Academic Computer Centre Cyfronet AGH launches Poland’s fastest supercomputer built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise




Academic Computer Centre Cyfronet AGH launches Poland’s fastest supercomputer built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Cyfronet’s new Helios supercomputer will advance AI-driven scientific research in astronomy, medicine, and climate protection with higher performance and greater energy efficiency

KRAKOW, Poland–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) today announced that it built a new supercomputer for the Academic Computer Centre Cyfronet of the AGH University of Krakow, making it Poland’s fastest system¹. The new system, called Helios, is Cyfronet’s fifth-generation supercomputer and will be used to advance AI-driven scientific research and innovative commercial applications.

The Helios system is based on the HPE Cray EX supercomputer and features three partitions: the first dedicated to traditional computational scientific research; the second purpose-built with NVIDIA GPUs to support AI applications and AI-driven research; and the third to support interactive workloads that involve big data processing. The supercomputer delivers a theoretical peak performance of 35 petaflops, which is over four times faster than Cyfronet’s previous flagship system. Helios will also provide 1.8 exaflops of peak AI performance, enabling researchers to tap into the power of AI and drive scientific innovation through unprecedented computing capabilities.

With the significant upgrade to performance and engineering offered by the supercomputer, Cyfronet can now support growing demands for compute resources to advance scientific missions across chemistry, medicine, materials technology, astronomy, and environmental protection. The system will provide access to research communities across Poland’s public and private organizations, which include research institutes, municipalities, and hospitals.

As energy costs are skyrocketing, Cyfronet needed Helios to be more energy-efficient than its previous systems. The HPE Cray EX supercomputer meets these demands with liquid-cooling capabilities. Today, HPE delivers the majority of the world’s top 10 most energy-efficient supercomputers² using direct liquid cooling (DLC), which is featured in the supercomputing solution for generative AI to efficiently cool systems while lowering energy consumption for compute-intensive applications.

“Supercomputers have become the go-to platform for AI to efficiently support model training at scale,” said Trish Damkroger, senior vice president and general manager, HPC & AI Infrastructure Solutions at HPE. “With the new Helios system, an HPE Cray EX supercomputer, the Academic Computer Centre Cyfronet is gaining a significant increase in parallel processing computing power and purpose-built end-to-end capabilities to fuel large-scale research for its users. We are excited to support Cyfronet on its mission and look forward to future advancements its research community will make in a range of scientific fields.”

“For the past 50 years, Cyfronet has been helping advance Polish science, offering its computing capabilities to multiple researchers and institutions so they can achieve more complex and accurate results in a shorter time,” said Prof. Kazimierz Wiatr, Director of ACC Cyfronet AGH. “To keep doing that, we needed to invest and build the new supercomputer with the most advanced architecture, high compute power, and AI capabilities. The HPE Cray EX supercomputer, used in the world’s fastest clusters, was the right choice.”

Helios consists of three partitions targeted for different types of workloads, serving both scientific communities and commercial customers:

• HPE Cray Supercomputing EX with CPU partition, equipped with 75,264 “Zen 4” cores from 4th Gen AMD EPYC™ processors and 200 terabytes of DDR5 memory. This partition is targeted at modeling and simulation workloads, such as computational fluid dynamics used for wind turbines and propellers, car crash simulation tests, and medicine, such as beam simulations in proton therapy used in cancer treatment, among others.
• HPE Cray Supercomputing EX with GPU partition, equipped with 440 NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips, is targeted for image-intensive computer simulations in materials engineering, solid state physics, drug discovery, and large-scale AI training, such as generative AI.
• HPE Cray Supercomputing XD665 with “INT” partition, targeted for interactive work with big data, tuning AI models, and running applications that use AI for inference, is equipped with 24 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs and high-speed NVMe local storage.

All components of the supercomputer are interconnected with HPE Slingshot, which provides 200 gigabits per second (Gbps) of purpose-built, high-performance networking to address demands for higher speed and congestion control for data-intensive workloads. Based on HPE Cray technology, this tuneable interconnection supercharges performance for the entire system by enabling extremely high-speed networking. Helios also has a total of 17.5 petabytes of Lustre file system storage built on the HPE Cray ClusterStor E1000 Storage System.

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) is the global edge-to-cloud company that helps organizations accelerate outcomes by unlocking value from all of their data, everywhere. Built on decades of reimagining the future and innovating to advance the way people live and work, HPE delivers unique, open, and intelligent technology solutions as a service. With offerings spanning Cloud Services, Compute, High Performance Computing & AI, Intelligent Edge, Software, and Storage, HPE provides a consistent experience across all clouds and edges, helping customers develop new business models, engage in new ways, and increase operational performance. For more information, visit: www.hpe.com

About Academic Computer Centre Cyfronet AGH

ACC Cyfronet AGH was established in 1973 to operate and expand High-Performance Computers and the Krakow Metropolitan Area Network (MAN). Cyfronet is the leader of the PLGrid Consortium, consolidating national computing resources for science and providing many unique IT support services, as well as the leader of the Polish National Competence Centre in HPC, which serves as a contact and access point for both academia and industry. Cyfronet has unique experience in building, maintaining and developing integrated service platforms for scientific users. Based on the hosted infrastructure and gained expertise, Cyfronet participates in developing many Polish and European R&D initiatives, including EGI, EOSC, EPOS, EuroHPC, LUMI, LUMI-Q, Digital Twins in Earth- and Health Sciences. For more information, visit: www.cyfronet.pl/en

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¹ The new system currently delivers a theoretical peak performance of 35 petaflops, making it the fastest supercomputer in Poland compared to the systems featured in the TOP500 list (November 2023 edition).

² Green500 list – November 2023: https://www.top500.org/lists/green500/list/2023/11.

