Venture capital funding for UK and Irish technology companies remained strong in Q3 2018 with a huge increase in Fintech deals according to the latest data from corporate finance firm, Ascendant. During Q3, £1.67b was invested in 278 deals of more than £0.5m by 325 investment groups at an average deal size of £6.0m, down from £6.5m in Q2, indicating a trend toward smaller deals. There has been a 21% yoy increase in the number of active investors and, in Q3, 64% of the deals involved more than one investor.

For more details, and a handy summary of the quarter's venture funding deals, TechMarketView Foundation Service subscription clients can download the latest edition of IndustryViews Venture Capitalhere.

TechMarketView’s 2019 research theme – the Year of the Relationship– exemplifies how important it is for suppliers to reassure enterprise buyers that somebody has got their back in protecting their systems against external malware attacks and internal incidents of unauthorised access.

Deeper cross-supplier relationships too will become more important in 2019. All will have to be more flexible in partnering rivals and cloud service providers (CSPs) that need to show IT departments their assets are safe with them for example, while building greater levels of integration and automation into their respective products and services.

Our Security, Networking and Cloud Predictions 2019 report highlights some of the key market trends we expect to hold sway next year:

Partnerships and coopetition define SMB/SME/enterprise cyber security provision

We expect to see more cyber security suppliers hedging their bets when it comes to targeting certain sectors of the UK enterprise market.

Trust key point of cloud provider differentiation

Closer collaboration between cyber security suppliers and cloud service providers (CSPs) to reassure nervous IT departments that sensitive commercial and customer data and applications can be made safe in both on and off-premise infrastructure will become much more important in 2019.

Cyber threats continue to proliferate

The one certainty in an uncertain world – suppliers will be called upon to mitigate more attacks orchestrated by cyber criminals, state sponsored hackers and malicious insiders.

Edge computing takes IoT and AI strain

Rapid IoT growth and greater use of AI will accelerate a move to edge computing architectures that store and process information closer to connected devices rather than cloud data centres.

GDPR fines and new regulation accentuate compliance efforts

A big, high profile fine for a data breach will nudge many IT departments into establishing regular GDPR auditing and assessment policies.

New wireless networks drive LAN upgrades

New 802.11ax WiFi and 5G network technology gives network managers a reason to re-evaluate their existing LAN provision, creating significant opportunity for suppliers with appropriate infrastructure and implementation expertise.

SecureConnectViews subscribers can download the full version of our Security, Networking and Cloud Predictions 2019 report now.

If you would like to find out if your organisation has a subscription or talk about getting access, please contact Deb Seth to find out more.

Without getting involved in a BREXIT debate, one of the implications of a possible shortage of low-skilled immigrant workers is the effects on Agriculture. I’ve just spent a few weeks in New Zealand & Australia and was pretty impressed with the automation I saw in the fields. Huge ‘field-wide’ wheeled irrigation systems all controlled by computer and GPS. They directed the scarce water exactly where it was required and saved huge amounts of this precious resource. Same applies now with weeding. Farmers are reluctant to use more and more weed-killer – preferring weeding machines instead. Whether these are monsters, like the Naio Technologies Weeder in the photo, or armies of smaller Swarm robots as described in The robot revolution down on the farm  in the FT 5th December 18 – both being pioneered ‘Down Under’.

Any Archers fan (like me) will know of the revolution taking place in the robotic milking shed. And Adam’s tractor is stuffed with gizmos.

I’ve also written before about advances in the picking of soft fruit like raspberries and strawberries. See Automating picking soft fruit– 6th Aug 18. This is proving a much more difficult ‘nut to crack’. But I’m certain that as cheap labour disappears, this problem will be solved too. Maybe part of the solution is to stop growing these crops on the ground as they would be much easier to harvest if grown on a trellis.

Investment in Agricultural Robotics is booming. Doubled last year according to CB Insights.

One final comment. We witnessed the most amazing sheep dog exhibitions in New Zealand. One involved gathering 1500 sheep down from the distant hills. Ten dogs all controlled by one person with a whistle. The owner seemed to run this huge sheep farm almost single handed – except for his wonderful dogs. The dogs operated just like a remote control car to their instructions. Maybe this was the original use of robotics in agriculture? Indeed hard to think it could ever be improved. Although the farmer did tell us that a trained sheep dog could cost as much as $10,000…

Two stories caught my eye this morning.

