Tag: 3BL

ATLANTA, December 30, 2024 /3BL/ – Lenovo, the world’s #1 supercomputer provider, showcased new high-performance innovations that deliver game-changing energy efficiency and accelerated computing to help scientific and industry researchers propel AI-powered transformation at any scale. Unveiled at Supercomputing 2024 (SC24), the new powerful, energy-efficient platforms will help scientists, engineers, and researchers push the boundaries of scientific discovery while making it possible for today’s enterprises to unlock AI’s potential.

As data center infrastructure takes center stage as the heart of producing AI and the digital economy, increasing energy demands must be met responsibly. Long known as the world’s largest gathering of high-performance computing (HPC) and research leaders, SC’s spotlight has grown to attract a wide range of c-level executives from across finance, healthcare, manufacturing and beyond as today’s business leaders aggressively pursue the deployment of AI solutions across their organizations. For today’s enterprises, HPC is part of the core engine that makes it possible to maximize AI’s potential.

Unlocking AI Factories with Cooler Supercomputing for All 

AI and HPC capabilities are unlocking data-driven insights, accelerated outcomes, and advanced use cases, but organizations across every industry are presented with new thermal requirements as they push for ever-increasing levels of capacity to support AI workloads. Lenovo offered insight into the challenges businesses are facing in the AI era while diving into the future of cooling AI factories with the latest partner innovations.

Backed by more than a decade of expertise and 40+ patents for scalable supercomputing, Lenovo 6th Generation Neptune® Liquid Cooling helps tackle this problem by using liquid to remove heat, which is much more efficient than traditional air cooling. The revolutionary new chassis flips servers to a vertical orientation to fit today’s most powerful accelerated computing technologies in a compact system that is 100% liquid cooled, eliminating the need for power-consuming fans and dramatically improving energy efficiency. Designed for industry-standard 19-inch racks, organizations of any size can now leverage the high performance of accelerated computing, one tray at a time, using standard power in an open ecosystem.

“With this design, every data center provider can fit these systems into their rooms without any major modifications. That means no reinforced floors, no specialized power, no specialized doors to get into the room,” said Scott Tease, Vice President of Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group, Products. “Through the groundbreaking advancements in Lenovo Neptune liquid cooling, users can take advantage of the highest performance computing that is being delivered now and in the future.”

New 6th generation Lenovo Neptune water-cooled supercomputing servers use the latest processor and accelerator technologies to deliver scalable efficiency that unleashes AI. At the show, Lenovo announced support for the NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell NVL4 Superchip, showcasing the newly available Lenovo ThinkSystem SC777 V4 Neptune.

Featuring the 6th generation open-loop, direct warm-water cooling innovation, enterprise customers of any size can use the Lenovo ThinkSystem SC777 V4 Neptune to run trillion-parameter AI models that bring products to market faster, at lower cost and with higher energy efficiency.  At the core of the SC777, the NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell NVL4 Superchip delivers revolutionary performance by combining four NVIDIA NVLink-connected Blackwell GPUs unified with two NVIDIA Grace CPUs over NVLink-C2C. Customers can achieve massive scale with the choice of NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand or Spectrum-X Ethernet platforms. New Enterprise Reference Architectures with NVIDIA also help joint customers build their own AI factories — high-performance, scalable and secure data centers for manufacturing intelligence.

Also leveraging the 6th generation Lenovo Neptune design, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SC750 V4 Neptune is designed to handle technical computing, grid deployments, and analytics workloads in various fields such as research, life sciences, energy, engineering, and financial simulation. The system supports the new Intel Xeon 6900P-series 500W Granite Rapids AP processors and new 8800 MHz MRDIMM DDR5 memory. Its industry-leading direct water-cooling system ensures steady heat dissipation, allowing CPUs to maintain accelerated operation and maximize compute performance.

Stemming from its continued partnership with NVIDIA, Lenovo also showcased systems that will unleash AI acceleration for mainstream enterprise servers with the NVIDIA H200 NVL platform. For mainstream scientific computing applications across higher-ed, health care and life sciences, energy, and financial services, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675 V3 with NVIDIA H200 NVL delivers powerful performance and efficient scaling while enabling flexibility in configuration choice to meet the needs of a broad set of HPC workloads. Enabled across a full-stack AI portfolio, the Lenovo Hybrid AI Advantage with NVIDIA empowers organizations to rapidly turn intelligence into outcomes and bring AI-powered compute anywhere—with speed and ease.

Accelerating Clean Energy Transformation with Water Cooled Supercomputers

Supercomputers are used everywhere—from car and airplane design, oil field exploration, and financial risk assessment, to genome mapping and weather forecasting. Lenovo showcased how its water-cooled supercomputers are enabling accelerated transformation across the globe, reflecting the shift toward accelerated, energy-efficient supercomputing that is accessible to all.

In Italy, ENEA, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, selected Lenovo for the installation of an HPC system at the Portici (Naples) hub to accelerate research activities on clean energy, in particular on nuclear fusion. This new HPC system, consisting of 758 nodes with 2 Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8592+ CPUs, will allow to bring the computational capabilities of CRESCO – Computational Center for Research on Complex Systems – the supercomputing system hosted in the Portici Research Center, from the current 1.01 to over 6.5 Petaflops,1 placing it at the top of the national scene in terms of processing power.

Sustainability was also a crucial factor for selection by ENEA, and Lenovo’s HPC solution guarantees better energy efficiency than in the past. The use of Lenovo Neptune direct water-cooling technology captures up to 98% of the heat produced by the supercomputer while saving the energy used for the fans. Thanks to the greater efficiency, the temperature of the CPUs does not reach critical values, avoiding the reduction of the maximum frequency of the cores.

