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The buyout of OVRL added ~10mm shares -
From the latest filing for ANY -
The HTFBS Newsletter has always preached buy and hold until ANY becomes a Big stock.
I believe they practice what they preach!!!
And, I believe, as they do, that buy and hold is the correct path to huge gains!!!
Thanks sons4, terrific PR today. Doesn't get much better than this -
"Virtualizing physical desktops offers tremendous OPEX and CAPEX savings, however the lack of consistent performance and the complexity of traditional solutions has hindered the adoption of VDI by IT administrators," said Nilesh Patel, vice president of Product Management and Marketing at Sphere3D. "With guaranteed consistent performance and drop-in appliance simplicity, customers using V3 hyper-converged appliances have shaved off months from their VDI projects while enjoying substantial TCO savings and a compelling ROI. Login VSI provided us an objective way to measure performance and compare our results against a variety of other competing solutions. Our test results demonstrate what our customers consistently tell us – V3 delivers the best end user experience."
Thanks Pete,
We have all learned a lot about Sphere 3D's tech over the last 18 months and have seen many major companies affiliate themselves with Sphere 3D.
I hope Sphere 3D doesn't get gobbled up this year by a tech whale.
Yes, of course.
Simon Bramfitt was referring to GPU-enabled 3D grafhics in Azure -
Glassware may also open the door to low-cost GPU-enabled 3D graphics apps in Azure—something that would be of immediate interest to its education customers.
HaHa, me too!
Simon Bramfitt knows Sphere's tech and that is why he would like to see Sphere add GPU to it's offering soon.
There are a lot of reasons why MSFT Azure has aligned themselves with Sphere 3D!!!
I would venture to say that almost everyone would prefer the Glassware 2.0 Microvisor + GPU -
The Glassware 2.0 Microvisor + GPU vs hypervisors + GPU -
It is easier to explain using a concrete example. Let’s consider a PACS (healthcare imaging software) that runs on XP workstations. We can virtualize that PACS application on a Glassware server. Since the Microvisor only uses what it needs from Windows XP, it only uses about 5-10% of XP. Because we know that the application is graphics heavy, we can add a GPU chip to the server and the Microvisor allows for direct access to the chip therefore improving graphics rendering performance. Compare this instance with hypervisors. Hypervisors prevent direct access to the hardware. All access is made through virtual drivers which are cumbersome at best and do not work at worst.
The Glassware 2.0 Microvisor is highly efficient and powerful. It fills in the stack allowing Glassware 2.0 to virtualize anything you want from your Windows and Non- Windows environments. All this while still outperforming any of the hypervisor-based solutions.
You can actually utilize the microvisor for other functions as well. Examples would include management, clustering or orchestration. This approach enables you to maintain performance scalability despite what would otherwise be cumbersome overhead to the system.
Microvisors are an integral part of the overall Glassware 2.0 unique approach to virtualization and an integral component that enables us to virtualize non-windows based applications.
http://sphere3d.com/glassware-2-0-microvisor/
Welcome aboard Doubloon,
Volatile, but, very small market cap with unparalleled fundamentals for a young company.
The patience you have exhibited in the mining sector will do you well here.
Sphere 3D's Glassware 2.0 Meets Standards for Safe, Secure Delivery of Pearson TestNav 7.5 on Chromebooks
Safe, Secure - Nice!!!
More incentive for school districts to use Glassware!
From 76.18 down to 60.10.
I think PIP may have viewed the MSFT news as a chance to unload a bunch of ANY from their distressed fund.
The sooner they're out of the picture, the better.
57% of Fortune 500 companies already use Azure -
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/?WT.mc_id=azurebg_US_sem_bing_BR_BRReviews_Nontest_AzureHomePage_advantagesof+azure&WT.srch=1
I listened to the presentation twice. It's a sales pitch to potential investors.
I thought that Poet might have third party verification of a product that works.
May be too early for that.
Is there something here that investors can hang their hat on?
Proof of concept?
Prototype?
Customer?
Thanks
Investors need to be smart enough not to be fooled by this hanky panky. You are basically telling us that you have the luck to get out and re-enter at the right time. Or, get out and lose the future appreciation on the shares you sold due to impatience and tell us that there is nothing wrong with that. Ha!
Your post mentioning super-leveraged brought back memories of an investor/trader conference I attended about 10 years ago.
The trader session was headed by a guy that had lost ALL of his money in 1 day on 9/11 (more than $8mm). He had his account at Lightspeed (or Light (Lite) something). He had up to 20-1 leverage. Trading was halted during the day on 9/11 and the market opened about 25% lower about a week later, if I remember right.
His broker sold his entire portfolio at the open when the market started trading again. He was so leveraged that it wiped him out.
This part has stuck in my mind -
The trader asked us where we thought he went wrong. Most thought too much leverage. He said no, he loved leverage and always will use it to the max. Others thought he should have had stop loss orders in. He said he did, but the market was halted before most were executed.
What, in his mind, was his mistake?
For his answer scroll down -
The trader said he broke one of the commandments of leveraged trading by having all of his trades in long positions. He said a leveraged trader should always hold nearly an even position in long and short trades.
Anybody come up with the same answer?
Yes, covering means buying. When the shorts buy to cover the borrowed shares are returned to the accounts that loaned them out.
The shares are then available to be borrowed again.
Short covering adds to the number of shares available to short.
It's possible that there is short covering happening now and the covering is at Canadian brokerages from which we haven't had any info on their availability of shares to short.
I'm not sure I agree with the broker that said the shorts are covering.
No shares to borrow at IB.
No shares to borrow at Fidelity.
No shares to borrow at another broker that was posted earlier.
If they were covering, there would be shares available to short IMO.
I just called Fidelity. They have zero shares of ANY to loan to the shorts!!!
When I get a chance, I call and find out.
No that's not it -
At Fidelity, all loans are affected when the interest rate changes. I have lent shares of other stocks in the past. The interest rate I was paid fluctuated according to the most recent rate charged.
Thanks umiak,
It seems odd that they wouldn't have NASDAQ listed ANY on their shortable list even if there were no shares available.
slyestjester,
Can you provide a link for the short interest rates at IB.
I would like to question Fidelity about why their rates are only 26.25 for the ANY shorts.
Remember the $75mm shelf registration?
Remember Leo stating that he wanted to remove the going-concern language from the filings before up listing?
My wag is that we'll see another financing through Aspire, or a deal with Big Pharma, before CTIX up lists to the NASDAQ.
Either of these could happen soon.
Here you go dough -
To our Shareholders, Partners and Customers,
Last year was a transformational year for us and we closed it out with a bang! We took a giant step forward as a company through bold moves designed to provide a solid foundation from which we can launch our many fantastic new products. We closed out 2014 with strong financial results as compared to our prior results, and have started building momentum for 2015.
Like most longs, looking forward to what 2015 brings.
For fiscal Q4 2014, we expect to exceed revenue projections with a
record US$9.0 million (C$10.44 million) for the quarter. As a result of our commitment to operational efficiency, we worked with Overland management, prior to the completion of our acquisition, to ensure that their targeted US$20 million in annualized operating expense reductions were not only met, but were 15% (US$3 million) ahead of expectations. Our annualized revenue run rate has grown from less than US$4 million in Q1 2014 to over US$36 million in Q4 2014, and we have set our goal for an annualized run rate of over US$160 million in Q4 2015.
