For the last several years, CIOs and IT professionals have been wrestling with two specific issues as they work toward a cloud-centric future: Agile IT and the rush toward digital transformation. While enterprises want to keep innovating, finding a starting point and knowing which projects to tackle first remain a major obstacle.

To get a better handle on Agile IT and digital transformation, Light Reading Managing Editor Scott Ferguson recently spoke to two experts in these fields: Dan Kearnan, senior director of marketing for cloud at SAP, and Roy Illsley, a distinguished analyst with Ovum.

From its roots in industrial farm machinery and other equipment, John Deere has always looked for a technological edge. About 20 years ago, it was GPS and then 4G LTE. Now it's turning its attention to AI, machine learning and IoT.

Artificial intelligence and automation will become more integral to the enterprise, and 90% of all apps will have integrated AI capabilities by 2020, according to Oracle CEO Mark Hurd.

IBM is now offering access to Nvidia's Tesla V100 GPUs through its cloud offerings to help accelerate AI, HPC and other high-throughput workloads.

CIO Rhonda Gass is spearheading an effort to bring more automation and IoT to the factories making Stanley Black & Decker tools and other equipment.

Workday is looking to build out its machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities with the acquisition of startup SkipFlag.

For the most part, Google Cloud has been able to mitigate the fallout from the Spectre and Meltdown flaws found in Intel's x86 processors, which says something about the resiliency of the cloud.

Cloud storage and file sharing firm Dropbox has filed confidentially for an IPO, according to Bloomberg. The company is valued at over $10 billion.

SolarWinds is looking to expand its cloud lineup with its acquisition of Loggly, which makes SaaS-based log monitoring and log analytics software.

Google Cloud now offers what it calls 'preemptible' GPUs to help accelerate batch computing and machine learning workloads. Google is also cutting prices.

The market for cloud computing continued to grow in 2017, with revenues surpassing the $180 billion mark for the year, a 24% growth rate over 2016, according to Synergy Research.

After news of a significant vulnerability in Intel's processors was disclosed this week, AWS, Microsoft and Google had work to do.

Cisco led the $113 billion data center infrastructure market in 2017, although the growing importance of public cloud is beginning to change how enterprises are buying traditional gear.

Microsoft has inked a deal to acquire Avere Systems to help customers better store data in the cloud and hybrid environments.

In its security predictions for 2018, the MIT Technology Review warns of ransomware that targets clouds providers and weaponized artificial intelligence.

In order to get its app out to the construction industry, LinkD – formerly WireFlare – needs enterprise-level cloud help. It found a willing partner in Oracle.

A report finds that the number of hyperscale data centers scattered across the globe continued to grow in 2017. By the end of the year, there were nearly 400 of these facilities worldwide.

A report from financial analyst firm Jefferies finds that the combined IaaS and PaaS markets were worth more than$35 billion in the third quarter, with AWS and Azure leading the way. SaaS revenues stood at an additional $33 billion.

It was only a few years ago that Red Hat cracked the $1 billion mark in annual revenue. Now, with help from the cloud, the company is eyeing $3 billion.

AWS is reportedly eyeing a $40 million deal for Sqrrl, a big data startup that could help the cloud provider add more security.

Oracle is paying $1.2 billion for Aconex, an Australia-based company that specializes in cloud-based applications for the construction industry.

IBM's newly announced Q Network will give businesses, government agencies and research universities access to Big Blue's 20 qubit quantum computing system.

The Trump Administration is looking to revamp the IT infrastructure of the federal government, and the White House is now planning to rely more on cloud computing.

Gartner's latest analysis of how artificial intelligence will impact the workplace has the technology creating 2.3 million jobs by 2020, but at the same time eliminating 1.8 million positions.

Amazon Web Services is opening its second cloud region in China in partnership with Ningxia Western Cloud Data Technology.

A Cisco study finds that people like Internet of Things devices, but they don't trust companies with all that data.

Microsoft outlined its quantum computing strategy at Ignite earlier this year, and Redmond has now released a development kit and a new programming language called Q#.

A recent report from IDC finds that IoT spending will increase more than 14% between 2017 and 2018 to reach $772 billion by the end of next year, with the manufacturing, utilities and transportation industries spending the most.

For its latest acquisition, Cisco is buying Cmpute.io, a small cloud optimization specialist that looks to help cut the cost of managing multiple clouds.

