Research Note: ServiceNow Unveils New AI Agent Capabilities
ServiceNow announced the expansion of its agentic AI capabilities by introducing the AI Agent Orchestrator and AI Agent Studio. The new capabilities provide centralized coordination of AI agents within enterprise workflows, integrating with the ServiceNow Platform to improve automation and task execution across IT, HR, customer service, and other business functions.
Research Note: Kioxia’s Open Source AiSAQ ANN Search
Today, Kioxia announced the open-source release of All-in-Storage ANNS with Product Quantization (AiSAQ), an approximate nearest neighbor search (ANNS) technology optimized for SSD-based storage. AiSAQ enables large-scale retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) workloads by offloading vector data from DRAM to SSDs, significantly reducing memory requirements.
NAND Insider Newsletter: January 28, 2025
Every week NAND Research puts out a newsletter for our industry customers. Below is a excerpt from this week’s.
Research Note: Komprise PII Protection Capabilities
Komprise recently introduced new capabilities in its Smart Data Workflow Manager, enhancing its ability to detect and protect personally identifiable information (PII) within unstructured data environments.
The enhanced features are currently in early access and are expected to be generally available by the end of Q1 2025 as part of the Komprise Intelligent Data Management Platform.
Research Note: Cisco AI Defense
Cisco recently introduced its Cisco AI Defense, its new enterprise security solution to address the growing risks associated with AI adoption in multi-cloud and multi-model environments.
Research Note: DeepSeek’s Impact on IT Infrastructure Market
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek recently introduced an AI model, DeepSeek-R1l that the company claims that it matches or surpasses models from industry. The move created significant buzz in the AI industry. Though the claims remain unverified, the potential to democratize AI training and fundamentally alter industry dynamics is clear.
The AI Debate at Davos: Concerns and Controversies Surrounding Stargate
The annual World Economic Forum in Davos is known for sparking high-profile discussions on global challenges, and this year was no exception. Against the backdrop of the recently announced $500 billion Stargate Project — an ambitious AI infrastructure initiative led by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle—prominent figures in artificial intelligence (AI) raised concerns about the future of the technology and its societal implications.
Meta’s AI Ambitions in the Wake of Stargate
As the tech world buzzes about Project Stargate, Meta has quietly, but assertively, announced its own transformative AI initiatives. While the $500 billion Stargate Project promises to build exclusive, centralized AI infrastructure for OpenAI, Meta is charting a different course. With a focus on scalability, accessibility, and open-source innovation, Meta’s AI moves reflect a strategic vision that balances ambition with practicality.
Research Note: The Stargate Project
The Stargate Project, announced at a political event on January 25, 2025, is a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX that will invest up to $500 billion by 2030 to develop AI infrastructure across the United States.
NAND Insider Newsletter: January 21, 2025
Every week NAND Research puts out a newsletter for our industry customers. Below is an excerpt from this week’s.
Research Note: IBM Consulting Acquires Oracle Specialist AST
IBM announced that it intends to acquire Applications Software Technology(AST), a leading global Oracle consultancy. AST specializes in delivering digital transformation solutions via Oracle Cloud Applications, with a focus on the public sector, including local governments and K-12 education.
Research Note: ServiceNow to Acquire Conversation Data Analysis Company Cuein
ServiceNow has entered into an agreement to acquire Cuein, a company specializing in AI-native conversation data analysis and insights. This acquisition bolsters ServiceNow’s strategic focus on Agentic AI—autonomous AI agents capable of processing data, making decisions, and executing tasks across enterprise workflows.
Research Note: Lenovo to Acquire Infinidat, Grow into High-End Storage
In a surprise move, Lenovo has announced its intention to acquire Infinidat, a privately held enterprise storage company specializing in scalable, high-performance, and cyber-resilient storage solutions.
Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. This acquisition marks Lenovo’s strategic entry into the high-end enterprise storage market, complementing its existing portfolio, which primarily focuses on entry and mid-range storage solutions.
The deal is expected to close sometime in 2H calendar 2025.
Quick Take: CoreWeave & IBM Partner on NVIDIA Grace Blackwell Supercomputing
IBM and CoreWeave, a leading AI specialty AI cloud provider, together announced a collaboration to deliver one of the first NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip-enabled AI supercomputers to market.
Research Note: UALink Consortium Expands Board, adds Apple, Alibaba Cloud & Synopsys
The Ultra Accelerator Link Consortium (UALink), an industry organization taking a collaborative approach to advance high-speed interconnect standards for next-generation AI workloads, announced an expansion to its Board of Directors, welcoming Alibaba Cloud, Apple, and Synopsys – joining existing member companies like AMD, AWS, Cisco, Google, HPE, Intel, Meta, and Microsoft.
Research Note: Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Engine
Red Hat announced the general availability of Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Engine, a tailored version of its OpenShift orchestration platform for virtualization workloads.
The new offering utilizes the open-source KVM hypervisor and can run on-premises hardware with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and bare-metal cloud services.
NAND Insider Newsletter: January 12, 2025
Every week NAND Research puts out a newsletter for our industry customers. Below is a excerpt from this week’s.
Research Note: HPE Aruba Introduces Retail-Specific Offerings at NRF
At NRF, HPE showed off advancements to securely connect IoT devices, deliver real-time AI insights at the edge, and provide reliable pop-up and backup connectivity for critical applications like credit card processing.
Quick Take: Datadog Acquires Log Search Provider Quickwit
Datadog announced the acquisition of Quickwit, a cutting-edge provider of search and indexing software for petabyte-scale log datasets. The acquisition should enhance Datadog’s capabilities in observability, security, and data analytics by integrating Quickwit’s cost-efficient, high-performance search technology into its product suite.
Research Note: Oracle Exadata X11M
Oracle recently launched of its latest Exadata platform, the Oracle Exadata X11M. Purpose-built to optimize the performance of Oracle Database, including Oracle Autonomous Database, X11M is a significant leap forward in speed and efficiency compared to previous generation Exadata systems for cloud, multi-cloud, and customer data centers.
CES 2025- Enterprise Tech Was There Too
Oh my, CES 2025 has taken me on one heck of a ride through the tech universe. I am an enterprise IT guy but, I must admit, the non-IT tech at CES had me fully distracted. Automated lawnmowers, high tech indoor garden planters, and my favorite- an ultra-realistic flight simulator. Wowzers- really neat stuff.
NAND Insider Newsletter: January 5, 2025
Every week NAND Research puts out a newsletter for our industry customers. Below is a excerpt from this week’s.
CES 2025- Must See Tech
Can you believe it? The Consumer Electronics Show, aka CES, is just days away. I know, the timing is hard for all of us considering there hasn’t been much time to recover from our New Years festivities. No rest for the weary as we head out to Vegas for the big event.
The show is always full of surprises, so stay tuned next week for lots of announcements to hit the wire. In the meantime, I have a few thoughts to share on what I will be looking for at the show.