Contacts

Szymon Solnica

szymon.solnica@hpe.com

Bureau Veritas: Strong Start to the Year; 2024 Outlook Confirmed




Bureau Veritas: Strong Start to the Year; 2024 Outlook Confirmed

NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE, France–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Q1 2024 Key figures¹

› Revenue of EUR 1,439.5 million in the first quarter of 2024, up 2.5% year-on-year and up 8.0% organically

› Strong organic growth from Industry +16.3%, Certification +13.7%, Marine & Offshore +13.6%, compared to the first quarter of 2023; growth of +6.1% for Consumer Products Services, +3.6% for Buildings & Infrastructure and +3.2% for Agri-food & Commodities

› The scope effect was a positive 0.1%, reflecting bolt-on acquisitions offset by a small disposal

› The currency impact was negative by 5.6% mainly due to the depreciation of some emerging countries’ currencies against the euro

Q1 2024 Highlights

› New strategy LEAP | 28, announced on March 20, 2024, to deliver a step change in growth and performance, built around three pillars: Focused Portfolio, Performance-led execution and Evolved People model

› Strong growth in every region (Americas, Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and Europe), outperforming many underlying markets

› Growth momentum maintained for sustainability services – both transition services and Green Objects – across the entire portfolio

› In line with the LEAP | 28 strategy, the Consumer Products Services business line completed the acquisition of three bolt-on companies in South and North-East Asia, expanding the Group’s portfolio into new sectors and diversifying its geographical coverage, adding an annualized revenue of c. EUR 20 million

› To execute the share buyback program announced in March at the Capital Markets Day, an acquisition of c. 0.8% of the Group’s own shares on April 5, 2024, was completed under the Wendel placement

› Assignment of the first long-term credit rating of Bureau Veritas with a A3 rating from Moody’s, with “stable” outlook, which reflects the Group’s strong financial structure and competitive advantage

› New recognition of Bureau Veritas’ CSR commitment by several non-financial rating agencies, including a first ranking in Sustainalytics. Bureau Veritas also joins the United Nations Global Compact.

2024 Outlook confirmed

Leveraging a healthy and growing sales pipeline, high customer demand for ‘new economy services’ and strong underlying market growth, Bureau Veritas expects to deliver for the full year 2024:

› Mid-to-high single-digit organic revenue growth;

› Improvement in adjusted operating margin at constant exchange rates;

› Strong cash flow, with a cash conversion² above 90%.

The Group expects H2 organic revenue growth above H1 given stronger comparables in Q2.

Hinda Gharbi, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“In the first quarter of the year, we launched our LEAP I 28 strategy both internally and to our investors. Our commitment to sustainable organic growth, active portfolio management through M&A and yearly margin improvement is in line with our ambition to deliver double-digit shareholder returns.

We have started our strategy execution and Bureau Veritas maintained its growth trajectory with broad organic growth of 8.0% supported by strong market trends in the first quarter of 2024.

In addition, I am pleased to announce the first long-term credit rating of Bureau Veritas. The decision by Moody’s to assign a A3 rating, with stable outlook, confirms our strong financial structure, a leading market position, and a solid business model.

Looking ahead, we confirm our outlook for 2024.”

Q1 2024 KEY REVENUE FIGURES

Revenue in the first quarter of 2024 amounted to EUR 1,439.5 million, a 2.5% increase compared with Q1 2023. Organic growth was 8.0%, benefiting from solid underlying trends for most businesses.

This is reflected as follows by business:

› More than a third of the portfolio delivered double-digit organic revenue growth in the quarter, benefiting from increasing decarbonization trends and energy transition for Marine & Offshore, and Industry. The rising demand for Sustainability and ESG-driven services are seen in the growth momentum of Certification.

› An eighth of the portfolio delivered mid-to-high single-digit organic revenue growth (up 6.1%). The growth in the Consumer Products Services activities was led by most geographies. The business benefited from the organic growth coming from recent acquisitions as the Group executes its strategy of geography, sector, and services diversification in this market.

› Half of the portfolio including Buildings & Infrastructure and Agri-Food & Commodities achieved low single-digit organic revenue growth (up 3.6% and 3.2% respectively). The growth was driven by solid underlying trends.

By geography, activities in the Americas were strong (27% of revenue; up 8.0% organically), led by a double-digit increase in Latin America. Europe (36% of revenue; up 5.6% organically) was primarily led by high activity levels in Southern and Eastern Europe. Business in Asia-Pacific (27% of revenue; up 7.0% organically) benefited from a recovery in China, while strong growth was delivered in South-East Asian countries as well as in Australia. Finally, activity was also strong in Africa and the Middle East (10% of revenue; up 19.9% organically) primarily driven by Buildings & Infrastructure and energy projects in the Middle East.

The scope effect was a positive 0.1%, reflecting bolt-on acquisitions realized in the past few quarters offset by the impact of a small disposal which was made in the third quarter of 2023.

Currency fluctuations had a negative impact of 5.6%, mainly due to the depreciation of some emerging countries’ currencies against the euro (in Latin America essentially).

SOLID FINANCIAL POSITION

At the end of March 2024, the Group’s adjusted net financial debt slightly increased, with cash and cash equivalent levels materially unchanged compared with the levels at December 31, 2023. The Group also had in place EUR 600 million of undrawn committed credit lines. Bureau Veritas has a solid financial structure with the bulk of its maturities beyond 2025 and 100% at fixed interest rates.

2024 SHARE BUYBACK PROGRAM

To execute the EUR 200 million share buyback program announced on March 20, 2024, an acquisition of c. 0.8% of the Group’s own shares, or the equivalent of c. EUR 100 million on April 5, 2024, was completed under the Wendel placement. The Group will purchase the remainder in 2024.

In accordance with the purpose of the share buyback program approved by the Annual General Meeting, the shares bought back will be used for cancellation purposes and for any other purposes authorized by the Company’s shareholders at the Annual General Meeting of June 22, 2023.

