Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.
Last chance to register: Women in the IT Channel Luncheon is Aug. 24
Join us on Thursday, Aug. 24 at the Aga Khan Museum for the CDN Women in the IT Channel Recognition Luncheon, where we will shine a spotlight on the remarkable achievements of women in Canada’s IT channel. We will be honouring outstanding women with two prestigious awards: the Rising Star, acknowledging a trailblazer whose recent accomplishments promise an even brighter future, and 2023’s Mentor of the Year, a woman who has dedicated herself to guiding others in their personal and professional growth. We will also pay special tribute to Fawn Annan, who led IT World Canada from 2010 until her passing in May of this year.
This year’s keynote speaker is best-selling author and gender equity, inclusion and human rights advocate Samra Zafar.
Registration closes at 5pm on Monday, Aug. 21.
SUSE announces plans to go private
SUSE, the open source firm behind SUSE Enterprise Linux, Rancher, NeuVector, and other projects, is being taken private by its majority shareholder, which plans to merge it into an unlisted Luxembourg entity.
“SUSE’s Management Board and Supervisory Board support the strategic opportunity from delisting of the company as it will allow SUSE to focus fully on its operational priorities and execution of its long-term strategy,” the company said in a release.
Other shareholders will be offered 16.00 euros per share, minus the amount of an upcoming interim dividend, approximately a 67 per cent premium on the closing price yesterday.
“I believe in the strategic opportunity of taking the company private – it gives us the right setting to grow the business and deliver on our strategy with the new leadership team in place,” said Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen, chief executive officer of SUSE. “EQT Private Equity’s and SUSE’s partnership in a private setting has been fruitful before and we are excited about the long-term potential of the company and our continued collaboration”.
The deal is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of this year, following an extraordinary general meeting.
Intel abandons Tower acquisition
Intel Corp. announced this week that it has mutually agreed with Tower Semiconductor to terminate its agreement of February 2022 to acquire the company, due to the inability to obtain the required regulatory approvals. In accordance with the terms of the agreement, Intel will pay a termination fee of US$353 million to Tower.
“Our respect for Tower has only grown through this process, and we will continue to look for opportunities to work together in the future,” said Intel chief executive officer (CEO) Pat Gelsinger.
SP router and switch revenues to total US$77 billion by 2028: Dell’Oro Group
According to a new report by Dell’Oro Group, the cumulative revenues spent on service provider (SP) router and switch equipment are projected to approach US$77 billion over the next five years.
This represents a nine per cent increase compared to the cumulative revenue of the previous five-year period, the research firm said, propelled largely by a combination of applications driving higher volumes of traffic, such as proliferation of 5G on mobile networks, residential broadband shifting to higher speed cable and passive optical networks (PON), and increased use of video.
“Although we’ve seen strong market growth in 2023, double the normal growth rate, we expect it to be short term,” said Ivaylo Peev, senior analyst at Dell’Oro Group. “Vendors have been building backlog for two years and the recent strong growth is a result of improved component supply which enabled vendors to release large quantities of product into the market.
“We saw particularly strong sales to hyperscalers in North America at the beginning of 2023. Large cloud SPs deploy routers to interconnect geographically dispersed facilities, connect to telecom SP wide area networks, and connect inside the data centers. However, we believe that the surge in sales to cloud SPs has passed its peak and will slow over the forecast period. Cloud SPs have heavily invested in 400 Gbps infrastructure in the last few years and are well prepared for AI workloads.”
Microsoft files patents for sustainability tech
Data Center Dynamics has reported that Microsoft has filed patent applications for two systems to improve data centre sustainability: a tool that manages devices based on their impact on the energy grid, and a carbon capture system.
The tool, it said, looks at the power grid’s carbon intensity at any time (for example, when it is supplementing clean power with gas or coal-fired generators), examines factors such as weather, and then creates a sustainability forecast used to manage device functions, postponing certain tasks to reduce their environmental impact.
The carbon capture system for data centres will collect carbon dioxide from incoming air, compress it and put it into dedicated storage tank. It will be operated by a machine learning model that monitors things like air temperature, computing load of the data centre, and the amount of carbon captured.
Arthur Bench: Robust new way to evaluate LLMs
Arthur, the New York City-based developer of monitoring tools for large language models (LLMs), this week launched Arthur Bench, an open-source evaluation tool it said compares LLMs, prompts, and hyperparameters for generative text models.
According to the company, the offering will enable businesses to evaluate how different LLMs will perform in real-world scenarios so they can make informed, data-driven decisions when integrating the latest AI technologies into their operations.
“The AI landscape is rapidly evolving,” it said. “Keeping abreast of advancements and ensuring that a company’s LLM choice remains the best fit in terms of performance viability is crucial. Arthur Bench helps companies compare the different LLM options available using a consistent metric so they can determine the best fit for their application.”
Company co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Adam Wenchel said, “understanding the differences in performance between LLMs can have an incredible amount of nuance. With Bench, we have created an open-source tool to help teams deeply understand the differences between LLM providers, different prompting and augmentation strategies, and custom training regimes.”
Barcode printer market to be worth US$13.5B by 2032: Report
The rising demand for mobile printers and the growing adoption of barcode printers in the manufacturing industry are anticipated to drive the growth of the global barcode printer market during the forecast period from 2023 to 2032, according to a new report released today by Allied Market Research.
Findings reveal that the global barcode printer market generated US$3.7 billion in 2022, and is anticipated to generate US$13.5 billion by 2032, witnessing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.7 per cent from 2023 to 2032.
“The rising demand for mobile printers, the growing demand for industrial printers across numerous industrial sectors, and the rising usage of barcode printers for streamlining logistics processes are the major factors predicted to drive the growth of the global barcode printers market in the forecast timeframe,” the research firm said.
Time to sign up for the 39th edition of the CCCGC
The Canadian Computer Charity Golf Classic (CCCGC) taking place Sept. 7 is a premier golf tournament that brings the computer industry together to help raise funds for two worthy causes: Easter Seals Ontario and Princess Margaret Hospital.
Celebrating its 39th anniversary this year, the event is a perennial sellout, hosting an estimated 300 golfers who represent more than 100 corporations from the Canadian and the U.S. technology sectors.
It is taking place at Lionhead Golf and Conference Centre, and sponsorships and foursomes are still available. Move quickly to get your place before they sell out. Further information is available at computergolf.ca.
