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For years, investors bid up tech stocks on the idea that digital transformation was inevitable. The Covid-19 crisis has proved them right.

We have seen two years worth of digital transformation in two months, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently told investors.

But the acceleration creates questions: How much growth is left? And has it all been priced in? The Nasdaq Composite is up 12% on the year, versus a 4% decline for the S&P 500 index.

Ive been following tech for 41 years, and this is the second most expensive tech market Ive ever seensecond only to the internet bubble 20 years ago, says Fred Hickey, editor of the High Tech Strategist, a monthly newsletter. Hickey has long been skeptical of tech valuations, but this time the fundamentals are on his side. The Nasdaq Composite currently trades at 3.4 times forward sales, well above a 10-year average of 2.3, according to FactSet.

The issue for investors is that fundamentals often dont apply to tech stocks. During the pandemic, investors that bought high-price tech stocks have been richly rewarded. Steve Milunovich, the technology strategist at Wolfe Research, makes the remarkable observation that tech stocks that entered 2020 with a price-to-sales multiple of 10 times or higher have gained 35% on the year. Momentum has taken over. While price/earnings is the most common valuation metric in investing, investors often use sales multiples for tech companies since earnings can be depressed, or nonexistent, during periods of high growth.

Ted Mortonson, technology strategist at Baird, the Milwaukee-based investment firm, says there are good reasons for elevated valuations. He says that were in the most powerful integrated technology growth cycle since the late 1990s, pointing to the acceleration of cloud computing, e-commerce, and telehealth, and the arrival of fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless and new chips. It all adds up to big growth potential at a time when theres limited growth in other industries. Growth investors have bought tech stocks, he says, because theyve had few other choices.

But Mortonson also sees risks. If one or more cloud players disappoint during the next round of earnings reports, the stock reversal could be severe. He advises keeping an eye on secondary data points like billings, contract duration, and deals time-to-close. He fears that investors may not be factoring in the impact of unemployment on companies with per seat revenue models. There are a lot of knowledge workers off the payroll, he says. Mortonson also sees risks ahead for subscription-based cloud services as renewal cycles heat up in the second half.

As those risks mount, valuations could resume their importance. So, Barrons went looking for cheap tech. We searched for U.S. technology stocks with market values of more than $5 billion and growing sales in the current fiscal year. That revenue requirement excluded some of the cheapest stocks in tech, including Dell Technologies (ticker: DELL), HP Inc. (HPQ), and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). We then ranked the results by price-to-sales multiples, using current fiscal-year revenue estimates.

*Based on current fiscal years estimated revenue

Source: FactSet

The screen is revealing: There are still a few cheapand growingtech companies to be found. Disk-drive maker Western Digital (WDC) trades for less than one times sales. Rival Seagate Technology (STX) is just a bit higher at 1.2. Accenture (ACN), the information-technology consulting firm, is at 2.9. Meanwhile, chip giant Intel (INTC) and MKS Instruments (MKSI), a maker of chip-making tools, trade at less than 3.5 times. F5 Networks (FFIV), which helps companies digitally distribute software, trades at 3.7 times this years sales.

The list of high-multiple names wont come as a surprise to anyone who has been keeping tabs on the markets obsession with work-from-home plays. In fact, the roster is a whos who of cloud-based software stocks, companies like Datadog (DDOG), Zoom Video Communications (ZM), Coupa Software (COUP), Okta (OKTA), and Cloudflare (NET). Their financial results are sterling, but their valuations are no longer tied to fundamentals.

Value investors can still find a home in tech, though. The disk-drive makers on our cheap list could be a compelling opportunity in the year ahead. Western Digital shares have been hurt by the companys May decision to suspend its quarterly dividend and redirect the cash to paying down debt from the companys 2016 acquisition of SanDisk for $19 billion. The deal, while expensive, remains a shrewd diversification move, giving the disk-drive maker an important role in superfast solid-state drives.

Milunovich says that Western Digital should benefit in the back half of the year from an expected pickup in flash-memory pricingand hes bullish on the companys new CEO, former Cisco executive David Goeckeler. Unlike some other legacy tech companies, meanwhile, Western Digitaland Seagateremains relevant in a cloud-based world. Their drives are still necessary for cloud-based computing and storage.