Also in Italy, Cineca has signed an agreement with Lenovo for the installation of a new High HPC system for the scientific community to research fusion energy. The new infrastructure will be able to perform about 45 million billion operations per second (PFlop/s). It will be installed in the Cineca data center in Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna) at the end of 2024 and will become part of the Bologna Technopole ecosystem. The supercomputer will be dedicated to the numerical simulation of plasma physics and the structural analysis of advanced materials for nuclear fusion.

Cineca is a university consortium, one of the largest computing centers in Italy and one of the most advanced in the world for high-performance computing, home to numerous national and international HPC projects. The Lenovo supercomputer, selected through a competitive public tender, provides high energy efficiency, allowing the reduction of the system’s cooling electricity consumption by 15% through Lenovo Neptune™ Direct Water-Cooling technology.

As the number one provider of supercomputers in the world according to TOP500.org, Lenovo works closely with key industry-leading partners to develop, integrate, and deploy the technologies of exascale-level computing to organizations of all sizes.

Implementing High-Performance Private AI with Liquid Cooled Colocation 

Elsewhere around the globe, for customers who need maximum AI and HPC performance but don’t have liquid-cooling infrastructure, Lenovo partners with leading colocation companies to offer Neptune® ready infrastructure for private AI workloads. These colocation partnerships are helping customers implement high-performance private AI even if they lack the data center footprint. 

Partnering with Lenovo, Digital Realty, built onto its standardized high-density colocation offering with the introduction of Lenovo Neptune cooling technology in more than half its data centers globally, representing a significant leap in addressing the challenges of high-density workloads presented by AI across a full range of high-growth industries. Moreover, Digital Realty’s Private AI Exchange further enhances these capabilities by providing a secure and scalable environment for AI workloads. This exchange facilitates seamless integration and collaboration, ensuring that customers can leverage the full potential of their AI investments.

Recently, in partnership, Digital Realty and Lenovo enabled a global financial services provider to scale and distribute HPC capabilities that enable financial risk management strategies and calculations that are crucial to business success. By leveraging Digital Realty’s PlatformDIGITAL® to expand data center capacity with colocation, the financial services provider avoided the capital expenditure that would be involved in constructing their own data center facility and deployed 6x faster as a result of Digital Realty’s ability to retrofit existing data centers to meet advanced cooling requirements.

Through deploying Lenovo Neptune™ direct liquid-cooling infrastructure with high-density colocation, the company also achieves its goal of engineering the most energy-efficient solution possible with the possibility of critical heat recycling. The result is a 30% improvement in energy efficiency from using direct liquid cooling. 

Explore how Lenovo is creating cooler HPC and delivering transformative solutions that maximize efficiency and unlock the data center as the heart of AI-accelerated transformation at https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/servers-storage/neptune/.

ATLANTA, December 30, 2024 /3BL/ – Lenovo, the world’s #1 supercomputer provider, showcased new high-performance innovations that deliver game-changing energy efficiency and accelerated computing to help scientific and industry researchers propel AI-powered transformation at any scale. Unveiled at Supercomputing 2024 (SC24), the new powerful, energy-efficient platforms will help scientists, engineers, and researchers push the boundaries of scientific discovery while making it possible for today’s enterprises to unlock AI’s potential.

As data center infrastructure takes center stage as the heart of producing AI and the digital economy, increasing energy demands must be met responsibly. Long known as the world’s largest gathering of high-performance computing (HPC) and research leaders, SC’s spotlight has grown to attract a wide range of c-level executives from across finance, healthcare, manufacturing and beyond as today’s business leaders aggressively pursue the deployment of AI solutions across their organizations. For today’s enterprises, HPC is part of the core engine that makes it possible to maximize AI’s potential.

Unlocking AI Factories with Cooler Supercomputing for All 

AI and HPC capabilities are unlocking data-driven insights, accelerated outcomes, and advanced use cases, but organizations across every industry are presented with new thermal requirements as they push for ever-increasing levels of capacity to support AI workloads. Lenovo offered insight into the challenges businesses are facing in the AI era while diving into the future of cooling AI factories with the latest partner innovations.

Backed by more than a decade of expertise and 40+ patents for scalable supercomputing, Lenovo 6th Generation Neptune® Liquid Cooling helps tackle this problem by using liquid to remove heat, which is much more efficient than traditional air cooling. The revolutionary new chassis flips servers to a vertical orientation to fit today’s most powerful accelerated computing technologies in a compact system that is 100% liquid cooled, eliminating the need for power-consuming fans and dramatically improving energy efficiency. Designed for industry-standard 19-inch racks, organizations of any size can now leverage the high performance of accelerated computing, one tray at a time, using standard power in an open ecosystem.

“With this design, every data center provider can fit these systems into their rooms without any major modifications. That means no reinforced floors, no specialized power, no specialized doors to get into the room,” said Scott Tease, Vice President of Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group, Products. “Through the groundbreaking advancements in Lenovo Neptune liquid cooling, users can take advantage of the highest performance computing that is being delivered now and in the future.”

New 6th generation Lenovo Neptune water-cooled supercomputing servers use the latest processor and accelerator technologies to deliver scalable efficiency that unleashes AI. At the show, Lenovo announced support for the NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell NVL4 Superchip, showcasing the newly available Lenovo ThinkSystem SC777 V4 Neptune.

Featuring the 6th generation open-loop, direct warm-water cooling innovation, enterprise customers of any size can use the Lenovo ThinkSystem SC777 V4 Neptune to run trillion-parameter AI models that bring products to market faster, at lower cost and with higher energy efficiency.  At the core of the SC777, the NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell NVL4 Superchip delivers revolutionary performance by combining four NVIDIA NVLink-connected Blackwell GPUs unified with two NVIDIA Grace CPUs over NVLink-C2C. Customers can achieve massive scale with the choice of NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand or Spectrum-X Ethernet platforms. New Enterprise Reference Architectures with NVIDIA also help joint customers build their own AI factories — high-performance, scalable and secure data centers for manufacturing intelligence.

