Amazon-like megacorps dominating various online sectors could become norm for pandemic-stricken planet

Certain business models work better than others when most people avoid human contact

Shifts in consumer behaviour could see a handful of companies come to dominate the online food, education and leisure industries, as Amazon has in e-commerce, according to research.…

via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/10/12/rsa_covid_19_work_automation/

Comms API merchant Twilio spanks $3.2bn in stock to gobble data slurper Segment

Spending spree continues in the 'customer engagement' space as online sales segment grows and grows

Cloud communications outfit Twilio has found a way to spend some of its lockdown money, snapping up "customer data" specialist Segment in a cash-free deal worth approximately $3.2bn.…

via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/10/12/twilio_segment/

AWS makes its own Arm CPUs the default for ElastiCache in-memory data store service

Bills home-brewed silicon as the upgrade path to better Redis or memcached

Amazon Web Services has made its home-brewed Arm-powered Graviton2 CPUs the default for its ElastiCache service.…

via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/10/12/aws_makes_graviton2_default_for_elasticache/

Google contractor HCL America accused of retaliating against unionized techies by shifting US jobs to Poland

Pittsburgh workforce erosion, punitive policies cited in labor complaint

The US National Labor Relations Board has bundled a series of complaints alleging labor law violations against IT services firm HCL America (HCL Technologies), which supplies contract workers like data analysts to a Google office in Pittsburgh, into a case to be heard in February.…

via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/10/09/hcl_union_challenge/

How’s everyone else managing their data amid all this upheaval? Find out here…

Stay home, log into Druva’s DxP virtual summit – and still get the t-shirt

Promo  A lot has changed over the past six months, but one thing hasn’t: your company’s data is still its most important asset, and protecting it is crucial.…

via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/10/09/data_management_druva/

Alibaba and pals grab £35m in Jisc contracts to give overseas students access to UK courses during pandemic

Bulk of deal focuses on secure, high-performance connectivity to China

IT services nonprofit Jisc, which runs the UK's academic network Janet, has awarded framework contracts worth up to £35m to provide remote access to British research and courses, including from China.…

via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/10/09/uk_academic_service_provider_lets/