Zoom To Open Research And Development Centers In Phoenix And Pittsburgh
05/14/2020
Zoom to open Research and Development centers in Phoenix and Pittsburgh
Zoom - employees will work from home until new offices are built and COVID-19-related isolation has abated, expected for fall 2020
Zoom - has not finalized office locations
Zoom - looking for space near Arizona State University and Carnegie Mellon University
They actually seem to be working with the two universities and with the two States to make sure it is a success.
Surely OT…but as a CMU alum, just another reason to own ZM!!!
As someone in the industry but with no association with CMU, I can attest that CMU is a top notch computer science school.
And universities.com lists them as #3 in university cyber security programs.
https://www.universities.com/find/us/best/computer-technolog…
This is probably going to allow me to move from “toe-in-the-water” with ZOOM, to “dive off the high board”.
-FrickNFool
FWIW, I’ve decided against ZM. Yes, the numbers look good. But there is basically no barrier to entry in that market, no moat. So it comes down to features. Zoom is easy to use (I’ve used it), has a clear connection from what I could see, good audio. But so do a lot of other players in that space. There is some question about security (we’re being assured it has been addressed, but my company reiterated recently that Zoom was not to be used in any company communication, nor installed on any company hardware).
I could be making the same mistake I made with SBUX. I mean, everybody makes coffee. Right? You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a coffee shop. This was in 1994 or 1995, and was I wrong on that one.
So I could be wrong on this one. But I don’t see any competitive advantage, any moat, anything that would prevent someone else from coming in and eating their lunch. A key could be innovation, but what can you innovate in a conference/video call? Maybe actual 3D rendering? That would be huge. But not on the horizon that I’m aware. There is inertia in that people have Zoom, use Zoom, and don’t have a lot of reason to change. On the other hand, they also don’t have a lot of reason to remain except inertia. That doesn’t leave me with a warm fuzzy. YMMV.
It’s good to see that Zoom is taking security seriously and investing heavily in improving its products’ security posture, which has been worse than lame in the past. Remember, at one time they actually worked around security that Apple had put in place, and then pushed back on fixing it when it was pointed out.
But, that’s almost entirely in the past (I say “almost” because they did get the NY Attorneys General office to allow Zoom to bypass OS security in the future). Now they have not only focused the company for the next few month entirely on improving security, they hired a head of Cyber Security, and now they are expanding their engineering base.
The latter is great because it’s not another short-term thing. They’re building offices and hiring from universities. So, it’s going to be at least 9-12 months before this has any impact, probably longer. But - that’s good! They can’t keep the existing team focused on security for long since they’ll fall behind on features and bug fixes and new platforms, etc.
I just hope they understand the ramp-up time that new graduates have in the workforce. Typically, one hires new grads because they either have the most up to date knowledge in cutting edge technologies or because they’re cheaper to hire than experienced engineers. I hope this is more of the former, not the latter.
But, it’s good to see Zoom taking a long term view.
Aloha,
One aspect of ZM that another poster on here pointed out several weeks ago, is now many people refer to “Zoom” for most types of video/teleconferencing. Just like how many people currently use the word “Google” in reference to going online to search for something, or back in my day “Xerox” to refer to the act of photocopying (or the photocopy itself).
That type of branding for Zoom is certainly very appealing for those (including myself) who are long on ZM.
Mahalo
Just like how many people currently use the word “Google” in reference to going online to search for something, or back in my day “Xerox” to refer to the act of photocopying (or the photocopy itself).
I’m not trying to dissuade you, or anyone else. While the numbers look good, I have the concerns I listed. I would ask you, when was the last time you saw an actual Xerox copy machine? They might still make them, but I haven’t seen one in years. Canon is fairly common, and you may “xerox” with your Canon. Just saying that a company name being transformed into a verb is, IMHO, no reason to invest. Even if it is somewhat satisfying as an investor. Nor is “Saul bought it” (which I’m sure Saul would agree with me about, and I’ve read a few posters on other boards that -paraphrased- said almost that regarding equities that they own). Those posters finally got me to visit this board because they almost thought this was the Oracle at Delphi (without the naked women).
I do thank everyone for their contributions on ZM. It was very helpful. I could be just as wrong about ZM as I was about SBUX, but I’m not getting the warm fuzzy so I’m not buying-in. Everyone needs to know what they’re comfortable with and invest accordingly. I’m just speaking for me, and not giving advice.
I’ll probably dig into AYX next. Lots of good info on this board, though even with that their market is one I’m not familiar with. So it could be a while to wrap my head around what they really do, and what their moat is. I appreciate all the information, both past and future, that this board provides (and will provide).
1poorguy
I remember the days when trademark and copyright lawyers used to get all apoplectic and hyperventilating whenever someone would use their client’s trademark as a verb.
Anybody remember the old BBS days of the 1970’s-1980’s before the Internet became publicly available, when System Enhancement Associates, vendors of the ARC file compression tools, sued Phil Katz of PKWare for using SEA’s trademark “ARC” as a verb in PKWare documentation? (There were lots of aspects to that series of lawsuits of which the tradmark thing was one.)
Before and after that there were many lawsuits, real and threatened, for using trademarked nouns as verbs on the grounds that it weakened the strength of the trademark. Now, it’s ecouraged as A Good Thing.
The more things change…
Eric in NH (former Fidonet node… and yes, I’m that old…)
Our company just sent out an email titled “Zoom client upgrade to 5.0 needed”. The first sentence is what caught my attention, acknowledging Zoom is improving security.
Employees,
Zoom is strengthening its security. That means that all users are required to upgrade to the newest version before May 30.
Take the time now to update your version of Zoom to avoid any issues joining future meetings. Please note this also applies to mobile/tablet devices.
Surely OT…but as a CMU alum, just another reason to own ZM!!
Given recent concerns over security, I wonder if they picked CMU because of its Software Engineering Institute.