The first was a survey by Glassdoor of the ‘Best places to work in the UK’ which showed previous FAANGs falling massively in the rankings.  Google– #1 last year – fell to 13th, with Anglian Water gaining the #1 spot. Apple dropped from #9 to #43. Facebook, which was ranked #4 in 2017, didn’t even make it to the Top 50 this year.  One reason was that people want to feel that they work for an organisation that ‘cares’ and has a moral compass. But another was the ‘extreme’ working hours culture. The expectation seemed to be that you were available 24/7 and worked 12-hour shifts; maybe even slept at your desk or in your car in the parking lot.

The second was Sir Richard Branson saying that the 9-5/Monday to Friday work week was on the way out. He believes that technology will change all that - enabling people to work more flexibly, have longer weekends and holidays. Google’s Larry Page and Tesla’s Elon Musk have made similar ‘warnings’ about the effects of robotics and automation. But with the caveat that it won’t reduce the number of jobs – just change them and possibly enable employees to work less (for the same or more money) and more flexibly.

Eleven years back we established TechMarketView where everyone worked from home with no set ‘hours of work’. Flexible hours were to be the TMV norm. Everyone was trusted to do the work required to complete their agreed tasks. At that time, this was looked upon with great suspicion.

It has worked extremely well and TechMarketView is now considered as something of a role model. We are known to be family-friendly. BTW – Although TMV has more women than men on its payroll, the men rather like being able to take their kids to school and attend morning assembly too! Also, ‘working FROM home’ doesn’t mean always ‘working AT home’. TMV people are out-and-about meeting company executives all the time – as many readers know only too well! But they will start and end those trips from home not a faraway office.

Technology helps us too. Everything we do is in the cloud and accessible from anywhere. I happen to be writing this article in Australia! We have no on-premise IT. Indeed, part of our employment contract is that everyone supplies their own personal IT kit. TMV people keep up the office banter electronically and we meet ‘in person’ regularly too.

Oh, and it saves a fortune! Maybe you should work out your office costs – and everything associated with it like receptionists, rates, insurance, central IT, needless travel to the office (incl .time lost) etc. You will find it is staggeringly high. That’s money that can be used to pay higher salaries and bonuses.

Maybe if the Glassdoor included very small firms, TMV would feature highly in their rankings of ‘Best Places to Work’.

Footnote – I should point out that it wasn’t all bad news for tech companies in the Glassdoor 2018 rankings. Salesforce maintained its ranking at #5, SAP rose from #47 to #8, Microsoft from #24 to #11 and our very own Civica from #33 to #25.  All these companies are known for their charitable works and awareness of the environment in which they operate.

New Jersey-based Indian pure play Cognizant has dipped into its $4.8b reserves of cash and short-term investments to acquire Mustache, a Brooklyn-HQ’d creative content agency. This is the latest in a string of purchases made by the company’s digital experience arm Cognizant Interactive over the past few years. These have included Mirabeau, Idea Couture, Netcentric and Zone. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019. Financial details were not disclosed.

Founded in 2010, Mustache employs 50 full time staff. The firm focuses on planning, producing and distributing video content and programming. Its clients include Google, L'Oréal, Netflix, and Viceland. Cognizant believes that the addition of this expertise will both help to round-off its ability to provide a complete range of digital content services and further consolidate the company’s position as a leading global digital agency.

We noted in our recent Application Services Predictions 2019 report that SI's appetites for acquisitions in the digital agency and creative services arenas have yet to be fully sated and that there is still more of this to come. This last year has seen amongst others Accenture, Capgemini, Infosys and DXC make buys in this space. It is a sector, however, that must be reaching a point of diminishing opportunities with regard to the remaining number of attractive properties to purchase in the more mature geographic markets. Irrespective of this, the battle for creative digital talent - be it by either organic or acquisitive means - both across and between the technology and advertising industries will only intensify going forward.

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European TMT M&A activity remained strong in November in terms of both the number of deals and their aggregate value, according to latest data from corporate finance firm Regent Partners. Valuation multiples were again slightly lower with the aggregate Price/Sales ratio down from 1.7x in October to 1.4x in November and the Price/EBITDA ratio down from 9.4x in October to 9.0x in November.