Also leveraging the 6th generation Lenovo Neptune design, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SC750 V4 Neptune is designed to handle technical computing, grid deployments, and analytics workloads in various fields such as research, life sciences, energy, engineering, and financial simulation. The system supports the new Intel Xeon 6900P-series 500W Granite Rapids AP processors and new 8800 MHz MRDIMM DDR5 memory. Its industry-leading direct water-cooling system ensures steady heat dissipation, allowing CPUs to maintain accelerated operation and maximize compute performance.

Stemming from its continued partnership with NVIDIA, Lenovo also showcased systems that will unleash AI acceleration for mainstream enterprise servers with the NVIDIA H200 NVL platform. For mainstream scientific computing applications across higher-ed, health care and life sciences, energy, and financial services, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675 V3 with NVIDIA H200 NVL delivers powerful performance and efficient scaling while enabling flexibility in configuration choice to meet the needs of a broad set of HPC workloads. Enabled across a full-stack AI portfolio, the Lenovo Hybrid AI Advantage with NVIDIA empowers organizations to rapidly turn intelligence into outcomes and bring AI-powered compute anywhere—with speed and ease.

Accelerating Clean Energy Transformation with Water Cooled Supercomputers

Supercomputers are used everywhere—from car and airplane design, oil field exploration, and financial risk assessment, to genome mapping and weather forecasting. Lenovo showcased how its water-cooled supercomputers are enabling accelerated transformation across the globe, reflecting the shift toward accelerated, energy-efficient supercomputing that is accessible to all.

In Italy, ENEA, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, selected Lenovo for the installation of an HPC system at the Portici (Naples) hub to accelerate research activities on clean energy, in particular on nuclear fusion. This new HPC system, consisting of 758 nodes with 2 Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8592+ CPUs, will allow to bring the computational capabilities of CRESCO – Computational Center for Research on Complex Systems – the supercomputing system hosted in the Portici Research Center, from the current 1.01 to over 6.5 Petaflops,1 placing it at the top of the national scene in terms of processing power.

Sustainability was also a crucial factor for selection by ENEA, and Lenovo’s HPC solution guarantees better energy efficiency than in the past. The use of Lenovo Neptune direct water-cooling technology captures up to 98% of the heat produced by the supercomputer while saving the energy used for the fans. Thanks to the greater efficiency, the temperature of the CPUs does not reach critical values, avoiding the reduction of the maximum frequency of the cores.

Also in Italy, Cineca has signed an agreement with Lenovo for the installation of a new High HPC system for the scientific community to research fusion energy. The new infrastructure will be able to perform about 45 million billion operations per second (PFlop/s). It will be installed in the Cineca data center in Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna) at the end of 2024 and will become part of the Bologna Technopole ecosystem. The supercomputer will be dedicated to the numerical simulation of plasma physics and the structural analysis of advanced materials for nuclear fusion.

Cineca is a university consortium, one of the largest computing centers in Italy and one of the most advanced in the world for high-performance computing, home to numerous national and international HPC projects. The Lenovo supercomputer, selected through a competitive public tender, provides high energy efficiency, allowing the reduction of the system’s cooling electricity consumption by 15% through Lenovo Neptune™ Direct Water-Cooling technology.

As the number one provider of supercomputers in the world according to TOP500.org, Lenovo works closely with key industry-leading partners to develop, integrate, and deploy the technologies of exascale-level computing to organizations of all sizes.

Implementing High-Performance Private AI with Liquid Cooled Colocation 

Elsewhere around the globe, for customers who need maximum AI and HPC performance but don’t have liquid-cooling infrastructure, Lenovo partners with leading colocation companies to offer Neptune® ready infrastructure for private AI workloads. These colocation partnerships are helping customers implement high-performance private AI even if they lack the data center footprint. 

Partnering with Lenovo, Digital Realty, built onto its standardized high-density colocation offering with the introduction of Lenovo Neptune cooling technology in more than half its data centers globally, representing a significant leap in addressing the challenges of high-density workloads presented by AI across a full range of high-growth industries. Moreover, Digital Realty’s Private AI Exchange further enhances these capabilities by providing a secure and scalable environment for AI workloads. This exchange facilitates seamless integration and collaboration, ensuring that customers can leverage the full potential of their AI investments.

Recently, in partnership, Digital Realty and Lenovo enabled a global financial services provider to scale and distribute HPC capabilities that enable financial risk management strategies and calculations that are crucial to business success. By leveraging Digital Realty’s PlatformDIGITAL® to expand data center capacity with colocation, the financial services provider avoided the capital expenditure that would be involved in constructing their own data center facility and deployed 6x faster as a result of Digital Realty’s ability to retrofit existing data centers to meet advanced cooling requirements.

Through deploying Lenovo Neptune™ direct liquid-cooling infrastructure with high-density colocation, the company also achieves its goal of engineering the most energy-efficient solution possible with the possibility of critical heat recycling. The result is a 30% improvement in energy efficiency from using direct liquid cooling. 

Explore how Lenovo is creating cooler HPC and delivering transformative solutions that maximize efficiency and unlock the data center as the heart of AI-accelerated transformation at https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/servers-storage/neptune/.

by Amy Domini of Domini Impact Investments

Did you know that today our nation has a healthy CDFI network that makes financial services accessible and economic prosperity possible for millions? NACDLF, now known as Opportunity Finance Network, which is now celebrating 40 years, and its members have distributed $111,087,489,003 over those four decades. Behind the figures are million new jobs and over 800,000 new businesses in addition to the housing and community services provided to millions. Further, just this past year, CDFIs received roughly $16 billion in federal grants for the development of clean energy, decarbonization of transportation and the built environment and pathways to a clean energy economy by and for disadvantaged communities. All this grew from an initial disbursement of $35 million, thoughtfully handled, from the US Treasury. And the women are still strong in support. OFN CDFI’s women’s network has 1,600 members in 15 local chapters.

