CAPRE’s Digital Infrastructure Round Up for January 15, 2020

Check out the latest in deals, development and disruptive technology in digital infrastructure for January 15, 2020:

• Board of Regents Approves Cloud Computing Program at Grambling State: The University of Louisiana System Board of Regents has approved Grambling State University’s Letter of Intent to begin developing the state’s first Bachelor’s degree in Cloud Computing. The University will undergo a period of strenuous research and development to formulate effective curriculum with the aim of launching the program as early as Fall semester of 2020. The program will need to obtain final approval from the Board of Regents in order to begin enrollment. “As the state’s leading producer of African-American Computer Science graduates, Grambling State is uniquely poised to offer Cloud Computing to the world’s next wave of world changers,” said President Rick Gallot. “The addition of this degree program continues to support our goal of equipping students with highly sought-after skills in the field of internet-based computing.”
• Equinix to Acquire Bare Metal Leader Packet: Equinix, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Packet, the leading bare metal automation platform. The acquisition will accelerate Equinix’s strategy to help enterprises more seamlessly deploy hybrid multi-cloud architectures on Platform Equinix and extract greater value from the platform’s rich ecosystems and global interconnection fabric. By leveraging bare metal services at Equinix to deploy digital infrastructure on demand, customers will be better equipped to reach everywhere, interconnect everyone and integrate everything that matters to their business. Equinix intends to leverage the Packet offering to accelerate the development and delivery of its interconnected edge services. By combining Packet’s innovative and developer-oriented bare metal service offering with Equinix’s interconnection capabilities and organic bare metal efforts, Equinix intends to create a world class, enterprise-grade bare metal offering across Platform Equinix that allows customers to rapidly deploy digital infrastructure, within minutes, at global scale.
• Nutanix Report: Retailers Look to Hybrid Cloud as They Search for Flexibility: Nutanix has publicized the retail industry findings of its second Enterprise Cloud Index Report, measuring retailers’ plans for adopting private, hybrid and public clouds. The report found the vast majority of retailers (87.5%) identified hybrid cloud as the ideal IT operating model. It also showed many retailers (72%) are planning to move some public cloud applications back on-premises. Retailers recognize that seamless customer experience is no longer a “nice-to-have” — it’s a critical factor in winning new customers and retaining existing ones — and flexible cloud infrastructure is critical to delivering it. A recent IDC report noted worldwide spending on customer experience technologies will reach $641 billion in 2022, demonstrating it’s at the forefront of business leaders’ strategy. In line with broader IT industry trends, many retailers also recognize the full, long-term costs of the public cloud.
• Google Cloud Helps Lowe’s Build a True ‘Channel-less’ Customer Experience: Google Cloud and Lowe’s are expanding their work together to create a best-in-class technology foundation to help Lowe’s deliver exceptional customer experiences and empower store associates with tools to better serve customers, regardless of how they shop.  This technology foundation for the home improvement company includes new investments toward modernizing Lowes’ e-commerce, merchandising, supply chain management, and pricing systems—ultimately providing a more fluid, “channel-less” customer experience spanning from product discovery to return visits. Lowe’s is in the early stages of a large-scale, multiyear technology transformation, investing more than $500 Million USD annually through 2021 and hiring up to 2,000 engineers to continue to build out future retail experiences.
• Bitmain Allegedly Under Investigation by DOJ: Twitter account @btcking555, a reliable source for all things Bitmain-related, has tweeted some breaking news. “Bitmain to cancel its USA IPO plans. Insider tells there is investigation by American DOJ on Bitmain selling huge amount of equipment to ponzi scheme BitClub with Bitmain’s Yoshi Goto playing key role! Some of those sales numbers were apparently fudged to accommodate,” they write. Bitmain was previously planning to go public on the Hong Kong stock exchange, but its application expired on March 26. The mining giant was then considering another IPO in the U.S., but those plans are apparently further in doubt. More to come on this development.

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