Cloudera and VAST Data Partner to Build an NVIDIA-Powered Enterprise AI Factory
Cloudera and VAST Data have announced a strategic partnership to deliver a unified “AI factory” architecture that combines Cloudera’s containerized data services with the VAST AI Operating System.
The partnership pairs Cloudera’s lakehouse-based data engineering, governance, and AI services with VAST’s Disaggregated Shared Everything storage architecture, built on the NVIDIA AI Data Platform reference design. The joint offering addresses GPU starvation, in which expensive accelerator clusters sit idle because data pipelines cannot feed them fast enough to sustain training and inference workloads.
Qualcomm’s Dragonfly Data Center Portfolio
Qualcomm unveiled Dragonfly, its full-stack data center portfolio focused on AI inference, at its recent 2026 Investor Day. The portfolio brings together the Dragonfly C1000 data center CPU, the Dragonfly AI300 inference accelerator, the company’s new High Bandwidth Compute (HBC) near-memory architecture, a broad connectivity lineup, and a custom silicon practice.
Everpure: Data Intelligence and Data Stream Advance AI-Ready Data-Primacy
Everpure’s Data Stream and Data Intelligence automate AI data pipelines and governance. See how they compare to Dell, HPE, VAST Data, and NetApp.
Qualcomm Acquires Modular for its Hardware-Agnostic AI Software Layer
Qualcomm announced its intent to acquire Modular, an AI infrastructure software company, in a stock transaction valued at approximately $3.9 billion. The deal pairs Qualcomm’s silicon roadmap with Modular’s Mojo programming language and MAX inference engine, a software stack that runs AI models across CPU, GPU, NPU, and custom ASIC architectures without requiring per-accelerator rewrites.
HPE Discover: Agentic Governance, Vera CPU, and Confidential Computing added to AI Factory w/ NVIDIA
Hewlett Packard Enterprise extended its HPE AI Factory with NVIDIA to support production-ready agentic AI deployments at its just-wrapped HPE Discover 2026. The announcements add governance, security, and compute capabilities for organizations moving AI agents into operational production environments.
HPE Discover: Self-Driving Networks and AI Data Center Switching for the Agentic Enterprise
At its recent HPE Discover event in Las Vegas, Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced a broad set of networking updates spanning AI data center switching, autonomous network operations, and unified secure access, extending its “self-driving” networking strategy into general availability across AI factories, data centers, campus, and edge environments.
Huntsman-Olin: The $300 Million Promise
The CIO role is the one to watch next. Whoever gets that seat inherits both transformation programs, both mid-flight ERP decisions, and a 24-month deadline with a nine-figure number attached to it.
Arista Networks’ Next-Generation 1.6 Terabit Portfolio for AI Fabrics
Arista Networks recently announced its new 7060XE7 Series, a portfolio of 1.6 Terabit (1.6T) Ethernet switching platforms designed for rack-scale AI infrastructure. The announcement extends Arista’s Etherlink architecture from 800G to 1.6T and introduces three hardware configurations for air-cooled, liquid-cooled, and high-density 128-port deployments.
Microsoft: Project Solara & the Agentic Operating Plane for the Non-NVIDIA World
At its recent Build 2026 event, Microsoft introduced Project Solara, a chip-to-cloud platform built specifically for devices whose primary interface is an AI agent. Solara runs on the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP), a lightweight operating system built on AOSP that hosts an Agent Shell capable of dynamically loading and tailoring cloud-based agents, paired with […]
Cisco’s Full-Stack Play for Agentic Enterprise AI
At Cisco Live 2026 in Las Vegas, Cisco unveiled Cisco Cloud Control, a unified management plane designed for human operators and AI agents to jointly run and defend enterprise infrastructure. The platform anchors Cisco’s AgenticOps operating model, unifying networking, security, compute, observability, and collaboration under a single login and a shared data layer.
Computex 2026: AI Infrastructure, the PC Wars, and the New Connectivity Arms Race
Computex has historically been a client- and consumer-focused event, but those markets now take a back seat to enterprise infrastructure and the components that define an AI factory. The key messages were all AI, all the time.
The keynotes were entirely semiconductor-first, with talks by three chip CEOs: Jensen Huang of NVIDIA, Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm, Lip-Bu Tan of Intel, and Matt Murphy of Marvell. Each painted a slightly different picture about where the AI buildout is headed.
