Blog

Quick Take: UALink & OCP Join Forces

Steve McDowell May 6, 2025

The Open Compute Project (OCP) Foundation and the Ultra Accelerator Link (UALink) Consortium have announced a strategic collaboration to standardize and deploy high-performance, open scale-up interconnects for next-generation AI and HPC clusters.

Quick Take: Palo Alto Networks to Acquire Protect AI

Steve McDowell April 29, 2025

Today, Palo Alto Networks announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Protect AI, which secures AI and ML applications. The deal is part of Palo Alto Networks’ broader strategy to expand its cybersecurity portfolio into AI risk management.

Quick Take: Databricks Acquires Fennel

Steve McDowell April 18, 2025

Databricks announced the acquisition of Fennel, a specialized platform focused on feature engineering for machine learning applications. This acquisition bolsters Databricks’ capabilities in feature engineering, especially for real-time and streaming data applications.

OFC 2025: Optical Interconnects Take Center Stage in the AI-First Data Center

Steve McDowell April 14, 2025

AI is reshaping the data center, bringing networking along for the ride. It’s clear that optical networking is rapidly moving from a back-end concern to a front-line enabler of next-generation infrastructure.

AI workloads, with their massive datasets, distributed training pipelines, and high-performance compute requirements, demand interconnect solutions that combine extreme bandwidth with low power consumption and low latency. At last month’s OFC 2025 event in San Francisco, this shift was unmistakable.

Key Takeaways: Microsoft FabCon 2025

Steve McDowell April 14, 2025

At Microsoft’s second annual Fabric Community Conference (FabCon) 2025, held earlier this month in Las Vegas, the company unveiled several significant announcements that together enhance its unified data platform. The updates to Fabric focus on improving data security, AI integration, and streamlined data management.

Dryad Networks: Using LoRaWAN to Protect Forests and Promote Sustainability

Michael McDowell April 12, 2025

Dryad Networks is making waves in the growing realm of environmental technology with its innovative use of LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network). Self-described as an “impact for profit” company, Dryad is on a mission to deploy ultra-early fire detection and environmental monitoring systems into remote, densely forested regions throughout the world.