Tremendous accomplishment in identifying the fat and cutting it. Management did what they said they were going to do in improving operational efficiency.
The founders of the company anticipated that the evolution of
technology would see people connecting to their data through an ever increasing variety of devices operating on a wide array of platforms. Today billions of cloud connected devices utilize many diverse operating systems and multiple versions of those operating systems.
Right time right place for the revolutionary Glassware technology. Welcome to the Glassification of the Cloud!
The proliferation of billions of proprietary devices has led to a
growing set of problems surrounding software compatibility, security, and support, as well as hardware reliance for functionality. Virtualization technology, whether local or in the cloud, was initially envisioned as the solution, however increasing complexity, lack of compatibility with today's hardware, unmet performance expectations and cost concerns are creating multiple barriers to adoption for businesses of all sizes.
Glassware addresses every area of these critical needs.
In addition, with all these new "data creators" now online, we are
seeing an incredible data explosion. With data production expected to grow 44 fold between 2009 and 2020, there is enormous pressure on enterprises that are responsible for the storage, protection and management of this unstructured data. Consequently there is a significant market opportunity for us to assist organizations to address these problems and we find ourselves well positioned to do so.
Data has expanded almost exponentially since its early start in "computing" and continues to expand daily. The Sphere total solution with storage and protection will be rolled out for the world to see in 2015!
The proliferation of billions of proprietary devices has led to a
growing set of problems surrounding software compatibility, security, and support, as well as hardware reliance for functionality. Virtualization technology, whether local or in the cloud, was initially envisioned as the solution, however increasing complexity, lack of compatibility with today's hardware, unmet performance expectations and cost concerns are creating multiple barriers to adoption for businesses of all sizes.
Glassware addresses every area of these critical needs.
In addition, with all these new "data creators" now online, we are
seeing an incredible data explosion. With data production expected to grow 44 fold between 2009 and 2020, there is enormous pressure on enterprises that are responsible for the storage, protection and management of this unstructured data. Consequently there is a significant market opportunity for us to assist organizations to address these problems and we find ourselves well positioned to do so.
Data has expanded almost exponentially since its early start in "computing" and continues to expand daily. The Sphere total solution with storage and protection will be rolled out for the world to see in 2015!
We believe the investments we have made in our proprietary
containerization approach to virtualization, distributed hyper-convergence, and scale out data management architectures, are disruptive forces that can challenge the status-quo in IT. Going forward, the tenets of our growth strategy encompass leveraging our 30 years of innovation to deliver leading edge technologies, accelerating adoption of those technologies through our world class distribution and partner ecosystem, and expanding our strategic partnerships to deliver new business models and services.
The HOT buzzword of the day...containers. "Proprietary Containerization"
Will this be the HOTTEST buzzwords of 2015?
Evidence of this strategy can be found in some of our recent
successes in helping organizations deal with real world problems. I would like to highlight just a few of these since completing the Overland acquisition on December 1, 2014:
Earlier this month, we announced that our flagship container platform that virtualizes applications, Glassware 2.0®, was able to solve platform compatibility issues for New Caney ISD, an independent school district in Texas. New Caney is one of the largest deployments of Chromebooks in education, with over 10,000 devices used by students. They were looking for a way to deliver certain Windows- based applications, including graphically intense applications used in their labs, to student Chromebooks - quickly and affordably. Through our unique approach, we were able to deliver where others could not, and future-proofed their device investment at the same time.
In healthcare, through our partnership with Novarad, we are delivering Glassware 2.0 on purpose- built appliances for virtualization of medical imaging software, and providing our V3 hyper- converged platform for virtual desktop deployments. This approach allows customers to deploy a 100% virtual workspace versus having to manage both virtual and physical desktops—a relatively common occurrence due to limitations in virtualizing certain types of applications through conventional technologies.
New Caney and Novarad...Education and Healthcare two heavyweight wins for Sphere...so much for Shorty's argument of Vaporware. Has anyone noticed that Shorty no longer attacks the technology, but the same tired old arguments from last year...the clock is ticking.
Both Glassware and V3 platforms come with simple user interfaces
which reduce time spent on managing infrastructure, freeing up more time for delivering critical IT functions to users.
In the Managed Service Provider (MSP) segment we are working with Ericsson and are at various stages of proof of concept (POC) and pilot programs with some of North America's leading telecommunication companies. In conjunction with our partners, we are offering a unique distributed hyper-converged infrastructure and associated management software that enable flexible virtual desktop deployments with unparalleled performance.
The synergistic acquisition of V3 lead to "proof of concept" with several of North America's leading telecommunication companies, and Ericsson relationship is a HUGE fish and win for the company already!
In the financial services segment, we are helping customers redefine
their end-to-end data management infrastructure and provide them multi-tier protection for their distributed enterprise environment. With the combination of our scale-up and scale-out storage portfolio, and with our RDX QuikStor removable storage solutions, customers are enjoying online and off-line data protection coupled with enhanced data mobility that is uniquely possible with Sphere 3D's versatile data protection offerings.
Security is becoming THE issue of the day in this age of BIG DATA and Sphere has what sounds like a unique solution!
With over 1.3 billion people around the world utilizing Windows
operating systems, we are seeing increased interest in our Glassware containerization technology for Windows applications, and are being asked to assist organizations with everything from converting legacy 16, 32 and 64 bit applications to providing virtual applications for customers that don't require a complete virtual desktop for their users. We recently announced that we have become a Microsoft® OEM Embedded partner which allows us to better serve our customers and provide them with a simplified Windows licensing schema.
The importance of this Microsoft OEM Embedded agreement FURTHER legitimized Glassware (as if it needed anymore...only to Shorty I guess) and Sphere 3D a PLAYER to be reckoned with!
In addition to our customer successes, we are pleased to see a
renewed vigor from the Overland partner ecosystem as we begin to introduce new disruptive technologies. We recently announced an expanded relationship with Promark, an Ingram Micro company and one of the world's largest distributors of IT. Our worldwide network of field representatives are training and supporting additional partners as we ramp up availability of our new technologies. Through this renewed commitment from our channel partners, we have been adding additional listings of Sphere 3D technologies to GSA (US General Services Administration) contracts and will continue to do so throughout the year. At the same time, we are continuing to see stronger commitment and focus from our worldwide OEM partners who continue to thrive and see their businesses grow considerably through the differentiated value proposition of our offerings in their respective markets.
Wow...another working arrangement with Promark/Ingram Micro. Only ANOTHER mult $B company aligning with Spiffy! Calculate the potential of the GSA alone and factor in Eric K's Washington connections...enough to make one sit up and notice for sure.
Love that hammer candle that formed yesterday on high volume as Spiffy bounced from $5.55 to close at $6.34!
Tremendous future for Sphere 3D -
Great to have you back posting!!!