Community Development Financial Institutions are an essential component in bending towards justice, and women were essential architects of the field.

Read Amy’s full article featuring an insightful perspective on the Women who nurtured the roots and helped grow CDFIs. All here- https://greenmoney.com/a-history-of-the-women-who-nurtured-the-roots-of-cdfis

======

As originally published by GoDaddy’s Venture Forward research initiative

Venture Forward Survey Research Since 2019

4 Countries (AU, CA, UK, US)50,000+ Customers20+ Cities5 Years of Research

US microbusinesses at-a-glance1

Microbusinesses are small: 93% of microbusinesses have fewer than 10 employees

55% are solo entrepreneurs45% have employees

Microbusinesses generate income.

31%: Main40%: Supplemental29%: No Income

41% of respondents in the U.S. turned their supplemental income into their main source of income.

About 1 in 3 currently own more than one business.

Microbusinesses can support a household. 
Also known as “breadwinners”

Over 1 in 3 contributes 51% or more to household income

Marketing and capital continue to rank as top challenges for new businesses1

Ranking of top challenges when first starting a business:

39%: Marketing my business online (social media, ads, promotions, etc.22%: Access to financial capital21%: Marketing my business using traditional media (print, radio, TV, etc.)18%: Getting my business website online effectively15%: Taxes14%: Finding employees, independent contractors or consultants with necessary skills12%: Networking with other business owners12%: Licensing/permits11%:Affordable space10%: Rising costs on wages and materials

Microbusinesses help close equity gaps1

51% Women-Owned

+10% since August 2019

31%: About 3 out of 10 women with a microbusiness are the breadwinners in their home.

Breadwinners contribute 51% or more to their household income

13% of U.S. microbusinesses are owned by a Black entrepreneur, and of those, 73% are owned by Black women.

Motivations may vary, but all microbusiness owners are committed1

“Why did you start your business?”

46%: To be my own boss31%: Support a cause of hobby31%: I can have more success on my own30%: Flexibility with time24%: Make extra money21%: Dreamt of starting a business19%: To contribute to my community17%: Idea for new product/service13%: To have fun13%: Wanted a career change

Microbusiness owners agree: Life is better as an entrepreneur.

66%: Better30%: No Different4%: Worse

Serial entrepreneurs demonstrate resiliency, and it pays off1

75% of business owners who previously closed or sold a business without a profit persevered to create new businesses.

4 out of 10 current business owners who previously didn’t sell at a profit are now the breadwinners of their households.

61%: Household contribution is 50% or less39%: Household contribution is 51% or more

Previous outcomes appear to affect whether to start new ventures full-time or as a side-hustle, but over one-third still jump all-in regardless.

I left my prior job to start my current business

52%: Sold last business for profit34%: Sold last business at no profit or loss

I started my current business while still working elsewhere

33%: Sold last business for profit47%: Sold last business at no profit or loss

Entrepreneurs are betting on themselves and creating jobs for others1

1 out of 4 business owners with a negative outlook on the national economy still plan to hire employees in the next 12 months.

Positive outlook for my business vs. the economy

 Jul’20Jul’21Feb’22Aug’22Feb’23Aug’23Feb’24Business52%69%73%60%73%72%74%Economy28%51%48%37%32%34%39%

People who plan to hire in the next 12 months are driven by their business outlook not their economic outlook.

Positive Outlook

86%: Business46%: Economy

Negative Outlook

2%: Business29%: Economy

The South and Midwest are the most likely to hire additional employees over the next 12 months (28%), while the West is the least likely (20%).

Northeast: (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont) Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, lowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin) South (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia) West (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming)

Generative Al (GenAI) is picking up with microbusinesses1

44% agree that GenAl will help them compete with larger businesses.50% tried GenAl tools in the past few months.25% tried GenAl for their business specifically.

GenAI use is connected with confidence and higher recent monthly1 revenue

54%: Confident29%: Neutral17%: Not Confident

Microbusiness owners whose monthly revenue increased in the last six months are more likely to have used GenAl for their business.

Over the last six months, how has your business’ average monthly revenue changed?

My revenue increased

28%: Not used GenAI36%: Used GenAI

My revenue decreased

29%: Not used GenAI24%: Used GenAI

Who is and isn’t using GenAl?1

Business owners tend to use GenAl for business more than personal use.

White

13%: Yes, for personal24%: Yes, for my business 

Black

21%: Yes, for personal33%: Yes, for my business

Asian

22%: Yes, for personal27%: Yes, for my business

Hispanic

14%: Yes, for personal30%: Yes, for my business

Nearly 1 in 3 Black-owned microbusinesses use GenAl for business.

The majority of microbusiness owners who tried GenAl said they experienced a positive impact on their business. Those who haven’t, however, most commonly cite the folowing five reasons for their hesitation:

38%: I’m not familiar with Al32%: My business has no need for it12%: I don’t have time5%: It would take too long to learn for it to be useful3%: It costs too much money

Download the full report.

GoDaddy Venture Forward 2024 Annual Report | U.S. Edition

This report is powered by the latest data from Venture Forward, GoDaddy’s research initiative to quantify the presence and impact of over 20 million global online microbusinesses on their local economies, while shining a light on the entrepreneurs behind them.

We’re here to support entrepreneurs.

Contact GoDaddy Venture Forward at VentureForward@GoDaddy.com

1Source: GoDaddy Venture Forward U.S. National Survey. February 2024 (N=3,565)

As originally published by GoDaddy’s Venture Forward research initiative

Venture Forward Survey Research Since 2019

4 Countries (AU, CA, UK, US)50,000+ Customers20+ Cities5 Years of Research

US microbusinesses at-a-glance1

Microbusinesses are small: 93% of microbusinesses have fewer than 10 employees

55% are solo entrepreneurs45% have employees

Microbusinesses generate income.