German ERP software company, SAP, announced the largest deal in the TMT sector in the month, paying $8bn in cash for US-based, experience management software supplier Qualtrics (see here).

It was a relatively muted month for acquisitions involving UK software and IT services companies, though was notable for Mumbai-based offshore services market leader TCS' acquisition of London-based digital design agency W12 Studios, its first in the UK.

All of our UKHotViews commentary on the UK tech M&A scene is available to TechMarketView Foundation Service clients and to entrepreneurs and tech professionals subscribing to our UKHotViews Premium service by searching on the keyword 'acquisition' in the UKHotViews archive.

Capita’s Army recruitment contract has become a regular target for media and parliamentarians and today’s National Audit Office report (NAO) will only fuel the fire.

The Recruiting Partnering Project (RPP) was a ten-year greenfield outsource, awarded in 2012 and meant to reduce the cost of recruiting and get more soldiers and officers to enlist. However, it has not recruited the number of regulars and reserves that the Army requires in any year since the contract began.

RPP was a new type of partnership for both Capita and the Army with the NAO concluding that all parties underestimated the complexity of the project highlighting “significant problems” including the Ministry of Defence failing to provide Capita with essential IT infrastructure.

Central to the new solution was the establishment of a National Recruiting Centre designed to reduce the number of high street recruitment offices. The NAO found that the Army and Capita failed to test whether this approach was appropriate to a military context before introducing it.

The NAO also found that the cost of the Capita contract had risen from £495m to £677m, due partly to additional costs from developing a new automated online system for recruitment, which came in for specific criticism for being late and over budget with “Capita under-estimating the complexity of the Armed Forces’ requirements”. 

RPP is supposed to deliver £267m of savings over the life of the contract. However, the Army estimates it has achieved savings of just £25m in the first six years.

In reality there are very few new revelations in the NAO report with most of the issues known for some time. And whilst it’s also true that the recruiting environment is very challenging at the moment with record levels of employment, the report will put more pressure on all parties to make changes at a time when Public Sector outsourcing faces unprecedented levels of scrutiny.

Did any of you watch BBC's The Apprentice this week? The one where the candidates underwent an inquisition on their business plans by Lord Alan Sugar's mates? There was the most excruciating deconstruction of hangover cure (sorry – 'rehydration drink') entrepreneur Daniel Elahi's credibility as it was pointed out to him that the claim on his website to be selling one million packets of his product a year was somewhat exaggerated (I think the number was actually a few tens of thousands).

I tell you this because I'm now looking at PopTop's website, on which the Ukrainian-founded but now Newcastle-based event management startup claims that "2,500,000 event planners visit PopTop every year". Really? That's almost 7,000 per day every single day of the year. I didn't realise there were that many events going on in the UK, but thereagain I do lead a sheltered life.

Anyway, you can believe what you will, but it seems Dow Schofield Watts Angels and Northstar Ventures do believe as they have backed PopTop to the tune of £615k. Me, I can't get past the website claim.

Adobe’s powerful run continued into its seasonally strong fourth quarter, with another period of high double digit growth across the board, although it did fall behind analysts’ earnings expectations.

Demand from US corporates, emerging markets and the consumer segment helped Q4 revenue (to 30 November 2018) grow 23% to $2.46bn (including $21m from the Marketo acquisition) with net profit rising 35% to $678m. Operating income was up 11%. In terms of revenue, there was consistency across the segments with Digital Media growing 23% and Digital Experience up 25%. The pattern was repeated across the full year with revenue up 24% to $9.05bn, generating net income that was up 53% to $2.6bn. Operating income grew 31%. Digital Media and Digital Experience revenue expanded 26% and 20% respectively.

Based on 2019 revenue guidance of $11.15bn, which would be a 23% increase, prospects for the coming year remain enticing. With applications that cover digital creativity, digital documents and customer experience management Adobe is benefitting from multiple aspects of the digital shift, able to address content through to delivery, including payment due to the Magento ecommerce acquisition.

The opportunity over the coming year is further expansion into the B2B market on the back of the $4.75bn Marketo marketing automation purchase. Both the Marketo and Magento acquisitions were strategic and added important capability to the enterprise-oriented Digital Experience division. As the newer (smaller in terms of revenue) and more business centric of the two divisions this is where Adobe will be looking to sustain growth levels.