For anyone new to Sphere 3D -
This PR lit the fuse that ignited Sphere 3D's recent price appreciation. There's a lot of important information within -
http://sphere3d.com/sphere-3d-provides-business-update-in-open-letter-to-shareholders/
SAN JOSE, CA–(Marketwired – Feb 17, 2015) – Sphere 3D Corporation (NASDAQ: ANY), a virtualization and data management solutions provider, today provided a corporate update through an open letter to shareholders.
To our Shareholders, Partners and Customers,
Last year was a transformational year for us and we closed it out with a bang! We took a giant step forward as a company through bold moves designed to provide a solid foundation from which we can launch our many fantastic new products. We closed out 2014 with strong financial results as compared to our prior results, and have started building momentum for 2015.
For fiscal Q4 2014, we expect to exceed revenue projections with a record US$9.0 million (C$10.44 million) for the quarter. As a result of our commitment to operational efficiency, we worked with Overland management, prior to the completion of our acquisition, to ensure that their targeted US$20 million in annualized operating expense reductions were not only met, but were 15% (US$3 million) ahead of expectations. Our annualized revenue run rate has grown from less than US$4 million in Q1 2014 to over US$36 million in Q4 2014, and we have set our goal for an annualized run rate of over US$160 million in Q4 2015.
The founders of the company anticipated that the evolution of technology would see people connecting to their data through an ever increasing variety of devices operating on a wide array of platforms. Today billions of cloud connected devices utilize many diverse operating systems and multiple versions of those operating systems.
The proliferation of billions of proprietary devices has led to a growing set of problems surrounding software compatibility, security, and support, as well as hardware reliance for functionality. Virtualization technology, whether local or in the cloud, was initially envisioned as the solution, however increasing complexity, lack of compatibility with today’s hardware, unmet performance expectations and cost concerns are creating multiple barriers to adoption for businesses of all sizes.
In addition, with all these new “data creators” now online, we are seeing an incredible data explosion. With data production expected to grow 44 fold between 2009 and 2020, there is enormous pressure on enterprises that are responsible for the storage, protection and management of this unstructured data. Consequently there is a significant market opportunity for us to assist organizations to address these problems and we find ourselves well positioned to do so.
We believe the investments we have made in our proprietary containerization approach to virtualization, distributed hyper-convergence, and scale out data management architectures, are disruptive forces that can challenge the status-quo in IT. Going forward, the tenets of our growth strategy encompass leveraging our 30 years of innovation to deliver leading edge technologies, accelerating adoption of those technologies through our world class distribution and partner ecosystem, and expanding our strategic partnerships to deliver new business models and services.
Evidence of this strategy can be found in some of our recent successes in helping organizations deal with real world problems. I would like to highlight just a few of these since completing the Overland acquisition on December 1, 2014:
•Earlier this month, we announced that our flagship container platform that virtualizes applications, Glassware 2.0®, was able to solve platform compatibility issues for New Caney ISD, an independent school district in Texas. New Caney is one of the largest deployments of Chromebooks in education, with over 10,000 devices used by students. They were looking for a way to deliver certain Windows-based applications, including graphically intense applications used in their labs, to student Chromebooks – quickly and affordably. Through our unique approach, we were able to deliver where others could not, and future-proofed their device investment at the same time.
•In healthcare, through our partnership with Novarad, we are delivering Glassware 2.0 on purpose-built appliances for virtualization of medical imaging software, and providing our V3 hyper-converged platform for virtual desktop deployments. This approach allows customers to deploy a 100% virtual workspace versus having to manage both virtual and physical desktops — a relatively common occurrence due to limitations in virtualizing certain types of applications through conventional technologies. Both Glassware and V3 platforms come with simple user interfaces which reduce time spent on managing infrastructure, freeing up more time for delivering critical IT functions to users.
•In the Managed Service Provider (MSP) segment we are working with Ericsson and are at various stages of proof of concept (POC) and pilot programs with some of North America’s leading telecommunication companies. In conjunction with our partners, we are offering a unique distributed hyper-converged infrastructure and associated management software that enable flexible virtual desktop deployments with unparalleled performance.
•In the financial services segment, we are helping customers redefine their end-to-end data management infrastructure and provide them multi-tier protection for their distributed enterprise environment. With the combination of our scale-up and scale-out storage portfolio, and with our RDX QuikStor removable storage solutions, customers are enjoying online and off-line data protection coupled with enhanced data mobility that is uniquely possible with Sphere 3D’s versatile data protection offerings.
With over 1.3 billion people around the world utilizing Windows operating systems, we are seeing increased interest in our Glassware containerization technology for Windows applications, and are being asked to assist organizations with everything from converting legacy 16, 32 and 64 bit applications to providing virtual applications for customers that don’t require a complete virtual desktop for their users. We recently announced that we have become a Microsoft® OEM Embedded partner which allows us to better serve our customers and provide them with a simplified Windows licensing schema.
In addition to our customer successes, we are pleased to see a renewed vigor from the Overland partner ecosystem as we begin to introduce new disruptive technologies. We recently announced an expanded relationship with Promark, an Ingram Micro company and one of the world’s largest distributors of IT. Our worldwide network of field representatives are training and supporting additional partners as we ramp up availability of our new technologies. Through this renewed commitment from our channel partners, we have been adding additional listings of Sphere 3D technologies to GSA (US General Services Administration) contracts and will continue to do so throughout the year. At the same time, we are continuing to see stronger commitment and focus from our worldwide OEM partners who continue to thrive and see their businesses grow considerably through the differentiated value proposition of our offerings in their respective markets.
It is truly exciting to see enterprise experience and start-up innovation come together under the same umbrella to usher in a new era of opportunity — opportunity for our 400+ employees, our thousands of partners in over 90 countries, our growing installed base of over 1 million units, and for our shareholders.
We have come a long way since our inception just a few short years ago and have had a very transformative 2014. We have made the transition from research and development to commercial operations, we have bolstered our execution capabilities, and we have expanded our intellectual property portfolio, both organically and through acquisition.
Finally, let me say that it is gratifying to see how our products generate excitement and create new possibilities. Our organization is driven to succeed and although there is still hard work that lies ahead, we are confident 2015 will unlock additional opportunities that will serve to benefit our shareholders, partners and customers.
Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Eric L. Kelly
CEO and Chairman
Sphere 3D Corporation
I may be all wet here, but, after the initial spike this morning, I think there were a lot more traders selling today than buying.
The initial spike took the share price ~.60 above the upper Bollinger band and ANY has had a big move up.
What's interesting is that the share price held pretty steady the rest of the day and even spiked into the close.
Could be institutions battling for what they perceive to be cheap shares. If this is the case, this could run a lot higher in the short term.
Either way, I'm holding for the big payout when we trade much higher or when a buyout offer shows up.
Sphere 3D (ANY) up 12%. That is a great article. Sphere 3D is my favorite stock. Here is a Sphere 3D research report that was sent out yesterday.
This is by far the most comprehensive DD anywhere on Sphere 3D (posted with permission) - http://t.co/CXZ0UrHett
That is a great article. Sphere 3D is my favorite stock. Here is a Sphere 3D research report that was sent out yesterday.