31%: Main40%: Supplemental29%: No Income

41% of respondents in the U.S. turned their supplemental income into their main source of income.

About 1 in 3 currently own more than one business.

Microbusinesses can support a household. 
Also known as “breadwinners”

Over 1 in 3 contributes 51% or more to household income

Marketing and capital continue to rank as top challenges for new businesses1

Ranking of top challenges when first starting a business:

39%: Marketing my business online (social media, ads, promotions, etc.22%: Access to financial capital21%: Marketing my business using traditional media (print, radio, TV, etc.)18%: Getting my business website online effectively15%: Taxes14%: Finding employees, independent contractors or consultants with necessary skills12%: Networking with other business owners12%: Licensing/permits11%:Affordable space10%: Rising costs on wages and materials

Microbusinesses help close equity gaps1

51% Women-Owned

+10% since August 2019

31%: About 3 out of 10 women with a microbusiness are the breadwinners in their home.

Breadwinners contribute 51% or more to their household income

13% of U.S. microbusinesses are owned by a Black entrepreneur, and of those, 73% are owned by Black women.

Motivations may vary, but all microbusiness owners are committed1

“Why did you start your business?”

46%: To be my own boss31%: Support a cause of hobby31%: I can have more success on my own30%: Flexibility with time24%: Make extra money21%: Dreamt of starting a business19%: To contribute to my community17%: Idea for new product/service13%: To have fun13%: Wanted a career change

Microbusiness owners agree: Life is better as an entrepreneur.

66%: Better30%: No Different4%: Worse

Serial entrepreneurs demonstrate resiliency, and it pays off1

75% of business owners who previously closed or sold a business without a profit persevered to create new businesses.

4 out of 10 current business owners who previously didn’t sell at a profit are now the breadwinners of their households.

61%: Household contribution is 50% or less39%: Household contribution is 51% or more

Previous outcomes appear to affect whether to start new ventures full-time or as a side-hustle, but over one-third still jump all-in regardless.

I left my prior job to start my current business

52%: Sold last business for profit34%: Sold last business at no profit or loss

I started my current business while still working elsewhere

33%: Sold last business for profit47%: Sold last business at no profit or loss

Entrepreneurs are betting on themselves and creating jobs for others1

1 out of 4 business owners with a negative outlook on the national economy still plan to hire employees in the next 12 months.

Positive outlook for my business vs. the economy

 Jul’20Jul’21Feb’22Aug’22Feb’23Aug’23Feb’24Business52%69%73%60%73%72%74%Economy28%51%48%37%32%34%39%

People who plan to hire in the next 12 months are driven by their business outlook not their economic outlook.

Positive Outlook

86%: Business46%: Economy

Negative Outlook

2%: Business29%: Economy

The South and Midwest are the most likely to hire additional employees over the next 12 months (28%), while the West is the least likely (20%).

Northeast: (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont) Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, lowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin) South (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia) West (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming)

Generative Al (GenAI) is picking up with microbusinesses1

44% agree that GenAl will help them compete with larger businesses.50% tried GenAl tools in the past few months.25% tried GenAl for their business specifically.

GenAI use is connected with confidence and higher recent monthly1 revenue

54%: Confident29%: Neutral17%: Not Confident

Microbusiness owners whose monthly revenue increased in the last six months are more likely to have used GenAl for their business.

Over the last six months, how has your business’ average monthly revenue changed?

My revenue increased

28%: Not used GenAI36%: Used GenAI

My revenue decreased

29%: Not used GenAI24%: Used GenAI

Who is and isn’t using GenAl?1

Business owners tend to use GenAl for business more than personal use.

White

13%: Yes, for personal24%: Yes, for my business 

Black

21%: Yes, for personal33%: Yes, for my business

Asian

22%: Yes, for personal27%: Yes, for my business

Hispanic

14%: Yes, for personal30%: Yes, for my business

Nearly 1 in 3 Black-owned microbusinesses use GenAl for business.

The majority of microbusiness owners who tried GenAl said they experienced a positive impact on their business. Those who haven’t, however, most commonly cite the folowing five reasons for their hesitation:

38%: I’m not familiar with Al32%: My business has no need for it12%: I don’t have time5%: It would take too long to learn for it to be useful3%: It costs too much money

Download the full report.

GoDaddy Venture Forward 2024 Annual Report | U.S. Edition

This report is powered by the latest data from Venture Forward, GoDaddy’s research initiative to quantify the presence and impact of over 20 million global online microbusinesses on their local economies, while shining a light on the entrepreneurs behind them.

We’re here to support entrepreneurs.

Contact GoDaddy Venture Forward at VentureForward@GoDaddy.com

1Source: GoDaddy Venture Forward U.S. National Survey. February 2024 (N=3,565)

The Clorox Companie continues to foster bolder ways of working that simplify operations and leverage technology to empower today’s workforce, all while building on our strong foundation of inclusion and diversity to attract future generations of talent.

FY24 HIGHLIGHTS

Completed implementation of our streamlined operating model, leading to approximately $100M in expected ongoing cost savings annually, margin improvements, new capabilities and the ability to further invest in business growth.Recorded a teammate engagement score of 82%, which reflects continued pride in Clorox as a great place to work. This achievement is above the 50th percentile for both Fortune 500 and industry benchmarks.D11Continued to advance our work with suppliers who reflect the increasingly diverse consumers of our products, spending $202.8M with diverse suppliers in fiscal year 2024 — increasing by $1.5M from fiscal year 2023.D13Achieved pay equity for nonproduction teammates for gender globally and race and ethnicity in the U.S.*Improved our recordable incident rate by 14.5% to 0.47, which is significantly lower than the average for goods-producing manufacturing companies, through enhanced teammate involvement and incident management protocols.D1

* There are no statistically significant differences (at a confidence level of 95%) in pay by gender globally and race/ ethnicity in the U.S., accounting for relevant factors such as grade level, location and experience.