A3 FIRST LONG-TERM CREDIT RATING BY MOODY’S

Bureau Veritas announces that it has been assigned on April 24, 2024 its first Long-Term Credit rating of A3 from Moody’s, with a “stable” outlook.

According to Moody’s, the A3 rating is primarily supported by the Group:

› Leading market position, protected by high barriers to entry, and by its well diversified business model;

› Long track record of positive organic growth through the cycle;

› Supportive long-term fundamentals of the TIC (Testing, Inspection and Certification) market;

› Conservative financial policies underpinned by large cash reserves and balanced capital allocation between Capex spending, acquisitions and shareholder distributions;

› Track record of solid free cash flow (FCF) generation and strong liquidity.

This long-term credit rating will help Bureau Veritas in further diversifying its sources of funding, enhancing access to capital markets, and managing debt maturities in line with the Group’s strategy. The full rating report is available on moodys.com.

FOCUSED PORTFOLIO

In line with the LEAP | 28 strategy of active portfolio management and in order to focus the portfolio on market leadership positions, Bureau Veritas has activated an M&A program to develop a new market stronghold in Consumer Technology Testing. To that effect the Group signed definitive agreements to acquire three players to expand its position in testing and certification services for the Electrical and Electronics consumer products segment in South and North-East Asia, for a combined revenue of c. EUR 20 million in 2023.

For more information, the press release is available by clicking here.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY COMMITMENTS

› Bureau Veritas joins the United Nations Global Compact

On February 26, 2024, Bureau Veritas announced that it joined the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest initiative related to corporate social responsibility (CSR). With this move, the Group confirms its commitment to abiding by the Ten Principles of the voluntary initiative, which seeks to advance universal principles on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption.

› Strong recognition by non-financial rating agencies

On March 7, 2024, the Group was ranked first in its category by Morningstar Sustainalytics. With a 9.1 rating, the Group ranks at the first position of the ‘Research and Consulting’ category out of 72 companies and is now classified in the “Negligible risk” category.

› Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) key indicators

OPERATIONAL APPOINTMENTS

› Khurram Majeed appointed Executive Vice- President, Commodities, Industry and Facilities, Middle East, Caspian and Africa

On April 1^st, 2024, Khurram Majeed became Executive Vice-President, Commodities, Industry and Facilities, for the Middle East, Caspian and Africa. With this role, the Group aims to leverage the full potential of this growing market opportunities specific to the Middle East, Caspian and Africa region. This is a dynamic region undergoing several evolutions in natural resources, construction, and industrial spaces. This new organization will also allow Bureau Veritas to facilitate solutions scaling and resources utilization across the region.

For more information, the press release is available by clicking here.

2024 OUTLOOK CONFIRMED

Leveraging a healthy and growing sales pipeline, high customer demand for ‘new economy services’ and strong underlying market growth, Bureau Veritas expects to deliver for the full year 2024:

› Mid-to-high single-digit organic revenue growth;

› Improvement in adjusted operating margin at constant exchange rates;

› Strong cash flow, with a cash conversion⁷ above 90%.

The Group expects H2 organic revenue growth above H1 given stronger comparables in Q2.

LEAP | 28 STRATEGY

On March 20, 2024, Bureau Veritas announced its new strategy, LEAP | 28, with the following ambitions:

Over the period 2024-2028, the use of Free Cash Flow generated from the Group’s operations will be balanced between Capital Expenditure (Capex), Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) and shareholder returns (dividend):

Q1 2024 BUSINESS REVIEW

MARINE & OFFSHORE

The Marine & Offshore business delivered a strong 13.6% organic revenue increase in the first quarter of 2024 with the following trends:

› A solid double-digit increase in New Construction (40% of divisional revenue), supported by a strong orderbook made of various types and sizes of vessels;

› Core In-service activity (47% of divisional revenue) posted a double-digit growth, benefiting from a combination of price increases and volume growth due to the increase in the number of classed vessels and from the ageing of the fleet. At March end, the fleet classed by Bureau Veritas comprised of 11,823 ships, representing 150.8 million of Gross Register Tonnage (GRT);

› Services (13% of divisional revenue, including Offshore) recorded a mid-single-digit growth, and were driven by good commercial development of non-class services, including consulting services around ship energy efficiency.

New orders totaled 2.8 million gross tons at the end of March 2024, up 21% from March 2023, in a stable shipping market. This brings the order book to a healthy 23.3 million gross tons at the end of the quarter, up 9.7% year on year.

Sustainability achievements

During this first quarter of 2024, Bureau Veritas has awarded the World’s first prototype certification for Solarduck’s Floating Offshore Solar Solution. Throughout the certification process, Bureau Veritas meticulously evaluated the prototype against rules and standards, including guidance note NI631 on the Certification Scheme for Marine Renewable Energy Technologies. These assessments covered various aspects such as the floating structure, mooring system, stability analysis, materials, and electrical safety systems. Bureau Veritas also delivered a certificate to a valve manufacturer for pioneering hydrogen valve technology.

AGRI-FOOD & COMMODITIES

The Agri-Food & Commodities business achieved organic revenue growth of 3.2% in the first quarter of 2023, with a mixed growth dynamic of the different activities.

The Oil & Petrochemicals segment (O&P, 32% of divisional revenue) recorded once again a mid-single-digit organic growth, despite the competitive nature of this business in some geographies such as Asia. This strong performance was driven by (i) market share gains in Europe; (ii) a stronger activity level in the Middle East from trading routes shifts and new laboratories starts; (iii) a sustained growth traction from non-trade activities (Oil Condition Monitoring, bio and sustainable fuels for the marine and aviation fields). This includes a solid ramp-up of a large contract around lubrication fuels for a key player of the Automotive Industry.