Gary Elden, CEO at UK-headquartered recruitment firm, SThree, is to step down early next year after some six years in post and over 30 years with the business. He took over the reins from the inimitable Russell Clements in January 2013, shepherding the company through further stages of its transformation from a UK-based IT staff agency to a multinational, multidiscipline recruitment firm (see SThree: Five (and 30) years on).

The news came with an upbeat year-end (30th November) trading statement, with management expecting to just beat top-end consensus estimates for adjusted profit (see SThree moves forwards despite UK headwinds).

The search for a new CEO is now on, though the Board did not indicate whether it was also looking outside of the business to fill the usually home-grown post.

Today’s full year trading update from K3 Technology Group points to an easing of the pressures that caused it to reshape the management team, reduce costs, integrate and streamline its structure, and rework its strategy around its own IP in the previous financial year.

In the year ending 30 November 2018, H1 was encouraging and indications suggest this continued through the second half. Consequently, the company expects to report full year performance slightly ahead of market expectations when it releases complete results in March 2019.

Indications are that net debt has substantially reduced - from £4.3m to £0.7m, due to cost reductions and better management of working capital - which will certainly help with its goal of profitable growth. As the company continues to push sales of its own IP, take up of its retail product (thankfully renamed from "ax l is fashion" to “K3 fashion”) will be key to achieving that goal and there have been signs of traction including major agreements with European sports clothing and equipment manufacturer and retailer Oberalp Group, and Columbia Sportswear the manufacturer and distributor of outdoor apparel and products.

The most interesting development on the IP front is K3’s cloud-native micro services architecture and ERP agnostic Imagine platform which is a key part of its future plans. Launched in Q1, management says "several” projects are underway, with existing and new clients. We look forward to hearing more in terms of traction and how organisations are using this new offering.

UK mobile app management platform provider appScatter Group has agreed a £2.2m deal for Farnborough-based digital security firm and long-time outsourcing partner Abilott Limited.

The company will pay an initial consideration of £1.2m followed by a further £1m depending on the business meeting 12-month performance targets. The two firms have worked closely together for the last two years, with Abilott helping appScatter identify security issues in its customers’ mobile applications through a mix of consultancy, distributed denial of service (DDoS), zero day vulnerability reporting and penetration testing services.

Abilott’s platform also provides automated app tools that help clients comply with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We are hoping it proves easier to integrate than appScatter's earlier acquisition of Priori Data, which led to delays in the launch of the firm's mobile platform and a negative impact on its H1 results.

The addition of Abilott should provide a more immediate boost to appScatter's bottom line, not least because the company comes with a tranche of gaming and online betting customers  – including Gamesys, Paddy Power, Betfair, Virgin Games and Bodog. It should also help appScatter pull in more revenue by upselling additional security services to its existing client base.

It's great to see significant new backing for a UK tech company at the forefront of augmented reality (AR) technology, with Abingdon-based WaveOptics raising $26m/£20m as just the first stage of a Series C funding round. The round was led by Octopus Ventures and supported by existing shareholders including IP Group, which acquired its stake through the acquisition of per Touchstone (nee Imperial) Innovations, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and Gobi Partners as well as new investors Goertek and Optimas Capital Partners. Trading since 2014, WaveOptics previously raised £12m in  Series B round in July 2017 (see Touchstone augments WaveOptics funding). This latest funding round values WaveOptics at some £76m.

WaveOptics develops waveguides designed for use in AR eyewear. As best as I can determine, production is still at an early stage, with the company offering development kits to potential clients. I cannot see any reference to WaveOptics' technology yet in live use. After the dismal failure of Google Glass, I would imagine that WaveOptics is looking more towards industrial applications for its technology, though if manufacturers could develop AR eyewear as fashionable and functional as that seen in Channel 4's Mars mission series The First, then maybe we'd all be buying a pair!

There are many facets to ensuring health and safety (H&S) in the workplace – and huge penalties for failure. Not surprisingly, there is a growing number of tech tools to help businesses keep on the right side of the law, such as from East Kilbride-based H&S compliance management software developer, SHE Software (see SHE Software in rude health with new chair).

Another key facet of the H&S equation is incident reporting, which is where Newcastle-based Notify Technology offers its solution. Notify’s software enables workers to record accidents and near misses on a mobile device (assuming they survived!) and for management then to track the resolution process. Founded in 2017, Notify has secured a £500k investment from the North East Venture Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia Fund Managers. Notify is already used by clients including Travis Perkins, Thyssenkrupp, Bournville Village Trust, Alexandra Palace and Pinewood Studios.

