Research Notes

Research Note: Cisco’s AI-Powered Transformation of the Splunk Portfolio at .conf 2025

Steve McDowell September 15, 2025

At its recent Splunk .conf25 in Boston, Cisco unveiled a comprehensive suite of AI-powered enhancements across its recently acquired Splunk portfolio, showing significant progress in integrating the two companies’ technologies.

The announcements centered on three core themes: agentic AI automation, unified data architectures, and enhanced observability capabilities.

Research Note: Palo Alto Networks SASE 4.0

Steve McDowell September 15, 2025

Palo Alto Networks recently released Prisma SASE 4.0, the company’s AI-driven secure access service edge platform to address modern threat vectors and data security challenges.

The new release focuses on three primary areas: browser-based threat protection, AI-enhanced data security, and unified operations management.

Research Note: Celona AerFlex

Michael McDowell September 11, 2025

AerFlex’s innovative AP-only, cloud-based architecture offers a compelling solution for enterprises seeking to adopt private 5G for Industry 4.0 applications without the complexity of traditional network hardware.

Research Note: Veeam Software Appliance for Veeam Data Platform

Steve McDowell September 4, 2025

IT teams have long faced the trade-off of choosing between hardware appliances that lock them into specific vendors and increase costs, or spending resources hardening and maintaining custom backup infrastructure. Veeam’s new Software Appliance offers a third path by delivering appliance-like simplicity without the hardware constraints.

Research Note: Marvell Solidifies CXL Leadership w/ Ecosystem-Wide Interoperability

Steve McDowell September 2, 2025

The CXL ecosystem is moving quickly from concept to deployment as hyperscalers, OEMs, and chipmakers seek new ways to address the memory bottlenecks that limit AI, cloud, and high-performance computing workloads. In this environment, interoperability is not a checkbox—it is the foundation that determines how quickly new architectures can reach scale.

Research Note: CrowdStrike Acquires Onum for Streaming Data Capabilities

Steve McDowell August 28, 2025

CrowdStrike recently announced its intended acquisition of Onum, a two-year-old startup specializing in real-time telemetry pipeline management, to enhance its Falcon Next-Gen SIEM platform.