The Metals & Minerals segment (M&M, 31% of divisional revenue) achieved a stable performance in the first quarter. The Upstream business (which represents two-third of M&M) faced unfavorable comparables as customers remained cautious on investments in view of the current macro conditions. The activity however benefited from a very good momentum for precious metals such as gold and from the Group’s on-site laboratories strategy, with a new win in Latin America. Trade activities performed well owing to a favorable mix and volume combination for some metals such as copper or zinc.

In Q1 2024, Agri-Food (23% of divisional revenue) grew mid-single digit on an organic basis, led by a high-single digit performance in the Agri business. Europe led the pack, growing strongly thanks to solid developments in key countries such as Italy and Portugal or along the Danube corridor. The Food business grew mid-single digit organically, benefited from a good traction in Asia and the recovery of the Australian activities. The Middle East region continued to show strong performance led by favorable prices and volumes growth as well as the ramp-up of new laboratories.

Government services (14% of the divisional revenue) delivered a slightly negative organic growth in the quarter due mainly to unfavorable comparables and temporary volume reductions from the ending of some contracts. These were partly offset by the good performance of Single Window contracts in some African countries. The pipeline of new opportunities remains solid.

Sustainability achievements

In the first quarter of 2024, Bureau Veritas delivered several sustainability services to its customers ranging from services around commodities emission fugitive, sustainable aviation fuel or traceability for wood products.

INDUSTRY

Industry continued to perform well in the first quarter of 2024 with an organic growth of 16.3%, with growth in most markets and geographies.

By market, Power & Utilities (12% of divisional revenue) growth was moderated by unfavorable comparables. Business declined in Latin America reflecting the decision to exit low profitable contracts (in Brazil and Chili). In Europe, the nuclear power generation segment was fueled by the ramp-up of QA/QC inspection projects in the UK while suffering from the negative impact of the end of EPR Flamanville 3 project in France.

Renewable Power Generation activities (solar, wind, hydrogen) continued to accelerate with high double-digit organic performance delivered across most geographies. This was led by the US, where the Group continued to expand its renewables power (solar/wind) business, with many small contracts wins as it benefited from early opportunities linked to the Inflation Reduction Act investments. Opportunities around hydrogen, carbon capture and storage projects are also promising. During the period, the Group signed a partnership with Inthy, a renewable energy and hydrogen producer, and the Bourgogne Franche-Comté region of France, to launch Europe’s first large-scale hydrogen storage test site.

In Oil & Gas (33% of divisional revenue), the activity remained buoyant, up double-digit organically in the quarter. Both Capex and Opex services strongly increased across most geographies as they continue to benefit from the conversion of a solid sales pipeline and a healthy backlog. The activity was particularly dynamic in the US, Asia and Australia.

Industry Products Certification (17% of divisional revenue) delivered high-single-digit organic revenue growth led by price increases and growing activity for Pressure & Welding, and Electromechanical & Advanced Technologies sub-segments. Growth was strong in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions.

Elsewhere, the Environmental Testing business (9% of divisional revenue) performed well, with the remediation works in Canada benefiting from favorable weather conditions in the first quarter.

Sustainability achievements

In the first quarter of 2024, the Group was awarded a contract to deliver integrated QA/QC services for the construction of a 493 MW El Dorado Solar facility with TriGlobal Energy in the US. The Group was also selected for the renewables equipment supervision for a Chinese energy company.

BUILDINGS & INFRASTRUCTURE

The Buildings & Infrastructure (B&I) business delivered an organic revenue growth of 3.6% in the first quarter, fueled by Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and by the Middle East.

During the period, the building-in service activity outperformed the construction-related activities.

The Americas region (27% of divisional revenue) delivered solid growth. Bureau Veritas US operations recorded mid-single digit organic revenue growth, benefitting from its diversified portfolio of activities. Double-digit growth was maintained for the data center commissioning business fueled by continued geographical expansion. Code compliance grew high-single-digit organically thanks to housing expansion in southern states. In Latin America, the Group delivered solid growth in both Brazil and Chile offsetting the contraction from B&I activity termination in Argentina.

Growth in Europe (51% of divisional revenue) was robust overall, up 4.9% organically. Strong growth was delivered in Italy benefiting from infrastructure spend thanks to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). In France, Opex services, representing three quarters of the country’s revenue, grew above the country average thanks to positive pricing and newly introduced services. The Capex-related activities grew slightly in a declining market, as it leverages its different served markets. This business is weighted more towards infrastructure and public works (including the Olympic Games 2024).

The Asia Pacific region (18% of divisional revenue) recorded a 5.1% organic revenue increase led by high growth in South and Southeastern Asian countries and Australia. In China, activity remained moderate, with solid trends in energy-related construction activity, boosted by the energy transition, but weak spending on transport infrastructure projects.

Lastly, in the Middle East & Africa region (4% of divisional revenue), the Group continued to deliver double-digit organic revenue growth led by Saudi Arabia, benefiting from the development of numerous megaprojects.

Sustainability achievements

The Group continues to provide decarbonization solutions as asset owners transition towards a building sector aligned with long term goals of the Paris Agreement in 2015. In the first quarter, in Spain, the Group was selected to carry out Energy Audits (EED) mandatory compliance on all shops for a large European retailer. The Group also performed an environmental assessment of 40 sites in France for a leading retailer, through soil pollution audits.

CERTIFICATION

Once again, the Certification business posted a strong performance over the first quarter of 2024, recording a 13.7% growth on an organic basis. This was achieved through good volumes growth, owing to favorable market conditions, and robust price increases. All geographies grew organically, with the Americas, Middle East & Africa and Asia leading the pack.

QHSE & Specialized Schemes solutions (48% of the divisional revenue) grew high-single digit, thanks to the recertification cycle occurring this year for some standards. It supported the robust performance in QHSE solutions, especially in Europe where it recorded a high organic growth thanks to Bureau Veritas’ leading position and broad coverage. As an illustration, the Group recently signed an exclusive multi-year framework agreement with a leading beverage industry player for ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 schemes across all European operations. This agreement also covers environmental management system & food safety schemes certification.