NVIDIA Is Rewiring the Data Center with Light
NVIDIA is actively working to replace electrons with photons across the entire connectivity stack, from co-packaged optics at the switch level to optical fiber cabling throughout the rack and facility.
IBM & Red Hat: Project Lightwell, Protecting Open Source Software
IBM and Red Hat announced Project Lightwell, a $5 billion initiative to establish a trusted enterprise clearinghouse for open-source software security. The project deploys more than 20,000 engineers, augmented by AI, to identify, triage, validate, and remediate vulnerabilities across open-source supply chains at a scale that exceeds what most enterprises can achieve independently.
Dell Technologies: AI Data Platform and Storage Portfolio for the Agentic Enterprise
At the recent Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas, Dell announced a broad expansion of its AI Data Platform and storage portfolio, centered on the general availability of the Lightning File System (formerly Project Lightning), the introduction of Exascale Storage as a unified 4-in-1 rack architecture, the refreshed ObjectScale X7700 appliance, and enhancements to the Dell AI Data Platform’s orchestration, analytics, and search layers.
Two Conferences, One Consensus on Enterprise AI
IBM Think 2026 and Atlassian Team ’26 both took place last week in different cities, for different audiences, and with different product portfolios on stage. IBM gathered infrastructure architects and enterprise IT executives in Boston, while Atlassian convened developer teams, platform practitioners, and collaboration leaders in Anaheim.
Think 2026: IBM’s AI Operating Model Takes Shape
At its annual Think conference in Boston earlier this month, IBM delivered the most comprehensive expansion to date of its enterprise AI and hybrid cloud portfolio. The announcements center on what IBM calls an AI Operating Model, a four-pillar architecture built around agents, data, automation, and hybrid infrastructure.
NVIDIA MRC Enables Spectrum-X Ethernet for AI-At-Scale, Now at OCP
NVIDIA recently announced that Multipath Reliable Connection (MRC), an RDMA transport protocol developed for and in production on Spectrum-X Ethernet hardware, is now available to the broader industry via the OCP.
Cisco Acquiring Astrix Security to Extend Zero Trust to the Agentic Workforce
Cisco announced its intent to acquire Astrix Security, a Tel Aviv-based company specializing in Non-Human Identity (NHI) security. The acquisition targets the growing, largely underserved segment of enterprise security focused on governance, visibility, and threat detection for non-human identities, including API keys, service accounts, OAuth tokens, and AI agents.
Google Cloud: 8th-Generation TPU Family Splits Training and Inference
At Google Cloud Next 2026, Google unveiled its 8th-generation Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) family, splitting its custom silicon lineup into two purpose-built architectures for the first time.
The TPU 8t targets large-scale model training, emphasizing compute throughput and scale-up bandwidth, while the TPU 8i addresses inference and reasoning workloads, emphasizing memory bandwidth and low-latency communication.
Google Cloud Next ‘26: Storage Infrastructure Advances + the NetApp Partnership
At its recent Next ’26 conference, Google Cloud advanced its storage portfolio across three fronts: high-performance infrastructure for AI training and inference, intelligent metadata capabilities built directly into the storage layer, and expanded ecosystem integrations.
The announcements span Cloud Storage Rapid, Google Cloud Managed Lustre with 10 TB/s throughput, Hyperdisk Exapools, Smart Storage automation, and material expansions to the Google Cloud NetApp Volumes service, including a deeper partnership with NetApp.
IBM’s AI Strategy: Play the Long Game, Not the Headlines
IBM reported 6% revenue growth, expanding margins, strong free cash flow, and software acceleration in its Q1’2026 earnings.
The more consequential signals, however, came from the strategic narrative beneath those figures. IBM is not competing for the most visible positions in AI, but rather building the infrastructure layer that enterprises will ultimately depend on, regardless of their more tactical AI choices.
Google Cloud Next 2026: Enterprise AI Enters Production
Google Cloud Next 2026, held last week in Las Vegas, delivered a clear, consistent message: the experimental phase of enterprise AI is over, and the production phase of autonomous agent deployment has begun. Google made an incredible 260 announcements at the event, with most aligned with the idea that enterprises will increasingly operate through fleets […]
SUSECON 2026: SUSE Shows Off Platform Strategy and Agentic Infrastructure
SUSECON 2026, recently held in Prague, saw SUSE lay out a coherent platform direction, shifting from being primarily a Linux and Kubernetes distribution vendor to a provider of an integrated open infrastructure stack spanning virtualization, edge, and AI-augmented operations.
