capabilities to make their AI services more useful to their respective customers. As IT becomes more complex, AI will become more important. But for 2020 at least, it will grow mostly in the cloud, because providing the resources to support AI development will be beyond the capabilities of most companies.
Of course, there are a lot of other things that will happen in 2020 that were not covering here. There will be new display technologies that will knock your socks off, assuming the human eye can discern them. Passwords will start being phased out as biometrics improve. Encryption might be declared illegal while also being required.
Oh, and the Washington Nationals will repeat as World Series winners in the same year that the Washington Capitals repeat with the Stanley Cup.
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Five Technology Trends in 2020 that Will Affect Your Business - eWeek
Disney+ Could Be Halfway to Its 5-Year Subscriber Goal Already – Nasdaq
At Disney's (NYSE: DIS) investor day last April, management laid out expectations to grow its soon-to-launch flagship streaming service from zero to 60 million-90 million global subscribers within five years of its debut. The day after Disney+ launched in November, the company said it attracted 10 million sign-ups(although some of those sign-ups came well before the launch).
All indications are that Disney+ has continued growing its subscriber base in the seven weeks since it became available. App downloads totaled about 22 million in the four weeks following the launch, according to data from Apptopia. And a recent survey from Rosenblatt Securities analyst Bernie McTernan found 57% of respondents that subscribe to streaming video services include Disney+ in their channel lineup. That led McTernan to estimate Disney+ already has 25 million subscribers.
At least one analyst thinks Disney likely underestimated the global demand for Disney+. And the rapid adoption of the service early on suggests that's likely the case. To be sure, Disney+ is already showing signs of being a transformational success for the century-old media company. But there are a couple reasons to temper excitement about its potential despite its early success.
Kevin Mayer, head of Disney's direct-to-consumer and international division. Image source: Disney.
At the investor day in April, management laid out plans for its marketing campaign behind Disney+. Its goal was to reach 95% of its target audience by the time the service launched in November.
When Rosenblatt conducted a survey of streaming service subscribers in October, however, just 63% of respondents said they'd heard of Disney+. But when it conducted the survey again at the end of December, that number climbed to 96% -- right on target.
Increased awareness has come as a result of massive advertising spend by Disney, as well as a little luck (who saw Baby Yoda coming?). But Disney has taken every opportunity to push its flagship streaming service -- online, via billboards, in its parks, and through pre-roll trailers in theaters. With several box-office hits since Disney+'s launch, it's no wonder awareness has climbed to near ubiquity.
But now that everyone knows about Disney+, the low-hanging fruit is taken. Going forward, Disney will have to adopt Netflix's (NASDAQ: NFLX) marketing approach. Netflix also has practically 100% brand awareness, so it's moved to marketing awareness for its original and exclusive series in order to draw in new subscribers. That marketing is effective, but considerably more expensive than simple brand awareness ad campaigns.
Where Disney+ truly excels, especially compared to its competition, is that it's easily understood. And Disney's marketing emphasizes the simplicity of its product. "Disney + Pixar + Marvel + Star Wars + National Geographic" is emblazoned below the Disney+ logo on most advertisements, as Matthew Ball points out. These are all well-understood brands, and everyone in Disney's target audience knows them and their productions extremely well.
When combined with high brand awareness, the easily understood nature of Disney+ makes the decision simple for consumers. They already know whether they want it, and they know whether it's worth $7 per month or $70 per year to them. As a result, the pace of Disney+ signups will quickly slow because it's a relatively easy decision.
The surprising part is that a lot of consumers have decided they want Disney+. Demand among households with children is high (as expected), with 73% of households with children saying they subscribe to the nascent streaming service. But 43% of households without children also signed up for the service, according to Rosenblatt's survey. That's led to much higher signups in the early going than either Disney or analysts were expecting.
