NAND Research

Insights & Intelligence for the
Enterprise Infrastructure Market

Research & Advisory Services

Product Strategy

NAND Research works with technology companies across the enterprise IT infrastructure space, including tier-one OEMs, ISVs, and semiconductor manufacturers to help align product strategy with market needs.

Competitive Insights

As industry analysts, understanding market dynamics is what NAND Research does best.

NAND Research provides competitive intelligence services to select customers in the enterprise infrastructure space.

Technology Trends &
Market Intelligence

The IT infrastructure market is in a state of constant churn. Our analysts are in the midst of it all, advising investors, technology companies and IT organizations alike.

Messaging Strategy &
Amplification

NAND Research works with leading technology companies in designing effective framework for talking about products, services, and innovation.

NAND leverages its multiple messaging channels to amplify your message and drive engagement.

Content Development

A messaging framework is only as good as its content.

NAND Research works with technology companies across the spectrum to put together the content that best tells your story, whether that’s a webinar, white-paper, podcast, video, or something entirely different

IT Insights & Advisory

The NAND Research IT Advisory Council delivers benefit to technology companies and IT organizations alike:

We help technology companies better understand the needs of IT organizations across industries, while helping enterprise IT organizations navigate a rapidly shifting technology landscape.

View Our Services Brochure

Latest Research

Research Notes

Research Note: Veeam Acquires Object First, Consolidating Its Backup Appliance Strategy

Veeam recently confirmed its acquisition earlier this month of Object First, an immutable backup storage appliance vendor founded by Veeam’s original co-founders Ratmir Timashev and Andrei Baronov in 2022.

The transaction resolves a strategic conflict where Veeam competed directly with Object First’s Ootbi appliance while simultaneously offering its own Veeam Software Appliance for backup storage. The acquisition provides Veeam with purpose-built hardware capabilities to complement its software-first strategy.

Steve McDowell January 31, 2026

Research Note: HPE’s New Networking & Compute (NRF 2026)

At the recent NRF 2026 in New York, HPE expanded its retail-focused infrastructure portfolio with new networking and compute capabilities intended for always-on retail environments. The announcements emphasize tighter integration between edge networking, cloud-native AI operations, and fault-tolerant compute to support transaction continuity, operational visibility, and distributed retail services.

Steve McDowell January 31, 2026

Research Note: CrowdStrike’s Shopping Spree, Acquires SGNL and Seraphic

CrowdStrike announced two strategic acquisitions in January 2026 that extend its Falcon platform into browser runtime security and continuous identity authorization. The company acquired SGNL for $740 million and Seraphic Security for an undisclosed amount, with both transactions expected to close in Q1 FY2027.

Steve McDowell January 26, 2026

Research Note: Dell PowerStore OS v4.3 brings Capacity Expansion and Enterprise Resilience Enhancements

Dell Technologies has released PowerStore OS v4.3, introducing higher-capacity QLC flash drives, expanded replication capabilities, and file system operational improvements.

Steve McDowell January 23, 2026

Research Reports

Research Report: Cisco FlashStack with Nutanix

January 13, 2026

The enterprise infrastructure market is faced with disruption across multiple fronts. Traditional virtualization platforms face unprecedented disruption, while emerging AI-first workloads demand architectures that seamlessly span on-prem, cloud, and edge environments.

It’s against this backdrop that Nutanix, Cisco, and Pure Storage have collaborated to reimagine converged infrastructure with Cisco’s FlashStack with Nutanix.

Research Brief: Oracle Database 26ai Delivers Fully Integrated AI

November 5, 2025

Oracle released its Oracle Database 26ai at its recent AI World event in Las Vegas. The update makes the database an integrated platform that embeds artificial intelligence capabilities across data management, development, and analytics operations.

The platform integrates vector search capabilities with traditional database functions, supports agentic AI workflows through in-database tools and MCP servers, and extends analytics capabilities through Iceberg table format support. Oracle also bundles in advanced AI features, including AI Vector Search, at no additional cost.

Research Brief: Cisco Partner Summit Infrastructure Announcements

November 4, 2025

At its 2025 Partner Summit in San Diego this week, Cisco announced three interconnected infrastructure initiatives to address the operational, connectivity, and edge-computing requirements of AI workloads.

