Enjoyment: Structure News: Microsoft now a social climber with LinkedIn connection

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June 17th, 2016 / by Tom Krazit

This week, we'll talk about an exciting new speaker on tap for Structure Security, another industry luminary's prediction that artificial intelligence is going to have profound effects on computing, and why the largest acquisition in Microsoft's history makes a lot of sense.

STRUCTURE NEWS

NOW SPEAKING AT STRUCTURE SECURITY: GERHARD ESCHELBECK, GOOGLE’S SECURITY CHIEF

One of the more amazing sights I saw at the RSA conference last March was a line, possibly thousands deep, stretched across the Moscone Center trying to get into a talk by Google’s Gerhard Eschelbeck (pictured) on a day in his life securing Google. We’re pleased to announce that Gerhard will join us at Structure Security September 27th and 28th in San Francisco, and are really excited to hear about the challenges faced by Google, which has to be one of the most attacked companies in the history of the web.

STRUCTURE REWIND: JOYENT, NOW A PART OF SAMSUNG, TELLS ITS CLOUD STORY

Joyent was early to the cloud, and while the company never quite reached the heights scaled by Amazon Web Services, it now has a chance to make a real splash as part of Samsung. We recapped some of Joyent’s past appearances at Structure, and can also announce that CTO Bryan Cantrill will be back for Structure 2016 (sign up here to be notified when more info on that show is released).

INDUSTRY NEWS

ANDY RUBIN SEES AI AND QUANTUM COMPUTERS AS THE NEXT BIG THING

The co-founder of Android, which was a rather good idea, thinks that artificial intelligence could be the next promising computing platform, much the same way the growth of mobile operating systems made desktops (and the web, to some extent) passe. Speaking on stage at the Bloomberg Technology Conference, Andy Rubin said he thinks the mixture of AI with quantum computers, once we figure out how to actually make those, will enable huge breakthroughs.

APPLE LAUNCHES SWIFT PLAYGROUNDS APP FOR IPAD TO TEACH KIDS TO CODE

Apple’s WWDC event this week was rather ho-hum compared to past events, but Venturebeat reports on what might turn into the most significant thing Apple released this week: an iPad app that “tricks” kids into learning to code by making it fun, as noted by Venturebeat. The company also announced it would start using an approach called “differentiated privacy” to help it collect more data (Apple’s reluctance to collect user data is seen as a reason why its web services are weak) without sacrificing privacy, and Matthew Green, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, explains how that actually works.

CLINTON CALLS FOR U.S. “INTELLIGENCE SURGE” IN THE WAKE OF ORLANDO ATTACK

Should she manage to defeat Carrot Top’s crazy uncle in this fall’s U.S. presidential election, Hillary Clinton said she’ll ask technology companies to do more help the government try and prevent tragedies like the attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando. Reuters reports that Clinton wants more cooperation from tech companies to help track users, and while she didn’t outline any specifics, it would appear that the push and pull between Silicon Valley and Washington won’t lighten up under a President Clinton.

DROPBOX CEO PUSHES TOWARD PROFITABILITY IN A “POST-UNICORN ERA”

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston has probably never been more confident that he dodged a bullet by staying private when rival Box went public. While Box continues to struggle with investor expectations, Houston announced at the Bloomberg Technology Conference that Dropbox is now free cash-flow positive, which isn’t the same as profitable, but is a big step.

IRB EXPERTS TO FACEBOOK: AN INTERNAL BOARD DOESN’T GO FAR ENOUGH

Remember when Facebook freaked everybody out when it revealed that it had been conducting experiments on people’s News Feeds? The company promised this week to set up an internal review board to vet the experiments in conducts on its massive amount of data it controls, but Fast Company reports that a company that vets scientific research called on Facebook to add a community representative to make sure it’s being as transparent as possible.

GOOGLE BEEFS UP ANDROID’S ENTERPRISE ABILITIES

Analyst firm CC Insights has a nice recap of some of the security-related enhancements Google made to Android at last month’s Google I/O conference. We’ll be featuring Google’s Adrian Ludwig, head of Android security, at Structure Security this fall and will hopefully get a peek into the future of Google’s plans for securing the world’s most widely used mobile operating system.

BIG PICTURE

The only surprise about the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history was that the news hadn’t already leaked before it was announced Monday morning. Spending $26 billion to connect with LinkedIn’s professional network struck many as another albatross around Microsoft’s mergers and acquisitions department (and just after it got done writing off the Nokia deal) but while the price might steep, adding LinkedIn could pay big dividends for Microsoft.

For one thing, it’s a clear sign this is not your father’s Microsoft. He’s been saying it for years, but it’s gospel now that Satya Nadella’s company is primarily interested in delivering software to customers anywhere they want to work, such as on mobile devices that don’t run Windows or on cloud applications that don’t tie into Office.

LinkedIn is one of those services that’s not exactly beloved but that is vital to an awful lot of corporate activity these days, and under Microsoft’s wing it has a chance to clean up its user interface and simply its approach. For its part, Microsoft gets an enormous amount of data on modern employment trends and the tools to turn its Dynamics customer-relationship management software into something that can give Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff pause (and that’s hard to do).

Microsoft also gets a top-tier social network, adding a layer to its business that it has never really had. There aren’t a lot of those, and fixing Twitter might be too big a job for Microsoft right now, so LinkedIn -- which has struggled with growth but has a clear identity -- makes perfect sense. Microsoft has made tepid progress on the web in the past with Bing and MSN Network and the like, but Microsoft instantly became a very important part of a lot of modern web activity this week.

There are certainly plenty of challenges, such as unlocking enough potential to avoid massive write-offs in the future (a mild goodwill write-off is probably inevitable) and blending the Seattle-versus-Silicon Valley cultures of both companies. But unlike a lot of the mega-acquisitions in Microsoft’s past, this deal feels like a good match of two technology-driven companies fixated on data and improving the work experience.