Software news over the past few days was focused on ushering in the future: a new development tool launched today, Salesforce stirred up waves, cybersecurity jobs mushroomed, global innovation grabbed big bucks, PayPal branched out, and more.
It would be hard to miss the big numbers in recent software news:
- Salesforce bought ecommerce platform Demandware for nearly $3 billion. This is Salesforce’s 9th acquisition in less than 12 months. Speculators believe it signals Salesforce is building an end-to-end solution instead of just offering a CRM solution.
- Speaking of mergers and acquisitions, $70 billion worth of SaaS companies were sold by the end of July.
- Wipro paid $1.5 million for a minority stake in Israeli cybersecurity startup Intsights Cyber Intelligence.
- Israeli cybersecurity experts earn almost 3.5 times more than the average annual salary in the local economy and more than their counterparts in eight other countries according to Intel researchers.
- The US Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicates that demand for cybersecurity jobs is expected to grow by 53 percent over the next two years.
- Ninety-six percent of developers say that missed or misinterpreted compliance requirements have resulted in costly project delays in software development. Blueprint launched Storyteller for JIRA Software today; the tool is designed to reduce development rework and resolve communication gaps.
- Cisco will cut 5,500 jobs in Q1 2017 as it shifts from hardware to software (especially in cloud, IoT and cybersecurity).
- About 75 percent of respondents in the 2016 HIMSS Cybersecurity Survey of 150 healthcare IT security leaders reported that medical identify theft was the source of their healthcare attacks.
- A recent report shows annual federal cloud spending increased by 24.8 percent to $3.3 billion in fiscal year 2015.
- Fostering innovation, Ontario is awarding $51 million to support studies at leading institutions to lay the foundation for jobs of the future in a knowledge-based economy and incentivize discoveries that lead to new technologies and treatments and cures for cancer and other diseases.
- CHINA launched a US$30 billion state-controlled venture capital fund to support innovation in centrally-administered state-owned enterprises.
And there’s more news about innovation …
- PayPal is partnering with government agencies to launch an Innovation Lab in Singapore. It will include a fintech startup incubation project.
- The annual Global Innovation Index recently published ranked 130 countries in innovation performance according to 82 indicators. Top 3 in innovation this year are Switzerland, Sweden and Britain. The US came in fourth.
- Atlanta announced plans for Technology Square. It will include innovation centers, hotels, a conference center, offices and Georgia Tech’s business school.
- The Nigeria Computer Society is establishing several innovation hubs for tech startups focusing on developing solutions for the challenges in Nigeria, such as more than 50 million unbanked citizens.
- The Commerce and Industry Ministry in India is establishing a committee to examine the country’s innovation landscape.
- The inaugural Channelnomics Innovation Awards will take place in New York on December 8. The awards are to honor North American channel partners that bring innovation.
Quote of the week: “India’s innovation brand is associated with frugal innovation or what we call Jugaad, which is good, but that’s not how we should be positioned globally. We should focus on being known for knowledge excellence.” (Cornell University dean Soumitra Dutta)