Contacts

ANALYST/INVESTOR CONTACTS

Laurent Brunelle
+33 (0)1 55 24 76 09

laurent.brunelle@bureauveritas.com

Colin Verbrugghe
+33 (0)1 55 24 77 80

colin.verbrugghe@bureauveritas.com

Karine Ansart
+33 (0)1 55 24 76 19

karine.ansart@bureauveritas.com

MEDIA CONTACTS

Anette Rey
+ 33 (0)6 69 79 84 88

anette.rey@bureauveritas.com

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Salesforce Unveils Zero Copy Partner Network, an Ecosystem Committed to Secure, Bidirectional Zero Copy Integration with Salesforce Data Cloud




Salesforce Unveils Zero Copy Partner Network, an Ecosystem Committed to Secure, Bidirectional Zero Copy Integration with Salesforce Data Cloud

The Zero Copy Partner Network features initial partners Amazon Web Services (AWS), Databricks, Google Cloud, and Snowflake, and adds Microsoft, all committed to zero copy integrations with Salesforce that give customers a secure and cost-effective way to connect and take action on all of their data

New zero copy support for data warehouses and data lakehouses built on open table formats, like Apache Iceberg, with Salesforce Data Cloud, removes the need to copy or move data, so customers can unlock their data, powering Customer 360 experiences with AI, automation, and analytics

The network includes Salesforce ISV partners, building new Zero Copy Data Kits to bring valuable new datasets to Salesforce Data Cloud, and Salesforce SI partners including Accenture, Cognizant, Deloitte Digital, and PwC, helping customers with zero copy Salesforce Data Cloud implementations

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) today announced the Salesforce Zero Copy Partner Network, a global ecosystem of technology and solution providers building secure, bidirectional zero copy integrations with Salesforce Data Cloud so that data can be actioned across the Salesforce Einstein 1 Platform. Salesforce also unveiled innovations including new zero copy support for open data lakes and lakehouses utilizing the Apache Iceberg open table format, as well as added zero copy support for ISV partners developing data kits to distribute their valuable data sets to Data Cloud customers.

“In today’s digital landscape, companies struggle with islands of data spread across various systems,” said Brian Millham, President and Chief Operating Officer at Salesforce. “With this global ecosystem of partners, companies can access all of their data, no matter where it resides, and unlock the power of all of that data within Salesforce — creating more personalized customer interactions and establishing a foundation for trusted AI, in less time and at lower cost.”

Why Zero Copy

Salesforce Data Cloud unifies all your customer data, structured and unstructured, into a unified 360-degree view accessible within Salesforce. This empowers teams to make data-driven decisions directly in their flow of work.

This data goes beyond information access — it fuels actionable insights. Imagine automated triggers based on customer behavior, like a Slack message notifying a sales rep when a customer visits a pricing page on their website. This real-time information allows for immediate engagement. Data Cloud also provides the foundation for trusted AI. By unifying and cleansing your data, you ensure AI models operate on the most accurate information. This unlocks the full potential of large language models (LLMs), delivering faster, more cost-effective results.

Salesforce previously introduced the concept of zero copy bidirectional integrations with Data Cloud via partnerships with Amazon Redshift, Databricks, Google Cloud’s BigQuery, and Snowflake. Without zero copy, companies have to rely on custom integrations and complex data pipelines for the integration and movement of data from Salesforce to external data warehouses and vice versa. Unlike traditional extract, transform, and load (ETL) processes and data pipelines, zero copy integration offers businesses a more efficient, secure, and user-friendly way to connect data to business applications.

With Salesforce zero copy integrations, organizations can:

• Access live external data without copying (no reverse ETL): Traditional methods of accessing data from other systems, such as standing up reverse ETL pipelines, are costly and brittle. Businesses need to build and maintain the connection, then reconcile data changes over time. With zero copy integration, teams in Salesforce can access data from where it lives — either through queries or by virtually accessing the file — and when source data changes, it’s immediately updated everywhere, such as on a vehicle record that displays the mileage and maintenance history of a connected car through a zero copy connection to a lake that houses that data.
• Act on data from anywhere in the flow of work: Once in Data Cloud, this unlocked data is part of Salesforce’s metadata framework, and can be used in multiple ways including: generating business intelligence (BI) or AI insights; marketing segmentation or activation; creating unified customer experiences across sales, service, marketing, and commerce; and analytics via Tableau. For example, a Data Cloud-Triggered Flow updates an account manager in Slack when shipments are marked as delayed in an external lake, enabling them to immediately engage their client.
• Share customer 360 insights back with no copy: Salesforce zero copy integration goes beyond simply reading data from warehouses and data lakes. It also allows you to share valuable insights back to these systems, including harmonized and unified customer data along with AI and BI insights – all without the need for data replication.
• Maintain governance and security: Traditional data governance often depends on manually copying data between systems to preserve the integrity of the source data, sacrificing the ability to track data as it moves downstream. Zero copy integrations eliminate the need for manual data movement, and since data remains in its original location, data lineage is preserved. Additionally, because zero copy integrations enable centralized access control at the data source itself, it simplifies security management and minimizes risks when exposing data to the business.
• Ground generative AI: With the ability to connect to not only structured data, but unstructured data like PDFs, call transcripts, and emails, zero copy integrations make it quick and easy to bring unified business data into any AI prompt sent through the Einstein Trust Layer. This lets customers deploy trusted, relevant generative AI across all Salesforce applications without having to fine-tune an off-the-shelf LLM.

Why It Matters

Most companies juggle multiple systems to manage their business, but only 28% of applications are connected, and over 80% of business leaders struggle with data fragmentation and data silos. To fully understand the complete customer journey, it is necessary to bring this data together into a 360-degree view of the customer. However, the challenge lies within the scattered data, making it difficult to consolidate, generate insights, and feed the data back into the engagement systems.

