Research Notes

Think 2026: IBM’s AI Operating Model Takes Shape

Steve McDowell May 10, 2026

At its annual Think conference in Boston earlier this month, IBM delivered the most comprehensive expansion to date of its enterprise AI and hybrid cloud portfolio. The announcements center on what IBM calls an AI Operating Model, a four-pillar architecture built around agents, data, automation, and hybrid infrastructure.

NVIDIA MRC Enables Spectrum-X Ethernet for AI-At-Scale, Now at OCP

Steve McDowell May 10, 2026

NVIDIA recently announced that Multipath Reliable Connection (MRC), an RDMA transport protocol developed for and in production on Spectrum-X Ethernet hardware, is now available to the broader industry via the OCP.

Research Note: Extreme Networks’ Platform Pivot Accelerates

Michael McDowell May 10, 2026

If the company continues to execute on this direction, it will be competing at the AI-networking architectural level where long‑term winners are defined.

Cisco Acquiring Astrix Security to Extend Zero Trust to the Agentic Workforce

Steve McDowell May 6, 2026

Cisco announced its intent to acquire Astrix Security, a Tel Aviv-based company specializing in Non-Human Identity (NHI) security. The acquisition targets the growing, largely underserved segment of enterprise security focused on governance, visibility, and threat detection for non-human identities, including API keys, service accounts, OAuth tokens, and AI agents.

Palo Alto Networks: Portkey Acquisition Anchors its Agentic Security Stack

Steve McDowell May 4, 2026

Palo Alto Networks recently announced its intent to acquire Portkey, a San Francisco-based AI gateway and control plane company. The deal, expected to close in Palo Alto Networks’ fiscal fourth quarter of 2026, will integrate Portkey’s technology into Prisma AIRS, the company’s agentic AI security platform.

HPE ProLiant: Edge Compute for AI and Mission-Critical Workloads