This is by far the most comprehensive DD anywhere on Sphere 3D (posted with permission) - http://t.co/CXZ0UrHett
Here's a couple of customer validations of Sphere 3D's Glassware 2.0 -
SAN JOSE, CA–(Marketwired – Feb 4, 2015) – Sphere 3D Corporation (NASDAQ: ANY) today announced the availability of Glassware 2.0® for deployment in K-12 schools that are looking to deliver Windows application workspaces in support of a variety of devices — such as Android®, Chromebook, iPad®, OS X® and Windows RT® — and can work within an existing IT infrastructure or operate as a standalone solution.
“We tried traditional virtualization techniques but the specific applications we needed couldn’t virtualize or wouldn’t scale. With our Glassware 2.0 enabled Dell™ server, we were able to virtualize the applications we needed and future proof our investment in Chromebooks for our students,” commented Dustin Hardin, Director of Technology of New Caney ISD, a current Glassware customer. “Having the ability to securely deliver virtualized Windows-based applications to our students allows us to plan around our own technology roadmap instead of having to rely on multiple software vendors to release compatible versions or maintain support for existing versions already in use by our schools.”
http://sphere3d.com/sphere-3d-glassware-delivers-solutions-for-digital-learning-environments/
“We have tested many of today’s leading virtualization technologies and have looked at a number of potential solutions; none were able to deliver the simple migration to virtualization and incredible performance that we get from the Sphere 3D approach to virtual computing.” said Paul Shumway, Senior Vice President of Novarad, “The first time we saw our products run on Glassware 2.0, we were sold “.
“Novarad’s radiology software solutions are consistently given top KLAS ratings and recognized for their ease of use, advanced features, and ability to increase productivity” said Stoney Hall VP Global Sales, Sphere 3D “we are honored to be working with one of the healthcare industry's leading vendors in integrated PACS and radiology information systems”.
http://sphere3d.com/news-press-releases/Sphere3D_Novarad_News_FINAL-042414.pdf
In response to high customer interest at SIIM, Novarad placed orders for Glassware 2.0™, delivered on Overland SnapServer DX2 appliances, and for V3 Appliances with Desktop Cloud Orchestrator™ management software. A portion of the initial order from Novarad will fulfill a deployment to one of the leading Hospital Systems in the United States.
Through a drop-in appliance approach, NovaGlass is able to deliver enterprise-class performance and reliability coupled with the scalability required to meet the needs of customers that range in size from small clinics to large Hospital systems.
http://sphere3d.com/news-press-releases/Virtualization%20Wins%20-%20Novarad%20Success%20With%20NovaGlass%20Imaging%20Software%20Leads%20to%20Glassware%202.0%20and%20V3%20Appliance%20Demand.pdf
Cloud Computing Wars 2015 - Google, Microsoft, Docker, Sphere 3D And VMware
Mar. 2, 2015 7:50 PM ET | 1 comment | Includes: ANY, GOOG, GOOGL, MSFT, VMW
Disclosure: The author is long GOOGL, ANY. (More...)
Summary
•2015 is the year in which the land of cloud computing will be rattled by the war between Google and Microsoft.
•The result of the ensuring war will have a profound impact on the market over the very long term.
•Google has used its superior agility to quickly seize control over three extremely valuable and strategically important gunfire points in the war: Docker, Sphere 3D and VMware.
•Google, Microsoft, VMware, Docker and Sphere 3D are tangled in a pentagon love affair, and who ends up with whom in this soap opera is a guessing at this moment.
Cloud computing has gradually entered the second phase of the product life cycle. Naturally, several players have established strong reputations and economies of scale. Although companies with innovative technologies and superior new products can still take advantage of ample room in a fast-growing market, competition has intensified, and some early consolidations are starting to occur.
VMware (NYSE:VMW) and Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS), two pioneers and early leaders of cloud computing, have gradually lost their leadership status to late-coming software and dot com giants. Recently, Amazon Web Services has become the market-share leader, especially in the public cloud domain, but the two biggest companies in the computer world - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) - are chasing closely behind and quickly narrowing the gap. These two software giants have distinct advantages over Amazon and others in the long-term battle for the cloud computing crown: they have strong roots and mass user bases in operating systems and computing hardware - two of the most fundamental elements of personal/enterprise computing.
Both companies have raised their investments (in terms of capital and human resources) in cloud computing over the past year, and have made strong vows to go "all-in" in 2015. As a result, it is probably not an overstatement to say that 2015 is the year in which the land of cloud computing will be rattled by the troops these two giants spur into action. The result of the ensuring war will have a profound impact on the market over the very long term.
As it has done so many times before, Google has been using its unparalleled ability to invent and evolve to quickly enhance its cloud products, and has made leaps in the expansion of its product capabilities and functionalities. Three months ago, the company announced VPN capability for its cloud service, and provides carrier interconnects to let users access the Google cloud platform from Equinix, IX Reach, Level 3, Tata Communications, Telx, Verizon and Zayo facilities around the world. Just this month, the company also announced the addition of monitoring services - a feature that developers love - to its cloud platform. In addition, Google has again used its superior agility to quickly seize control over three extremely valuable and strategically important gunfire points in the war of cloud computing: Docker, Sphere 3D (NASDAQ:ANY) and VMware (VMW).
The battles over the ownerships of these gunfire points can at large determine the outcome of the war this year. So far, it looks like Google has an upper hand over all competitors, including Microsoft, in all three battles. Investors of cloud computing stocks should be fully aware of these key points and constantly monitor the battles between these two giants and their alliances this year in order to reassess and adjust their positions accordingly.
Gunfire Point 1: Docker (container)
One new concept of cloud computing that emerged in 2014 and is gaining adoption at lightning speed is container-based API (Application Program Interface) and application servicing provided by Docker, an open platform for building, shipping and running distributed applications. Instead of using hypervisor, the traditional way of virtualization, Docker uses a lightweight, containerized deployment mechanism to service applications on the cloud. As the company elegantly summarizes on its website:
“
"Docker is an open platform for developers and sysadmins to build, ship, and run distributed applications. Consisting of Docker Engine, a portable, lightweight runtime and packaging tool, and Docker Hub, a cloud service for sharing applications and automating workflows, Docker enables apps to be quickly assembled from components and eliminates the friction between development, QA, and production environments."
The following graph from the company's website gives a simple and powerful visual impression of the main difference between Docker's container-based architecture and hypervisor-based architecture.
(click to enlarge)
A slide show posted by IT architect Francisco Goncalves also gives a great overview of Docker and containers. Docker is superior over hypervisor-based cloud platforms in several important ways:
1. It uses very small VMs that allow for much higher server density by removing redundant or unnecessary operating system elements from the VMs themselves.
2. It uses nicely packaged VM stacks, which can be easily transferred, replicated and controlled, ensuring high levels of portability.
3. It uses VM software stacks that are small, removing the obstacles and problems of building a large stack of version-specific operating systems and tools that need lots of efforts to maintain and modify for different operating systems and hardware.
4. It has extremely fast startup and response times that can facilitate a more flexible infrastructure, allowing greater latitude to respond to the needs of the moment.
CoreOS CEO and container guru Alex Polvi proclaimed in a recent tweet that 2015 will be the year of production-ready containers. Music streaming service Spotify's use case of Docker serves as a strong testimony to Alex's statement.
