Google Cloud Support Is Now Priced Per Person
Google Cloud Next is looking to serve enterprise customers in ways that better meet their needs with a new set of support plans for its cloud platform. Businesses will now pay per user for support privileges, replacing a tiered system that required businesses to pay a flat fee per month plus a percentage of their monthly product usage. The per-user pricing aims to streamline the support process and reduce costs for business customers.
Our View: IT is typically backlogged with tasks while the business waits to implement key solutions to remain competitive. In this competitive space, cloud solutions offer attractive benefits to business stakeholders, especially around agility and cost. Cloud integration isn’t just about the technology – it’s a dedication to establish a solid relationship with the cloud vendor. Understanding where the cloud solution is moving and what issues are being addressed is critical to creating an organizational roadmap for the future. For more, see our blueprint, Own the Cloud: Strategy and Action Plan.
GE Attracting Tech Talent
General Electric is excelling at hiring enough tech talent to facilitate digital transformations, a top challenge that most CIOs face. GE continues to attract top tech talent, including executives from Apple, Google, and Microsoft, with promises of conducting a massive digital transformation, the chance to crack game-changing challenges, and appealing compensation packages. GE has insourced its talent acquisition and has several recruiters with software domain expertise.
Our View: Many organizations struggle with hiring quality candidates. Use our research to Design a Pre-Hire Test to Select the Best, and instead of using the variety of personality assessments on the market, focus on competency-based testing.
Verizon Cuts $350M Off Deal to Acquire Yahoo
Verizon Communications cut $350 million from its plan to acquire a majority of Yahoo’s web assets after Yahoo disclosed that it suffered two massive breaches of customer data in 2013 and 2014. Cybersecurity risk assessments are a critical part of the due diligence of any merger and acquisition activity – even for companies not in the technology industry. Cyber risks can weaken the value of a deal and delay a proper return on investment.
Our View: Use our risk assessment methodology, Develop and Conduct Threat and Risk Assessments, to quantifiably evaluate the threat severity for any new or existing project. Connect your threat and risk assessment results to your wider risk management program. Doing this can inform your organization of the macro level of risk that it faces.
The Lift: March Madness
March Madness continues to live up to its name. The first weekend of the NCAA Tournament came with plenty of upsets that wrecked many brackets. Duke and Villanova, two teams that many experts projected could win it all, were both eliminated in the round of 32. That creates an opportunity for a team to make a surprise run at the Final Four.