McTernan expects Disney+ to end its first year with about 39 million subscribers, indicating a stark slowdown in growth over the next nine months or so. Still, that would put the service well ahead of management's outlook, and make it an undeniable success for Disney. For reference, Netflix added just 28 million subscribers over the past 12 months (albeit at nearly twice the average price).
Strong early adoption is great for Disney and the broader-than-anticipated appeal of the service is a surprise that could push total subscribers beyond management's expectations. Still, growth going forward won't come nearly as easily as it did in the early weeks.
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Disney+ Could Be Halfway to Its 5-Year Subscriber Goal Already - Nasdaq
Centilytics Becomes the First Cloud Management Platform to Introduce Flat Fees and Widget-Based Pricing – PRNewswire
DOVER, Del., Dec. 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --In the cloud management industry, Centilytics becomes the first management platform that offers widget-based pricing. It's a well-known fact that Cloud Computing has almost limitless benefits. Moreover, cloud vendors bring innovative benefits to attract customers; and this strategy is working quite well. Today, cloud computing is becoming a preferred choice by entrepreneurs, whether for a startup or a well-established enterprise.
It was all a walk in the park up until the first data breach, or an unexpected cloud bill that can shrink the numbers in the bank account, ergo the dawn of cloud management. Gartner was the first that advocated the importance of a cloud management platform. They acknowledge that a management platform is needed to see through the complexities of the cloud. It should be equipped to protect the user's data under industry defined regulations and provide solutions for any additional cost overhead.
Cloud Management Platforms (CMP) can safeguard the data and prevent cost leakages from the accounts.
Typically, a CMP charges a percentage fee on the cloud consumption; In other words, that's a part of savings.
Which seems to be a conflict of interest, doesn't it?
On a percentage pricing model, the CMP's revenue becomes directly proportional to cloud spending. It means they'll earn more when the cloud bill increases.
This conflict has been generalized and never been visible because users have gotten used to it.
Cloud already has a complex pricing model, and in no way, percent pricing going to ease that complexity.
When Centilytics (an Intelligent Cloud Management), noticed this conflict, it went ahead. It introduced a flat fee model for its customers.
Centilytics is the only CMP that eradicates the conflict of interest by charging one fixed amount, which is independent of increased bills.
The users have finally understood the conflict and are now moving away from the percentage pricing. Not only did the previous pricing take away a chunk of there savings but also that they had to pay for the whole platform, even for the services that they were not using.
Centilytics, yet again, disrupt the market by introducing a widget-based pricing model. To offer this pricing,The entire Centilytics platform was broken down to 5 products, 12 services, and 2200+ widgets.
With widget-based pricing, the users can pick and choose only those services which they require. They also get the capability to bundle widgets as per their unique infrastructure requirements.
This model eliminates the need to pay for the entire platform and genuinely save money.
About the company:
Centilytics is a fully-automated SaaS solution that helps organizations with the management and control of their infrastructure. It is an intelligent cloud management platform that enables public cloud users to gain 360-degree visibility, identify loopholes and deploy one-click fixes on their cloud infrastructure.
Saksham GoelCentilytics+1 302-924-5045email us here
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Centilytics Becomes the First Cloud Management Platform to Introduce Flat Fees and Widget-Based Pricing - PRNewswire
20 stocks to buy in 2020: Apple, Amazon and Disney are among favorites of Wall Street pros – USA TODAY
After a stellar 2019, investors look ahead to 2020 for stock picks.
Analysts are skeptical that the stock market's gains, which are at more than 20% in 2019, will remain in the double-digit percentage range next year. They expect volatility to return in the midst of a U.S. presidential election.
Some investors wait for stocks to get cheaper before they step in and scoop upbuying opportunities. Companies poised to outperform, they say, will be ones that can continue to grow their earnings even if the economy slows.
From iPhone maker Apple to beverage giant Coca-Cola to e-commerce titan Amazon, USA TODAY offers 20 stock picks for 2020 based on research reports and interviews withWall Street stock analysts.
