Infrastructure News Roundup: January 2025
January isn’t usually a big month for announcements related to enterprise infrastructure, but then this isn’t a normal January. Let’s look at what happened.
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.
Research Note: Marvell Custom HBM for Cloud AI
Marvell recently announced a new custom high-bandwidth memory (HBM) compute architecture that addresses the scaling challenges of XPUs in AI workloads. The new architecture enables higher compute and memory density, reduced power consumption, and lower TCO for custom XPUs.
Extreme Networks Platform ONE: A New Approach to AI-Driven Network Management
Extreme Networks recently announced the launch of Extreme Platform ONE, its comprehensive management platform integrating networking, security, and AI to streamline enterprise infrastructure operations.
Research Note: Enfabrica ACF-S Millennium
First detailed at Hot Chips 2024, Enbrica recently announced that its ACF-S “Millennium” chip, which addresses the limitations of traditional networking hardware for AI and accelerated computing workloads, will be available to customers in calendar Q1 2025.
Research Note: Cohesity & Veritas Complete Merger
Cohesity completed its long-awaited merger with Veritas’ enterprise data protection business. The combined entity, valued at $7 billion, now serves 12,000 customers globally and generates $1.5 billion in ARR.
Research Note: Dell AI Products & Services Updates
Dell Technologies has made significant additions to its AI portfolio with its recent announcements at SC24 and Microsoft Ignite 2024 in November. The announcements span infrastructure, ecosystem partnerships, and professional services, targeting accelerated AI adoption, operational efficiency, and sustainability in enterprise environments.
Understanding AI Data Types: The Foundation of Efficient AI Models
AI Datatypes aren’t just a technical detail—it’s a critical factor that affects performance, accuracy, power efficiency, and even the feasibility of deploying AI models.
Understanding the datatypes used in AI isn’t just for hands-on practitioners, you often see published benchmarks and other performance numbers broken out by datatype (just look at an NVIDIA GPU data sheet). What’s it all mean?
Research Note: AWS Trainium2
Tranium is AWS’s machine learning accelerator, and this week at its re:Invent event in Las Vegas, it announced the second generation, the cleverly named Trainium2, purpose-built to enhance the training of large-scale AI models, including foundation models and large language models.
Quick Take: AWS re:Invent AI Services & Infrastructure Announcement Wrap-Up
AWS has made close to 50 announcements in the first 2 days of re:Invent. This blog takes a look at the most interesting AI services & infrastructure related ones.
Quick Take: AWS re:Invent Day 1
AWS unveiled a range of new features and services, reflecting its continued focus on innovation across generative AI, compute, and storage. These announcements include enhancements to Amazon Bedrock for improved testing and data integration, new capabilities for the generative AI assistant Amazon Q, high-performance storage-optimized EC2 instances, and advanced storage solutions like intelligent tiering and a dedicated data transfer terminal
Research Note: Hammerspace Global Data Platform v5.1 with Tier 0
Hammerspace recently announced the version 5.1 release of its Hammerspace Global Data Platform. The flagship feature of the release its new Tier 0 storage capability, which takes unused local NVMe storage on a GPU server and uses it as part of the global shared filesystem. This provides higher-performance storage for the GPU server than can be delivered from remote storage nodes – ideal for AI and GPU-centric workloads.
Quick Take: Snowflake Acquires Datavolo
Snowflake recently announced its acquisition of Datavolo, a data pipeline management company, to enhance its capabilities in automating data flows across enterprise environments.
Research Note: NVIDIA SC24 Announcements
At the recent Supercomputing 2024 (SC24) conference in Atlanta, NVIDIA announced new hardware and software capabilities to enhance AI and HPC capabilities. This includes the new GB200 NVL4 Superchip, the general available of its H200 NVL PCIe, and several new software capabilities.
Quick Take: NTT Data Acquires Niveus Solutions
NTT Data, a global IT services leader, announced its acquisition of Niveus Solutions, a cloud engineering firm specializing in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services. The deal brings a strategic addition to NTT Data’s arsenal, enhancing its position in the cloud services ecosystem and advancing its partnership with Google Cloud.
IT Infrastructure Round-Up: Emerging Trends in Infrastructure and Connectivity (Nov 2024)
November was a busy month of announcements in infrastructure and connectivity, revealing a convergence of innovation to meet the stringent demands of AI-driven workloads, scalability, and cost efficiency.