CrowdStrike RSA 2026 Announcements: Securing Agentic Workflows
CrowdStrike used the RSA Conference 2026 to announce a set of capabilities that directly address the problem of securing agentic workflows, based on the premise that the enterprise endpoint is the correct control plane for AI security governance.
Nutanix .NEXT 2026: Beyond the Hypervisor
Nutanix held its annual .NEXT user conference earlier this month in Chicago drew more than 5,000 attendees and over 100 sponsors. The event came at an inflection point for enterprise infrastructure, as the post-VMware market continues to consolidate, AI workloads move from pilot to production, and hardware supply constraints continue to complicate infrastructure planning.
MEXT: Predictive Memory Software to Control DRAM Costs
MEXT, a Santa Clara-based startup founded just three years ago, recently launched Predictive Memory, a software-only solution that uses AI-driven prediction to extend effective server memory capacity by treating flash storage as a transparent extension of DRAM.
The company claims its product reduces infrastructure costs by 50% and increases usable memory capacity by 2x to 4x without requiring changes to hardware, operating systems, or applications.
MLPerf Inference 6.0: Software Gains & Broadening Competition Shake Things Up
MLCommons released MLPerf Inference v6.0 results, marking what the consortium describes as the most significant update to the benchmark suite to date.
The round introduced five new workloads, including a multimodal vision-language model, a text-to-video generation benchmark, and a new interactive scenario for the DeepSeek-R1 reasoning model.
Everpure: Evergreen//One + Everpure Data Stream for AI Infrastructure (GTC 2026)
Everpure announced two updates to its AI infrastructure platform at GTC 2026: the expansion of Evergreen//One storage-as-a-service to FlashBlade//EXA, and the beta release of Everpure Data Stream, a co-engineered data pipeline solution built on the NVIDIA AI Data Platform reference design.
WEKA: NeuralMesh AIDP & STX Integration (GTC 2026)
At the recent GTC 2026, WEKA announced two major updates that enhance its position at the crossroads of AI storage and inference infrastructure. The company revealed the general availability of NeuralMesh AI Data Platform (AIDP), a ready-to-use appliance-style system based on the NVIDIA AI Data Platform reference design
Nutanix: Full-Stack Agentic AI Platform for Enterprise AI Factories (GTC 2026)
At the recent NVIDIA GTC 2026 event, Nutanix announced Nutanix Agentic AI, a full-stack software solution designed to help enterprises build, operate, and govern AI factories at scale.
The announcement enhances Nutanix’s existing hybrid cloud platform — including its AHV hypervisor, Flow Virtual Networking, Nutanix Kubernetes Platform, and Nutanix Enterprise AI — with features specifically designed for the operational needs of production agentic AI workloads.
HPE: AI Factory & Storage Advancements (GTC 2026)
At NVIDIA GTC 2026, HPE announced a broad expansion of its portfolio, including AI factory infrastructure, supercomputing platforms, and enterprise storage. These announcements collectively strengthen HPE’s role as a comprehensive NVIDIA-aligned infrastructure provider, extending the NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE portfolio with hardware based on the Vera Rubin and Blackwell GPU architectures, new CPU compute options, updated networking, and various software and services integrations.
NetApp: Next-Generation EF-Series Arrays for AI & HPC (GTC 2026)
NetApp announced the new EF50 and EF80 all-flash block storage arrays, the latest generation of its EF-Series, at the recent NVIDIA GTC 2026. The systems replace the previous EF-Series generation with a purpose-built design aimed at AI model training, high-performance computing simulations, and high-throughput transactional databases.
Cisco: Secure AI Factory Expands to the Edge with Agentic Security (GTC 2026)
At NVIDIA GTC 2026, Cisco announced a significant expansion of its Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, broadening its validated AI infrastructure architecture from centralized data centers to enterprise and service provider edge deployments. The announcement includes hardware-accelerated security, updated switching silicon, new Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs), and a formalized multi-agent reference architecture.
