Research Notes

Cisco Expands Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, adds Supermicro as Partner

Steve McDowell August 30, 2026

Cisco has added Supermicro as a rack-scale compute partner to Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, the joint infrastructure framework the two companies introduced in March 2025.

The expansion brings Supermicro’s liquid- and air-cooled dense GPU systems into the program alongside Cisco’s Silicon One and NVIDIA Spectrum-X-based networking, targeting deployments on the NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 and HGX Rubin NVL8 platforms.

Nutanix Enterprise AI 2.8: Governance and Cost Controls for Production Agentic AI

Steve McDowell August 30, 2026

Nutanix announced the general availability of Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI) 2.8, the latest release of its software platform for deploying and governing LLMs and AI agents across hybrid cloud environments.

OpenAI’s Jalapeño Inference Accelerator

Steve McDowell August 26, 2026

At the recent Hot Chips 2026, OpenAI presented the full architecture and the first published benchmarks for Jalapeño, its inaugural custom AI accelerator. OpenAI announced the chip’s name and confirmed Broadcom as its silicon partner in June 2026, following a strategic collaboration the two companies announced in 2025 to deploy up to 10 gigawatts of OpenAI-designed accelerators.

IBM Brings Arm to the Mainframe: Dual-Architecture Z and LinuxONE Processor with Native Arm Support

Steve McDowell August 24, 2026

At Hot Chips 2026, IBM disclosed the next-generation processor for its Z and LinuxONE systems, the first commercial chip designed to execute both IBM’s z/Architecture and Arm instruction sets natively on the same physical cores.

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.