Sounds a sensible idea – perhaps even more so if Notify's technology was integrated with SHE's products to produce a more rounded H&S solution.

Oh, by the way, Notify may need to change its name if it has eyes on the US market as there is an establish software outfit there with the same name.

“The recent decision taken by the Board to redomicile the SCISYS parent company to Dublin to protect EU funded work has proved decisive in securing this contract.”

This is one of the statements made by SCISYS in its announcement of a €11.2m contract with Thales Alenia Space France (the prime contractor to the European Space Agency) for the continuation and further enhancement of four Galileo Ground Mission Segment elements. Galileo is Europe’s global navigation system providing “highly accurate, guaranteed, global positioning service under civilian control.”

UKHotViews readers will remember that SCISYS announced back in October (see SCISYS protects itself against Brexit) that it would go ahead with a restructuring so that its parent company would be redomiciled in the EU. The move was completed in November. Protecting the Space business and its ability to compete for EU-funded work was the main driver. Other suppliers have also taken moves to protect their space businesses; for example, CGI now runs its European space businesses out of its German, Italian and Dutch business units.

SCISYS space division in Germany will commence work on the project this month; the contract runs until June 2020. SCISYS has a strong and long standing in the European space sector, particularly within satellite navigation programmes. Within these latest arrangements the company will “continue the evolution and maintenance of four key elements within the GMS under the Full Operational Capability phase, and additionally to take over a component of the MKMF (Mission Key Management Facility). This involves enhanced functions, improved security and cyber resilience capabilities in the next phase of the Galileo programme.”

Meanwhile, SCISYS and other space sector-focused suppliers will also be eyeing the £92m that the UK Government has promised the UK space industry in planning a British-only navigation system.

In the years since its founding in 2011, London-based biotech startup Synthace has variously described itself as: a bio-process service provider; an applied synthetic biology company; a bioengineering firm; and most recently – and frankly the clearest and simplest – a Computer Aided Biology company. As best as I understand it, Synthace develops software to simulate biological systems and then uses automation to transfer the simulations into the laboratory.

Following a number of earlier raises, Synthace has just closed a $25.6m Series B funding round round led by Horizons Ventures with additional investment from Luminous Ventures, SOSV and other individual and large family office investors.

I can't even begin to explain the potential applications (hint: "Design complex, multifactorial experiments using predefined protocols, such as Type IIs Construct Assembly" if it helps) but I get the gist. I'm assuming this all requires supercomputer-level processing capability and from what I infer from the scant information about the platform, it appears to be 'on premise'. According to an article in TechCrunch last year, Synthace installed an MVP version of the product at Dow Agrosciences in 2016, and it has since been rolled out to the likes of Merck & Co, GSK and Fujifilm Diosynth and even Microsoft.

This is clearly 'all good stuff' though I have no idea what Synthace's business model is – I'm assuming licence-fee based. Its potential market is presumably limited to a relatively small number of well-funded biotech-related organisations, so I would hope they are charging them a shedload of dosh to use the platform in order to reach and sustain a viable commercial footing.

Oh no! It's yet another fintech startup that wants to 'reimagine banking' through a social-media style app.

London-based B-Social (OK, neat name) has an own-brand debit card through an FCA-authorised issuer (though not FSCS protected), but its USP is that friends can share expenses using the app.

But kudos to B-Social cofounder and CEO Nazim Valimahomed for raising £3.2m in a seed funding round from undisclosed angels. The platform is in 'beta' with a view to a formal launch next February.

The proposition doesn't really gel until B-Social gets its own banking licence at which point it will have to out-market all the other 'reimagined' banking startups, let alone the usual suspect legacy players.

To get a sense of the size of that challenge, smartphone-based banking upstart-cum-'unicorn' Monzo has just closed a £20m crowdfunding raise on Crowdcube. This follows an £85m funding round barely a couple of months ago (see Monzo raises £85m at a £1bn+ valuation). Then there's Loot, and there's Revolut…

I just hope B-Social's investors have spread their bets.