Dell Technologies posted a smaller loss during its 2018 financial third quarter as the company continues to adjust to life as a private company, and expands into new areas such as hyperconverged.

With the release of PCF 2.0, Pivotal is focusing more on serverless computing and containers, as well as a new marketplace for developers that includes tools from GitHub, Splunk, New Relic, Apigee and IBM.

The AC922 is the first commercial server to use IBM's Power9 processor and is designed specifically for artificial intelligence applications. These same systems form the basis of the new 'Summit' and 'Sierra' supercomputers for the US Energy Department.

At its re:Invent show in Las Vegas this week, Amazon Web Services is looking to expand its cloud security portfolio with a new featured dubbed GuardDuty.

VMWare's third-quarter financial results showed the company's cloud and software-defined data center bets are continuing to pay off.

The Internet buzzed when Nokia reportedly was preparing a deal for Juniper Networks. Now, Nokia has denied those rumors, but Juniper could still be in play.

Dell EMC is adding support for its VxRail and XC series hyperconverged appliances to the company's own 14th generation PowerEdge servers.

Amazon Web Services has scored another big customer win with signing The Walt Disney Company on as a public cloud customer. The NFL and Expedia have also signed up with AWS.

At its Discover show, HPE unveiled a collaboration with Stephen Hawking's COSMOS Research Group to use the company's Superdome Flex in-memory system to explore issues of space and time.

Microsoft and SAP are already partnering on various cloud projects, but now the two companies are drawing even closer. The new deal includes internal support, as well as new ways to reach additional customers.

HPE OneSphere is the company's latest offering to manage multiple clouds. The platform uses a SaaS portal to deliver the management services and can deploy resources as need to developers and other parts of the enterprise.

At the University of Pennsylvania, CIO Tom Murphy is looking to bring a cloud-first philosophy to the 277-year-old institution. To get there, he needs buy-in from students and faculty.

In looking ahead toward 2018, Forrester finds that private clouds are poised for a comeback, despite the focus on public cloud provides such as AWS and Azure.

After paying about $1 billion for Nimble Storage, HPE is now incorporating some of the company's AI technology into its data center offerings, with the release of InfoSight.

A report from IHS Markit finds that Cisco and VMware are fighting over an SD-WAN market that could be worth more than $3 billion by 2021.

Google is buying land in Denmark for a new data center, which is likely to help the company with its cloud expansion, as well as GDPR.

A report commissioned by software provider BMC shows that the multicloud universise comes with its own set of management headaches.

To increase development in the cloud, Microsoft is continuing to invest in open source and data analytics technologies. At its Connect show, Redmond rolled out new tools to assist the company's legions of developers.

Cisco beat Wall Street expectations during its first-quarter financial report, and the company claims that some of its technology bets, including security, are starting to pay off.

Google Cloud Spanner, the company's globally distributed database, is getting several updates, including multi-region support, as well as an improved SLA that offers near-perfect availability.

Amazon is selling off part of its cloud business in China for about $300 million to a local company to comply with the country's regulations. However, Amazon still plans to compete overseas.

Cisco is looking to delve further into smart cities and IoT technologies with a $1 billion financing program for those communities looking to make investments.

The release of the semiannual Top 500 Supercomputer List this week shows China increasing its share, while the US tumbles to second.

Rackspace and HPE are looking to make the private cloud more appealing to enterprises with a new service based on OpenStack.

With the acquisition, Talend will incorporate Restlet's API technology into its own data fabric to make sharing data easier among its customers.

At the TBM Conference this week, CIOs are looking to take more control of enterprise IT. The cloud is key.

Microsoft's latest Open Compute Project offering is called 'Project Cerberus,' and looks to make clouds more secure by protecting the firmware of cloud servers.

ExxonMobil VP of IT Mike Brown is transforming his organization into an integral part of the oil and gas giant, which is helping fuel digital transformation.

Nutanix is adding support for object storage, analytics workloads and an app marketplace to its Enterprise Cloud OS to address DevOps needs for customers.

After 20 years of growth, oftentimes through acquisitions, UK-based Towergate Insurance Brokers ended up with a sprawling IT infrastructure. After going all-in on cloud, the company found that 'good enough' IT is, in fact, good enough.

At the OpenStack Summit in Australia, Red Hat is rolling out its OpenStack Platform 12, which emphasizes container and security support.