Dell Technologies: AI Data Platform with NVIDIA (GTC 2026)
Dell Technologies announced a major expansion of its AI Data Platform at the recent NVIDIA GTC 2026 event. Dell’s AI Data Platform serves as the data foundation layer of its Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA. The announcement highlights three new architectural pillars: Data Orchestration Engine built on Dataloop, GPU-accelerated analytics embedded directly into the data layer, and
two new high-performance storage innovations, Lightning File System and Exascale Storage.
NVIDIA STX & CMX: Infrastructure for AI Context Storage (GTC 2026)
NVIDIA announced its BlueField-4 STX reference architecture at GTC 2026, introducing a modular framework for deploying accelerated storage infrastructure optimized for agentic AI workloads. The architecture addresses a specific technical challenge: as AI systems evolve from single-turn interactions to complex, multi-step agentic workflows with context windows spanning millions of tokens, existing storage hierarchies struggle to efficiently manage the growing KV cache that stores an AI agent’s working memory.
NVIDIA GTC 2026: Infrastructure Announcements
The focus at NVIDIA GTC 2026 was on developing a unified infrastructure model that vendors are now adopting. The industry has effectively reached a stage where NVIDIA sets the architectural standard, while partners compete on how well they implement it in enterprise and service-provider environments.
NVIDIA Just Rewired the AI Factory — And Networking Is Now the Star of the Show (GTC 2026)
Together, these components make a rack behave like a single system instead of a collection of servers held together by hope and bailing wire.
Domino Data Lab Winter Release 2026: The Agentic AI Development Lifecycle
Domino Data Lab recently announced its Winter Release, becoming the first vendor to offer a fully governed, end-to-end platform for operationalizing agentic AI systems. The release features a new Agentic Development Lifecycle (ADLC) experience along with LLM hosting capabilities.
Call Notes: Quarterly Semiconductor Update (March 2026)
Every quarter I participate in a call for buy-side investment analysts focused on the broader datacenter/hyperscaler semiconductor ecosystem. Here, I’m sharing the raw notes I used to drive that call.
NVIDIA Strategic Investments in Optical Interconnects
NVIDIA has committed over $4 billion in direct strategic investments across two optical interconnect companies, Lumentum and Coherent, supplemented by multibillion-dollar purchase agreements and equity participation in the optical startup Ayar Labs
How to Think about VAST Data
If you’ve been tracking the enterprise infrastructure space for the past few years, you’ve probably encountered VAST Data. And if you’re like most IT practitioners I talk to, you’ve probably filed them in the “high-performance storage vendor” folder in your brain.
Call Notes: Compute Hardware & Semiconductor Ecosystem
Every quarter I participate in a call for buy-side investment analysts focused on compute hardware and the broader semiconductor ecosystem. Here, I’m sharing the raw notes from that call.
Research Note: Microsoft Azure Maia 200 Inference Accelerator
Microsoft recently announced its second-generation custom AI accelerator, the Maia 200. The new chip is an inference-optimized alternative to third-party GPUs in its Azure infrastructure. The company says the accelerator delivers 30% better performance per dollar than existing Azure hardware while supporting OpenAI’s GPT-5.2 models and Microsoft’s own synthetic data generation workloads.
Research Note: WD Innovation Day
Western Digital’s February 2026 Innovation Day showed a company fundamentally transformed from its legacy PC-centric storage roots into a critical AI infrastructure provider. The presentations unveiled breakthrough innovations that challenge long-held assumptions about hard drive technology limits.
Explainer: What Does It Mean to “Support Apache Iceberg” in a Storage System
Over the past several years, “Apache Iceberg support” has quietly become table stakes in modern data infrastructure conversations. Storage vendors list it in press releases, lakehouse platforms lead with it and architects assume it.
“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.
Research Note: VAST’s Novel Approach to NVIDIA’s new CMX Inference Context Memory Storage Platform
VAST Data announced support for NVIDIA’s recently unveiled Inference Context Memory Storage (ICMS) Platform, targeting the NVIDIA Rubin GPU architecture. The announcement addresses the challenge of managing KV cache data that exceeds GPU and CPU memory capacity as context windows scale to millions of tokens across multi-turn, agentic AI workflows.
Research Note: Improving Inference with NVIDIA’s ‘CMX’ Inference Context Memory Storage Platform
At NVIDIA Live at CES 2026, NVIDIA introduced its Inference Context Memory Storage (ICMS) platform as part of its Rubin AI infrastructure architecture. NVIDIA’s ICMS addresses KV cache scaling challenges in LLM inference workloads.