This is where Salesforce Data Cloud with zero copy integration comes in. It allows businesses to keep their data in its original location while integrating the metadata. This unlocks the power of all that data within Salesforce, enabling harmonization, unification, and a comprehensive view of the customer. Sales agents, service reps, and marketers can all see the same information, facilitating collaboration across departments, giving them the ability to take action on data, and driving improved customer experiences. Additionally, these rich insights are also accessible back in the company’s data warehouses and lakes, empowering downstream applications to leverage the unified customer data.

Go Deeper

New integrations with Microsoft

Today, Salesforce announced an expanded partnership with Microsoft to enable zero copy Data Cloud integrations using Microsoft Azure.

Salesforce and Microsoft are jointly working to give customers the ability to access their critical business data in Azure Synapse and bidirectional zero copy data access with Microsoft Fabric and Salesforce Data Cloud. This marks a significant evolution in the partnership between Microsoft and Salesforce, focused on delivering joint customer value in the age of trusted data and AI.

Expanded support for file level zero copy data access unlocks data from open data lakes and warehouses

Data Cloud’s support for accessing data from external data platforms via zero copy is currently accomplished through a live query. This means that when any data from the external data set is needed for an operation in Data Cloud, the data is retrieved by issuing an SQL query to the source data platform’s query API. The live query pattern makes sense for data warehouses that provide a query interface, as the warehouse’s native query engine is required to read data in each platform’s proprietary data format.

However, as the open data lake and lakehouse pattern has grown in popularity, there is another way to access data-powered table formats like Apache Iceberg. Since Iceberg is an open format, Data Cloud’s query engines can read it natively and reference external data stored in Iceberg tables directly. This enables a new low-latency way of virtualizing data in Data Cloud, with direct file access at the storage level.

Data Cloud will soon extend zero copy data access to any open data lake or lakehouse that stores data in Iceberg or can provide Iceberg metadata for its table. This gives customers more options with zero copy support for an even larger ecosystem of data platforms and custom data lakes.

New Zero Copy Data Kits enable ISVs and data providers to unlock new datasets for customers

Today, ISVs can use Data Kits to distribute datasets and enrich customer data in Data Cloud. Data Kits are containers of Data Cloud metadata that can be packaged and installed from the Salesforce AppExchange. Data Kits enable ISVs to distribute their high-value datasets to Data Cloud customers and land that data in Data Cloud pre-mapped into the Data Cloud customer data model, with no transformations required.

Adding zero copy support to Data Kits will enable customers to access new third-party datasets from partners like Dun & Bradstreet, Moody’s, Own Company, The Weather Company, Workday, Zoominfo, and more to enrich their customer profile via the same zero copy integrations they use for accessing their own data platforms. For example, The Weather Company can enable customers to enrich their data model with real-time local weather data, helping them make more informed decisions and take actions based on weather conditions, such as an insurance company doing predictive outreach ahead of a big storm or grounding generative AI with real-time weather data.

Developers can now unlock their Heroku app data with zero copy support for Heroku Postgres

Heroku will soon empower developers, including partners in the Salesforce Zero Copy Partner Network, who use both Heroku and Data Cloud to unlock the full potential of their relational data. By eliminating data transfers, Zero Copy lets you seamlessly leverage Heroku Postgres data for powerful insights and innovation across Data Cloud-powered Salesforce experiences – and existing Heroku applications. This integration reinforces Heroku’s commitment to developer flexibility, supporting diverse skill sets, languages, open standards, and fully managed operations, all while maximizing the value of your managed data.

Zero Copy Partner Network empowers SI partners to lead customers through zero copy Data Cloud implementation

As part of the Salesforce Zero Copy Partner Network, industry-leading partners including Accenture, Capgemini, Coastal, Cognizant, Deloitte Digital, IBM Consulting, Publicis Sapient, PwC, Slalom, and Wipro can now help customers integrate Data Cloud, including zero copy integration patterns. For example, a financial institution could leverage a Salesforce SI partner to integrate Data Cloud with its existing data infrastructure. This integration can unlock trapped data and generate insights that drive rich, personalized engagement for clients, quickly and at scale.

Quotes

“Millions of donors worldwide are crucial to the success of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the integrity of our data is top priority. Our implementation of Data Cloud allows us to consolidate and access our donor data from various systems and applications. We are excited to partner with Salesforce in extending this implementation with the Salesforce Zero Copy Partner Network, which lets us choose the technology partner we prefer to connect our organizational donor data directly into Data Cloud — no more copying data between platforms or building expensive data transfer pipelines. This will save us significant time and help us provide personalized experiences to our donors, while also ensuring their information remains in a trusted and secure environment.” – David Jacques, Chief Information Officer, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

“Every organization is racing to unlock the power of data with a strong digital core on the cloud to enable AI to be pervasive across the enterprise. Accenture is helping our clients use Data Cloud to connect their data, make insights more accessible, and create personalized customer experiences, building a solid foundation for AI.” – Stephanie Sadowski, global lead of the Accenture Salesforce Business Group, Accenture

Availability

• Zero copy integration with Snowflake and Google BigQuery is available today.
• Zero copy integration with Databricks and Amazon Redshift is in pilot today, and will be generally available later this year.

Get Started

• Realize value faster with the new Data Cloud Starter Bundle.
• Unlock the power of your data with the new Zero Copy Partner Network.