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It's not just about the iPhone anymore.(Photo: Apple)
Strong anticipated demand for Apples 5G iPhone next fall is projected to boost the company in 2020, according toPiper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson.In December, Olson reiterated his "overweight" rating on the stock and raised his 12-month price target to $305 from $290, citing robustiPhone demand andbetter-than-expected performance in wearables such as the Apple Watch, AirPods and AirPods Pro. Apple shares finished Thursday at $289.91.
Analysts at Bank of America named Microsoft one of the firms top software picks for 2020, driven by growth in the software giants cloud-computing unit that offers data storage. Analysts at the bank bumped up their price target on the stock to $200 from $162. Shares closed Thursday at $158.67.The stock outperformed the broader market in 2019, rising more than 50% whilethe S&P 500 rose nearly 30%.
Amazons stock is expected to benefit from strong growth in its cloud-computing and advertising businesses. Investors have been concerned about a hit to profits from the costs of one-day shipping and investments in Amazon Web Services, but those worries arelargely priced into the stock, according to UBS analyst Eric Sheridan. He gave the stock a "buy" rating with a $2,100 price target over the next 12 months. Amazon's stock closed Thursday at $1,868.77.
Looking for a stock that pays steady dividends?Coca-Cola can satisfy investors thirst with its stable earnings growth and ability to ride out volatility, analysts say. Sean King, analyst at UBS, gave the beverage giant a "buy" rating with a$63 price target. Shares finished at $55.02Thursday.
Disney is among one of the top stock picks in media, largely driven by the success of its entrance into the streaming world with Disney Plus. In November, Bernie McTernan, an analyst at Rosenblatt Securities, reiterated a "buy" rating on the stock amid strong subscriber growth and increased his price target to $175from $170, up from Thursday's close of $145.70.
Wall Street expects Nikes solid digital sales growth to continue as the company transitions from a wholesale retailer to a digital direct-to-consumer model. In a note to investors, Morgan Stanley analyst Kimberly Greenberger reiterated the firms "overweight" rating on the athletic-apparel company and raised its price target to $118 from $108. Shares of Nike finished Thursday at $100.71.
T-Mobiles stock is projected to rise over the next year despite what happens with its pending merger with Sprint, experts say. Jonathan Atkin, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, maintained an "outperform" rating on the telecom giant and lifted its price target to $94 from $87, citing subscriber momentum. That's up from Thursday's closing price of $77.40.
Google parent Alphabet was among the worst-performing this year among its larger tech peers, but Wall Street keepsa close eye on the stock. The company was fined$1.7 billion this year for restricting rivals' adsin Europe, though some of its antitrust issues are beginning to wane. Jason Bazinet, an analyst at Citigroup,reiterated the firms "buy" recommendation and boosted its 12-month price target to $1,500 from $1,450. The stock ended Thursday at $1,362.47.
Investment banks and financial services companiessuch as Goldman Sachs are poised to benefit from the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates low next year because of the firm's lack of interest rate and credit risk, says Keith Horowitz, analyst at Citigroup. The bank upgraded shares of Goldman Sachs to "buy" from "neutral" and boosted its price target to $255 from $220.Thursday, shares closed at $231.21.
The slumping memory chip industry could be turning a corner. Analysts expectdemand for memory chips used in PCs, servers and USB drives to accelerate in 2020 as trade tensions thaw. Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson upgraded Micron to "outperform" from "neutral" and lifted his price target to $65 from $44, up from the stock's closing price of $55.11Thursday.
Shares of McDonalds underperformed the broader market in 2019, but its CEO shake-up, along with its innovative menu options and expansion of delivery capabilities, could drive revenue growth. Christopher Carril, an equity research analyst at RBC Capital Markets,initiated coverage on the stock in December with an "outperform" rating and target price of $218. The stock finished Thursday at $197.06.
