Moor Insights & Strategy Weekly Update Ending February 23, 2024

By Patrick Moorhead - February 25, 2024

We hope that you had a great few weeks!

Last week, Anshel attended Intel IFS Direct in San Jose.

Next week, Will and I will attend Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (Anshel will attend virtually). Melody will be attending the RingCentral Analyst Summit and 8X8 Industry Analyst Summit.

Our MI&S team published 31 deliverables:

5 Forbes Insight columns
11 MI&S Research Notes
4 MI&S blogs
11 podcasts 
0 research papers

Over the last three weeks, the press quoted us with 25 citations. They wanted to hear about AMD & NVIDIA, Apple, Arm, Cisco, Cohesity & Veritas, Google, Infoblox, Intel, Matter, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, and 5G.

MIS Quick Insights:

A.I./Machine Learning (Paul Smith-Goodson)

AI tools like Sora will continue to drive demand for GPU compute from companies like NVIDIA, and there is no sight into the shortage, even with competitors like AMD getting heavily into the AI accelerator game.
OpenAI just announced Sora, an incredible text-to-video model that bridges language understanding and visual representation. Sora is a diffusion model that generates entire videos simultaneously or by extending generated videos to make them longer. Like GPT models, Sora uses a transformer architecture for good scaling performance.
- Sora can generate videos up to a minute long while maintaining visual quality and adhering to user prompts. It creates complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate subject and background details. The model has a fantastic ability to understand language. It interprets prompts accurately and generates detailed characters.
- OpenAI is sharing research on the model to obtain external feedback and provide transparency. OpenAI believes external resources will help develop and preview its capabilities. Sora can understand and simulate the physical world, which is good for creative professionals and red teamers.
AI – Many people are concerned about the integrity of upcoming elections. AI only adds to the concerns, especially issues such as deep fakes. Twenty tech companies, including Microsoft and Google, have pledged to prevent AI from affecting elections. It is recognized that AI could negatively affect election results with applications that create deceptive election content, such as videos and audio that can imitate anyone’s voice. The list of signatories includes companies such as Adobe, Amazon, IBM, and OpenAI.
It is not surprising that Mark Zuckerberg has a newly stated goal of achieving AGI. He recently had an exclusive interview with The Verge explaining his rationale. However, that isn’t a unique goal. OpenAI has had the same vision for a long time. What’s especially interesting to me is that Zuckerberg wants to leverage the emergent behavior produced by including coding into the model because it enhances an LLM’s logical capabilities. Playing with emergent behaviors in AGI could also create problems because it is untested. There are good emergent behaviors and very bad ones, too.
- It is also interesting that Meta is considering AGI as an open-source project. I haven’t heard of a timeline yet, but I’ll watch this project closely.
Google is rebranding its chatbot from Bard AI chatbot to Gemini. The rebranding coincides with the launch of its new mobile app and a subscription plan. Google believes this will enhance user experience. The new plan will provide access to Gemini Advanced and the mobile app for $20 a month, which includes Ultra 1.0 and 2TB of cloud storage.
- According to Google, the best model is Gemini Advanced, called Ultra 1.0. This model excels in complex tasks like coding, logical reasoning, and creative collaboration. The model allows users to maintain longer and context-aware interactions. It also provides personal tutoring.

AR/VR/XR (Anshel Sag)

TikTok finally launched on Apple’s Vision Pro headset, being the first major social platform to launch on Apple’s new VisionOS platform. I believe that this early investment from ByteDance will pay off over time as their app will be far more advanced and mature when Apple launches its next-generation headset, while others like Snap, Meta, and X will be behind the curve and likely have many bugs to work out. TikTok won’t make much money with this version of their app, but this is a clear intention to have thought leadership and invest in the future.
Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Bosworth of Meta responded to Apple’s Vision Pro launch with video reviews of their own, claiming that the Quest 3 was a better headset. I think this is an exciting communications strategy, but I don’t believe there are many close comparisons in my experience. Meta’s platform is far more mature and rich in content and experiences, but Apple’s hardware is superior. The basic interactions are better, especially with eye-tracking, which I said was missing from Meta’s Quest 3, and I even said they would regret that decision.
The Vision Pro is an excellent piece of hardware, but the biggest areas for improvement are still app discoverability and a nearly complete lack of social applications. I cover this in my review, which is on Forbes.
Vision Pro continues to capture the minds of pop culture, but people need to understand that it isn’t an AR device meant to be used outdoors or in public. That’s the next generation with see-through optics.