The announcements span network management simplification through AgenticOps workflows, GPU-as-a-Service connectivity via SD-WAN integration with Megaport AI Exchange, and a new converged edge computing platform called Unified Edge.

Research Report: Beyond Legacy Virtualization: Wind River’s Modern Alternative for Enterprise Infrastructure

October 31, 2025

Wind River Cloud Platform emerges as a compelling enterprise-grade alternative that addresses both immediate VMware challenges and long-term infrastructure modernization needs. Built on proven open-source technologies including StarlingX, Kubernetes, and OpenStack, the platform delivers unified management of both virtual machines and containers under a single, highly automated infrastructure solution.

Research Report: Addressing Enterprise AI Data Challenges At Scale with the Dell AI Data Platform

October 31, 2025

This Research Report looks at how the Dell AI Data Platform addresses the challenges of AI-at-Scale with a purpose-built, modular approach that integrates file, block, and object storage into a unified system optimized for AI. Key components include data engines that enable aggregation, in-place querying, and searching across both structured and unstructured data sets, as well as storage engines that provide the necessary performance, scale, and security across on-premises, edge, and cloud environments.

Research Brief: Oracle Autonomous AI Lakehouse

October 29, 2025

Oracle recently announced its Oracle Autonomous AI at its Oracle AI World event in Las Vegas. The new offering combines Oracle’s Autonomous AI Database platform with native Apache Iceberg support. The offering addresses persistent enterprise challenges around data lock-in and platform interoperability by providing standardized access to data across multiple clouds and catalogs.

“Chips” is now the “C” in CES

While the focus of CES 2026 remained on consumer electronics, this year felt different. More expansive, with the semiconductor industry dominating the pre-show with overlapping announcements that reveal diverging strategies for AI workload acceleration, manufacturing sovereignty, and market expansion beyond traditional computing segments.

Steve McDowell January 13, 2026

Building the “Always‑On” Store – HPE’s Practical Approach to Retail at NRF 2026

HPE’s presence at NRF 2026 shows a broader industry shift toward “always‑on” retail

Michael McDowell January 12, 2026

Stop Buying Labels and Start Buying Silicon

Most buyers never ask about it.
Most vendors never volunteer it.
But it’s the only part of the AP that actually matters: the silicon.

Michael McDowell January 11, 2026

NVIDIA at CES: When the Compute Stack Outgrew the Showroom

Jensen used the stage to argue that the world is shifting from CPU‑centric computing to AI‑driven, GPU‑first platforms, and the shift isn’t just for hyperscalers.

Michael McDowell January 6, 2026

Call Notes: Q4 2025 Neocloud Market

Just before the Holiday break, I participated in an advisory session on the current state of the neocloud market, which is continuing to experience significant growth as the demand for AI infrastructure continues unabated. Can it continue?

Here I’m sharing some of the notes I used for that discussion.

Steve McDowell December 30, 2025

Call Notes: Memory & NAND Market Update (Dec 2025)

Just before the Holiday break, I participated in an advisory session on the current state of the memory and NAND market, which is experiencing a marked upturn driven by constrained supply of legacy DRAM products and surging demand from higher-margin products like HBM and DDR5.

Here I’m sharing some of the notes I used for that discussion.

Steve McDowell December 30, 2025

Subscribe to the NAND Newsletter

A roll-up of the week’s industry news with analysis and opinion delivered to your inbox every Monday.

Upcoming Events

Sep 29-Oct 1 Data Center Power, San Antonio

Sep 29-Oct 2 SailPoint Navigate, Austin

Oct 6-9 IBM TechXChange, Orlando

Oct 10-11 Speaking Engagement, Chicago

Oct 13-17 Oracle AI World, Las Vegas

Oct 14-17 Dell Analyst Event, Austin

Oct 15-16 NetApp Insight, Las Vegas

Oct 17-19 Private Client Event, Austin

Oct 20-23 Lenovo Analyst Event, Raleigh

Nov 10-12 Client Analyst Event, San Antonio

Nov 17-19 OpenText World, Nashville

Dec 1-4 AWS re:Invent, Las Vegas

Dec 7-8 Marvell Analyst Event, Santa Clara