Today’s topics include cloud service reliability concerns, a report that Citrix is putting out the for sale sign, Cisco’s newly announced partnership with Chinese server maker Inspur, and Apple finally releases watchOS2 code.
Major service outages at data centers operated by Microsoft and Amazon are reminders that despite its sheer scale, the cloud is not immune to show-stopping bugs.
On Monday, after receiving complaints from several users, Microsoft’s official Twitter account confirmed that its cloud-backed Skype calling, messaging and video conferencing platform was experiencing technical issues.
Early Sunday morning, Amazon’s North Virginia data center suffered a series of disruptions, resulting in a 5-hour outage of its cloud computing services and affecting a number of major customers including Airbnb, Netflix, Reddit and Tinder.
Citrix Systems, one of a growing number of tech vendors to spark the interest of activist investor Elliott Management, reportedly is scrambling to find a buyer before it’s forced to sell off assets.
Citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation, Reuters reported that officials with Citrix, which has a market capitalization of $11.6 billion, are meeting with buyout firms and have talked with other tech vendors—including Dell—to try to find a company that will buy it rather than having to shed businesses.
Cisco Systems on Sept. 23 announced a partnership with Chinese server maker Inspur Group in an effort to gain a stronger foothold in a highly desirable market where there is growing competition and a national government looking to boost the country’s homegrown tech vendors.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins’ announcement of the Inspur partnership coincided with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s arrival in Seattle for a state visit to the U.S.
After a five-day delay due to software flaws, Apple has released its new watchOS 2 operating system for the Apple Watch. Last week, Apple postponed the release of its watchOS 2 operating system software update for the Apple Watch due to code flaws. Held up at the last minute, the release was originally scheduled for Sept. 16. Repairs on the undisclosed bug took several days to complete.