Sensing the urgency, Google moved quickly last year to fully cooperate with and embrace Docker. After adding Docker to its Google Compute Engine (GCE) early last year to let developers access a large library of Docker images already in existence, in the middle of the year, Google integrated Docker into its App Engine and launched Kubernetes, an open-source container manager that helps developers deploy their containers to a fleet of machines. Last month, Google went one step further to launch a cloud-based hosting service for private Docker container registries.
Microsoft, meanwhile, surely did not just sit there and wave a white flag in surrender to Google. Last month, the company also announced the integration of the Docker engine with its Azure Marketplace. Developers can now browse the Azure Marketplace or Azure portal and easily provision a VM with the latest Docker engine pre-installed and running on Azure.
Within a year, Google's and Microsoft's top-notch programming teams quickly completed full life-cycle supports for Docker in their cloud platforms, making them ten miles ahead of other competitors in the industry.
The history of modularization and standardization tells us that containers will probably replace hypervisors and become the standard mechanism of virtualization in cloud computing. The battle over Docker and containers is not a winner-take-all battle, because Docker is an open-source technology that can be integrated into any cloud computing platform. However, Google's cloud system has an inherit advantage over Microsoft's and other competitors' for integrating and servicing Docker because of its roots in Linux (its famous Android OS was based on Linux). Whether the company can make Docker a main selling point for its cloud platform and swing a huge number of developers away from Microsoft and others' camps and reap material incremental profits this year is a drama that investors of cloud stocks cannot afford to miss this year.
Gunfire Point 2: Sphere 3D (microvisor, the upgraded container)
If Docker is an open-source version of the hottest superstar in cloud computing, Sphere 3D is the proprietary version of it. Similar to Docker's container technology, Sphere 3D's patented "microvisor" technology (used in its Glassware product line) uses software stacks that are small and run much faster than traditional VMs. Unlike Docker, though, Sphere 3D takes the convenience of servicing heterogeneous applications on the cloud further by letting a developer/IT admin add legacy applications (e.g., Office, Photoshop, AutoCAD, etc.) to a public or private cloud system in a drag-and-drop fashion within minutes. The demonstration by one of the company's founders - John Morelli - at the 2014 VMWorld conference, an article written by Steve Anderson, and interviews done by MidasLetter and Brian Madden explained the capabilities and significance of Sphere 3D's products very well. In addition, much-respected cloud computing analyst Simon Bramfitt gave the company's technologies and products extremely high marks in an article published on the Virtualization Practice website last summer.
Docker's focus has been with development, while Glassware is directed toward simplicity of containerizing an application for IT departments. To really take advantage of Docker, you need to package it within a container. This can only be done with access to the application's source code and modifying it to fit inside a container. With Glassware, you just need the installer. Docker has gained traction with independent software vendors and Web-scale companies that run a single application stack, but it is not very easy to integrate Docker into heterogeneous workloads. Most traditional apps were not architected to take advantage of Docker's open APIs. Some could move, but re-packaging huge amounts of programming codes in legacy applications and putting them all on Docker will take tremendous amounts of time and resources for software vendors or IT departments of companies using those applications.
Glassware addresses this great challenge by being able to service a universal cluster of applications, whether legacy or newly written ones, to a universal cluster of appliances.
Since its IPO (in Canada) in late 2013, Sphere 3D has moved forward with its business development and expansions at lightning speed. In about a year, it has acquired a virtual desktop technology innovator (V3 Systems), a leading cloud storage provider in Canada (Overland Storage Inc.) and a company specializing in data protection (Tandberg Data, through Overland Storage Inc.). It has signed agreements/contracts with an array of technology powerhouses and big organizations in the spheres of IT/Computers (VMware, Dell, Promark & Ingram Micro, Atos), communication (Ericsson, Adams), healthcare (Novarad), education (Chesterfield County Schools, Texas School District), real estate (Jefferson Homebuilders) and printing services (UniPrint).
Seeing the superiority and popularity of Sphere 3D's technologies, Google has moved quickly to team up with it and get into position to benefit from the company's growth. Through Dell, Google has sold more than 42,000 Chromebooks preinstalled with Chrome OS and Sphere 3D's Glassware cloud platform that is specifically fine-tuned for educational purposes in Chesterfield County and Texas school districts. Because there are approximately 49.8 million K-12 students, 98,300 public schools and 13,600 public school districts in the U.S alone, Google stands to benefit enormously if it can seize a huge portion of the education pie traditionally serviced by Wintel-based computers from Microsoft. Google's desire for Sphere 3D's technologies is blatantly evident from tweets with open endorsements of Sphere 3D by its top education executive, Jason Katcher (see his recent tweets here, here and here), and accumulation of the company's shares. Jason's fondness of Sphere 3D may stem from his respectful passion of using new technologies to revolutionize kids' learning experiences, as he explained during a presentation to students at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.
Taking its relationship with Sphere 3D further, Google announced this month that Google Drive now supports Glassware, making it simple for users to use Glassware-virtualized Windows(TM) applications, while maintaining files in their Google Drive accounts. Here again, Google stands to reap huge rewards if it can lure a significant amount of traditional Windows or iOS users to switch to Android and Chromebook devices that can run their favorite Windows or iOS-based applications.
In order not to let its troops get caught sleeping, at the close of 2014, Microsoft entered a multi-year global OEM embedded agreement with Sphere 3D that allows for the preinstallation of Microsoft Windows Embedded Server software in appliances that use Glassware 2.0 application virtualization technology. Because Sphere 3D has manufacturing factories in China (under its Tandberg Data subsidiary) and Microsoft has a strong presence and command of the majority of the personal PC market in China, in addition to North America and Europe, Microsoft can reap huge additional benefits from the Chinese market by teaming up with Sphere 3D. However, the company needs to proceed quickly in this regard, because it has a significant distance to close in order to recover the ground lost to Google in the battle of pulling Sphere 3D to its camp.
Google and Microsoft's biggest attraction to Sphere 3D is their respective humongous bases of existing customers. Sphere 3D can choose to advertise and market its products by itself, but partnering with big companies will allow Sphere 3D to multiply its sales quickly by pushing its products through these companies' sales channels. As Sphere 3D's CEO and Obama administration advisor and counsel Eric Kelly said in the last business update, Sphere 3D's "growth strategy encompass[es] leveraging our 30 years of innovation to deliver leading edge technologies, accelerating adoption of those technologies through our world class distribution and partner ecosystem, and expanding our strategic partnerships to deliver new business models and services... we are continuing to see stronger commitment and focus from our worldwide OEM partners who continue to thrive and see their businesses grow considerably through the differentiated value proposition of our offerings in their respective markets."
Google and Microsoft have to and likely will raise their levels of engagement with Sphere 3D, because some competitors need Sphere 3D's technologies and products more desperately than Google and Microsoft, and have been very aggressive in pulling Sphere 3D to their camps. Take Ingram Micro (NYSE:IM), for example. This month, IBM just announced that it has budgeted $1 billion to take down EMC, and EMC just dropped Ingram Micro last month as its main distributor in North America. For Ingram Micro, that means it no longer will sell EMC's network-attached storage (NAS). To fill that missing piece of the vacuum, it is more than likely that Ingram Micro will devote a huge portion of its sales force to promote and sell Sphere 3D's Overland SnapServer products this year. VMware has also been very aggressive in attracting Sphere 3D (see later section for more details).
