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Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Will ANET's Deeper Focus on Cloud-Native Software Pay Off?
Arista Networks, Inc. ANET has made several additions to its multi-cloud and cloud-native software product family with CloudEOS Edge. It has introduced new cognitive Wi-Fi software that delivers intelligent application identification, automated troubleshooting and location services. This supports video conferencing applications like Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams and Zoom. The acquisition of Awake Security, a Network Detection and Response platform provider that combines AI with human expertise to autonomously hunt and respond to insider and external threats, has expanded its cognitive campus portfolio with new platforms. These include the 750 Series modular chassis and the 720 Series 96 port fixed switch. Arista has also announced unified edge innovations across wired and wireless networks for its Cognitive Campus Edge portfolio for Enterprise Workspaces and an enterprise-grade Software-as-a-Service offering for the flagship CloudVision should benefit from its software-driven, data-centric approach that helps customers build their cloud architecture and enhance the cloud experience they offer their clients. The company holds a leadership position in 100-gigabit Ethernet switching for the high-speed datacenter segment. It is increasingly gaining market traction in 200- and 400-gig high-performance switching products and remains well-positioned for healthy growth in the data-driven cloud networking business with proactive platforms and predictive operations. Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO is the largest player in the networking space. The company has a strong presence in the router and switch market. It has retained a leadership position in WLAN and Ethernet switching and is rapidly expanding its presence in the network security domain. Cisco provides Next-Generation Network Routers that transport data, voice and video information from one IP network to another. It is expanding its Agentic AI footprint with the introduction of Webex AI Agent, Cisco AI Assistant for Webex Contact Center, Workflow Automation in Cisco AI Assistant for Webex, AI Capabilities in Webex Control Hub and Webex Calling Customer Assist. Its strategy of integrating AI across security and collaboration platforms and developing agentic capabilities across the portfolio is a key catalyst for improving the customer Networks Inc. JNPR is taking significant steps to enhance the adoption of its AI-Native Networking Platform through the introduction of its Blueprint for AI-Native Acceleration. This comprehensive framework is designed to simplify and accelerate the deployment and utilization of AI-driven networking solutions, benefiting enterprises across various sectors. By leveraging Juniper's AI-Native Networking Platform, organizations can expect up to an 85% reduction in operational expenses and a 90% decrease in network trouble tickets. The platform's industry-leading AIOps technology is key to delivering these results, providing reliable, measurable and secure connections across all devices and applications. The Blueprint for AI-Native Acceleration further enhances these capabilities, enabling customers to achieve up to nine times faster deployments. Arista has surged 10.7% over the past year compared with the industry's growth of 34.3% Image Source: Zacks Investment Research From a valuation standpoint, Arista trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 13.47, above the industry. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Arista's earnings for 2025 has increased over the past 60 days. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Arista currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Juniper Networks, Inc. (JNPR) : Free Stock Analysis Report Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
NDTV
05-05-2025
- Business
- NDTV
After 22 Years, Skype Will Ring For The Last Time Today
Long before Zoom meetings, WhatsApp calls, and Google Hangouts, there was Skype - a free platform allowing people across the globe to hear and see each other with just a computer and an internet connection. After over two decades, Skype will officially go silent today. Origin Of Skype Launched in 2003 by Skype Technologies in Luxembourg, Skype was among the earliest mainstream applications to leverage Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). When international calls cost a fortune, Skype offered free computer-to-computer calls and cheap rates for calling landlines and mobiles. It didn't take long for it to become a household name. "Skype me" even became part of everyday language, much like "Google it." By 2008, the platform had over 400 million registered users. It was so influential that it caught the attention of tech giants. eBay acquired it in 2005 for $2.5 billion but later sold it. Eventually, in 2011, Microsoft bought it for $8.5 billion. Fall Of Skype Microsoft integrated the platform across Windows PCs, smartphones, and even Xbox consoles. The aim was to reach 1 billion daily users, as then-CEO Tony Bates famously declared. But it tumbled. Frequent interface changes and bloated updates made it clunky. It became more frustrating to use. Competition surged. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Apple FaceTime, and newer apps like Signal all began offering free P2P (peer-to-peer) calls. In the business world, Slack and Microsoft's very own Teams came out as convenient communication tools. Skype's once-loyal base began migrating elsewhere. Then Came The Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which forced the world indoors and online, should have been Skype's moment to shine. But instead of leading the virtual meeting revolution, it was Zoom that took over. Zoom's ease won users over, while Skype continued to struggle with glitches and complicated interfaces. Seeing this, Microsoft invested its energy into Teams. As Teams took off, Skype was forgotten. Even the brief uptick in users during the early pandemic wasn't enough to save it. Why Microsoft Is Pulling The Plug Microsoft wants to focus fully on Teams, the preferred platform for enterprise users. The only part of Skype that will remain is Skype for Business, a feature already tied closely to the Teams ecosystem. In 2025, Skype dwindled to about 23 million monthly users, down from its 150 million in 2011, and far from the 400 million registered users it once claimed.