A year after first introducing Einstein AI, Salesforce is planning to double down on artificial intelligence at its Dreamforce 2017 conference.

Riverbed is pushing beyond its traditional networking roots to build additional capabilities to monitor application performance, as well as containers.

With the acquisition of VeloCloud Networks, VMware is moving deeper into the software-defined networking game and likely to clash more with Cisco.

The Watson Data Platform is expanding beyond big data analytics to include artificial intelligence, according to IBM.

Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Research are jointly developing a new emulator dubbed 'CrystalNet' that could reduce downtime in the cloud.

IBM is already a leader in private cloud, and Big Blue's Cloud Private platform extends that reach deeper into the hybrid cloud marketplace.

The Jupiter undersea cable, which is being built by NTT with help from Amazon, Facebook and others, is looking to connect Asia with the US and boost the ability to deliver cloud services.

The cloud and the Internet of Things are closely tied together. In a special report, Enterprise Cloud News looks at how the cloud is protecting IoT.

After agreeing to a deal with AWS, GE is now partnering with Microsoft to brings its Predix IoT management platform to Azure.

With customers shifting to the cloud, SugarCRM is looking to move updates faster through its cloud product, although it will continue to support the on-premises version into the foreseeable future.

Juniper Networks reported third-quarter financial numbers that were in-line with analysts' expectations, but the company's cloud concerns, especially around switches, is likely to continue.

Best known as the home of Kubernetes, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation is also adopting two open source security projects designed to protect containers.

Microsoft is looking to bring Cray's supercomputing abilities to its Azure public cloud to assist with scientific research and other developments including AI and analytics.

Cisco is looking to expand its reach into cloud-based UC thanks to a $1.9 billion deal for BroadSoft.

With a strong debut, MongoDB shows how powerful the combination of cloud, open source and digital transformation is.

At its user show in New York City, AppDynamics executives offered a glimpse into how the company plans to integrate more with parent company Cisco.

At Dockercon Europe, IBM and Docker on expanding their container relationship with a focus on public cloud.

ONUG wants to rebrand a bit and focus more on security and analytics going forward in an era of hybrid cloud.

Cloud was up 25%, but revenues keep declining.

Startup Instana is officially releasing its first APM offering this week at Dockercon Europe, adding automation and AI into the DevOps process.

Dr. Alissa Johnson, the CISO of Xerox, believes that printers are part of the IoT ecosystem, and that's where the security concerns start.

Juniper announced this week that it would miss earnings estimates as its cloud business hits a downturn.

At an event in New York City, BMC laid out an ambitious agenda that included multi-cloud, machine learning and a new partnership with AWS.

Alibaba will invest $15 billion over the next three years in a variety of research and development projects.

Dell Technologies is looking to leverage all parts of the company as part of a big push into the Internet of Things.

IBM is looking to add more machine learning and deep learning into the big data analytics process by combing its Data Science Experience and PowerAI platforms.

The Linux Foundation, along with the Hyperledger Project, are launching a training and certification course for blockchain.

Amazon Web Services scored a major cloud deal with GE.

When it comes to the cloud, the right skills can matter a lot to IT pros, as well as developers.

At the Gartner Symposium and ITxpo, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff talked innovation, disruption, AI and working with AWS.

Salesforce is preparing to expand its Financial Services Cloud into the retail banking space.

Gartner released new figures that show IT spending is set to grow about 4% over the next year, thanks to enterprise spending more on cloud.

Oracle is revamping its IaaS offering with more compute, storage and networking options as the company looks to challenge AWS more head-on.

GE is about ready to fully deploy its Predix platform, along with Asset Performance Management software, to its own facility to ensure the flow of electricity doesn't stop.

Amazon Web Services is the undisputed leader of public cloud, and at the Gartner Symposium AWS chief Andy Jassy offered a window into how that happened.

Artificial intelligence is thought to be destroying jobs. However, Gartner analysts believe that the only way to fill important IT positions for security and IoT is through AI.

A report from Gartner this week finds that the public cloud or IaaS market grew more than 30% between 2015 and 2016, but Alibaba Cloud grew its revenues faster than the competition.

Google is moving its Cloud IoT Core management platform into public beta and adding new features.

Cisco's job cutting is hitting home as the company will eliminate 310 jobs at its San Jose headquarters.

IBM's Integrated Analytics System uses the company's Data Science Experience, Apache Spark and gives data scientists access to machine learning.