Research Notes

Research Note: Broadcom Releases VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0

Steve McDowell June 17, 2025

Broadcom has announced the general availability of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a major release that advances its unified private cloud platform across on-premises, edge, and managed service provider environments.

This release consolidates infrastructure management and developer operations into a single interface while integrating support for AI workloads, modern applications, and advanced cost transparency and security features.

Research Note: AMD Raises its Game at its Advancing AI 2025 Event

Steve McDowell June 14, 2025

AMD announced a comprehensive portfolio of AI infrastructure solutions at its recent Advancing AI 2025 event, positioning itself as a full-stack competitor to NVIDIA.

The announcements include the immediate availability of MI350 Series GPUs with 4x generational performance improvements, the ROCm 7.0 software platform achieving 3.5x gains in inference, and the AMD Developer Cloud for broader ecosystem access.

AMD also previewed its 2026 “Helios” rack solution, which integrates MI400 GPUs, EPYC “Venice” CPUs, and Pensando “Vulcano” NICs.

Research Note: Cisco Introduces AI Canvas

Michael McDowell June 13, 2025

Earlier this week at Cisco Live San Diego 2025, Cisco unveiled AI Canvas, a groundbreaking Generative UI designed to redefine IT operations. This initiative is

Research Note: VDURA Data Platform 11.2

Steve McDowell June 10, 2025

Earlier this month, VDURA announced Version 11.2 of its Data Platform, featuring native Kubernetes CSI support, end-to-end encryption, and the VDURACare Premier support package.

The release also includes a technology preview of V-ScaleFlow, a data movement capability that VDURA claims will reduce flash requirements by over 50% through intelligent tiering between QLC flash and high-capacity HDDs.

Research Note: Snowflake’s Crunchy Data Acquisition

Steve McDowell June 3, 2025

At its annual Snowflake Summit in San Francisco, Snowflake announced its intent to acquire Crunchy Data for approximately $250 million. The deal brings enterprise-grade PostgreSQL capabilities into Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud through a new offering called Snowflake Postgres. This acquisition addresses a critical gap in Snowflake’s platform, while intensifying competition with Databricks for dominance in AI infrastructure.

Research Note: Dell Updates its Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA

Steve McDowell May 20, 2025

At its annual Dell Technologies World event in Las Vegas, Dell announced significant updates to its AI Factory with NVIDIA, expanding the platform’s hardware capabilities and introducing new managed services.

The updated platform targets enterprises transitioning from AI experimentation to full-scale implementation, particularly for agentic AI and multi-modal applications.

Key updates include new PowerEdge server configurations supporting up to 256 NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs per rack, enhanced data platform integrations, and comprehensive managed services.