Are IT Organizations Ready for the GenAI Revolution? Let’s Ask.
Over the past few months, we’ve seen surveys published by tech companies across the spectrum that show us how gen AI is forcing IT organizations to assess their readiness for its adoption and deployment. The surveys offer a comprehensive view of the industry’s current stance, showing enthusiasm balanced by caution around organizational and infrastructure challenges.
Let’s examine recent surveys from the tech industry itself to see what they say about IT’s readiness to tackle the challenges of generative AI.
Research Note: Minio AIStor Object Storage
MinIO recently introduced AIStor, its new object storage solution designed for AI/ML workloads. AIStor leverages insights from large-scale customer environments, some exceeding 1 EiB of data, to address the unique challenges of managing and scaling data infrastructure for AI applications.
Research Note: Tanium’s New AEM & Cloud Workload Solutions
At its recent Converge 2024 user conference in Orlando, Tanium announced two significant portfolio updates: Tanium Autonomous Endpoint Management (AEM) and Tanium Cloud Workloads.
The new solutions advance endpoint and containerized workload management through real-time insights, automation, and AI-powered functionalities.
SC24: Shaping the Future of IT with High-Performance Computing and AI
Last week’s Supercomputing 2024 (SC24) conference in Atlanta brought together IT leaders, researchers, and industry innovators to unveil advancements in HPC and AI, with even a little quantum computing thrown in.
Insights from the 2024 IBM Quantum Developer Conference
IBM Research last week hosted its inaugural Quantum Developer Conference where the company highlighted significant advancements in quantum computing hardware, software, and integration with classical computing.
NAND Insider Newsletter: Week Ending Nov 17 2024
Every week we send a newsletter to our list of tech industry insiders. Here’s an excerpt of what we shared for the week ending November 17.
Research Note: HPE Alletra Object Storage
At its recent HPE Discover Barcelona event, HPE announced its new Alletra Storage MP X10000, an object storage platform integrated with its HPE GreenLake cloud. This release introduces a multi-protocol, software-defined architecture consolidating block, file, and object storage into a single, cloud-managed system.
Research Brief: Cloudian Tackles AI Storage Complexity with NVIDIA GPUDirect for Object Storage
Cloudian’s new HyperStore with NVIDIA GPUDirect for Object Storage is a significant step forward in high-performance data management. The seamless integration of GPUDirect with HyperStore allows users to benefit from Cloudian’s scalability and ease of use while enabling a dedicated high-performance data path for GPU workloads.
Research Note: Veeam Cloud Data Vault v2
Veeam Software recently announced the release of its Veeam Data Cloud Vault v2, a fully managed, secure cloud storage solution that builds on its predecessor with enhanced durability, affordability, and integration.
What Dynatrace and Datadog Earnings Tell Us About the Observability Market
Recent earnings releases from observability leaders Dynatrace and Datadog provide a revealing look into the current state of the observability market. The two companies show robust demand for AI-driven observability, significant expansion into enterprise accounts, and a continued push toward platform consolidation.
Research Note: Red Hat Acquires Neural Magic
Red Hat announced a definitive agreement to acquire Neural Magic, an AI company specializing in software solutions to optimize generative AI inference workloads. The acquisition supports Red Hat’s strategy of advancing open-source AI technologies deployed across various environments within hybrid cloud infrastructures.
Research Note: Nutanix Enterprise AI
Nutanix recently introduced Nutanix Enterprise AI, its new cloud-native infrastructure platform that streamlines the deployment and operation of AI workloads across various environments, including edge locations, private data centers, and public cloud services like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
Research Note: Pure Storage FlashArray//C20
Pure Storage has expanded its FlashArray//C, announcing its new FlashArray//C20 that provides high-density, capacity-optimized all-flash storage for SMB, ROBO, and workloads that require high availability but not ultra-low latency.
Lightbits Labs Certified on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Lightbit Labs announced that it’s achieved certification on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), setting a new standard in high-performance, cost-effective block storage for enterprises with latency-sensitive, IO-intensive workloads. The certification enables OCI customers to leverage Lightbits’ cloud-native storage solution to manage Kubernetes persistent volumes for performance-driven applications, with a strong focus on security and cost efficiency.