I see the tremendous passion and commitment to keep each other safe — not only through best practices, but also through our culture. Making thoughtful decisions every minute of every shift is what sets Clorox apart.”

Lalo Calvo 
Fairfield Process Department Associate

ELEVATED RESOURCE PLANNING

Fiscal year 2024 marked the third year of a more than $500 million investment in technologies and processes to accelerate digital transformation across the company over a five-year period. This element of our IGNITE strategy continues to drive new capabilities and improve ways of working across Clorox.

This year we began deploying our highly anticipated enterprise resource planning, or ERP, tool to unlock the potential of a true data-driven culture. The new ERP will modernize the backbone of our supply chain and finance capabilities by shifting them to a more integrated environment. Data that was previously fragmented across systems, geographies, functions and business units will now be centralized, offering immediate transparency and more strategic decision-making. We successfully completed the first wave of our new ERP implementation in Canada and Global Finance and are poised to launch in the U.S. in fiscal year 2026, further improving our agility and ability to grow and operate more efficiently over the long term.

EMPOWERING TEAMMATES TO THRIVE

An engaged and motivated workforce is essential to Clorox’s success, which is why we continue to invest in our teammates’ personal and professional well-being. This year we launched a new technical upskilling curriculum called Brand & Marketing University, which offers a blended learning approach and end-to-end training to develop the expertise of core functional teams.

We are deeply committed to offering competitive and inclusive benefits that support the total well-being of our employees globally. We understand that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce, and as part of our dedication to this principle, we have continued to enhance the utilization of preventive screenings within our U.S. population. Our initiatives include comprehensive education on the importance of early detection and streamlined access to various health screenings. These efforts have yielded impressive results, with a notable increase in our screening utilization rate that surpasses our industry benchmark. By prioritizing preventive care, we are not only fostering a healthier work environment but also empowering our employees to take proactive steps toward their long-term health.

MORE CONSUMER OBSESSED, FASTER AND LEANER

This year marked the full implementation of our streamlined operating model. We’ve put our brands closer to the end consumer and are enabling our businesses to make faster decisions with a more consumer-obsessed mindset. We are also further embedding ESG into our business-unit operations and modernizing our capabilities to yield better business outcomes.

We have taken steps to integrate end-to-end across business functions, remove layers for more agile decision-making and centralize many capabilities that can be dynamically deployed into our business units. This is boosting effectiveness and efficiency while enabling our business units to more deeply focus on our consumers and more quickly deliver on our business objectives. These strategic capabilities are essential to becoming a faster, leaner and higher-growth company for the future.

IDEA 

Building a diverse workplace where every person can feel respected, valued and fully able to participate in our Clorox community in the years ahead means paving pathways for inclusion, diversity, equity and allyship — what we like to call IDEA.

PUTTING ALLYSHIP INTO ACTION

Allyship is a core part of our IDEA journey, providing an actionable framework for teammates to better understand their role in creating a more inclusive workplace in which teammates can do their best work and help meet the diverse needs of the consumers we serve globally. We focus on four behaviors teammates can use to put allyship into practice: Be Curious, Seek to Understand, Show Empathy and Act Courageously.

Through enterprise-wide programming — including our annual IDEAcon event — business unit and functional integration and training, we’re taking steps to ensure each teammate can play an active role in shaping a culture of allyship.

Our 13 employee resource groups are critical to how we bring allyship into our everyday lives. By celebrating our diverse culture, nurturing professional development and giving back to communities through volunteering, these internal networks extend IDEA’s impact to all teammates and empower everyone to reach beyond their own lived experiences.

Learn more about Clorox’s broader social impact efforts in its full 2024 Annual Report.

The Clorox Companie continues to foster bolder ways of working that simplify operations and leverage technology to empower today’s workforce, all while building on our strong foundation of inclusion and diversity to attract future generations of talent.

FY24 HIGHLIGHTS

Completed implementation of our streamlined operating model, leading to approximately $100M in expected ongoing cost savings annually, margin improvements, new capabilities and the ability to further invest in business growth.Recorded a teammate engagement score of 82%, which reflects continued pride in Clorox as a great place to work. This achievement is above the 50th percentile for both Fortune 500 and industry benchmarks.D11Continued to advance our work with suppliers who reflect the increasingly diverse consumers of our products, spending $202.8M with diverse suppliers in fiscal year 2024 — increasing by $1.5M from fiscal year 2023.D13Achieved pay equity for nonproduction teammates for gender globally and race and ethnicity in the U.S.*Improved our recordable incident rate by 14.5% to 0.47, which is significantly lower than the average for goods-producing manufacturing companies, through enhanced teammate involvement and incident management protocols.D1

* There are no statistically significant differences (at a confidence level of 95%) in pay by gender globally and race/ ethnicity in the U.S., accounting for relevant factors such as grade level, location and experience.

I see the tremendous passion and commitment to keep each other safe — not only through best practices, but also through our culture. Making thoughtful decisions every minute of every shift is what sets Clorox apart.”

Lalo Calvo 
Fairfield Process Department Associate

ELEVATED RESOURCE PLANNING

Fiscal year 2024 marked the third year of a more than $500 million investment in technologies and processes to accelerate digital transformation across the company over a five-year period. This element of our IGNITE strategy continues to drive new capabilities and improve ways of working across Clorox.