Three of the names on our cheap-tech list come from the IT consultancy arena. Two of them are government-focused IT services contractors CACI International (CACI) and Leidos Holdings (LDOS)and both are growing sales more than 10% annually.

The other is Accenture, a broad-based provider of tech consulting services. Accenture tends to work on-site with clients, and those consultants are largely grounded, as is the stock. But once the economy rebounds, the push toward digital transformation should keep Accentures consultants busy, boosting the stock.

Finding a longtime tech leader like Intel among a list of cheap stocks might seem surprising, but the company has been battered by a combination of market share losses to Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and ongoing manufacturing issues. Other recent headlines havent been kind to Intel, including reports that Apple (AAPL) is ready to design its own processors for some of its Mac computers.

But Intel still controls 95% of the market for server processors and more than 80% of the PC processor market. Despite the current issues, Intel shares remain a compelling bet on the future of computing. This past week, KeyBanc Capital Markets raised its rating on the stock to Overweight from Sector Weight, noting that Intel should benefit from its push into markets beyond PC microprocessors, including data centers, artificial intelligence, 5G, and the Internet of Things.

F5 Networks is one of the smaller names on our cheap-tech list. The company makes software that accelerates the performance and security of web applications, and its in the middle of transitioning to a subscription-based model. Those transitions are painful in the near term, but they usually prove rewarding for investors over time.

Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani recently wrote to clients that he sees potential for a much higher stock price as F5 shifts to a recurring revenue modelmore like the cloud-based names on the other end of our screen.

MKS Instruments, meanwhile, is a longtime player in the semiconductor equipment industry that has expanded into optical components. This week, Needham analyst James Ricchiuti picked up coverage of the stock with a Buy rating. He contends that MKS is a rare company that does M&A well. The expansion into optical parts like lasers has reduced the cyclicality of its business.

One of the ironies of tech is that even the companies battered by the cloud have significant cloud exposure these days. Intel processors are used in cloud-based servers. Seagate and Western Digital drives are used in cloud storage; F5 is trying to evolve into a cloud-style business model. And Cienas networking components are finding strong demand from cloud leaders like Amazon.com (AMZN), Facebook (FB), and Alphabets Google (GOOGL).

The cloud is now everywhere, and at some point it could even lift the stocks of the cheapest tech names.

Write to Eric J. Savitz at eric.savitz@barrons.com

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How to Profit from the Growing Divide in Tech Stocks. - Barron's

Lenovo Data Center Group has announced new solutions to empower customers to simplify common data management challenges. DCG has announced the launch of the ThinkSystem SR860 V2 and SR850 V2 servers, which now feature 3rd-Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with support for SAP HANA based on Intel Optane persistent memory 200 series. In addition, Lenovo announced new remote deployment service offerings for the ThinkSystem DM7100 storage systems.

Lenovo claims that its new ThinkSystem SR860 V2 and SR850 V2 servers feature the latest in high-end processing and memory capabilities, with twice the amount of NVMe storage capacity.

ThinkSystem SR860 V2 and SR850 V2

These systems, as per Lenovo, feature improved AI acceleration with Intel Deep Learning Boost enhanced with bfloat16. They also feature technologies that like increased onboard storage from 24 to 48 2.52 drives and GPU support on the ThinkSystem SR860 V2 server (four double-wide 300W or eight single-wide GPUs).

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Lenovo announces ThinkSystem SR860 V2 and SR850 V2 servers - Gadgets Now

India's working class is bearing the brunt of the coronavirus spread in the form of job losses, rising poverty levels and reduced per-capita income.

The unemployment rate shot up to 27.1 per cent in the week ended May 3. This is the worst India has seen so far.

But the lockdown also made us realise the potential of remote working and learning. While there were a few bumps initially, businesses now have seamlessly transitioned into remote working.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that employees will be allowed to work from home permanently, even after the coronavirus pandemic lockdown passes".

Since remote learning and remote working is going to be the new normal, it's time to explore opportunities in fields that are least impacted when the economy crumbles.

Gaurav Vohra, Co-Founder & CEO, Jigsaw Academy talks about anti-fragile career options, jobs that actually come out stronger when faced with a problem.

