Research Notes

Research Note: IBM to Acquire Confluent for Real-Time Event Streaming

Steve McDowell December 11, 2025

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

Research Note: Lenovo’s Expanded Storage and HCI Portfolio for Enterprise Modernization & AI Workloads

Steve McDowell December 11, 2025

Lenovo announced a comprehensive update to its storage and hyperconverged infrastructure portfolio. The announcement includes four new ThinkSystem DS Series all-flash SAN arrays, three ThinkAgile HCI product lines supporting VMware, Nutanix, and Microsoft Azure Local environments, and expanded lifecycle services.

What the 5G‑OT Alliance Summit Revealed About Private 5G

Michael McDowell December 9, 2025

2025 was defined more by adoption than by technical breakthroughs.

Research Note: AWS S3 AI-Focused Enhancements

Steve McDowell December 7, 2025

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

Steve McDowell December 7, 2025

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: VAST Data Integrates with Google Cloud & Microsoft Azure

Steve McDowell November 18, 2025

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.