Quick Take: NTT DATA and Google Cloud Expand Strategic Partnership in APAC
NTT DATA recently announced an expanded partnership with Google Cloud to advance the adoption of cloud-based data analytics and generative AI solutions for enterprises in the Asia Pacific region.
The expanded relationship combines NTT DATA’s industry-specific expertise with Google Cloud’s AI and analytics infrastructure to drive sector-specific innovation and efficiency improvements across healthcare, financial services, retail, manufacturing, and public sector verticals.
Research Note: AutoOps for Elastic Cloud
Elastic recently unveiled AutoOps for Elastic Cloud, an advanced management tool from Elastic’s Opster Team that simplifies Elasticsearch cluster administration through automation, real-time insights, and optimization.
Based on Opster technology and integrated directly into the Elastic platform, AutoOps empowers users by reducing the time and expertise needed to maintain optimal Elasticsearch performance. This makes it an attractive solution for organizations reliant on search and analytics capabilities.
The Next Wave of Digital Transformation Won’t Be Built on VMware
It’s been nearly a year since Broadcom completed its acquisition of VMware, time enough to understand the impact of a deal that disrupted and challenged VMware customers and partners alike—challenges that continue even today. While much of the discussion about VMware focuses on Broadcom’s pricing and bundling changes, moves that have led to dramatic cost increases for its customers, there’s much more to the story.
What Earnings Tell Us About the Public Cloud Market
All of the major public cloud providers have released earnings for calendar Q3 2024, allowing us to draw conclusions about the state of the public cloud market and the relative competitiveness of each CSP. The public cloud market remains highly competitive and rapidly evolving, with each provider strategically leveraging AI, infrastructure innovation, and multi-cloud partnerships to drive growth.
Research Note: Pure Storage Cloud for Azure VMware Solution (AVS)
Pure Storage recently launched its new Pure Storage Cloud for Azure VMware Solution (AVS), a fully managed block-storage-as-a-service offering integrated directly into the Azure portal as an Azure Native ISV Service. This solution addresses the storage and scalability requirements of enterprise VMware workloads transitioning to the cloud, specifically those needing high storage capacity relative to compute.
Quick Take: Palantir and L3Harris Collaboration on AI and Defense Innovation
L3Harris Technologies and Palantir Technologies announced they are entering a significant partnership focused on advancing AI and edge computing capabilities for both government and commercial sectors.
Building on an existing collaboration for the U.S. Army’s TITAN ground system, the alliance enhances the deployment of AI and next-generation tech solutions at the edge
Quick Take: Siemens To Acquire Altair Engineering
Siemens AG recently announced its intended acquisition of Altair Engineering, a global leader in computational science, simulation, and AI software, for $10 billion at a share price of $113, a 19% premium over Altair’s closing price on October 21, 2024.
The acquisition aligns with Siemens’ strategy to strengthen its position in industrial software and deepen its portfolio in AI-powered design and simulation capabilities.
Quick Take: AMD Data Center Group Earnings – Q3 2024
AMD this week announced significant revenue and earnings growth in Q3 2024, driven primarily by exceptional performance in the Data Center segment. AMD’s Data Center revenue increased by 122% year-over-year, reaching a record $3.5 billion and marking over half of AMD’s total revenue this quarter. CEO Lisa Su, on the earnings call, attributed this growth to the success of the EPYC CPUs and MI300X GPUs, which experienced strong adoption across cloud, enterprise, and AI applications.
Application Modernization Takes on New Dimension in the Post-VMware World
From nearly the moment it was first announced, Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware sent ripples through the tech industry. The acquisition triggered a wave of concern among enterprises that have long relied on VMware’s ecosystem for their IT infrastructure—concerns that have become an unfortunate reality for many, driven by Broadcom’s changes to pricing, bundling, and channel programs.
Commvault FQ2’25 Earnings: Strong Growth, Cloud Resilience Focus, and Strategic Partnerships
Commvault reported robust Q2 FY2025 earnings, showing strong growth across key metrics and solidifying its cloud and cyber resilience position. The company’s revenue grew 16% YoY to $233 million, its fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, while ARR and free cash flow showed substantial increases. Key strategic initiatives around cloud-first resilience, multi-cloud capabilities, and deepened partnerships underscore Commvault’s commitment to continuous innovation in a dynamic, threat-heavy cloud landscape.