With people moving to cloud computing and with an exponential increase in the consumption of data, the need for trained professionals in cloud computing, cybersecurity and data related fields is set to increase. Let's discuss each of career options which can prove to be recession-proof

Cybersecurity professionals- They have a wide range of responsibilities, but the crux of their job is to protect online data from being compromised. Sixty-four per cent of the organisations in India are expected to increase demand for cloud computing while 56 per cent for cloud software, a IDC report said on June 2nd.

1. Defensive Cyber Security- Defensive cybersecurity operations refer to activities through the global information infrastructure to help protect institutions' electronic information and information infrastructures as a matter of mission assurance. It is a domain that has seen zero percent unemployment rate over the last decade and predictions say they will continue to do so.

2. Offensive Cybersecurity- A career in offensive cybersecurity is resilient to a recession. Offensive cybersecurity is a proactive approach that involves launching a cyberattack against adversaries to disrupt or cripple their operations and to deter their future attacks.

3. Cloud Computing- Well, it simply means delivery of computing services, like servers, storage, databases, networking, and the Internet (the cloud) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale. Cloud technology is being implemented by more than 50% of businesses. They are using this technology to run their organizations efficiently, serve their clientele better, and increase profitability. Cloud Computing is considered to be the number 1 skill set globally for the last few years.

4. Cloud Security- This is a secured opportunity for you to grow in your career, even during uncertain times. Cloud architects remain at the top of all the positions as companies are building themselves in cloud technology to be at a respectable position in the market. Cloud professionals and engineers play a very crucial role in helping companies integrating cloud services into the traditional infrastructure

5. Risk Analyst- So, there is no risk in a risk analyst job, even during the recession. IBM predicts demand for Data Scientists, Risk Analysts, and Data Analysts will soar 28% by 2020. Credit risk analysis provides lenders with a more complete profile of the customer and an insight that enables them to anticipate customer behaviour. By making use of these analytics techniques, lenders can save their time, money, and resources to target the right customers and monitor or anticipate the risk involved.

6. IoT Architect- No matter how recession changes the dynamics of the economy, technology never feels the heat of the recession, the same does the IoT Architect. An IoT architect, has an essential role in the successful development and operation of IoT

7. IoT Analyst- During the recession competition increases, so does the demand for an IoT Analyst. IoT Analyst provides an overview and insights into data generation, analysis, and usage from IOT systems, and uses multiple case studies to explain how analytics is used in IOT scenarios to accomplish desired outcomes with use of IOT across verticals including sports, healthcare etc.

8. AI Specialist- Applications, websites, and communications all still need to operate around the clock, and thus an AI specialist is always in demand, even during the recession. AI and Machine Learning courses not only help in improving the customer experience using IT and ITes products and services but also change the way companies operate across different industries and domains. An increasing number of technology-savvy industries from retail to healthcare are recognizing the benefits of ML & AI. They are using this technology to run their organizations efficiently, serve their customers better, and increase profitability.

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Here are 8 career options that are least impacted by recessions - Business Standard

Amazon has revealed that its online cloudfended off what's considered to be one the largest distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in history.

The incident happened in February, hitting 2.3 Tbits/sec at its peak, according to a report from AWS Shield, smashing the previous peak record of 1.7 Tbits/sec.

The peak of the attack was 44% larger than anything the services had seen before and led to three-days of "elevated threat" status. Amazon Web Services provides the infrastructure for many websites, but the report doesn't identify which websites had been targeted by the attack.

"In Q1 2020, a known UDP reflection vector, CLDAP reflection, was observed with a previously unseen volume of 2.3 Tbps," the report stated. "This is approximately 44% larger than any network volumetric event previously detected on AWS."

"CLDAP reflection attacks of this magnitude caused 3 days of elevated threat during a single week in February 2020 before subsiding. Despite this observation, smaller network volumetric events are far more common. The 99th percentile event in Q1 2020 was 43 Gbps."

The attack in February was called a "reflection attack", which is thought to be an attempt to use a vulnerable third-party server to amplify the amount of data being sent to a victim's IP address. It relies on exploiting the Connectionless Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (CLDAP), which is often exposed due to configuration issues though AWS doesn't suggest this to be the case for the February attack.

