JEDI Contract Archives -

Sonos cracks $1 billion

Sonos, the original Wi-Fi music player maker, announced 2019 results of revenues over $1.2 billion. The product is now in over 9 million households and the company’s collaboration with Ikea to build combo lamp/speakers and bookshelf speakers was a huge hit, resulting in 30,000 units sold on day one. CEPro

dis-rup-shun: I recall seeing a prototype of the first Sonos version. It was cool, but like so many other new concepts, it was uncertain if the market would understand its benefits and generate mass appeal. What the company proved is that a really simple setup and user interface was the difference maker. In the 1990s, people were anxious to extend the convenience of digital music beyond the iPod without dongles, converters and 3.5mm connectors. This little startup became the top home music system, roles which giant Sony and mighty Bose once enjoyed. Sonos has, since 2002, maintained superior design standards, aesthetics, sound quality and user interface. Sonos and Apple are in a design class by themselves, and Sonos is further evidence that superior design, even more than great technology, leads to superior market performance.

Amazon sues Department of Defense

Amazon followed through with its threats to file suit on the Pentagon’s $10 billion JEDI contract — a project to upgrade military IT infrastructure and house military data on an external cloud. Microsoft was awarded the contract and AWS, believing it was the front-runner on the contract, has stated that the decision was influenced by President Trump and his feud with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos over unfriendly presidential coverage by Bezos owned Washington Post. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: The results of this suit may set a precedent for losers of large contracts, as deals this big that involve years of proposals and positioning cost a fortune for those firms competing. The DOD has often awarded giant contracts to multiple bidders as if to make it worth their while and to maintain competition throughout the life of the contract. If AWS wins this action, the government procurement process will undoubtedly be amended to make it more difficult for politics to influence the outcomes.

No breakage in Tesla Cybertruck follow-up video

Musk released, via Twitter, a video of the steel ball not smashing the bullet proof windows of the Cybertruck which were smashed not once, but twice during the big reveal. Commentary of the follow-up video on Jalopnik notes that the truck’s door was ajar, absorbing some of the energy of the steel ball.

dis-rup-shun: The great reveal of the Cybertruck seems to be the most talked about event at weekend dinner parties, tailgates and cocktail functions. If you don’t know about the smashed windows spectacle, you have not seen or heard any news since Thursday. In retrospect, this announcement has created more buzz since Apple’s Think Different Superbowl Commercial, and, love him or hate him, Musk continues to be one of the highest profile business people in the world.

Cloud energy efficiency is goal of latest semiconductor start up

Nuvia is a new semiconductor company whose founders are expert at developing chips that are energy efficient — having come from Apple where they developed chips designed for battery powered, mobile devices. Nuvia will take power efficiency technology and apply it to data center semiconductors, potentially saving large amounts of energy in electricity hungry data centers. Techspot

dis-rup-shun: As attested by this weekend’s Harvard Yale football game turned climate change protest, energy efficiency is becoming a political football. Count on BigTech to use energy efficiency as differentiator of cloud services, and certainly energy efficiency is important to operating expenses. Nuvia is in a good position to benefit as cloud services are growing quickly (12% CAGR, according to Gartner).

Telemedicine visits seen as effective as in-person

Telemedicine and remote doctor visits are particularly valuable in rural communities, where access to certain highly skilled providers is limited. In this free whitepaper, a recent study of patients at Mercy Children’s Hospital network determined that for children with Asthma, telemedicine visits proved as effective as in-person visits. TechRepublic

dis-rup-shun: Telemedicine will keep many rural hospitals in business despite their lack of diverse specialists at the local hospital. It is exciting to see telehealth working, providing people with quick, local access to care even if provided locally with the help of a distant specialist. The industry urgently needs more clinical data to confirm the success of telehealth and more case studies are needed to accelerate the new care models that will dominate our society in a few short years. Connecting to care specialist remotely will become the norm for people living in large cities as well as rural areas, a shift that will improve the economics and slow the rising costs of care while providing better experiences for patients.

Microsoft beats Amazon for Pentagon cloud contract

The JEDI contract, short for Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, is a Department of Defensive initiate potentially worth $10 billion over ten years. The initiative is a significant computing upgrade for Defense, moving military operations to the latest cloud technology. Market leader AWS lost the deal to Microsoft’s Azure service. Some state that the decision was influenced by President Trump’s bumpy relationship with Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, a newspaper known for criticism of the President. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Microsoft is on a strong run, with a number of victories for CEO Nadella and team. Amazon’s own success has fueled a number of Microsoft’s wins, most notably a significant cloud contract from Walmart, Amazon’s arch rival, and FedEx, two competitors to Amazon. Once considered an ‘evil empire’ for its dominance over the personal computing industry, Microsoft is now viewed as a humble, highly competent player, with Google, Facebook, Amazon and even Apple seen as the controversial bullies of BigTech.

Samsung’s modular TVs fit custom sizes and spaces

In its sponsored video series on new technologies, BestBuy with Gizmodo explains what is a modular TV and why it is unique. Modular TVs are bezel-less 8K TVs that can be fashioned into different sizes according to spaces and custom requirements.

dis-rup-shun: TVs in homes and, of course, in digital signage applications are about to get much more interesting, with entire TV walls replacing big TVs hanging in prominent places. As odd shaped panels appear in interesting spaces, new applications will arise to curate video content, which will remain in a letterbox format, to intermix TV and movie content with video content to fill in the gaps. Consumers will design the content layout of video walls, overlaying a rectangular NFL game over a virtual aquarium, for example. Control applications will turn consumers into video program directors, making playing with big screens that much more fun.

NASA building new rover to find water on the Moon

The VIPER rover is a small vehicle that will explore the dark south pole of the Moon where the presence of ice crystals has been confirmed in prior explorations. The VIPER will drill samples in the Moon’s surface when sensors determine it is near water. The craft is scheduled to begin work in 2022 and will be conveyed to the Moon by one of the commercial space companies vying for NASA contracts. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: Plans for locating, drilling, pumping, storing and maybe even purifying Lunar water has implications for many industries. Who will be the water utility for the Moon? A cadre of contractors will be required to help NASA get into the water business, and consortia consisting of aerospace companies along with hydro engineering companies, pipe and pump companies will all compete for future contracts. New interest in the Moon and space will direct millions of dollars to space technology companies.

Tag: JEDI Contract

Sonos exceeds $1 billion in sales