AWS Outposts available in seven new regions: First previewed in 2018 AWS Re:Invent, Outposts is AWS’s most important feature to compete with Microsoft Azure on hybrid cloud. AWS Outposts is a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure, AWS services, APIs, and tools to "virtually any data center, co-location space, or on-premises facility." In December 2019, AWS began to roll out Outposts in the United States. On Jan 21st, 2020, AWS announced general availability in seven new regions, including Canada, EU (London, Paris, Stockholm) and Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore). 

Google Cloud Lands deals with Sabre and Lufthansa Group: On Jan 21st, Google Cloud announced that Sabre goes all-in with Google Cloud for infrastructure and analytics in a 10-year partnership. In addition, the two companies agreed to collaborate on online travel services, a sign of Google leaning on its massive consumer business to lure enterprise clients. On Jan 20th, Lufthansa Group, the largest airline group in Europe, has also chosen Google Cloud as a strategic partner to improve its operational performance and minimize irregularities that impact on passengers. 

Intel is clearly benefiting from the intensified cloud war in the near term judging by the latest FQ4'19 result. The company posted Q419 revenue and Q120 guidance over $1 billion above expectation, driven by stronger sales in its data center group. Revenue in the data center business grew 19% YoY in Q419, compared to -6.3%/-10.2%/4% in the first three quarters of 2019. With the competitors putting out very competitive server products in the market, Intel needs the market to stay strong more than ever. The company clearly managed the business well so far, but tried to spin the 2H20 slow down as the result of TAM shrink and customer digesting capacity, instead of competition and market share loss. We will hear how AMD's CPU business did and their view of the market next week. This will be interesting.