A scenario that Google and Microsoft will hate to see is for Sphere 3D to sign an agreement with a major competitor, in which that competitor gets the right of exclusive representation for certain product lines in certain markets in exchange for guaranteed annual sales amounts for these product lines. That would be a huge blow to Google and Microsoft in their relationship with Sphere 3D and their shares of the pie in microvisor-related cloud computing technologies.
Gunfire Point 3: VMware (the old king of cloud computing)
If Docker and Sphere 3D are like the hottest young stars in a sport, VMware is a hall-of-famer with piled up awards and achievements in the sport, yet is gradually losing its glory. The challenge the company faces now is similar to the problem Microsoft faced in late 1990s and early 2000s. Being a pioneer in the cloud computing industry and seeing its products sell extremely well and becoming the industry-standard in the early years, VMware was too entrenched in the old, hyper-visor-based virtualization architecture. As a result, for the past few years, the company has not paid enough attention to important new technologies/architectures, and has been reluctant to re-engineer its core products. Not only has VMware seriously fallen behind in the public and hybrid cloud, but the company also faces serious challenges and is losing market share in its traditional private cloud and virtualization businesses.
At this point, because VMware is behind in public/hybrid clouds, because its R&D team has not been trained to make drastic and disruptive re-designs of its products, and because it is not a match to Google and Microsoft in terms of capital and R&D resources, the company is in danger of following Nokia's footsteps of continuously losing market share and gradually fading out in its industry. Taking cues from Nokia's recent decision to succumb to and completely fold into Microsoft's camp to seek protection from the giant, over the past one year, VMware has made big moves to team up with rival Google. On the other hand, although VMware is losing its shine and market share, the company's big customer base and premium brand name are still extremely valuable and unmatched by others in the industry. In addition, a savvy tech giant like Google recognizes the precious opportunity to force VMware to concede and yield more ground in negotiations. Given this, Google has put a lot of attention on VMware lately.
Early last year, Google worked with VMware to embed VMware's Horizon DaaS in Google Chrome OS to provide users of Chromebook and other Chrome OS devices easier access to Windows desktop and applications. That was a very significant boost of Chromebook's appeal to users of traditional Windows OS and applications at that time. This year, when VMware's virtual desktop has lost its edge to Docker's containers and Sphere 3D's microvisor, Google successfully convinced VMware to give away more core technologies/products.
Last month, VMware announced it was making four Google cloud services available on its vCloud Air hybrid cloud. On the surface, this is a win-win marriage, because Google's cloud gained a foot in the door with VMware's install base, while VMware has the benefit of the massive scale of Google's data center infrastructure. Behind the scenes, though, Google gained more in this deal, because in the long term, most VMware users will be forced to stick to the service because of Google's reputation and massive scale of economy in storing and protecting their data (in other words, most people will use the service because of Google, not VMware, giving Google a stronger position in its relationship and bargaining power with VMware).
As for Microsoft, the company again lags behind Google in pulling in VMware and taking advantage of the company's struggle at the opportune time. It wasn't until this month when a Microsoft insider revealed that the company is going to start supporting VMware workloads on Azure's public cloud platform starting in the third quarter of this year. Even if this information is true, Microsoft is more than one year behind Google in its addition of VMware supports. My bet is that the company will deploy more resources to collaborate with VMware this year and try to make some big deals with VMware, because it cannot afford to lose more ground to Google or others.
What makes the situation more complicated is that VMware itself is trying to pull Docker and Sphere 3D to it as well, because it too is fully aware of the importance of these two companies' technologies. Last August, VMware started to partner with Docker, Google and Pivotal to bring container support to its cloud platforms. In late 2013, VMware invited Sphere 3D to its Technology Alliance Partner program, awarded it the Elite Membership status and invited the company to present at its VMWorld conference last August.
In the world of technology, the first-mover advantage is of ultimate importance. One reason that Google has been so successful since inception is its ability to quickly recognize the importance of a disruptive new technology and deploy top-notch engineers to work with the company that owns the technology while its competitors and most independent technical reviewers are still doubting, hesitating and waiting for the new technology to fully mature and generate a stable and high level of profit. After all, a truly unique, disruptive and revolutionary technology cannot be accurately understood and deciphered by a regular technician/engineer looking from outside and comparing the new technology with traditional, old technologies. Doing so will yield an erroneous conclusion to the feasibility of the technology and an incorrect estimate of its value. Only by sending the most intelligent scientists/engineers to closely monitor a disruptive new technology in operation and carefully review the programming details of the technology and products developed using the technology can Google thoroughly assesses the superiority of the technology and determine the best way to use it to the company's benefit. This cannot be done without first becoming friends with the owner of a disruptive new technology and striking a collaborative agreement with the owner. Apparently, Google has done a great job with Docker and Sphere 3D - as it has done countless times in the past with other companies.
Microsoft is not far behind Google in terms of its capability to take advantage of new technologies developed by other companies, and VMware is not totally incapable in this regard either. That's why Microsoft and VMware are not making things easy for Google in gaining control of Docker and Sphere 3D. As a result, right now Google, Microsoft, VMware, Docker and Sphere 3D are tangled in a pentagon love affair. At this moment, who eventually ends up with whom in this soap opera is a guessing game.
What is clear, though, as said at the beginning of this article, is that the interactions between these five companies - three of the biggest empires (Google, Microsoft and VMware) and two new ultimate weapons (Docker and Sphere 3D) in the world of cloud computing - will have a very profound impact on the entire industry this year. The troops are all converged to the battle field, and the moment of final collision is probably imminent and unavoidable on the short horizon. Don't take your eyes off the battles over the next several months, because the moves of these participants may have great impacts on the values of the cloud computing companies in your portfolio.
Additional disclosure: No content published as part of this article constitutes a recommendation that any particular investment, security, portfolio of securities, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. I am not an investment adviser, and the content contained herein is not an endorsement to buy or sell any securities. Your investment decisions are made entirely at your discretion. By reading my article, you acknowledge that I am in no way liable for losses or gains arising out of commentary, analysis, and or data in this article.
With that great SA article you posted and dough tweeting Scott's alert to his 1900 followers, we should see a lot of new investors checking out our board soon!!!
DD - Updated Collection Of Recent Articles With The Most Recent Articles First:
http://t.co/CXZ0UrHett
Must Read - Most in-depth DD on Sphere3D
http://m.seekingalpha.com/article/2966296-cloud-computing-wars-2015-google-microsoft-docker-sphere-3d-and-vmware?source=twitter_salphatech
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2930376-sphere-3d-has-a-large-upside?page=2&auth_param=uckhf:1aeebr6:709a9965faa16abd2c5a72ed534ca53b&dr=1
http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/565477/tape-storage-industry-bounces-back-strongly-tsc/
Very good news for Sphere 3D's recently acquired OVRL/Tandberg storage -
Demand for tape is being fuelled by unrelenting data growth, significant technological advancements, tape's highly favorable economics, the growing requirements to maintain access to data 'forever' emanating from regulatory, compliance or governance requirements, and the big data demand for large amounts of data to be analyzed and monetized in the future. The Digital Universe study suggests that the world's information is doubling every two years and much of this data is most cost-effectively stored on tape.