Carrier/Wireless (Will Townsend)

AT&T and FirstNet authority recently announced a continued investment in its network that is purpose-built for first responders. Over the next decade, $8 billion will be earmarked for new mobile core infrastructure and another 1,000 cell sites to expand coverage and improve resiliency. It is a significant investment and undertaking that should pay dividends given 5G’s advantages with lower latency, improved security, and massive device support over 4G LTE.
T-Mobile for Business recently partnered with Cisco to deliver a compelling business connectivity solution for mid-market-sized companies that leverages the power and flexibility of 5G fixed wireless access and Meraki cloud-managed hardware and software. It’s a leap forward for the mobile network operator in its ability to compete with AT&T and Verizon for business service revenue.

CRM (Melody Brue)

HubSpot will introduce a new pricing model on March 5, 2024. New customers will pay up to 5% more, while existing customers will maintain current prices until their next renewal. HubSpot is removing seat minimums for Sales Hub and Service Hub, offering view-only, core, and specialized seats to bridge the pricing gap — and feedback that the jump for consumers was too steep — between starter and pro offerings. HubSpot AI features will be accessible across all tiers without additional cost. Despite macroeconomic challenges, HubSpot is focused on scalability and matching monetization to customer value. HubSpot’s focus on value delivery has resulted in a 24% YoY revenue increase for the last quarter. For full-year 2023, total revenues were $2.17 billion, up 25% from $1.7 billion in 2022. Hubspot’s growth trend is noteworthy since Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP have seen CRM growth slow down.
ServiceNow is going after more share of the CRM market. The workflow-management software company reported strong Q4 and fiscal year 2023 earnings last week, surpassing top- and bottom-line growth expectations. AI integrations into core products contributed to this success, leading to an optimistic outlook for 2024.
ServiceNow aims to take more share of the competitive CRM market, leveraging its strengths in execution, consistent innovation, and robust sales momentum. The company will face challenges from CRM giants like Salesforce, Oracle, and Microsoft, as well as smaller players such as Zoho and FreshWorks. ServiceNow’s focus on unified data models and GAI-driven data digestion solutions positions it favorably for success in this dynamic industry.

Datacenter:

Networking– (Will Townsend)

Cisco reported earnings for its fiscal 2Q and a 12% decline in networking revenue year over year, which has slowed its order growth. However, observability remains a bright spot for the company, as evidenced by double-digit growth for the same period. Cisco’s 2Q performance in security could improve relative to the overall market. Still, I remain bullish that it is on the right track with a re-tooled security strategy and likely approval by regulators of its Splunk acquisition later this year.
Cisco Live EMEA 2024 demonstrated the company’s momentum in building and delivering compelling observability, networking, and security solutions. That said, Cisco can’t do it alone, and it’s wise that the company is continuing to build upon its
partnership with NVIDIA to support new AI workloads.
I also like Cisco’s continued focus on channel partner enablement across its entire portfolio, given that the channel is the company’s primary route to market. Channel partners can lead with a handful of competent infrastructure solution providers. By making it easy to deploy new modules and leverage validated designs, Cisco is reducing sales friction and creating stickiness with large direct marketing resellers, smaller value-added resellers, system integrators, and communications and security service providers

Compute/Storage/Cloud (Matt Kimball)

(CLOUD): I think the confusion and FUD around VMware products and channel challenges are ending. This week, the team took a big step forward in clarifying its approach to products, licensing, and the channel through briefings. While I don’t expect competitors to stop attempting to exploit the changes that VMware is implementing, channel partners and customers finally have a clear sense of the product strategy and channel program.
- It is easy to look at business and market transformations such as VMware and critique the organization without fully appreciating what the transformation entails. One hundred sixty-eight products with upwards of 10,000 SKUs reduced to two products. Two SKUs. Two products that will subsume the functionality of the entire VMware IP portfolio. I don’t know of a technology company that has undergone such a radical transformation.
- Six months from now, pundits and analysts will pick apart the latest earth-shattering acquisition. And all of the VMware dust will be in the rearview mirror.
(Si): Who is ready for the Inference wave? With so much focus on training over the last few years, enterprise organizations are starting to understand that those well-trained models can’t add much value without inferencing. As these IT organizations attempt to repurpose costly infrastructure for inferencing purposes, they quickly learn that this equipment is neither performance nor cost-optimized. Purpose-built silicon that can deliver extremely low latency inference at a low power budget is required to deliver this workload everywhere. This is why a company like Untether AI is poised for a breakout year in 2024 (and beyond).
(Si): While we have all watched AMD establish performance leadership and unprecedented gains in the datacenter with its EPYC CPU, the company hit a new milestone in the last quarter. In 4Q 2023, the company saw EPYC account for over 23% of datacenter CPU sales – a nearly 6% sequential jump. The company’s momentum in the enterprise datacenter is, without doubt, a contributing factor to this strong growth.
- I am curious to see these numbers at the end of 2024, as both AMD and Intel will launch new silicon in the market. Silicon is more evenly matched from a performance standpoint. I’m also curious to see how the CSPs’ further investment in homegrown silicon design will impact overall revenues.