PayPal is in the midst of winding down its financial ties to former parent company eBay, which some investors fear will be an earnings obstacle. Analysts say PayPal is in a strong position to drive account growth after forming partnerships with four high-growth platforms: Facebook, Uber, Paymentus and Mercado Libre. Mark Palmer, analyst at BTIG, reiterated a "buy" rating on PayPal with a price target of $130, up from Thursday's closing price of $109.75.
The production outlook for Diamondback Energy lookspromising. The driller, which has a strong balance sheet and reinvestsin growth, is based in Permian Basin in West Texas, the heart of the U.S. shale boom. The company is expected to grow oil volumes by double digits next year. Raymond James analyst John Freeman maintained a "strong buy" rating on the stock with a $110 price target. Shares ended Thursday at $91.31.
Visa headsinto 2020 on an upbeat note, driven by robust credit card spending during the busy holiday shopping season. Higher spending on credit and debit cards is forecast to drive profit and revenue growth in the coming quarters. Morgan Stanley analyst James Faucette raised his price target for Visa to $220 from $207, up from Thursday's closing price of $189.16.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs are bullish on United Health, the parent of the nation's largest health insurer, because of the companys projected earnings growth. Analysts at the firm gave United Health a "buy" rating, with a $330 price target. Shares tradearound $295.
Netflix, which missed its subscriber-growth targets for two straight quarters,facesmore competition next year. Rival streaming services jumping into the fray include Disney Plusand Apple TV Plus, along with traditional media companies such as NBCUniversals Peacock and WarnerMedias HBO Max. Still, Wall Streets forecasts for the subscriber growth of Netflixare too low, according to Heath Terry, analyst at Goldman Sachs. He maintained his "buy" rating on the stock with a $400 price target. Shares finished Thursday at $332.63.
Teslas fourth-quarter profitability is on an upward trajectory, thanks to strong demand for its Model 3 sedan, experts say.Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush, raised theautomakers 12-month price target to $370 from $270. That's down from its closing price of $430.94Thursday. If Tesla is able to sustain its level of profitability and demand in Europe and China, it could open the door to a new chapter of growth for the company, he said.
Some analysts are bullish on Salesforce because of the cloud software companys long-term growth prospects. The company seeks to grow inareas beyond cloud applications such as data visualization tools with its $15billion acquisition of Tableau.This month, JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy reaffirmed his "overweight" rating for the stock with a $200 price target, up from its closing price of $164.51 Thursday.
Investors eyeAmerican Electric Power because of the utility company's growing profits. The companybenefitsfrom investments in renewable generation. The company added wind facilities to its generation fleet, which is projected to contributeto earnings growth, analysts say.ScotiaBank changed the rating for the stock to "sector outperform" from"sector perform" and lifted its price target to $102 from $93. The stock ended at $93.88 Thursday.
Analysts grow more bullish on Uber, now that its embattled co-founder and former Chief Executive Travis Kalanick is leaving the companys board. Analysts at Wedbush gave the stock an "outperform" rating with a $45 price target, adding that Kalanicks exit will put management on a forward path. Shares closed at $30.67Thursday.
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20 stocks to buy in 2020: Apple, Amazon and Disney are among favorites of Wall Street pros - USA TODAY
Introduction of 5G-Enabled Value Added Services to Boost APAC Telecom Sector Revenues, finds Frost & Sullivan – PRNewswire
Implementing 5G will unearth lucrative new use-case scenarios involving AI, cloud computing, and Cybersecurity
SINGAPORE, Dec. 30,2019 /PRNewswire/ --With stiff competition eroding margins in the telecommunications space, operators have been looking for additional revenue streams to boost their bottom line. The implementation of 5G gives operators the opportunity to offer new services to both enterprises and consumers. Recent research by Frost & Sullivan predicts that the new value-added services could potentially become a bigger contributor to sector revenues than basic connectivity services, driving the 5G market in the Asia-Pacific region to reach US$124.8 billion by 2025.
