Here are the other stories we're following today:
> CenturyLink is providing dedicated and private connections to the IBM Cloud by using its Cloud Connect platform. Channel Partners article
> Driven by iPhone sales through the years, on Thursday Apple was crowned as the first publicly traded company to hit $1 trillion in market valuation. Reuters article
> After slowing weaning itself off of Oracle for the past few years, Amazon Web Services is planning on completely dumping Oracle's proprietary database software by 2020. CNBC article