Research Note: Rubrik Expands Annapurna to GCP

Rubrik Annapurna

At Google Cloud Next 2025, Rubrik announced the expansion of Rubrik Annapurna, its API-driven AI data security and governance platform, to Google Cloud. The announcement sees Rubrik delivering Annapurna as a secure data access layer for AI-driven application development within Google’s Agentspace framework.

Research Note: Anthropic/Databricks Partnership

Deal

Anthropic recently announced a new five-year strategic partnership with Databricks to integrate its Claude language models, including the newly released Claude 3.7 Sonnet, into the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.

The deal, valued at approximately $100 million, will allow Databricks’ enterprise customers to build, deploy, and govern AI agents that operate directly on their proprietary enterprise data. Databricks will offer Claude models natively through its platform across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

Research Note: Enhanced Google Cloud NetApp Volumes

NetApp Logo

At the 2025 Google Cloud Next event, NetApp and Google Cloud announced a significant expansion of capabilities for Google Cloud NetApp Volumes, their jointly developed fully managed file storage offering.

The updates provide enhance performance, scalability, and integration with AI and compliance frameworks, targeting large-scale enterprise workloads

Research Note: OpenText Titanium X in CE 25.2

OpenText

OpenText recently launched Titanium X, part of its Cloud Editions (CE) 25.2 release, its most comprehensive AI-native upgrade across all major product clouds. The release introduces new AI agents, expanded automation capabilities, and integrated cloud security enhancements.

CoreWeave’s Wild Ride Towards IPO

CoreWeave

CoreWeave, the AI-focused cloud provider that’s that was early in catching and riding the generative AI boom, is officially gunning for the big leagues. The NVIDIA-backed company has filed for an IPO, looking to capitalize on the insatiable demand for AI compute.

That’s big news for the AI infrastructure world, where CoreWeave has rapidly positioned itself as a major player, taking on the likes of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.

But before you start picturing ringing bells on Wall Street and champagne toasts, there’s more to the story. A lot more.

Quick Take: CQ4’24 Cloud Earnings

Image of a Cloud

The top three US public cloud providers — Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud — each reported strong but slightly decelerating growth for calendar Q4 2024. The increasing importance of AI workloads, rising capital expenditures, and shifts in customer spending patterns all impacted earnings and guidance for the quarter.

Research Note: Oracle Exadata X11M

Oracle SIgn

Oracle recently launched of its latest Exadata platform, the Oracle Exadata X11M. Purpose-built to optimize the performance of Oracle Database, including Oracle Autonomous Database, X11M is a significant leap forward in speed and efficiency compared to previous generation Exadata systems for cloud, multi-cloud, and customer data centers.

Quick Take: NTT Data Acquires Niveus Solutions

Deal

NTT Data, a global IT services leader, announced its acquisition of Niveus Solutions, a cloud engineering firm specializing in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services. The deal brings a strategic addition to NTT Data’s arsenal, enhancing its position in the cloud services ecosystem and advancing its partnership with Google Cloud.

Quick Take: NTT DATA and Google Cloud Expand Strategic Partnership in APAC

Deal

NTT DATA recently announced an expanded partnership with Google Cloud to advance the adoption of cloud-based data analytics and generative AI solutions for enterprises in the Asia Pacific region.

The expanded relationship combines NTT DATA’s industry-specific expertise with Google Cloud’s AI and analytics infrastructure to drive sector-specific innovation and efficiency improvements across healthcare, financial services, retail, manufacturing, and public sector verticals.

Research Note: Google Cloud Database & Related GenAI Announcements

Google Cloud

Google Cloud recently announced a series of significant upgrades to its database solutions, emphasizing its commitment to supporting enterprise generative AI (gen AI) applications. The new capabilities focus on enhancing developer tools, simplifying database management, and modernizing database infrastructure.

Is Ampere Computing Up for Sale?

Ampere Computing

Ampere Computing, the leading vendor of server processors based on the Arm architecture, is reportedly exploring a sale, signaling a strategic pivot amidst increasing competition in the market for alternative server processors.

