Workforce reductions continue with Dell slashing staffing, what might be the second biggest data leak in history and you’ve probably never heard of the company behind it and are we experiencing “subscription fatigue?”
All this and more on the “low monthly payment” edition of Hashtag Trending. I’m your host, Jim Love. Let’s get into it.
Dell is making headlines with a new round of layoffs, as the tech giant aims to streamline its operations and focus on modern IT and AI. The company has confirmed the job cuts, describing it as part of a reorganization to become “a leaner company.”
While Dell hasn’t disclosed the exact number of affected employees, estimates suggest it could be around 10% of the workforce – potentially 12,500 people. This aligns with Dell’s reported goal of reducing its total headcount from 120,000 to below 100,000.
The layoffs appear to be hitting even long-time employees, with many turning to social media and online forums to share their experiences.
There were so many cuts apparently that there weren’t enough HR staff to handle them, forcing supervisors to do the task. One employee noted, “There are only so many HR reps to go around.”
Dell’s president of global sales and customer operations, Bill Scannell, stated in a memo that the company aims to grow faster than the market by unlocking “the value of modern IT and AI” for customers.
This move comes just a week after Intel announced its own significant job cuts, signaling the turbulence in the tech industry may not be over. Intel reportedly lost about 15% of its workforce, but the company has also significantly fallen behind it’s competition in product development and quality.
Perhaps Dell will have a better experience with its workforce shrinkage.
Sources include: The Register
Curiously, as we move into the second half of 2024, a recent Robert Half survey pointed out that 94% of managers report challenges in finding skilled talent, especially in high-demand areas like AI, machine learning, cloud architecture, security, and database engineering.
Robert Half’s latest report highlights the top strategic priorities for tech teams this year. Topping the list are systems and information security, followed closely by AI, machine learning, and automation. Cloud initiatives and digital transformation also remain key focus areas.
When it comes to the most in-demand roles, we’re seeing a mix of technical and managerial positions. Software Developers and Engineers are still hot commodities, but there’s also high demand for Business Systems Analysts, IT Directors, and Project Managers in the technology sector.
Interestingly, Help Desk Tier 1 positions are also among the most sought-after roles, suggesting a continued need for strong IT support in our increasingly digital workplaces.
This continues one of the great paradoxes of our time. Continuing layoffs and staff reductions with an equally continuing challenge of finding good IT talent.
Sources include: Robert Half
One of the largest data breaches in history has potentially exposed the personal information of 2.9 billion individuals. Background check company National Public Data, also known as Jerico Pictures, is facing a class action lawsuit over this massive leak.
The company reportedly uses ‘scraping’ to collect sensitive data from non-public sources, including social security numbers, full names, addresses, and information about relatives. Alarmingly, much of this data was gathered without individuals’ knowledge or consent.
The breach came to light when plaintiff Christopher Hofmann was alerted that his information had been leaked onto the dark web. A cybercriminal group called ASDoD is now offering the database for sale at $3.5 million.
The lawsuit accuses National Public Data of negligence and seeks both financial compensation and improved security measures. These include annual third-party cybersecurity assessments for a decade, data segmentation, and encryption of all collected information going forward.
If confirmed, this breach would rival the infamous 2013 Yahoo incident for the record as the largest data breach of all time. As investigations continue, this case underscores the urgent need for stricter data protection regulations and highlights the risks of large-scale data collection without transparency.
Sources include: Tech Radar
Logitech has quickly backpedaled on the idea of a subscription based, or “forever mouse” with ongoing fees after reportedly facing significant backlash.
The concept, mentioned by CEO Hanneke Faber in a recent podcast interview, described a high-quality mouse that could last as long as a good watch, with continuous software updates.
Faber had suggested this could potentially involve a subscription model.
However, following widespread criticism, Logitech’s head of communications, Nicole Kenyon, issued a statement clarifying: “There are no plans for a subscription mouse.” The company now describes the concept as merely “provocative internal thinking on future possibilities for more sustainable consumer electronics.”
This rapid reversal makes you wonder if there is a growing consumer fatigue with subscription-based models.
While everything as a service was hailed as the way of the future, there are signs that we are growing tired of this model.
The everything as a subscription model might be an attractive revenue source, but we are all getting inundated with a growing number of small monthly payments. And while on an individual basis, each item is relatively small, they add up – so that when you get your credit card bill at the end of the month, many people are amazed at how they spent that much.
It doesn’t make it any easier that many of these companies offer a free trial period where they bill you at the end if you don’t cancel. Some, like Google, it turns out, make it really difficult to cancel. I recently signed up for a trial of corporate Gmail with Google’s new Gemini AI. When I went back to cancel, it took me over an hour to find the hidden menu where you could stop the trial. It’s not in the help menu, I actually had to Google it and track down how to cancel – and it is buried in another menu.
I rarely sign up anymore for trials that want your credit card. I figure if your product is that good, that I subscribe if you tell me my trial is over and I’m using the service.
So in the midst of that frustration, we all may be getting a little bit upset. And you have to ask if that is going to bode well for the large number of AI offerings that start out free but, and probably justly, given the cost of AI processing, turn into monthly subscription fees.
But making it hard to cancel isn’t the only reason we resent subscription fees. There are the increases once they have you hooked. Disney is raising their subscription fees this month. Netflix raised their fees a while ago, but have also added advertising. We are now paying for services. That’s on the consumer side.
I sat at a table a year ago where various CIOs were discussing the increases in their software subscriptions ranging from 7 percent to as high as 35%. Really difficult to explain to your management that your operating costs are going up and not because you bought something new, but for the same software you had last year.
And we haven’t even really processed the added costs of new AI systems. Again, SaaS seems like a trivial cost until you have a lot of people and they add extra charges. We just got used to paying for Office 365 on a monthly basis or Google’s office equivalent. Now, if you want to add in AI features, that’s another 20 dollars a month per user as a starting point.
It makes you wonder what will happen if true fatigue sets in and people stop buying or worse, if and people start cancelling.
Will there be an eventual revolt when we’ll hate software they way we all hate cell phone companies and their monthly charges? Maybe. In this case, at least, it turns out that by the amount of backpeddling Logitech had to do for a seemingly harmless interview with their new CEO, even the suggestion of a subscription fee for a common peripheral like a mouse is a “step to far” for many of us.
Sources include: The Verge
And that’s our show for today. You can find show notes at our news site technewsday.com or .ca take you pick.
Hashtag Trending is on summer hours so there’s no morning news edition tomorrow, but our weekend show will be released early on Friday.
Thanks for listening. Remember that we don’t have a Friday morning podcast in the summer, but we will have a cool interview for the weekend edition.
I’m your host Jim Love have a Thrilling Thursday
