AWS more popular than Microsoft, Google and IBM's clouds combined

Amazon AWS

Amazon Web Services is the undisputed leader in the public cloud market, with a market share larger than the next three competitors -- Microsoft, Google and IBM -- combined, according to a new report from Synergy Research Group.

In Q3 2016, AWS had a share of around 45 percent in the public IaaS (infrastructure as a service) market, while Microsoft's Azure, Google's Cloud and IBM's cloud did not even get past the 20 percent mark.

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One in three Salesforce professionals want to find a new job

Job ad

A third of Salesforce professionals probably won't be working at the same company in a year, according to a new report by Salesforce recruitment organization Mason Frank. The report, which the company released at Dreamforce in San Francisco just recently, says 35 per cent of Salesforce professionals admitted the desire to switch, which is five per cent up compared to last year.

They're mostly interested in bigger pay checks (62 percent), but also say this is the best way for them to get a promotion (60 percent). More than half (55 percent) want a fresh challenge, a third (38 percent) say their current employer lacks leadership and vision, and another third (33 percent) say they aren't pleased with their work environment. Another third (32 percent) are interested in working with Salesforce’s latest software and features.

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Salesforce integrates Quip in its core products

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Salesforce has released new updates for its core products that allow users to use the work collaboration app Quip right from within its own service.

The company purchased Quip for $750 million in August for its collaborative word processing and spreadsheet apps that also include messaging features similar to those offered by Slack.

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Self-service solution improves the quality of Salesforce data

Data analytics

Thanks to the explosion in cloud applications and the increasing number of IoT devices, enterprises have more data than ever. But there's no easy way to ensure its quality.

Data management specialist Informatica is launching its Cloud Data Quality Radar a self-service data quality solution for business. Salesforce users will be the first to benefit.

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New platform provides coaching insights for sales managers

Graph plan sales

In recent times many CRM platforms have tended to focus on using machine learning to boost sales. Sales capabilities company Qstream, however, is keen to address the human side of improving sales performance.

At this week's Dreamforce '16 conference it's announced that its expanding its Sales Capabilities Platform with a Coaching Hub, which allows managers to identify gaps in their team's required knowledge or behaviors and address them faster.

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Microsoft dismisses Saleforce's claims of an anticompetitive LinkedIn purchase

microsoft-linkedin

It has been a few months since Microsoft announced plans to buy LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, and it seems that losing bidder Saleforce is still nursing a bloody nose. Saleforce CEO Marc Benioff is complaining that there are antitrust concerns and is calling on regulators to block the purchase.

Having lost a bidding war with Microsoft -- despite offering more money -- Salesforce now appears hell-bent on messing things up for the company. Salesforce's chief legal officer, Burke Norton, has also voiced concerns that Microsoft could block access to user data to rivals. Microsoft says that this is nonsense, stressing that the deal has almost reached its conclusion.

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Why Salesforce wants to buy Twitter

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Salesforce is reportedly considering purchasing Twitter in a move that would give the software company access to the huge amount of data generated by the social network and could help fuel its push to develop artificial intelligence.

Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce.com, has grown his 17-year-old company to compete against Microsoft, Oracle and other big players in the field. Lately, the company has acquired a number of startups working in e-commerce and artificial intelligence. Talks between Twitter and Salesforce are said to be at an early stage but an acquisition could end up helping both companies.

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Salesforce launches Einstein AI platform

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Salesforce has announced the launch of its new Einstein artificial intelligence (AI) platform that has already been implemented into a number of the company's existing cloud services including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Analytics Cloud, App Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Community Cloud and IoT Cloud.

The company has also announced that it has formed a new unit called Salesforce Research that will be exploring deep learning, natural language processing and computer vision. The new unit's aim is to improve Salesforce products and it will be led by the company's chief scientist Richard Socher, who is responsible for co-founding the A.I. startup MetaMind which Salesforce acquired earlier this year.

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Salesforce acquires data analytics startup BeyondCore

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Salesforce has announced it is buying data analytics startup BeyondCore. In a tweet posted earlier this week, Marc Benioff says: "I am thrilled announce @Salesforce has acquired @beyondcoreinc to enhance the AI capabilities of Analytics Cloud".

Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed, but we do know that BeyondCore will integrate into Saleforce’s Analytics Cloud, and will leverage its AI knowledge.

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Salesforce buys Quip for $582 million

Cloud money

Salesforce is taking the fight to Alphabet and Microsoft with the $582 million acquisition of Quip, a document collaboration firm that competes with Alphabet’s Google Docs and Microsoft’s Office products.

The deal will be completed entirely in stock options and is Salesforce’ third acquisition in the last few months, following the £2.8 billion purchase of enterprise cloud commerce solutions provider Demandware and the acquisition of deep learning company MetaMind.

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Salesforce buys cloud commerce solutions provider Demandware

Cloud money

Salesforce has announced that it has agreed to purchase enterprise cloud commerce solutions provider Demandware in a $2.8 billion cash deal.

Salesforce will commence a tender offer for all outstanding shares of Demandware -- which boasts the likes of L’Oreal and Marks & Spencer as customers -- for $75.00 a share, with the transaction expected to close at the end of July 2016.

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Salesforce buys deep learning startup MetaMind

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Salesforce has acquired MetaMind and plans on ending the startup’s services on May 4. The deep learning company launched in 2014 with $8 million in initial funding from Salesforce’s cofounder and CEO Marc Benioff and Khosla Ventures.

MetaMind has really set itself apart from its competition through its image recognition capabilities. The site is able to identify the items in images and a demo called MetaMind Food Identification first gave users of the service a taste of what it was capable of.

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Box and Salesforce team up to improve cloud collaboration, productivity

Cloud handshake collaboration

Salesforce and Box have announced a partnership that aims to enable closer business collaboration and greater productivity.

The two companies have announced Salesforce Files Connect for Box to help businesses access files securely and Box SDK for Salesforce to assist the software development cycle.

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Spanning expands its Salesforce backup capability

Globe hard drive

Backup specialist Spanning will be using next week's Dreamforce '15 event to showcase the latest developments in its Saleforce backup solution.

Spanning Backup for Salesforce will now offer a European data center giving companies a choice of backup destination and aiding compliance with policies that specify data must be stored within the EU.

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Script injection vulnerability leaves Salesforce users open to phishing attacks

Phishing hook

A script injection vulnerability in the popular Salesforce cloud CRM system could have left users open to attack from phishing emails that appear to come from within a trusted domain.

Cloud application security specialist Elastica has released details of the vulnerability -- disclosed to Salesforce in early July -- which opened the door for attackers to use a trusted Salesforce application as a platform to conduct phishing attacks to steal end-users' login credentials and hijack accounts.

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