Learn more

• Dive into Salesforce Data Cloud and explore how your company can harness its power
• Build your expertise with free, hands-on technical learning in the new Unlock Your Data with Data Cloud trail on Trailhead
• Uncover more insights from Salesforce’s recent Your Data, Your AI survey
• Go deeper on how Data Cloud zero copy integration works

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, empowering companies to connect with their customers in a whole new way through the power of CRM + AI + Data + Trust on one unified platform: Einstein 1. For more information visit: www.salesforce.com.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase Salesforce applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CRM.” For more information please visit https://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

Contacts

Lucie Vietti-Curtis|

pr@salesforce.com

Arbolus Appoints Former EY Managing Partner Steve Martin as Chair, Setting Stage for 2024 Growth Round




Arbolus Appoints Former EY Managing Partner Steve Martin as Chair, Setting Stage for 2024 Growth Round

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#Arbolus—Arbolus, an expert network platform, announces the appointment of Steve Martin, former EY Managing Partner, as Chair of the board, signaling a pivotal moment for the company as it embarks on an ambitious growth trajectory.

Drawing from over thirty years of consulting career marked by transformative leadership and a keen eye for innovation, Steve is set to play a crucial role in shaping Arbolus’ growth strategy. His first-hand knowledge of the competitive landscape, coupled with a deep understanding of client needs, positions him as an invaluable asset in guiding Arbolus toward sustained success.

Since its inception in 2018, Arbolus has been at the forefront of reinventing the expert network industry with a technology-driven approach. Through an AI-enhanced digital platform and tools like Canopy video Q&A, it allows private equity and consulting clients to gather the most relevant, hard-to-find expertise faster and streamline primary research processes.

With +150 employees across offices in London, New York, Barcelona and New Delhi, Arbolus is a high-growth company ranked in the top 100 of the FT1000 Fastest Growing European Companies and recognized on Sifted 100 Fastest Growing Startups in the UK and Ireland leaderboard.

Reflecting on his new role, Steve Martin said, “Arbolus’ dedication to innovation and delivering value to clients resonates deeply with me. I’m eager to leverage my experience to support them on their mission to redefine primary research. With products like Canopy and AI-driven platform features, they’ve already demonstrated a commitment to this mission, and I’m excited to see how far we can push the boundaries together.”

Arbolus Co-founder and CEO, Sam Glasswell, expressed enthusiasm over Steve’s appointment, stating, “We are delighted to welcome Steve to the Arbolus board. Having known him for some time, it is clear he will be a fantastic Chair for Arbolus. He brings a rare combination of exceptional commercial knowledge, emotional intelligence and strategic management experience which will be invaluable as we navigate the challenges of scaling. We can’t wait to see him in action, work together and learn from him over the coming years.”

About Arbolus

Arbolus is a tech-driven expert network that connects Private Equity investors and Strategy Consultants with leading subject matter experts for primary research purposes.

Since its inception in 2018, Arbolus has been on a mission to reinvent an outdated expert network industry. Today, we support thousands of clients worldwide with a platform-based model, powered by cutting-edge AI. We help clients turn primary research into a source of competitive advantage with time-saving workflows and first-to-market tools like Canopy video Q&A.

With +150 employees across offices in London, New York, Barcelona and New Delhi, Arbolus is a high-growth company ranked in the top 100 of FT1000 Fastest Growing European Companies list and featured on Sifted 100 Fastest Growing Startups in the UK and Ireland.

For more information, please visit www.arbolus.com

Contacts

Arbolus

Akvile Paldauskaite

press@arbolus.com
+34637470972

Jack Mead Launches Vagaro Master Class to Help Salon & Beauty Professionals Grow Their Business




Jack Mead Launches Vagaro Master Class to Help Salon & Beauty Professionals Grow Their Business

STEVENAGE, England–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vagaro, the leading international salon and spa software, and Jack Mead, award-winning hair stylist, salon owner, and educator, officially announced the release of their highly-anticipated Master Class series, delivering expert insights on using the power of social media to cultivate an expanding business.

Mead, also a finalist in the hit UK reality TV competition, The Big Blowout, lead stylist at London Fashion Week and 2022 British Hairdressing Awards finalist – skyrocketed his salon social media presence during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now has a waitlist of over 500 clients that grows every day.

In his Vagaro Master Class, Mead teaches beauty industry professionals his insider insights on using social media to grow a business, connect with their audience, build brand awareness, gain new customers, retain existing ones, and drive more sales.

“I have invested thousands of hours in trying to learn and understand social media. I am grateful for the opportunity to share my knowledge with you, so that you don’t have to. Join me on my new Vagaro Master Class on using social media to grow your business,” says Mead.

The Master Class is broken up into three easily digestible episodes for the busy salon professional. Each episode focuses on different key topics, including:

Identifying Your Key Audience: Mead says, “You can’t do everything to appeal to everyone.” Mead guides salon professionals to tailor their social media content to resonate with their audience effectively.

Finding Your Niche: By teaching salon professionals how to stay inspired and think outside the box, Mead empowers them to create compelling content that sets their salon apart from the competition.

Retaining Your Audience: Mead shares proven strategies for retaining clients and engaging with social media followers, fostering a consistent brand and a sense of community that keeps followers engaged and connected.

Vagaro Chief Marketing Officer Charity Hudnall says, “By combining a deep understanding of the salon and beauty industry with cutting-edge social media strategies, the team at Vagaro hopes this collaboration with Jack Mead continues to inspire salon professionals to reach new heights of success.”

Visit Jack Mead’s Vagaro Master Class to access lessons and complimentary worksheet.

Mead’s lessons constitute one season of the overall Vagaro Master Class Series, which helps salon and spa professionals adapt the knowledge and mindset of successful business owners and celebrity entrepreneurs to their own business goals.

About Vagaro

Vagaro is the leading salon, spa, & fitness software, serving hundreds of thousands of professionals worldwide. Vagaro, which started out as a salon & spa scheduling software and booking system, has grown to simplify business management, payment processing, & make it easy for businesses to grow their clientele on a modern consumer marketplace. Vagaro’s a-la-carte options & affordable pricing provide a unique level of scalability, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes, from the solopreneur to enterprise franchises. Simple, innovative, & reliable, Vagaro empowers beauty & wellness professionals to excel in a digital age. Visit Vagaro to learn more.

