Research Feed: Steve McDowell
Everpure ActiveCluster for File
Everpure (formerly Pure Storage) recently announced ActiveCluster for file, extending its synchronous replication and continuous availability capabilities from block storage to file workloads. The company sees this capability as a foundational component of its Enterprise Data Cloud strategy, with general availability planned for Q2 2026.
IBM Quantum-Centric Supercomputing Reference Architecture
IBM has announced the industry’s first published reference architecture for quantum-centric supercomputing (QCSC), offering a technical blueprint for combining quantum processing units (QPUs) with traditional HPC infrastructure.
The framework focuses on computational problems that exceed traditional computing capabilities, particularly in molecular simulations and quantum chemistry calculations, where quantum mechanics governs system behavior.
Qualcomm Wi‑Fi 8 MWC 2026: Architecting the “Deterministic” Generation
Qualcomm’s MWC 2026 announcements highlight a pivot toward deterministic performance in dense, interference‑heavy environments.
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.
HPE Connectivity and Compute Announcements (MWC 2026)
At MWC 2026, Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced a significant expansion of its service provider portfolio, its broadest set of announcements following its acquisition last year of Juniper Networks.
The announcements focus on three primary pillars: ultra-high-density routing for AI backbones, modular compute for the telecommunications edge, and an integrated cloud operations stack. HPE is positioning these releases to address the “bursty” and high-bandwidth nature of AI training and inference workloads that are increasingly distributed across regional data centers.
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
Memory & Flash Crisis Update (March 2026)
The global memory market entered 2026 in a state of structural supply constraint. AI infrastructure demand has reallocated semiconductor manufacturing capacity toward HBM for GPU accelerators, creating scarcity in conventional DRAM and NAND flash products.
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.
Everpure: Pure Storage’s Rebrand & Evolution to Data Management Platform
Pure Storage has rebranded as Everpure, reflecting a multi-year evolution from storage management into broader data management, and is also acquiring 1touch: Executive Summary Pure
SUSE Acquires Losant: Extending the Open Edge Stack into Industrial IoT
SUSE announced the acquisition of Losant, a Cincinnati-based industrial IoT (IIoT) platform. The acquisition marks a material expansion for SUSE, moving the company from being primarily an edge infrastructure provider (built around SUSE Linux Micro and K3s) to the application and orchestration layer, where operational data from industrial devices is aggregated, visualized, and acted on.
Dell Expands Private Cloud Portfolio with Nutanix AHV Support
Dell Technologies recently announced the expansion of its Dell Private Cloud offering to support Nutanix AHV as a third hypervisor option, complementing existing support for VMware vSphere and Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.