Research Note: WEKA’s New WEKApod Nitro & Extreme
WEKA this week expanded its footprint in the AI data infrastructure space with the release of two new data platform appliances designed to meet diverse AI deployment needs.
The new products, WEKApod Nitro and WEKApod Prime, are WEKA’s latest offerings for high-performance data solutions that support accelerated AI model training, high-throughput workloads, and enterprise AI demands. The new solutions address the rapid growth of generative AI, LLMs, and RAG and fine-tuning pipelines across industries.
Research Note: ServiceNow Workflow Data Fabric
ServiceNow recently announced its new Workflow Data Fabric, an advanced data integration and automation platform that unifies enterprise data across disparate systems, enabling real-time, AI-powered actions and insights.
Research Note: IBM Granite 3.0 Models
IBM recently released Granite 3.0, its third generation of LLMs, designed to balance performance with safety, speed, and cost-efficiency for enterprise use. Its flagship model, Granite 3.0 8B Instruct, is a dense, instruction-tuned LLM optimized for enterprise tasks, trained on 12 trillion tokens across multiple languages and programming languages.
Research Note: Google Cloud Database & Related GenAI Announcements
Google Cloud recently announced a series of significant upgrades to its database solutions, emphasizing its commitment to supporting enterprise generative AI (gen AI) applications. The new capabilities focus on enhancing developer tools, simplifying database management, and modernizing database infrastructure.
OCP Global Summit 2024: Key Announcements
At the recent OCP Global Summit 2024, the organization unveiled several major initiatives highlighting OCP’s commitment to driving innovation and fostering collaboration in the tech ecosystem. This includes expanding its AI Strategic Initiative with contributions from NVIDIA and Meta, new alliances for sustainability and standardization, and the launch of an open chiplet marketplace.
Research Note: Dell AI Portfolio Updates
Dell Technologies made significant strides in AI infrastructure with its Integrated Rack 7000 (IR7000) launch and associated platforms for AI and HPC. The announcements introduce enhancements in computing density, power efficiency, and data management, catering specifically to AI workloads.
Research Note: Cognizant Neuro AI Platform Updates
Cognizant recently announced significant enhancements to its Cognizant Neuro AI platform, providing enterprises with an innovative solution for rapidly discovering, prototyping, and scaling AI use cases to improve decision-making and unlock new revenue streams.
Research Note: SentinelOne Autonomous Cybersecurity Announcements
SentinelOne unveiled several announcements at its recent OneCon 2024 customer event, each of which bring the company closer to delivering on its vision of making the Autonomous Security Operations Center (SOC) a reality.
Raspberry Pi Integrates the Sony Semi Solutions Intelligent Aitrios IMX500 Image Sensor
Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (SSS) and Raspberry Pi Ltd recently announced the release of a co-developed AI Camera designed to accelerate the development of AI solutions for edge processing.
MWC Las Vegas 2024: 5G Needs the Enterprise
Reflecting on the 2023 MWC Las Vegas convention, where AI was the central theme, it’s clear that enterprise 5G has now taken center stage. This shift builds on the momentum created by AI’s integration into various technologies. It underscores the importance of low latency, highly managed private 5G networks in successful AI at the edge deployments.
Research Note: Atlassian New Focus Collaboration Tool
At its recent Team ’24 Europe event, Atlassian announced Focus, a new enterprise strategy and planning tool aimed at helping leadership teams manage and align their strategic goals with execution across the organization. Focus is integrated with Atlassian’s existing tools, especially Jira and Jira Align, offering real-time insights into progress on strategic initiatives.
Research Note: Commvault’s Cloud Rewind & New Cyber Resilience Capabilities
Commvault announced a series of updates at its London Shift customer event. The key updates include the launch of Cloud Rewind and the general availability of Commvault Cloud on AWS, alongside enhanced cyber recovery capabilities.
Quick Take: Cisco’s Investment in CoreWeave and its AI Infrastructure Strategy
Cisco is reportedly on the verge of investing in CoreWeave, one of the hottest neo-cloud providers specializing in AI infrastructure, in a transaction valuing the GPU cloud provider at $23 billion. CoreWeave has rapidly scaled its AI capabilities by utilizing NVIDIA GPUs for data centers, becoming a key player in the AI infrastructure market.