Contacts

press@vagaro.com

Infobip becomes an Oracle Independent Software Vendor partner




Infobip becomes an Oracle Independent Software Vendor partner

Customers can benefit from CPaaS solutions to enhance conversational communications for marketing, sales and support

VODNJAN, Croatia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Infobip, a global cloud communications platform and a member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), today announced it has enhanced its relationship with Oracle, becoming an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) with access to Oracle Integration Cloud.

Businesses using any Oracle solution can access Infobip’s omnichannel platform through Oracle Cloud Marketplace (OCM). They can quickly orchestrate powerful interactions, help increase customer satisfaction, boost sales, and improve campaign performance.

Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a one-stop shop for Oracle customers seeking trusted business applications and services offering unique solutions, including ones that extend Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications.

Infobip’s communication channels will enable businesses to deliver conversational experiences across many sectors including banking and financial services, retail and ecommerce, and hospitality and leisure. Through Infobip’s collaboration, Oracle users will gain customer insights, enabling them to adjust campaign strategies and nurture leads across every stage of the buying process.

“Oracle is committed to providing leading customer experience solutions that help our global business-to-business and business-to-consumer customers use data more intelligently to significantly enhance the engagements they have with their customers,” said Stephen Streich, group vice president of product management, Oracle Marketing. “Our collaboration with Infobip will give our customers access to the latest communication solutions to help continuously deliver value.”

Infobip started its collaboration with Oracle in 2018 as a member of OPN. Infobip’s solutions have helped businesses deliver personalized, omnichannel messaging and nurture customer relationships across WhatsApp, Viber, and SMS. More than 18 billion interactions have been managed across 65 customers through these integrations so far.

Veselin Vuković, Global VP for Strategic Alliances & Partnerships at Infobip said: “With the ability to integrate our full omnichannel communications platform across any Oracle solution, available through Oracle Cloud Marketplace, we can help enterprises, no matter their sector or use case, create conversational experiences that increase conversions, boost sales and drive loyalty.”

Read more here: https://partners.infobip.com/oracle

About Infobip

Infobip is a global cloud communications platform that enables businesses to build connected experiences across all stages of the customer journey.

Trademark

Oracle, Java, MySQL and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

Contacts

Marcelo Nahime

Infobip Global Public Relations Manager

marcelo.nahime@infobip.com

TNS is the Only Provider in Europe to Offer Full-Service, Vendor-Neutral Market Data Management Solutions for Financial Institutions




TNS is the Only Provider in Europe to Offer Full-Service, Vendor-Neutral Market Data Management Solutions for Financial Institutions

TNS expands US strategy of full-stack market data management to EMEA and brings on key hire Ben Myers to lead Strategic Sales in region

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#colocation—Transaction Network Services (TNS) today announced its continued investment in EMEA, becoming the only provider in the region to offer vendor-neutral market data application management and consultancy services, combined with comprehensive hosting, connectivity, and cloud services.

TNS can now deliver market data services across the entire trading infrastructure stack. This new, ‘one-stop-shop’ offering is the result of the acquisition of West Highland Support Services, a financial market data solutions provider.

Having successfully rolled out this enhanced capability in the US and with TNS’ expansive network and coverage in region, TNS and West Highland services are now available to EMEA customers as a single, combined offering, including connectivity, monitoring, and consulting to financial markets participants. Clients can immediately leverage TNS as a single point of contact to manage the full scope of all consolidated feeds and normalized data solutions, reducing complexity and enhancing visibility through its range of managed application tools.

“This new combined offering strengthens our commitment to providing financial institutions with the very best agnostic support services and trading infrastructure in EMEA. We are also delighted to have Ben Myers join our London-based TNS Financial Markets team as Head of Strategic Sales for EMEA, to bolster our presence in the region,” said Tom Lazenga, General Manager, TNS Financial Markets.

With more than 15 years’ experience in financial markets and trading technology, Ben Myers has worked at IBM, Thomson Reuters, and most recently ICE Data Services.

“TNS has a strong reputation in EMEA as a leading provider of mission-critical infrastructure and for its exchange expertise,” added Myers. “We’re expanding the breadth of options available to clients in the region with a single-point-of-contact solution for all market data related needs globally, helping customers to reduce costs and complexity across their entire market data ecosystem.”

As market data is often one of the top-two spend categories for most trading organisations, cost savings and economies of scale can be difficult to achieve. TNS can now further help clients reduce cost and complexity across every element of market data related spend and support, including hosting, connectivity, middleware distribution, market data usage, and incident management.

TNS brings together over 5,000 financial community endpoints, supported by a global, 125-strong point-of-presence footprint. Specifically designed and engineered to address the needs of financial market participants worldwide, TNS offers a range of connectivity, colocation, cloud, market data, and VPN solutions within its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) portfolio. These solutions are monitored 24x7x365 by TNS’ Network Operations Centers in the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific region. For further information visit tnsi.com/solutions/financial/.

About Transaction Network Services (TNS)

Founded in 1990 and with headquarters in the USA and offices across Europe and Asia, TNS is a leading provider of mission-critical infrastructure, connectivity, market data, and analytic services for the Financial Markets community. Delivered as a fully managed Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering, TNS provides an unrivalled, global, mission-critical footprint that can significantly help reduce the burdens, complexities and costs attributed to firms ‘going direct’. Through its ultra-low latency connectivity, its global market data offerings, and its dedicated 24x7x365 local support, TNS remains the trusted solution provider to more than 750 counterparties globally.

Contacts

Carina Evison

The Realization Group

+44 (0)7876745554

tns.pr@therealizationgroup.com
Or

Clare Cockroft/Bronte Saulle

TNS

+ 44 (0)114 292 0163 / +1 703 814 8065

pr@tnsi.com