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Today’s topics include Google investigating reports of defects in Pixel 2 smartphones; how data analytics and machine learning is driving Google’s cloud growth; Cygilant’s a new vulnerability and patch management cloud service; and the new edition of the Couchbase Data Platform.
Google is investigating customer complaints of display defects and clicking during calls with the new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones that went on sale Oct. 19.
Complaints include displays of both models lacking full color vibrancy and having image burn-in concerns, while the Pixel 2 model also has irritating clicking noises during calls. Seang Chau, a vice president of engineering, said Google will add an optional “saturated” color mode to view richer colors on their screens, available in the next few weeks.
Google is also testing a software update to resolve image burn-in concerns, adding a new fade-out function to the navigation bar buttons at the bottom of the Pixel screen after a short period of inactivity. Additionally, the reported clicking noise can supposedly be alleviated by temporarily turning off NFC in settings.
More enterprises have begun signing up for Google’s cloud services because of the company’s commitment to open source technologies along with its implementations of data analytics and machine learning, according to CEO Sundar Pichai.
Alphabet announced on Oct. 26 better than expected net income of $6.7 billion on revenues of $27.8 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30. Ad sales accounted for more than $24 billion of that number last quarter, however, revenue from Google’s cloud, hardware and Android app sales on the Play Store also grew substantially.
Sales from these businesses increased from $2.4 billion in Q3 2016 to $3.4 billion in Q3 2017—an increase of nearly 40 percent year over year. They also made up over 12 percent of Google’s overall revenue, which is higher than the 10.8 percent of last year’s quarterly revenue.
Cygilant, which provides security as a cloud-based service, launched a new combined vulnerability and patch management subscription package.
The package is available to companies that have invested in the Qualys, Rapid7 or Tenable vulnerability management platforms but don’t have the resources to prevent breaches from known exploitable vulnerabilities or unpatched systems.
Cygilant VPM provides IT teams with a single-service offering that combines co-managed vulnerability management with auditable patch management and security engineering support from its global security operations centers to identify, prioritize and patch vulnerabilities in order to reduce the attack surface.
President and CEO Vijay Basani said in remarks to eWEEK, “[Customers] not only want to detect vulnerabilities but prioritize them and put in a well-defined process to patch those vulnerabilities in a timely manner.”
On Oct. 26, NoSQL database and data management software maker Couchbase released a new edition of its Couchbase Data Platform along with the general availability of Couchbase Server 5.0 and Couchbase Mobile 1.5.
Couchbase describes it as the “engagement database” for enterprises that want to provide “revolutionary” customer experiences in mobile, enterprise and desktop applications.
As an indication that Couchbase is on the right track, an IDC whitepaper released Oct. 27 references a study showing the ROI impact the Couchbase Data Platform has had on enterprises worldwide is a whopping 274 percent over a five-year period.
Today’s enterprises are under pressure to upgrade both their customer-facing applications and the foundation on which they run.