The technology targets a specific gap in existing memory hierarchies where GPU high-bandwidth memory proves too limited for growing context requirements while general-purpose network storage introduces latency and power consumption penalties that degrade inference efficiency.
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.
Research Note: Dynatrace & Google Cloud Collaborate on Observability for Agentic AI
Dynatrace and Google Cloud have expanded their collaboration to provide observability capabilities for agentic AI workloads through two primary integrations: a Gemini CLI extension for developer access to observability data within terminal environments, and an A2A protocol integration with Gemini Enterprise for real-time system monitoring.
The Ecosystem Takes Center Stage at AWS re:Invent 2025
AWS re:Invent 2025 has become an industry show, with this year’s event showcasing a partner ecosystem focused on agentic AI integration and unified observability. The conference featured major announcements from enterprise ISVs, security platforms, and enterprise software providers, all positioning their technologies to work seamlessly with AWS’s new AI capabilities.
Research Note: IBM to Acquire Confluent for Real-Time Event Streaming
IBM has entered a definitive agreement to acquire Confluent for $11 billion in cash ($31 per share), adding enterprise-grade Apache Kafka streaming infrastructure to its hybrid cloud and AI portfolio. Confluent brings 6,500 enterprise customers, proven streaming architecture handling real-time data flows across hybrid environments, and capabilities specifically relevant to emerging agentic AI requirements. The […]
Research Note: Marvell to Acquire Silicon Photonics Player Celestial AI
Marvell Technology recently announced a definitive agreement to acquire Celestial AI for $3.25 billion in upfront consideration ($1 billion cash plus $2.25 billion in stock), with potential earnout payments of up to an additional $2.25 billion based on revenue milestones through fiscal 2029.
Research Note: AWS S3 AI-Focused Enhancements
AWS announced several enhancements to its S3 storage platform at its recent re:Invent 2025, strengthening its object storage capabilities for adjacent markets, including vector databases, enterprise file systems, and enterprise data lakes.
The announcements include the general availability of S3 Vectors with substantially increased scale limits, new S3 integration with FSx for NetApp ONTAP file systems, cost-optimization features for S3 Tables, and expanded performance monitoring through S3 Storage Lens.
Research Note: AWS Releases Trainium3, Teases Trainium4
At its recent AWS re:Invent event, AWS moved its custom AI accelerator strategy into a new phase with the general availability of EC2 Trn3 UltraServers based on the Trainium3 chip and the public preview of its next-generation Trainium4.
Research Note: HPE Announcements at Discover Barcelona 2025
At HPE Discover Barcelona 2025, Hewlett Packard Enterprise centered its announcements on three core pillars of enterprise infrastructure: networking for AI workloads, hybrid cloud and virtualization enhancements, and AI infrastructure systems at scale.
Research Note: VAST Data Expands Cloud Presence with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Integrations
This month VAST Data announced integrations with both Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, significantly expanding its hyperconverged approach to AI Storage, what its calls its “AI Operating System,” further into major public cloud environments.
Azure customers will gain access to VAST’s complete data services suite running on Azure infrastructure, while Google Cloud users receive the first fully managed VAST AI OS service. Both integrations emphasize eliminating data migration barriers and supporting agentic AI workloads.
SC25: Beyond Super Computing
Supercomputing 2025 delivered a clear message to enterprise IT leaders: the infrastructure conversation has fundamentally changed. The announcements from SC25 were about architectural transformation.
From rack-scale designs to quantum integration to facility-level engineering, the building blocks of large-scale AI and HPC systems are being reimagined.
Research Note: VAST Data Integrates with Google Cloud & Microsoft Azure
Over the past month, VAST Data has announced partnerships with both Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure to deliver its hyperconverged approach to AI data management (which it calls an “AI Operating System”) as a managed service in public cloud environments.
Research Note: Dell Adds 20+ Features to its AI Factory
Dell Technologies announced more than 20 updates to its AI Factory portfolio ahead of next week’s SC25 event, spanning compute, storage, networking, and cooling infrastructure. The announcements center on three primary themes: expanded support for NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs across multiple server platforms, introduction of AMD MI355X-based systems, and deeper integration of automation tools across the infrastructure stack.
