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Amazon Web services Growing Fast

Khalid Husainy — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 06:20:51 +0000

Amazon web services ‘growing fast’

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has always insisted on reinvesting profits into the business

Technology giant Amazon has said its web services business generated sales of $1.57bn (£1.04bn) in the first quarter of the year and is profitable.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing offering that makes money by charging businesses to host websites and other applications.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said in a statement: “Amazon web services is a $5bn business and still growing fast.”

The firm’s total revenues for the quarter rose by 15% to $22.7bn.

The increase was stronger than expected, with revenues buoyed by increased sales in North America, Amazon’s biggest market. Despite the rise, the company reported a loss of $57m for the quarter.

Shares in the firm rose nearly 5% in after-hours trading.

The AWS division provides cloud computing services to household names including Dropbox, Spotify, Netflix, Uber, Samsung and even the CIA – helping them send notifications, stream video and synchronise data.

The figures for the first time confirm that Amazon’s cloud business is the biggest of its kind in terms of revenue.

Analysis: Leo Kelion, technology news editor, BBC Online

On the conference call one of the analysts expressed surprise at the scale of the margins enjoyed by Amazon Web Services.

The division posted $265m of operating income in the first quarter, which was not only higher than last year’s figure, but more importantly not the loss that several analysts had expected.

Even so, Amazon made clear that its business model for AWS was to innovate quickly and then pass cost savings onto customers in order to remain the dominant player.

Recent AWS add-ons include Amazon Machine Learning – a service that automatically analyses clients’ data to help them reduce their customer churn and a feature that makes it easier for developers to run “internet of things” apps.

Last year AWS’ chief told the BBC that the unit could in time become bigger than Amazon’s retail business.

But with Microsoft, Google and IBM among rivals seeking to eat into its market share, the question is whether those margins will hold up over the long term.

‘Surprisingly profitable’

The profitability of the cloud business could soothe investors, who have been anxious for the firm to turn a profit and stop investing in new projects, which has seen them move into tablet computers, smartphones, and a short-lived nappy service.

AWS “was surprisingly more profitable than forecast”, Dan Kurnos, an analyst at the Benchmark Company, told the BBC.

That “should help [Amazon] justify their heavy investment spending and provide a clearer path to profitability for the [overall] company as AWS grows,” he added.

Michael Pachter, from Wedbush Securities said: “I think most of us believed that the business [AWS] was breakeven at best, and it is surprising that it generates such a significant portion of profit.”

“The stock is up because it is clear that if that business scales, Amazon can be immensely profitable,” he added.

AWS in numbers

launched in 2006
more than one million customers, including more than 600 government agencies worldwide
27% market share of the cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) sector, compared with Microsoft’s 10% and IBM’s 7%, according to Synergy Research
computer servers based in eight countries across 28 zones. Each zone hosts between one and six data centres.
Each data centre holds between 50,000 to 80,000 computer servers

Source: Amazon, unless otherwise stated

About Google add

Khalid Husainy — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 06:18:54 +0000

Google profits buoyed by ad revenue

US technology giant Google reported a 4% increase in profits to $3.59bn (£2.38bn), as strong advertising sales helped boost the firm’s bottom line.

Google said advertising sales for the first three months of 2015 were $15.5bn, an 11% increase from the same period a year earlier.

Total revenue also increased by 12% to $17.3bn, but like other US firms, the company was hurt by the strong dollar.

Shares in the firm rose more than 3% in trading after markets had closed.

There had been fears on Wall Street that profits would be weaker due to investment in new businesses and weaker advertising revenue as more people access Google via mobile devices, where advertising rates are lower.

But the fears turned out to be unfounded – a fall in the average price of an advert was offset by an increase in the number of adverts.

“The concern was that the first quarter results could have been much worse,” Colin Gillis from BGC Financial said. “There’s a certain degree of relief rally happening.”

In a statement accompanying the results, chief financial officer Patrick Pichette said the company continued “to see great momentum in our mobile advertising business and opportunities with brand advertisers”.