"Mobile operators are aggressively entering the 5G space to grasp opportunities presented by expanding their portfolio, in order to increase revenues and improve customer experience," said Sofea Zukarnain, Research Associate, Information and Communications Technology at Frost & Sullivan.
"To enjoy the full potential of 5G, mobile operators ought to focus on industry partnerships and collaborations, which will reduce overall costs and hasten the deployment of the new use-cases enabled by the introduction of 5G," she added.
Frost & Sullivan's latest research, 5G in Asia-Pacific, Forecast to 2025, discusses in detail the progress of implementing 5G in the APAC region, and presents an in-depth country-wise analysis of the market, along with comparisons against global benchmarks. The research also highlights the various use-case scenarios for 5G, identifies the upcoming growth opportunities in this space, and provides strategic recommendations and forecasts for the sector through to the year 2025.
For further information on this analysis, please visit:http://frost.ly/3xo
The 5G market in the APAC region is poised to start growing from H2 2019, following commercial deployment in South Korea, and the soft launch of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) in the Philippines. A majority of the developed countries in the region are expected to deploy 5G commercially in 2020, whereas developing countries are likely to launch 5G only after 2020, given the lack of available spectrum. Countries such as the Philippines and Thailand may be quicker in adopting 5G due to the efforts by local governments to expedite the process of spectrum allocation.
"Local government support will be critical for the success of 5G. Regulations need to cover new 5G use cases and should also be flexible enough to help drive the local economy in line with their respective digital nation initiatives," noted Zukarnain.
Telecom operators and other 5G market participants should explore the opportunities in:
5G in Asia-Pacific, Forecast to 2025, is part of Frost & Sullivan's Information and Communication Technology Growth Partnership Service program, which helps organizations identify a continuous flow of growth opportunities to succeed in an unpredictable future.
About Frost & Sullivan
For over five decades, Frost & Sullivan has become world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion.
5G in Asia-Pacific, Forecast to 2025PA24-64
Contact:
Melissa TanCorporate Communications, Frost & SullivanE: melissa.tan@frost.comP: +65 68900926
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Introduction of 5G-Enabled Value Added Services to Boost APAC Telecom Sector Revenues, finds Frost & Sullivan - PRNewswire
What are the Top 3 Trends in Cloud Computing? – CIOReview
Cloud computing changes the way enterprises think about data, businesses think about the operations, and engineers think about building.
FREMONT, CA: Cloud computing is considered as the powerful remote server that allows enterprises to access files, house databases, and share software. It is a computer platform that can be accessed from a local machine using the internet. Its benefits include access to powerful machines that do not have to install costly hardware by going out of the budgets.
Cloud is scalable, robust, and cost-efficient. It is beneficial for app development, and the use of the cloud for custom application development has proved to be superior. Below given are the top 3 trends in the cloud that will transform enterprises in 2020.
Cloud to the Edge, and Back:
Edges are getting more intelligent, as the users look for real-time access to data in the internet of things age. Edge computing is widely distributed, with data processing happening at the edge where the data is made or consumed. Edges are the opposite of cloud that deals with centralized processing. In the coming years, as edge computing moves to the mainstream, the enterprises will see it complementing cloud technologies for secure back and forth of data.
AI, ML, and Cloud:
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will continue to be the focus of every firm. While AI and ML drive a lot of investment, most projects remain fragmented and distributed. In the coming year, the organizations will focus mainly on centralizing the initiatives into a more robust platform, thus making cloud position as a primary standard.
Cloud Security Back in the Spotlight:
Checking the security of data in the public cloud might be a significant focus in 2020. To a greater extent, cloud security discussions have been limited when it comes to the control of access and creation of policies, so far. As the enterprises move more critical workloads to public cloud environments, aspects like cloud workload security, data encryption, and threat intelligence are most likely to take center stage. Nevertheless, shared responsibility models and privileged access management will further raise the bar for cloud security.
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What are the Top 3 Trends in Cloud Computing? - CIOReview