Press Release -
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sphere-3d-glassware-delivers-solutions-130200572.html
Presentation mentioned in press release -
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13q1vG-OOKTVHH0Xj-VWgPVXkq8vNNTVnHHzzigvj72s/mobilepresent?pli=1&slide=id.g4f09ef1d6_00
https://twitter.com/Sphere3D
Recent collection of tweets. Pay particular attention to the pictures showing Sphere 3D's Glassware 2.0 having been newly added to Dell's servers!
http://dortchonit.quora.com/Sphere-3D-Virtualization-+-Cloud-Apps-Anywhere
This isn't just theory or "demoware," either. Earlier this year, for example, Google announced that Virginia's Chesterfield County Public Schools (CCPS), one of the largest school systems in the US, was buying 32,000 Dell Chromebooks, one for each of its middle and high school students. And the school system has decided to implement Sphere 3D technologies to deliver Windows applications to those Chromebook users. (My learned industry colleague Simon Bramfitt has written a great summary and analysis of how CCPS made its decisions and how Sphere 3D differs from other desktop virtualization approaches: "Chesterfield County Schools Turn to Sphere 3D for Windows on Chromebooks.")
http://www.virtualizationpractice.com/sphere-3d-launches-glassware-2-0-appliance-windows-apps-28468/
Sphere 3D Launches Glassware 2.0 — An Appliance for Windows Apps
Simon Bramfitt August 28, 2014
Aside from its being a hardware appliance, it is its inherent simplicity that is Glassware’s first key differentiator. Provided you know how to plug in a network cable and assign an IP address, you can install a Glassware appliance. If you know how to install a Windows app, then installing and publishing an application on Glassware shouldn’t present any problems. In short, with Glassware, anyone can manage their own enterprise-class application hosting environment.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2387975-panic-selling-turns-into-panic-buying-in-sphere-3d?uprof=45&dr=1
•Glassware is able to virtualize more applications (many critical applications are very hard to virtualize), it works where other systems provide no solution (for instance, old legacy software running on mainframes)
•The simplicity of the virtualization of applications, any Windows app can be virtualized with six clicks
•It's considerably more resource efficient, opening up the market for small and medium enterprise
http://www.gztandberg.cn/en/
The China manufacturing plant Sphere 3D acquires in the Overland merger.
http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2014/08/04/drive-lets-customers-test-emr-without-disrupting-clinical-environment.aspx
The center also houses the support team for the DRIVE solution. DRIVE stands for Dell, Red Hat, Intel, VMware and Epic, the alliance of tech companies that began the collaboration to bring an open-source, Linux-based version of Epic to market that was affordable for smaller hospitals and clinics. Dell strengthened the alliance with the addition of Sphere3D, Agfa, Symantec and Hyland OnBase, creating the DRIVE Plus solution.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2326065-citrix-killer-sphere-3ds-debut-on-nasdaq-merger-with-overland-purchase-of-v3-systems
The reason why I think Sphere 3D is a serious contender is as a result of several acquisitions the company has made in the last year, combining Sphere's Glassware 2.0 virtualization platform - by all accounts, a revolutionary approach to virtualization - with V3 Systems' Virtual Desktop products and Overland Storage's global data management and storage business.
The target is the $100 billion Virtualization/Storage space, and early indications suggest that Sphere 3D's Glassware 2.0 is already displacing the incumbents in enterprise-scale applications.
http://www.midasletter.com/midas-letter-financial-radio-podcast/sphere-3d-corp-vs-vmware-citrix-systems-microsoft/
Damian Wojcichowsky: I don’t think we’re talking about the same market per se at first. VMware and Sphere 3D right now are actually partners. So where VMware has a customer that requires the kind of functionality that Glassware 2.0 brings via Sphere 3D, they can partner there, so they can embed Glassware into the sale, and kick back a royalty or a license fee to Sphere 3D. I don’t see them competing for the same kind of customers. I think what you see is a lot smaller size of enterprise that you get Overland-Sphere approaching, versus the big enterprise deal that you see EMC-VMware do. So at first its not going to be that difficult. I think five years down the road you’re looking at more of a head-to head competition situation happening.
Shorter term though, you’re going to have a bunch of catalysts coming.
http://www.techzone360.com/topics/techzone/articles/2014/07/02/382802-want-slice-sphere3d-look-the-nasdaq-global-market.htm
Sphere3D has two key product offerings behind it: GLASSWARE 2.0 and the V3 Desktop Cloud Computing System. With GLASSWARE 2.0, users get access to the complete lineup of digital content found on most any desktop from most any Web-enabled device. This may not sound like much until the fullest implications of the idea are considered, as GLASSWARE 2.0 allows access to not only the full range of productivity software systems, but also to things like computer aided design (CAD) systems, proprietary systems, and even social media sites. Plus, at last report, all of the sites will both look and function the same way on mobile devices that said sites would on the desktop thanks to GLASSWARE 2.0.
http://cloudcomputingguru.tumblr.com/post/90664714312/apple-and-microsofts-cloud-puzzles-are-missing-an
Here's the part of the article pertaining to Sphere 3D -
In other words, whatever acquisition strategies that apply to Microsoft probably apply to Apple as well because they both desperately need to catch up with their major rivals in cloud computing. So, what are good acquisition targets in cloud computing for Apple to consider? Here are two choices that come to the top of my mind:
The Small: Sphere 3D (OTC Symbol: SPIHF, Toronto Stock Exchange Symbol: ANY)
If Apple does not feel comfortable spending such a huge sum in its first attempt at cloud computing acquisition, a small company called Sphere 3D might be a good target on the other side of the scale. For the past year or so, this fast-rising new star has arguably been the hottest hit in cloud computing. The company invented and owns a unique technology called “Microvisor” that was dubbed by some analysts as the most disruptive innovation in cloud computing ever! According to the company’s own website and its executives’ words in interviews by MidasLetter and Brian Madden, the company’s centerpiece product, Glassware, makes legacy desktop-based applications such as AutoCAD, Photoshop, Corel Office, medical applications, etc. cloud-ready and accessible from client devices running on any operating systems and hardware.
More amazingly, its cloud solution is said to be much more “lightweight” than its major competitors, allowing its enterprise clients to deploy legacy applications to the cloud in an almost drag-and-drop, plug-n-play way without lengthy and cumbersome setups and configurations. With such powerful technology, the company has acquired endorsements from three highly-reputed analysts groups and signed cooperation agreements and/or commercial contracts with technology powerhouses and big organizations, including Apple, Corel, VMWare, UniPrint, Dell,Novarad, Ericsson, and CCPS (for a large quantity of Google Chrome Book cloud services).
