Research Notes

NetApp Acquires JetStream, Strengthens VMware Cyber Resilience

Steve McDowell August 24, 2026

NetApp recently announced the acquisition of JetStream Software, a San Jose-based cyber resilience vendor. JetStream builds disaster recovery and workload migration technology for VMware environments. NetApp plans to integrate that technology into its existing data protection portfolio alongside SnapMirror, its long-standing replication engine.

High Bandwidth Flash: Bridging the Gap Between Expensive HBM & Flash Memory

Steve McDowell August 23, 2026

At the recent FMS 2026, SK hynix and SanDisk announced the first open technical specification for High Bandwidth Flash (HBF), formalizing a new memory category that sits between high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and solid-state drives.

Nutanix: Open-Source MCP Server Brings Governed AI Agent Automation to Cloud Platform

Steve McDowell August 23, 2026

Nutanix recently released an open-source MCP server for the Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP). The server sits between AI coding assistants and agent frameworks, including GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor, and the Nutanix Prism Central management plane, translating natural-language requests into calls to the Prism v4 REST API. It is now available as a free download.

IBM’s Modular Cryogenic Architecture: Scaling Toward Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing

Steve McDowell August 20, 2026

IBM has connected two modular cryogenic cells within a single cooled environment at its Poughkeepsie, New York, facility and cooled the combined system to below 15 millikelvin, more than 100 times colder than deep space. The demonstration replaces the cylindrical dilution-refrigerator enclosures used in IBM Quantum System One with box-shaped aluminum cells that sit side by side and link via short, shielded interconnect tunnels.

Modular ModCon 2026: Impact on Qualcomm and the Broader AI Accelerator Market

Steve McDowell August 19, 2026

Modular held its ModCon 2026 developer conference in San Francisco this week, its first developer conference since Qualcomm completed its acquisition of the company earlier this summer.

The event was both a coming-out party for the newly combined organization and an early proof point for Qualcomm’s bet on buying Modular, namely that ceding control of a piece of its AI software stack to the open-source community is the fastest way to challenge NVIDIA’s CUDA ecosystem.

FMS 2026: AI Moving Boundaries Between Memory & Storage