Research Note: VDURA Data Platform v12
VDURA recently announced Version 12 of its VDURA Data Platform (VDP), formerly known as PanFS, introducing three primary architectural enhancements to its parallel file system: an elastic Metadata Engine for distributed metadata processing, system-wide snapshot capabilities, and native support for SMR disk drives.
Quick Take: Qualcomm’s Diversification Strategy is Paying Off
Qualcomm’s fiscal Q4 2025 results tell a story that extends far beyond the smartphone chips that built the company. While the guidance-busting earnings numbers, $11.3 billion in revenue and $3.00 EPS, are impressive, it’s not the full story.
Research Brief: Oracle Database 26ai Delivers Fully Integrated AI
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
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: Addressing Enterprise AI Data Challenges At Scale with the Dell AI Data Platform
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 Note: Qualcomm Introduces AI200 & AI250 for Data Center Inference
Qualcomm Technologies recently announced two data center inference accelerators, the AI200 and AI250, targeting commercial availability in 2026 and 2027, respectively. The products are Qualcomm’s first strategic push into rack-scale AI inference.
Research Brief: Oracle Autonomous AI Lakehouse
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.
Research Note: Red Hat AI 3.0
Red Hat released version 3.0 of its AI platform, introducing production-ready features for distributed inference, expanded hardware support, and foundational components for agentic AI systems.
Key additions include the generally available llm-d project for Kubernetes-native distributed inference, support for IBM Spyre accelerators alongside existing NVIDIA and AMD GPU options, and developer preview features for Llama Stack and MCP integration.
IBM TechXchange 2025: Enterprise AI Comes of Age in Orlando
I’ve just returned from IBM TechXchange 2025 in Orlando, and if there was one overarching message from this year’s event, it was this: the era of AI experimentation is over, and IBM is ready to help enterprises bring it to production environments.I’ve just returned from IBM TechXchange 2025 in Orlando, and if there was one overarching message from this year’s event, it was this: the era of AI experimentation is over, and IBM is ready to help enterprises bring it to production environments.
Research Note: IBM Releases Granite Model for DocLing Document Processing
IBM recently released Granite-Docling-258M, a specialized vision-language model for document conversion that operates at 258 million parameters under an Apache 2.0 license. The new model is a production-ready iteration of the experimental SmolDocling-256M-preview released earlier this year and incorporates architectural improvements and stability enhancements.
Research Note: Cloudera Adds Support for Dell ObjectScale
Cloudera announced the integration of Dell ObjectScale into its AI-in-a-Box offering, positioning the collaboration as a comprehensive Private AI platform for enterprise-scale deployments.
The new integration allows Cloudera’s compute engines to operate directly against Dell’s object storage infrastructure, creating what the vendors characterize as a validated, integrated data platform.
Research Note: MongoDB Application Modernization Platform (AMP)
At its recent MongoDB.local NYC event, MongoDB launched its Application Modernization Platform (AMP), seeing the database vendor’s expansion into full-stack enterprise application transformation services.
The new platform combines AI-powered code transformation tools, proven migration frameworks, and professional services to modernize legacy applications for MongoDB’s Atlas cloud platform.
Research Note: CrowdStrike to Acquire AI Security Firm Pangea
CrowdStrike announced its intent to acquire Pangea Cyber for a reported $260 million, adding specialized AI security capabilities to its expanding agentic security platform.
Pangea targets a critical vulnerability in enterprise AI: protecting AI agents and LLMs from prompt injection attacks and other AI-specific threats.
Research Note: DXC Technology and 7AI Partner on Agentic Security Operations
Announced earlier this month at Black Hat, DXC Technology has partnered with cybersecurity startup 7AI to launch the DXC Agentic Security Operations Center (SOC) for delivering managed security services.
The collaboration integrates 7AI’s autonomous AI agents into DXC’s global security operations workflow, covering alert ingestion, investigation, and remediation processes.
Research Note: Tenable Brings Exposure Management to Enterprise AI
Tenable recently expanded its Tenable One exposure management platform with AI Exposure, a comprehensive solution designed to address generative AI security risks in enterprise environments. Announced at Black Hat USA 2025, the platform addresses the growing visibility gap as organizations rapidly adopt AI tools, such as ChatGPT Enterprise and Microsoft Copilot.
