Research Notes

Google Cloud Next ‘26: Storage Infrastructure Advances + the NetApp Partnership

Steve McDowell April 27, 2026

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.

SUSECON 2026: SUSE Shows Off Platform Strategy and Agentic Infrastructure

Steve McDowell April 24, 2026

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.

MEXT: Predictive Memory Software to Control DRAM Costs

Steve McDowell April 10, 2026

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.

IBM & Arm: Together Extending Arm Architecture into Enterprise Computing

Steve McDowell April 2, 2026

IBM and Arm announced a strategic partnership to support the Arm architecture on IBM’s enterprise computing platforms, IBM Z and LinuxONE. The collaboration aims to address two key enterprise needs: greater workload flexibility and infrastructure capable of handling AI- and data-heavy applications at a mission-critical level.

Everpure: Evergreen//One + Everpure Data Stream for AI Infrastructure (GTC 2026)

Steve McDowell March 31, 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)