Research Note: Supermicro’s New Datacenter Scale Liquid Cooling
Supermicro recently announced a comprehensive, end-to-end liquid cooling solution for data centers. The solution encompasses critical hardware components such as Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs), cold plates, Coolant Distribution Manifolds (CDMs), cooling towers, and integrated management software.
Research Note: VAST Data’s New AI Updates & Partnerships
VAST made a wide-ranging set of AI-focused announcements that extend it’s already impressive feature set to directly address the needs of enterprise AI. Beyond the new features, VAST also highlighted new strategic relationships and a new user community that help bring VAST technology into the enterprise.
HPE Aruba Central: The Multi-Vendor Network Management Solution You’ve Been Waiting For
HPE exited the multi-vendor network operations business in 2017 by divesting its OpenView platform to Micro Focus (now part of OpenText). However, times have changed, and HPE is back in the multi-vendor game with the latest release of their OpsRamp-integrated network management system, Central.
Research Note: MongoDB 8.0
MongoDB recently announced the general availability of MongoDB 8.0, the latest version of its document database platform. This release introduces substantial performance improvements, enhanced scalability, reduced infrastructure costs, and advanced security features. Key Features of MongoDB 8.0 MongoDB 8.0 targets the growing demand for high-performance, scalable, and secure databases capable of supporting a wide variety […]
AMD MI300 Gains Momentum with New Vultr & Oracle Cloud Wins
The AMD MI300’s advanced architecture, featuring high memory capacity, low power consumption, and solid performance, is finding a home among cloud providers. While Microsoft Azure previously announced MI300-based instances, there are new announcements from specialty GPU cloud provider Vultr and the mainstream CSP Oracle Cloud Infrastructure of new integrations with AMD’s MI300 accelerator.
Quick Take: Veeam Software and Palo Alto Networks Integration
Veeam announced a new integration with Palo Alto Networks that combines Veeam’s data protection and backup solutions with Palo Alto’s advanced cybersecurity platforms, Cortex XSIAM and Cortex XSOAR.
Research Note: Lenovo ThinkSystem V4 & 6th Gen Neptune
Lenovo recently announced significant updates to its enterprise infrastructure portfolio, introducing the new ThinkSystem V4 servers and the latest generation of its Neptune liquid-cooling technology, designed to address the growing demands of HPC and AI workloads.
Research Note: Pure Storage Sept’24 Announcements
At its recent Pure Accelerate customer event in the the UK, Pure Storage announced several innovations and enhancements to its portfolio. The new capabilities focus on real-time enterprise file services, virtualization, and financial flexibility.
Research Note: NetApp’s New AI Vision
At its recent Insight customer event, NetApp shared its vision for how its solutions will evolve to address these challenges. NetApp’s approach combines its existing ONTAP-based products with a new disaggregated architecture and new data manipulation capabilities that promise to deliver the efficiencies demanded by enterprise AI.
Research Note: NetApp New ASA A-Series & FAS Updates
At its recent Insight customer event, NetApp announced its new SAN-optimized ASA A-Series all-flash storage solutions. It also unveiled updates to its popular FAS hybrid-flash systems, the new FAS70 and FAS90 solutions.
Research Note: Commvault’s Clumio Acquisition
Commvault Systems announced its acquisition of Clumio,, a startup specializing in backup solutions for public cloud environments, with a primary focus on AWS and Microsoft 365 environments.
The deal’s financial terms were not disclosed, though Commvault has stated that the acquisition price is “not material” and will be financed using its existing cash reserves.
In Conversation: NetApp’s Intelligent Data Infrastructure
Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to talk with NetApp CMO Gabie Boko and NetApp VP of Product Marketing Jeff Baxter in a wide-ranging conversation about the power of data infrastructure, which extends well beyond simple enterprise storage.
As NetApp Insight, its premier customer event, kicks off this week in Las Vegas, I thought we’d revisit the discussion, as it provides nice context for what the company is expected to announce this week.