However, Google did suffer from the stronger dollar. Taking out the impact of currency movements, Mr Pichette said revenue grew by 17% in the quarter compared with a year earlier.

The results also showed the firm continued hire new staff at a high rate, with employee numbers up 9,000 over the past year.

You have got an IDEA !

Khalid Husainy — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:27:32 +0000

You have got an idea. So, what’s the big deal? Millions get ideas. You can get them just anywhere on the street. If you think we’re trying to offend you, you’re nave. We’re trying to tell you the harsh reality of the world.
An idea is an idea until you do something about it. How many ideas have you implemented so far? How many times have you lamented after watching somebody else implement your idea?
Get ideas and geniuses too. Often we see basking in the glory of success and geniuses watching them enviously!
What happened here? It’s just that they got hands on Business Plans. Geniuses lagged behind. This means that an idea properly presented and marketed can turn into a roaring success. This also means that simply churning out genius ideas is not enough.
So, what category do you come in – geniuses?
Converting ideas into money
Well, if you’ve decided to turn your idea into a business, get ready to put together a professional business plan.
The best way to start writing a plan is jotting down your idea and giving the reason for wanting to turn it into a venture. This will give you a vision.
Next, explain how you will go about operating your idea. This will give you a strategy.
Then, explain how your idea will benefit customers. Will it alter their life? Will it make them happier? This will give you a marketing strategy.
Thereafter, elaborate how you will utilize the funds for business operation. How many people will you require to run the company? How much time do you expect your company to start earning profits? This is important because investors may want to know when they can cash in through your business. Your financers may want to know when you can repay money.
While working on your business plan, you must conduct:
Industry analysis, which reveals your niche market trend.
Customer analysis, which reveals current preferences and demands.
Competitive analysis, which reveals your rivals, their products, their position in the market, upcoming companies, and more.
Make sure your business plan has an executive summary. Plans without summaries tend to fail. Usually, readers get an idea of how promising your proposal is by reading the summary. They may not read further if your summary fails to impress them.
Patent your idea
If you’re confident that your idea has the power to breakthrough in the market, patent it. Know the correct procedure of getting intellectual property rights. Stay away from fake patenting schemes and so on. You can talk to an attorney specializing in business rights and patenting. Be careful not to let your idea slip away in other hands. Or you may lose a golden opportunity to make millions!
Once you secure your idea, the only thing you need is a well-written business plan. If writing is not your cup of tea, hire business planners. They work in a team consisting of specialist plan writers, editors, researchers, project managers, analysts, financial experts, and business consultants. Together, they put up business plans.
Master plans offers excellent Business Plans. If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur with a promising idea, log on to the site for consultation and to have Examples of Business Plans..

Information technology (IT) is the application of computers and telecommunications equipment to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data,[1] often in the context of a business or other enterprise

Imtiaz Hanif — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 10:52:52 +0000

Information technology (IT) is the application of computers and telecommunications equipment to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data,^[1] often in the context of a business or other enterprise.^[2]

The term is commonly used as a synonym for computers and computer networks, but it also encompasses other information distribution technologies such as television and telephones. Several industries are associated with information technology, including computer hardware, software, electronics, semiconductors, internet, telecom equipment, e-commerce and computer services.^[3]^[a]

Humans have been storing, retrieving, manipulating and communicating information since the Sumerians in Mesopotamia developed writing in about 3000 BC,^[5] but the term information technology in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958 article published in the Harvard Business Review; authors Harold J. Leavitt and Thomas L. Whisler commented that “the new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology (IT).” Their definition consists of three categories: techniques for processing, the application of statistical and mathematical methods to decision-making, and the simulation of higher-order thinking through computer programs.^[6]

Based on the storage and processing technologies employed, it is possible to distinguish four distinct phases of IT development: pre-mechanical (3000 BC – 1450 AD), mechanical (1450–1840), electromechanical (1840–1940) and electronic (1940–present).^[5] This article focuses on the most recent period (electronic), which began in about 1940..