Downtime caused by DDoS accounts can have large financial implications. According to a 2019 report from Netscout, the size and scale of DDoS attacks in the UK could cost the country almost 1 billion per year. Part of the problem is that DDoS attacks are cheap and easy to deploy, according to Netscout.

In Q1 of 2020, there was a significant increase in both the quantity and Quality of DDoS attacks, according to Kaspersky. Not only have the number of attacks almost doubled, up by 80% against Q1 2019, these attacks have also become longer, the firm suggests.

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AWS claims to have blocked the largest DDoS attack in history - Cloud Pro

The global cloud office migration tool market was valued US$ 650.4 Mn in 2018 and is expected to witness a CAGR growth rate of 17.8% in the forecast period from 2019 to 2027.

Top Companies Covered in this Report: AvePoint, Inc., Binarytree.com Inc., BitTitan, Inc., CodeTwo sp. z o.o. sp. k., Proventeq Limited, Quadrotech Solutions AG, Quest Software Inc., Sharegate Group Inc., Simflofy, SkyKick Inc.

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Cloud office migration is the process of consolidating and transferring collection of workloads, which include emails, calendars, files, related metadata, document types, instant messages, user permissions, applications, compound structure, and linked components. The migration of workload to a new cloud environment can be complex, and cloud office migration tools conduct an analysis of respective workloads and identify if the data is suitable for migration while maintaining its integrity. Cloud is still at a formative stage; some enterprises have moved their server workloads to the cloud while other companies are strategizing regarding the migration. Thus, the growing focus of the companies towards moving to the cloud is expected to drive the growth of the cloud office migration tool market.

The global cloud office migration tool market is primarily driven by the growing focus of the SMEs towards shifting their server workloads to the on-premise environment. SMEs are rapidly moving towards the cloud infrastructure to achieve greater flexibility, scalability, and cost optimization. Large enterprises are also shifting to the new cloud environment, which is also supporting the growth of the cloud office migration tool market. Few of the drivers impacting the cloud office migration tool market are the advantages that come with the cloud deployment, such as flexible pricing plan, no upfront cost of deployment, no workforce required for maintenance, scalability, and others.

There can be several objectives for an enterprise to adopt cloud. It ranges from business drivers, including digital transformation, to operational goals, for instance, cost-efficiency. Enterprises that run their data center generally design, size, and procure hardware for precise application. This hardware includes compute, storage, and networking, among other specialized equipment. Usually, this hardware has a lifecycle of three to five years and is required to be replaced with the new generation of hardware. Enterprises replace this hardware to attain improved efficiency and performance. Each replacement need considerable CAPEX investment and to run these data centers experienced IT professionals are required to handle and maintain system function. Thus to reduce the operational costs companies are moving towards cloud which is driving the growth of cloud office migration tool market.

Based on region, the North America region accounted for the largest market share in the global cloud office migration tool market owing to the significant presence of IT & telecom industries and strong cloud infrastructure. The countries in North American region are witnessing high adoption of the digital transformation in a wide variety of industry verticals such as BFSI, healthcare, retail, IT & Telecom, and many others. Also, one of the biggest advantage with the advanced and developed countries is the strong exposure and awareness about the emerging technologies in the market. Awareness about the advantages of the new technologies encourages the companies in different verticals to adopt the technologies and make further advancements in the technologies currently used by the company. The growing focus of the companies towards the gaining advantages offered by the cloud is driving the cloud office migration tool market.

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Table Of Content

1.Introduction

2. Key Takeaways3. Research Methodology

4. Cloud Office Migration Tool Market Landscape

5. Cloud Office Migration Tool Market Key Industry Dynamics

6. Cloud Office Migration Tool Market Global Market Analysis

7. Global Cloud Office Migration Tool Market Analysis By Subscription

8. Cloud Office Migration Tool Market, Revenue and Forecast to 2027 By Organizational Size

9. Cloud Office Migration Tool Market- Geographic Analysis

10. Cloud Office Migration Tool Market Industry Landscape

11. Cloud Office Migration Tool Market- Company Profiles

12. Appendix

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Cloud Office Migration Tool Market to Grow at Robust 17.8% CAGR to 2027 AvePoint, Binarytree, BitTitan, CodeTwo sp. z oo sp. k - Personal Injury...