Research Note: IBM QisKit Performance & Quality Leadership
IBM recently announced that its Qiskit emerged as the highest-performing SDK in terms of both speed and quality inrecent benchmarking tests to evaluate quantum software development kits. These tests measured how efficiently SDKs could build, manipulate, synthesize, and transpile quantum circuits. Qiskit passed more tests than any other SDK and demonstrated superior performance metrics, outperforming competitors like TKET.
Research Note: Fortinet Enhances Unified SASE Solution
In August 2024, Fortinet announced significant enhancements to its Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution. These updates, including introducing their Sovereign SASE offering and integrating generative AI capabilities, improve flexibility and simplicity in managing hybrid networks.
Is Ampere Computing Up for Sale?
Ampere Computing, the leading vendor of server processors based on the Arm architecture, is reportedly exploring a sale, signaling a strategic pivot amidst increasing competition in the market for alternative server processors.
Research Note: NetApp & AWS Expand Strategic Collaboration Agreement
NetApp recently announced the expansion of its long-standing partnership with Amazon Web Services. The new Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) strengthens the relationship between the two companies, paving the way for enhanced generative AI capabilities and streamlined CloudOps for joint customers.
Research Note: CrowdStrike Fal.Con 2024 Announcements
At its 2024 Fal.Con customer event in Las Vegas, CrowdStrike unveiled several major updates to its AI-native Falcon cybersecurity platform that unify, automate, and enhance its customers’ security and IT operations.
The announcements cover a range of new features in cloud security, SIEM, AI-driven capabilities, and identity protection, all designed to create a cohesive platform for accelerating threat detection, response, and prevention.
Quick Take: IBM Acquires Kubecost for Kubernetes Cost Monitoring & Optimization
IBM announced its acquisition of Kubecost, a leading provider of Kubernetes cost monitoring and optimization software. The move aims to expand IBM’s FinOps capabilities and address the growing need for cloud infrastructure cost management.
Quick Take: Veeam Acquires Alcion
Veeam, the world’s largest provider of enterprise backup and recovery solutions, announced its acquisition of Alcion, a startup focused on protecting Microsoft 365 environments from data loss. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Research Note: IBM Boosts Oracle Consulting with Accelalpha Acquisition & Consulting Expansion
IBM recently announced its intent to acquire Accelalpha, a global provider of Oracle Cloud consulting services, as part of its strategy to expand its Oracle consulting expertise and enhance its broader consulting capabilities. Accelalpha’s specialized knowledge in supply chain, logistics, finance, and enterprise performance management bolsters IBM’s ability to help clients accelerate their digital transformations.
Quick Take: Confluent Acquires WarpStream
Confluent announced the acquisition of WarpStream, a Kafka-compatible streaming solution with a unique architecture. The acquisition adds a new cloud-native, bring-your-own-cloud (BYOC) product to Confluent’s portfolio, complementing its existing offerings: Confluent Cloud, a fully managed, serverless platform, and Confluent Platform, a self-managed software solution.
Research Note: Lenovo & SentinelOne Collaborate on Endpoint Security
Lenovo and SentinelOne announced a multi-year collaboration to integrate AI-powered endpoint security into millions of Lenovo devices. The partnership will embed SentinelOne’s Singularity Platform and Purple AI into Lenovo’s new PC shipments, offering advanced autonomous protection against evolving cyber threats.
Research Note: Lenovo Introduces Range of New AI Services
Lenovo unveiled a new suite of services aimed at accelerating businesses’ AI transformation. These services include GPU resources on demand, AI-driven systems management, and advanced liquid cooling services.
Research Note: Dell and Red Hat Collaboration on APEX/OpenShift
Dell Technologies and Red Hat announced a deepening of their partnership. The companies will focus on the convergence of virtualization, containerization, and AI to simplify enterprise IT operations.
The collaboration integrates Red Hat’s OpenShift container orchestration platform into Dell’s APEX Cloud Platform, enabling virtual machines (VMs) and containerized applications to coexist within the same architecture.
Quick Take: Intel Gaudi 3 on IBM Cloud
IBM and Intel announced a partnership to integrate Intel’s Gaudi 3 AI accelerators into IBM Cloud, which will be available in early 2025. This collaboration aims to enhance the scalability and affordability of enterprise AI, focusing on performance, security, and energy efficiency. IBM Cloud will be the first cloud provider to offer Gaudi 3, which […]