Research Note: Rubrik Safeguards Agentic Workflows with Agent Rewind
Rubrik recently introduced Agent Rewind, a solution targeting the emerging challenge of AI agent error recovery. The new offering, powered by technology from Rubrik’s acquisition of AI infrastructure startup Predibase earlier this year, provides visibility, audit trails, and rollback capabilities for actions taken by autonomous AI agents across enterprise systems.
Research Note: SentinelOne to Acquire Prompt Security
SentinelOne recently announced a definitive agreement to acquire Prompt Security for an estimated $250-300 million, more than 10x the startup’s funding history. The transaction, expected to close by November 2025, will allow SentinelOne to address enterprise AI governance risks through real-time monitoring and control of generative AI tool usage.
Research Note: AWS Open Sources MCP Server for Aparch Spark History Server
AWS recently announced the open-source release of Spark History Server MCP, a specialized implementation of the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This server enables AI agents to directly access and analyze historical execution data from Apache Spark workloads through a standardized, structured interface.
Research Note: AGNTCY Moves to Linux Foundation
AGNTCY delivers foundational infrastructure for the “Internet of Agents”, enabling AI agents from different frameworks, vendors, and deployment environments to discover each other, establish identity, communicate securely, and share runtime observability data.
Broadcom’s Tomahawk Ultra: Challenging Nvidia’s Dominance in AI Networking
The significance of this battle lies in “scale-up” computing – the technique of ensuring closely located chips can communicate at lightning speed.
Research Note: Red Hat OpenShift on Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA
Dell Technologies recently announced that its integrated Red Hat OpenShift with its Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA platform is now generally available to customers. The solution was previewed earlier this year at Dell Tech world. The updated solution combines Dell PowerEdge infrastructure, NVIDIA GPU acceleration, Red Hat container orchestration, and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software into a validated stack.
Open Flash Platform Initiative Aims to Redefine Flash Storage for AI
Six industry participants recently launched the Open Flash Platform (OFP) initiative, backed by six founding members: Hammerspace, the Linux Foundation, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), ScaleFlux, SK hynix, and Xsight Labs.
The initiative purports to address the challenges presented by the next wave of AI-driven data storage, specifically the limitations of power, heat, and data center space.
Research Note: AWS Enhances S3 for Enterprise AI
At its recent AWS Summit in NYC, Amazon Web Services introduced two significant enhancements to its S3 object storage service: S3 Vectors for cost-effective vector data storage and expanded S3 Metadata capabilities for comprehensive object visibility.
Research Note: Enterprise AI Agents Take Center Stage at AWS Summit NYC 2025
AWS recently concluded its New York City Summit with a clear message: the future of enterprise software is agentic AI, and Amazon aims to own the infrastructure that enables it.
Research Note: Oracle Introduces MCP Server for Oracle Database
Oracle this week introduced its new MCP Server for Oracle Database, leveraging Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol to enable direct interaction with its AI assistant on the database platform. The new capability transforms AI-database workflows (from code generation to execution), allowing large language models to connect, query, and analyze Oracle databases while maintaining existing security frameworks.
With MCP Server for Oracle Database, Oracle becomes the first major database vendor to implement MCP, continuing its aggressive approach to quickly bringing MCP capabilities to its database customers.
Research Note: HPE’s Updated AI Factory
At its recent Discover event, HPE announced an expansion of its NVIDIA-based AI Computing portfolio with three distinct AI factory configurations targeting enterprise, service provider, and sovereign deployment scenarios.The offerings center on the upgraded HPE Private Cloud AI platform, which integrates NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs with HPE ProLiant Gen12 servers, custom storage solutions, and orchestration software.
HPE Discover 2025: The AI Evolution Takes Center Stage (and Everywhere Else) Day 1 Wrap Up
Las Vegas, Nevada – Antonio Neri took the stage at HPE Discover 2025’s opening day keynote, captivating a massive audience at the iconic Sphere in Las Vegas. Thousands of excited attendees filled the unique venue, buzzing with anticipation to hear HPE’s vision and groundbreaking announcements for the future of AI, hybrid cloud, and networking. The […]
Research Note: Pure Storage’s New Enterprise Data Cloud
At its recent Pure //Accelerate event, Pure Storage introduced its new Enterprise Data Cloud (EDC) architecture, positioning the concept as a unified data management platform that consolidates storage operations across hybrid environments.