Quick Take: Hitachi/Google Cloud AI Partnership

Google Cloud

Hitachi and Google Cloud announced a multi-year partnership to drive enterprise innovation and productivity using generative AI. Hitachi will establish a new business unit that addresses industry challenges with AI technologies like Gemini models and Vertex AI. The partnership also helps expand Hitachi’s Lumada digital business and improve operational efficiencies within the Hitachi Group.

Microsoft Azure Cobalt 100 Arm-based VMs

Microsoft Azure Cobalt 100

At its 2024 Microsoft Build Event this week, Microsoft announced the preview of new Azure Virtual Machines powered by Microsoft’s previously announced in-house-design Arm-based processor, the Cobalt 100

Research Note: Google Trillium TPU

Google Cloud

The Trillium TPU, Google’s sixth-generation TPU, was announced at Google I/O. It promises unprecedented compute performance, memory capacity, and energy efficiency for generative AI training and inference.

Quick Take: Google Cloud Threat Intelligence

Google Threat Intelligence

Google announced its new Google Threat Intelligence at the 2024 RSA Conference in San Francisco. The latest offering addresses longstanding issues in threat intelligence by offering a more comprehensive view and easier operationalization of data.

Sovereign Cloud Explained

Sovereign Cloud

As enterprises increasingly migrate to the cloud, ensuring that data remains secure, private, and within legal jurisdictional boundaries is paramount. Sovereign cloud solutions have emerged as a pivotal technological innovation designed to address these complex requirements.

Google Cloud Transforming Healthcare With AI

Google Cloud

At the recent HIMSS24 event in Orlando, Google Cloud unveiled a set of new solutions designed to enhance interoperability, establish a robust data foundation, and deploy generative AI tools within the healthcare and life sciences sectors, all of which promise to improve patient outcomes.

What Alphabet Earnings Tell Us About Google Cloud

Abstract image of earnings.

Google Cloud showed significant growth during the quarter, driven by the increasing demand for AI and cloud-based solutions. The business is positioned for continued growth, with a focus on infrastructure leadership, AI-driven innovations, and strong customer adoption.

Quick Take: NetApp’s Updates to Google Cloud Offering & GenAI Toolkit Reference

NetApp Logo

NetApp is expanding its collaboration with Google Cloud to enhance data utilization for generative AI and hybrid cloud workloads, introducing its Flex service level for Google Cloud NetApp Volumes.

Additionally, NetApp previewed its GenAI toolkit reference architecture that facilitates retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) using Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform.

Quick Take: Google Axion Arm-based Processor

Google Cloud

At its Google Cloud Next event, Google announced its new in-house designed Axion processor, a series of custom Arm-based CPUs explicitly designed for data center applications. These processors are part of Google’s continued investment in custom silicon to enhance its cloud computing services’ performance and energy efficiency.

Research Note: Google Cloud AI-Enabled Healthcare Announcements

Google Cloud

At the recent HIMSS24 event in Orlando, Google Cloud unveiled a set of new solutions designed to enhance interoperability, establish a robust data foundation, and deploy generative AI tools within the healthcare and life sciences sectors. These solutions promise to improve patient outcomes.

What Q3 Earnings Tell Us about Public Cloud

Cloud Earnings

The recent earnings reports from the top three public cloud providers, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and Google Cloud, shows that the overall public cloud market remains robust and is starting to show signs of increased growth after several quarters of shrinking growth.

Google Cloud Introduces New Vertex AI Capabilities

Google Cloud

Google introduced its Vertex AI machine learning (ML) platform in 2021 to allow its customers to manage the entire ML lifecycle, from model development to deployment. Vertex AI combines data engineering, data science, and ML engineering workflows, enabling teams to collaborate using a common toolset and scale your application. Last week at Google’s Google Cloud […]

The 2023 Enterprise Storage Agenda

2023 is going to be an exciting year in enterprise storage. Principal Analyst Steve McDowell walks us through his predictions for the storage industry over the coming calendar year.