This year we began deploying our highly anticipated enterprise resource planning, or ERP, tool to unlock the potential of a true data-driven culture. The new ERP will modernize the backbone of our supply chain and finance capabilities by shifting them to a more integrated environment. Data that was previously fragmented across systems, geographies, functions and business units will now be centralized, offering immediate transparency and more strategic decision-making. We successfully completed the first wave of our new ERP implementation in Canada and Global Finance and are poised to launch in the U.S. in fiscal year 2026, further improving our agility and ability to grow and operate more efficiently over the long term.

EMPOWERING TEAMMATES TO THRIVE

An engaged and motivated workforce is essential to Clorox’s success, which is why we continue to invest in our teammates’ personal and professional well-being. This year we launched a new technical upskilling curriculum called Brand & Marketing University, which offers a blended learning approach and end-to-end training to develop the expertise of core functional teams.

We are deeply committed to offering competitive and inclusive benefits that support the total well-being of our employees globally. We understand that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce, and as part of our dedication to this principle, we have continued to enhance the utilization of preventive screenings within our U.S. population. Our initiatives include comprehensive education on the importance of early detection and streamlined access to various health screenings. These efforts have yielded impressive results, with a notable increase in our screening utilization rate that surpasses our industry benchmark. By prioritizing preventive care, we are not only fostering a healthier work environment but also empowering our employees to take proactive steps toward their long-term health.

MORE CONSUMER OBSESSED, FASTER AND LEANER

This year marked the full implementation of our streamlined operating model. We’ve put our brands closer to the end consumer and are enabling our businesses to make faster decisions with a more consumer-obsessed mindset. We are also further embedding ESG into our business-unit operations and modernizing our capabilities to yield better business outcomes.

We have taken steps to integrate end-to-end across business functions, remove layers for more agile decision-making and centralize many capabilities that can be dynamically deployed into our business units. This is boosting effectiveness and efficiency while enabling our business units to more deeply focus on our consumers and more quickly deliver on our business objectives. These strategic capabilities are essential to becoming a faster, leaner and higher-growth company for the future.

IDEA 

Building a diverse workplace where every person can feel respected, valued and fully able to participate in our Clorox community in the years ahead means paving pathways for inclusion, diversity, equity and allyship — what we like to call IDEA.

PUTTING ALLYSHIP INTO ACTION

Allyship is a core part of our IDEA journey, providing an actionable framework for teammates to better understand their role in creating a more inclusive workplace in which teammates can do their best work and help meet the diverse needs of the consumers we serve globally. We focus on four behaviors teammates can use to put allyship into practice: Be Curious, Seek to Understand, Show Empathy and Act Courageously.

Through enterprise-wide programming — including our annual IDEAcon event — business unit and functional integration and training, we’re taking steps to ensure each teammate can play an active role in shaping a culture of allyship.

Our 13 employee resource groups are critical to how we bring allyship into our everyday lives. By celebrating our diverse culture, nurturing professional development and giving back to communities through volunteering, these internal networks extend IDEA’s impact to all teammates and empower everyone to reach beyond their own lived experiences.

Learn more about Clorox’s broader social impact efforts in its full 2024 Annual Report.

Originally published on NRG Energy Insights

Demand for organizations to respond to climate change comes from many directions:

Investors

An estimated 85% of investors consider ESG* factors when making investment decisions.¹

Key takeaway: Sustainability efforts are not just good for the planet; it’s essential for attracting investment and growing your business value.

Government

Governments around the globe are increasingly weighing in on sustainability by issuing regulations, guidance, and incentives.²

Key takeaway: Staying ahead of these regulatory changes is about more than compliance; it’s also an opportunity to lead in environmental sustainability and demonstrate your commitment to a sustainable future.

Non-Governmental Organizations

With 70% of its Company Network members from Fortune 500 companies, Ceres not only drives awareness about crucial environmental research — it also sets standards that press businesses across industries to take decisive climate action.

Key takeaway: Aligning with standards set by leading non-governmental organizations can showcase your commitment to a cleaner future and enhance your brand’s reputation.

Customers

3 out of 4 Gen Z and Millennial consumers agree that businesses should communicate more about sustainability goals and social impact.³

Key takeaway: Transparency and action on sustainability initiatives can significantly bolster your brand’s appeal to and loyalty from customers under the age of 45.

Employees

71% of employees and employment seekers say that environmentally sustainable companies are more attractive employers.4

Key takeaway: In today’s competitive job market, a commitment to clean energy and energy efficiency can be a game-changer, positioning your company as an employer of choice.

Business strategy models that combat climate change and implement cost-saving solutions have the potential to give companies a competitive advantage, drive growth, and create long-term value. And yet, the path forward isn’t always clear.

That’s why we’ve created a free, in-depth guide with everything you need to know about developing and integrating a sustainability strategy — from reducing your carbon footprint to engaging with stakeholders.

Get the guide

*Environmental, social and governance (ESG) refers to a collection of corporate performance evaluation criteria that assess the robustness of a company’s governance mechanisms and its ability to effectively manage its environmental and social impacts. Examples of ESG data include the quantification of a company’s carbon emissions, water consumption, or customer privacy breaches. Institutional investors, stock exchanges, and boards increasingly use sustainability and social responsibility disclosure information to explore the relationship between a company’s management of ESG risk factors and its business performance.

¹https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/investors-want-to-hear-from-companies-about-the-value-of-sustainability

²https://www.bakertilly.com/insights/how-mandatory-esg-and-sustainability-reporting-regulations-are-shifting

³https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2024/consumers-companies-sustainability/805051

4https://www.ibm.com/topics/business-sustainability#citation1

Originally published on NRG Energy Insights

Demand for organizations to respond to climate change comes from many directions:

Investors

An estimated 85% of investors consider ESG* factors when making investment decisions.¹

Key takeaway: Sustainability efforts are not just good for the planet; it’s essential for attracting investment and growing your business value.