On the High Street

The problems on the ‘Bricks & Mortar’ High Street are pretty well known and covered daily by the media. November was the worst on record. Footfall last Saturday fell 9% yoy. Everyone is braced for a bad Christmas with a litany of famous names lined up for failure or, at best, profit warnings come the New Year.

and online at ASOS

But online seemed a brighter spot. But now comes news that ASOS is halving its profit forecast and their shares dipped 38% yesterday. Having said that, ASOS is at least forecasting some growth (15% - down from a forecast 25%) - unlike most other retailers that are braced for real revenue declines. ASOS cannot blame‘the shift to online’ as they are 100% online. This is down to dwindling consumer confidence. (Having said that, a certain TMV person remarked that it was because they sold rubbish clothes…but I am not in a position to make that assessment having never used ASOS or know anyone of my age that does!)

Retail is a big sector for our SITS clients. It cannot bode well for anyone.

Blippar

Once touted as another UK ‘Unicorn’ with a valuation of $1.5b, Blippar has gone into administration. Only a couple of months back in Sept 18 - See Blippar augments funding but losses are real - Blippar had raised more funding from Candy Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures. Making some $130m raised to that date. EY named Blippar’s founder and CEO as ‘The UK’s top entrepreneur of 2016’.

I must admit I never really ‘got’ what Blippar did which I think was an AR visual search engine used by consumers but backed by retailers like Tesco.  Its failure not only hits its backers (and confidence in UK startups) but its staff (various reports put staff numbers between 75- 125) who fear for any pay just before Christmas.

What price visual search?

Anthony Miller writes: Back in March 2016 I asked the question, "Blippar, Cortexica – What price ‘visual search’?". Cortexica is the London-based visual search startup backed by IPGroup via its acquisition of Touchstone– nee Imperial– Innovations (see Cortexica visualises new horizons and work back).

Well, I guess the answer to my question is "not $1.5b!"

Blippar's demise will surely ripple through the visual search industry, not just affecting Cortexica (whose valuation in any event was a mere fraction of Blippar's) but also Abingdon-based augmented reality waveguide developer WaveOptics, which has only just closed a Series C funding round (see Augmented funding brings WaveOptics closer to reality). By the way, Blippar was also a prior investor in WaveOptics.

What with the fiasco that was Google Glass, the evidence suggests that we are still a long ways away from the (profitable) consumerisation of AR and visual search.

They weren’t great but against a background of limited expectations, Oracle’s Q219 results did cut the mustard sending the share price up by c.6% in extended trading – a contrast to the way Q2 results were received last year. Despite overall cloud opacity, some insight into the cloud business helped allay market concerns.

Overall revenue was flat yoy at $9.6bn (up 2% constant currency) but net income improved 5% to $2.3bn. The only segment delivering revenue growth was Cloud Services and License Support where 3% growth took it to $6.6bn (69% of total revenue). Hardware, Professional Services and the important Cloud License and On-Premise license segments all declined. The License segment fell 9% to $1.2bn, just 13% of total revenue.

The shift to SaaS is a factor in the decline of course so management was keen to highlight SaaS progress that included annualised SaaS revenue of $2.6bn for cloud ERP and HCM, with a growth rate in the mid-20% range. This is in touch with the market norm. Fusion application revenue grew 34%; with Fusion ERP revenue up 44% organically and NetSuite ERP revenue up 25%. Oracle also said Q2 saw the largest movement of its installed base to ERP cloud, with c.200 making the move.

The cloud shift is not happening at a rapid pace (Oracle has previously set expectations around this); although Fusion now has 6000 customers (and NetSuite 16 000), Oracle has 430,000 in total. However, that number is split across several areas including database, middleware, applications and others. The company was clear that applications and databases will determine its future and there is headroom for cloud ERP, although the recent loss of cloud exec Thomas Kurian to Alphabet Google will have caused some pressure.

On the database front, the future rests on the early stage autonomous database but Oracle also needs to keep hold of its existing customer base in a market where database competition is ramping up, not least (but not exclusively) from Amazon Web Services. Oracle is smarting from Amazon’s very public decision to move off Oracle databases in 2019; the Redmond company also highlighted difficulty of migrating off its databases, which is positive for investors but maybe not so good for customers. Interestingly, Oracle said its first generation cloud infrastructure wasn’t up to running the autonomous database but it’s gen-two infrastructure is, so it expects “rapid migration of Oracle from on-premises to the Oracle public cloud”.