The EDC centers on Pure Fusion, the company’s storage orchestration layer, with new automation capabilities, including workload presets, workflow orchestration, and enhanced security integrations.
Research Brief: WEKA NeuralMesh, a Micro-Services-based AI Data Architecture
WEKA recently announced NeuralMesh, its software-defined, microservices-based storage platform engineered for high-performance, distributed AI workloads. NeuralMesh introduces a dynamic mesh architecture that departs from traditional monolithic or appliance-bound storage systems.
It addresses the requirements of emerging AI applications, including agentic AI, large-scale inference, and token warehouse infrastructure, by delivering consistent microsecond-level latency, fault isolation, and scale-out performance across hybrid environments.
Research Note: AMD Raises its Game at its Advancing AI 2025 Event
AMD announced a comprehensive portfolio of AI infrastructure solutions at its recent Advancing AI 2025 event, positioning itself as a full-stack competitor to NVIDIA.
The announcements include the immediate availability of MI350 Series GPUs with 4x generational performance improvements, the ROCm 7.0 software platform achieving 3.5x gains in inference, and the AMD Developer Cloud for broader ecosystem access.
AMD also previewed its 2026 “Helios” rack solution, which integrates MI400 GPUs, EPYC “Venice” CPUs, and Pensando “Vulcano” NICs.
Research Note: Cisco Introduces AI Canvas
Earlier this week at Cisco Live San Diego 2025, Cisco unveiled AI Canvas, a groundbreaking Generative UI designed to redefine IT operations. This initiative is a core component of Cisco’s broader AgenticOps strategy, aiming to infuse AI agents directly into network management. AI Canvas targets the increasing complexity of modern IT environments, particularly with the […]
Cisco Live Day 1 Recap
San Diego- the sun’s shining, the breeze is cool, and Cisco Live! 2025 just kicked off, bringing all sorts of cool vibes and as expected, a boatload of announcements. But here’s the real talk: Cisco has come to play with their AI powered networking gear.
Research Note: VDURA Data Platform 11.2
Earlier this month, VDURA announced Version 11.2 of its Data Platform, featuring native Kubernetes CSI support, end-to-end encryption, and the VDURACare Premier support package.
The release also includes a technology preview of V-ScaleFlow, a data movement capability that VDURA claims will reduce flash requirements by over 50% through intelligent tiering between QLC flash and high-capacity HDDs.
Quick Take: Dell Tech World 2025
Last week I was back in Las Vegas for Dell Technologies World 2025. The company has a broad portfolio but was telling a single-minded story: Dell has a relentless focus on AI, emphasizing the Dell AI Factory and the shift towards on-premises enterprise AI solutions.
Research Note: Dell Updates its Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA
At its annual Dell Technologies World event in Las Vegas, Dell announced significant updates to its AI Factory with NVIDIA, expanding the platform’s hardware capabilities and introducing new managed services.
The updated platform targets enterprises transitioning from AI experimentation to full-scale implementation, particularly for agentic AI and multi-modal applications.
Key updates include new PowerEdge server configurations supporting up to 256 NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs per rack, enhanced data platform integrations, and comprehensive managed services.
Quick Take: UALink & OCP Join Forces
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.
Research Note: IBM Orchestrate for Enterprise Agentic AI
At IBM Think 2025 in Boston, IBM announced its new watsonx Orchestrate, catching the shift that sees enterprise AI moving beyond simple model deployment toward agent orchestration.
The platform enables organizations to build, deploy, and manage AI agents across enterprise environments with minimal technical expertise required.
Research Note: Palo Alto Networks Prisma AIRS for AI Protection
At RSAC 2025, Palo Alto Networks launched its new Prisma AIRS (AI Security), a comprehensive security platform targeting threats across enterprise AI ecosystems. Building upon their “Secure AI by Design” portfolio introduced last year, Prisma AIRS addresses emerging security challenges posed by the proliferation of AI applications, agents, and models.
Quick Take: Palo Alto Networks to Acquire Protect AI
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.
Research Note: Veeam’s VeeamOn Announcements
At its annual VeeamON 2025 event, Veeam Software announced three significant expansions to its data resilience platform. The updates focus on identity protection, AI integration, and security partnerships.