Government

Governments around the globe are increasingly weighing in on sustainability by issuing regulations, guidance, and incentives.²

Key takeaway: Staying ahead of these regulatory changes is about more than compliance; it’s also an opportunity to lead in environmental sustainability and demonstrate your commitment to a sustainable future.

Non-Governmental Organizations

With 70% of its Company Network members from Fortune 500 companies, Ceres not only drives awareness about crucial environmental research — it also sets standards that press businesses across industries to take decisive climate action.

Key takeaway: Aligning with standards set by leading non-governmental organizations can showcase your commitment to a cleaner future and enhance your brand’s reputation.

Customers

3 out of 4 Gen Z and Millennial consumers agree that businesses should communicate more about sustainability goals and social impact.³

Key takeaway: Transparency and action on sustainability initiatives can significantly bolster your brand’s appeal to and loyalty from customers under the age of 45.

Employees

71% of employees and employment seekers say that environmentally sustainable companies are more attractive employers.4

Key takeaway: In today’s competitive job market, a commitment to clean energy and energy efficiency can be a game-changer, positioning your company as an employer of choice.

Business strategy models that combat climate change and implement cost-saving solutions have the potential to give companies a competitive advantage, drive growth, and create long-term value. And yet, the path forward isn’t always clear.

That’s why we’ve created a free, in-depth guide with everything you need to know about developing and integrating a sustainability strategy — from reducing your carbon footprint to engaging with stakeholders.

Get the guide

*Environmental, social and governance (ESG) refers to a collection of corporate performance evaluation criteria that assess the robustness of a company’s governance mechanisms and its ability to effectively manage its environmental and social impacts. Examples of ESG data include the quantification of a company’s carbon emissions, water consumption, or customer privacy breaches. Institutional investors, stock exchanges, and boards increasingly use sustainability and social responsibility disclosure information to explore the relationship between a company’s management of ESG risk factors and its business performance.

¹https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/investors-want-to-hear-from-companies-about-the-value-of-sustainability

²https://www.bakertilly.com/insights/how-mandatory-esg-and-sustainability-reporting-regulations-are-shifting

³https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2024/consumers-companies-sustainability/805051

4https://www.ibm.com/topics/business-sustainability#citation1

22 Florida nonprofits received funding to support ongoing recovery effortsGiving for disaster preparedness and relief in Florida tops $900,000 for the year

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., December 30, 2024 /3BL/ – The Duke Energy Foundation announced an additional $350,000 to Florida nonprofit organizations as part of its ongoing response to Hurricane Milton, disaster preparedness and relief. It has been more than a month since Milton made landfall as a major Category 3 storm on Oct. 9, and the company remains committed to communities as they rebuild.

“This has been a devastating hurricane season for so many Floridians,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. “We are walking side by side with our customers to help rebuild communities across Florida in the wake of Hurricane Milton. In partnership with dedicated nonprofit organizations, together we enable critical aid and provide Floridians with the services, materials and programs needed to recover.”

Duke Energy Foundation donated $50,000 to the American Red Cross before the storm, which ensured the quick distribution of supplies to areas in the state that expected impact.

An additional $300,000 has been provided to 22 local organizations across the Gulf Coast and Central Florida that are working to bring back vitality to these communities. Foundation grants are supporting efforts around food security, replacement of essential items, financial support for college students and other unexpected household costs. Grantee organizations are listed below.

Gulf Coast

Daystar Life Center of Citrus County 
 Central Florida Community Action Agency 
 Yankeetown – Inglis Fire Rescue 
 Dunedin Cares Food Pantry 
 Amplify Clearwater 
 Mattie Williams Neighborhood Family Center (Safety Harbor) 
 St. Petersburg College (SPC) Foundation 
 Interfaith Food Pantry 
 Pasco Education Foundation 
 Ready for Life Pinellas 
 Pinellas Community Foundation – We Are St. Pete Fund

Central Florida

University of Central Florida (UCF) Student Emergency Fund 
 United Against Poverty (UP) 
 Salvation Army of Osceola County 
 Foliage Sertoma Club of Apopka 
 Valencia College (VC) Puma Emergency Relief Fund 
 Lake Support and Emergency Recovery (L.A.S.E.R.) 
 United Way of Central Florida 
 Highlands County Board of County Commissioners 
 Heartland Food Bank 
 Rescue Outreach Mission of Central Florida 
 Backpack Buddies

“We are thankful for Duke Energy’s generosity in supporting our students when they need it most, during this critical time in their lives,” said Adrienne Frame, UCF VP of student success and well-being. “Duke Energy is making a big impact by helping students stay on their path to earning a college degree and achieving their dreams.”

With several significant storms impacting Duke Energy Florida’s 13,000-square-mile service territory this year, the donations for Hurricane Milton bring total giving for disaster readiness and response in the state to $910,000.

Duke Energy Foundation 
The Duke Energy Foundation provides more than $30 million annually in philanthropic support to meet the needs of communities where Duke Energy customers live and work. The Foundation is funded by Duke Energy shareholders.

Duke Energy Florida 

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 12,300 megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to 2 million residential, commercial and industrial customers across a 13,000-square-mile service area in Florida.

Duke Energy 

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. The company’s electric utilities serve 8.4 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 54,800 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas utilities serve 1.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky.

Duke Energy is executing an ambitious clean energy transition, keeping reliability, affordability and accessibility at the forefront as the company works toward net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050. The company is investing in major electric grid upgrades and cleaner generation, including expanded energy storage, renewables, natural gas and nuclear.

More information is available at duke-energy.com and the Duke Energy News Center. Follow Duke Energy on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, and visit illumination for stories about the people and innovations powering our energy transition.

Contact: Ana Gibbs 
24-Hour: 800.559.3853

View original content here.