The benefits for Apple, if it were to acquire Sphere 3D, are that the nature of its Microvisor technology (any application, any platform) should make the integration of its cloud solutions with Apple’s products easy and that it is already “Apple-friendly” with its Corel Office and Surf to Go for iPad. In addition, although it is small, Sphere 3D still offers a complete product line of cloud solutions – Glassware for enterprise cloud, Surf to Go for individual consumers, a V3 solutions suite for desktop virtualization, and Overland product lines for cloud storage and data protection (assuming that its acquisition of Overland is completed as announced).
Now, how much does Apple have to offer to get a nod from Sphere 3D’s board of directors? Well, it is really hard to estimate because it is such a young company; no one even knows if its founders are willing to sell the company anytime soon. Assuming that they are, my “wild guess” for the price tag is $1-$2 billion. Would the company be worth that much for Apple? I think it probably would. Assuming that Apple can push the sales of Sphere 3D’s products to just $2 billion through its distribution channels and huge customer base and expand the annual sales of Apple’s existing products by just 3%, or about $5 billion, by adding cloud functions/capabilities to its products, Apple will reap $7 billion in incremental annual revenue from an investment of $2 billion or less!
As for Sphere 3D, even more competitors could decide to swallow Sphere 3D in a swift acquisition as its publicity and visibility are expected to increase drastically after it completes up-listing to NASDAQ
http://www.virtualizationpractice.com/chesterfield-county-schools-turn-sphere-3d-windows-chromebooks-27278/
Chesterfield County Schools Turn to Sphere 3D for Windows on Chromebooks.
Taking on the complexity of managing a large Citrix XenApp environment was not something that CCPS wanted to have to address. At the same time, it wanted to ensure that any hosted Windows applications could be easily integrated into its own application portal. To overcome the challenges, CCPS has partnered with Mississauga, Ontario–based Sphere 3D, developers of Glassware 2.0, to provide Windows application hosting services. Sphere 3D provides Glassware 2.0 as an appliance-based hosting platform for installation either within a customer’s data center or as a cloud hosting solution offered by service providers. Sphere 3D company V3 Systems was one of the pioneers of high-performance VDI appliances, so it is to be expected that it knows how to make this approach work.
http://www.midasletter.com/2014/06/sphere-3d-overland-storage-merger-sets-emc-corporation-vmware-repetition/
There is little doubt that much of the velocity in Sphere 3D’s share price is driven by technology speculators who perceive the opportunity inherent in the timing of companies, managment and products converging within the Sphere 3D universe. My bet is that the combination of these elements under Sphere 3D’s managment will result in an exponential compounding of shareholder value quarter-on-quarter once the intergrations are complete and Overland Storage’s sales force is unleashed on its client base with the new offerings.
http://www.midasletter.com/midas-letter-financial-radio-podcast/sphere-3d-corp-tsx-vany-peter-tassiopoulos-podcast/
Peter Tassiopoulos: Absolutely. The transaction quickly transitions Sphere into a global enterprise. We will actually have operations in the U.S., Norway, Germany, Singapore, and Asia. In addition, we’ll have direct access to 17,000 resellers in 60 countries, and infrastructure that’s been built over thirty years to support them. As for the synergies, there’s quite a few.. it’s actually too numerous to go through all of them. But just a couple of highlights; you know Overland has providing storage for over thirty years as I mentioned, and because of this they’ve got a really large installed base. Actually over a million units have been deployed. Many of these are customers that run complex enterprise apps, and that’s specifically what Glassware is designed for. Now one of the largest purchasers of IT as well is the U.S. government, and Overland has a number of GSA’s [Government Service Agencies –ed] in place with them so that’s direct access into the government which we otherwise wouldn’t have.
http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/bglive/archive/2014/06/10/brianmadden-com-podcast-with-sphere3d-at-9-30pst-today-what-do-they-do-join-us-live.aspx
BrianMadden.com Podcast #57 (Special Edition): Sphere3D talks about their microvisor-like app virtualization solution.
"We have more demand than we can handle" …."We're winning these deals"…"chaos of success"…"we are having demand on all sides for all products"….quotes from Peter Bookman
http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2014/05/16/cloud-and-virtualization-a-magic-combination-for-entrepreneurs/?utm_source=followingimmediate&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20140516
“The future of cloud is in taking the concept of virtualization beyond the backing up of data or the incorporation of additional systems,” says Peter Bookman, founder of virtualization company V3, recently acquired by Sphere3D. (Disclosure: Peter Bookman is a friend and was a client in 2010 and 2011; however we have no current business relationship.) “In our product lines we bring virtual desktops, virtual applications, and data together in a single solution to let companies of any size use virtual resources to manage their physical desktops, rich applications, and business information.”
http://www.auntminnie.com/index.aspx?sec=sup_n&sub=pac&pag=dis&ItemID=107377
Utilizing virtual application and desktop technology from Sphere 3D, NovaGlass delivers Novarad's Marz vendor-neutral archive software on a variety of computing devices, including PCs, Macs, iPads, laptop computers, Android tablets, and Google Chromebooks.
The new platform will give users access to several new features and ways of deploying images that were previously unavailable, Novarad said.
http://www.virtualizationpractice.com/happy-birthday-citrix-now-get-back-work-26248/
One possible opportunity here lies with Toronto-based Sphere 3D and Glassware. I had the opportunity for a brief look at Glassware last week, and I hope to be able to return for a more detailed assessment in the near future. In many respects, Glassware is to XenApp as VDI in a Box is to XenDesktop: a fresh approach to virtual applications, built from the ground up with an emphasis on the hypervisor as a means of achieving virtualization, rather than as a platform on which to run multiple operating system instances.
Glassware’s promise is not just that it is a legacy-free interpretation of conventional terminal services technology, but that it can take this approach to deliver more than just Windows applications. Demonstrating seamless delivery of Windows x86 applications alongside Android and Fortran apps on iPad is going to take more than one brief introduction to come to grips with. Nevertheless, if execution is as effective as the promise, this could be a technology to keep a close eye on.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2142003-sphere-3d-a-disruptive-cloud-technology-player
Sphere 3D Corporation (TSX: ANY.V) (OTCQX: OTCQX:SPIHF) is a unique virtualization technology solution provider that has described itself as a company that "solves the problems that previously were considered unsolvable". What problems are there in virtualization? Plenty! Sphere 3D allows most devices, independent of their size, resources or operating system, to access the full functionality of software programs and applications off from servers either in the cloud or on premise, absolutely independent of their operating system! A short video on Youtube presents Sphere 3d's solutions in a graphical way.
In fact, its Glassware 2.0(TM) technology makes it possible for today's devices to access yesterday's software; for today's software to run on tomorrow's devices all over the cloud, without sacrificing performance or security. The company has built their proprietary Glassware 2.0 platform from the ground up and specifically designed it to achieve application virtualization in the most demanding of circumstances. It can be deployed alone for application virtualization or utilized in conjunction with third party hypervisor-based virtualization deployments, for true end-to-end virtualization of physical infrastructure. For additional information visit sphere3d.com and have a look to the presentation made by Peter Tassiopoulos during the CANTECH Investment Conference held in Toronto last January.
Nice dough! For those that don't subscribe, I highly recommend reading the content in this link dough tweeted -
http://t.co/CXZ0UrHett
This ANY alert was issued today!!!