Gulf Today
24-03-2025
- General
- Gulf Today
Covid-19 lockdowns changed everything about our lives
I don't think I'm alone in the fact that I don't really like to dwell on lockdown too much. It was, after all, a complicated, sad time, and when I do think about it, in my head it's a weird blur of badly run laps around my local park, Google Hangouts, and endless Netflix. I was fortunate enough that in my own immediate life, nothing very bad happened, but it's just as true that nothing very good happened either. Now, to look back on, it just feels like empty time — time that could have been filled by untold experiences, had the world been going around as usual. For some people, though, the impact was world-shaking: perhaps it was a period when long Covid changed everything, or time they could have spent with loved ones that they'll now never see again. No wonder it's not really a place our brains like to go to. Somehow, however, we are now five whole years out from the first lockdown being called in England (my immediate response, upon seeing Boris Johnson's TV announcement, was to pour a glass of wine and go 'right then', which could also essentially be said to summarise my reaction across the whole year and a bit-long period). As such, perhaps now I should give it some purposeful, and probably overdue, reflection. Half a decade on, what have been the lasting effects of lockdown and the pandemic? Are we all really stuck in a loop of collective trauma? And did any positives — for individuals or for all of usen masse — actually come from it? When lockdown began, there were suggestions from some corners that it could represent an opportunity for positive social changes to happen. A government that was well known for its extremely laissez-faire attitude towards the most vulnerable suddenly had to start helping people in many different ways, from the homeless being given places to stay, to disabled and very unwell people becoming genuine social priorities. Many hoped that these newly adopted values would stick. Those hopes, we know now, were largely in vain – our society is now more fragmented than ever, and our time apart from each other has probably only made social silos more pronounced, with children and young adults, particularly in their ability to relate to others, some of the worst affected. The Centre for Mental Health, which has researched the effects of the pandemic extensively, reports as much. 'If anything, the pandemic highlighted and exacerbated social inequalities and reduced social cohesion,' says spokesperson Alethea Joshi. Dr Rowena Hill, professor of psychology at the School for Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent University, who has written at length on the pandemic and our social responses to it, tells me that much of the progress that did emerge — like developments in workplaces that, in many ways, were more inclusive for all, from busy parents to disabled workers — has since been backtracked. 'We did see fundamental changes in some workplaces that were able to become more flexible,' she says. 'We also saw great innovation and creativity in developing solutions. Now, however, we see regression back to pre-pandemic customs and practices more than we predicted at the time. We see social norms moving closer to pre-pandemic expectations, but we also see that systems and processes that were suspended in that emergency footing, which allowed for the innovation and creation, now restrict or restrain those beneficial ways of working.' Many of these 'beneficial ways of working' functioned to give employees more of their own time back. I had a full-time job when the lockdown was called, and the move to entirely home-based work meant that I was blessed with time on my hands to do things I'd always wanted to try or perfect or improve on. For me, this was the main upside of the lockdown, if there was one at all. Evenings, suddenly, were spent guiltlessly bingeing TV shows like Life on Mars and The Sopranos, and I got quite good at making mashed potatoes, for example. The mash wasn't the only creative pursuit I embarked on, though. Around working from home and my adventures in butter and potato, I wrote a novel — it is rubbish, and has barely seen the light of day. But as for some others, the enforced solitude and the time at home gave me the brain space to really stick to something, and to go after a creative project that I had always wanted to try out. While my own book attempt didn't really come to much – nor was it coming to anything really the point for me, in hindsight — I remain pleased that I managed to see something through from beginning to end for once. For many, many others, lockdown was the impetus they needed to kickstart goals and even new career directions (and it makes me wonder, by the way, how many of us would be able to do this more without the relentless pressures of daily life to answer to — which as Professor Hill notes, have returned manifold — and what great art we're missing out on because so many would-be writers or musicians or painters just have too much on their plates, that they're not getting help for).