Data Security (Robert Kramer)

With concerns about your organization’s security, the objective is to protect data from intrusions.
I want to note a few emerging security threats and landscapes that are trending:
- Sophisticated cyberattacks with new techniques, tools, sponsorships, and attack zones.
- Diverse attack vector combinations – malware, ransomware, DDoS.
- Diversification of targets – all sizes of businesses and users are targets.
- Nation-state-sponsored hacking groups – considered cyber-warfare.
- IoT digital threat DDoS assaults on devices.
- Supply chain attacks on products and services.
- Leveraging AI and ML automates attacks but can be used for AI-powered security for threat detection to guard against cyber attacks.
- Automotive cyber threats are exploiting vehicle technologies, i.e., Bluetooth wifi.
- Mobile devices – The need for smartphone security is now on the rise.
Some emerging security trends to enhance data protection:
- Strict regulatory and compliance policies to overcome new threats/attacks.
- Stronger resilience strategies and procedures.
- Improved response detection/mitigation programs.
- Extensive communication – global organizations/government agencies/internal business awareness.
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) to proactively add additional protection.
- Identity and access management (IAM) allows organizations to protect sensitive data.
- Penetration testing and vulnerability assessment tools to help identify system/application weaknesses.
- Advanced cloud security with advanced data protection and observability solutions.
- Adopt Zero Trust Security for continuous verification.
- Biometric authentication for facial recognition and fingerprint scanning.

ESG (Melody Brue)

Microsoft has enhanced sustainability efforts by introducing new data and AI solutions in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. Sustainability data solutions in Microsoft Fabric (currently in preview) are designed to help organizations expedite their time to insights and sustainability advancements by offering an out-of-the-box ESG data model, connectors, and reporting. Copilot and intelligent insights in Microsoft Sustainability Manager (also in preview) should allow for faster analysis, reporting, and decision-making. The ESG value chain solution, which is generally available, facilitates collaboration with suppliers to drive emissions reductions. Companies and investors are increasingly motivated to assess the consequences of Scope 3 emissions. Incorporating Scope 3 data into supply chain planning, portfolio analysis, and investment decisions is frequently hindered by the intricate nature of Scope 3 accounting. Complexity is often good for business. Microsoft’s data and AI solutions for sustainability should help organizations move “from pledges to progress” while boosting the usage of Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.

Enterprise Data (Robert Kramer)

Informatica 4Q2023 and full-year 2023 financial results.
- Cloud Subscription ARR in the fourth quarter and full-year 2023 increased 37% year-over-year to $617 million–Subscription ARR in the fourth quarter and full-year 2023 increased 14% year-over-year to $1.13 billion
- Total ARR in the fourth quarter and full year 2023 increased 7% year-over-year to $1.63 billion
- GAAP Total Revenues in the fourth quarter of 2023 increased 12% year-over-year to $445 million, and in the full-year 2023 increased 6% year-over-year to $1.60 billion
With data management at the forefront, Informatica’s technology has had a lot of value for its clients. With its extensive ecosystem of partners, Informatica brings many applications and tools for organizations to manage data.
See a recent article I did on Informatica. https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2023/10/10/informatica-embraces-ai-to-help-companies-manage-their-data/?sh=6732ddb2185c
Cohesity has agreed to acquire Veritas’ data protection operations, marking a significant transformation in the data security industry.
I spoke with Cohesity’s CEO, Sanjay Poonen; I asked him to outline the practical benefits the deal will have for existing and future customers. Poonen said, “By merging Cohesity and Veritas, the resulting entity will emphasize product innovation and a strong commitment to customer obsession….” The combination also leverages the knowledge of a broad user base across different global industries.
Interestingly, the global expenditure on security and risk management technology will exceed $200 billion this year, a 14.3% increase from 2023. This transaction represents a dynamic shift for the industry that we believe will likely drive innovation. The hope is that it will also provide customers with the advanced technologies they need for the unending fight against cybercrime.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2024/02/09/cohesity-and-veritas-join-forces-to-protect-critical-data/?sh=7df2ef0e3c95

ERP/SCM (Robert Kramer)

SAP Rise focuses on migrations to modernize ERP systems on-premises to the cloud. This is a great initiative, although it can bring challenges for these transformations. I recommend change management to control failures, budget, and scope creep. For change management to be effective, it is essential to have strong leadership, establish clear objectives and workflows, ensure targeted communications, emphasize continuous training, maintain data quality, manage customizations and integrations carefully, and adopt an agile approach.
Look for my upcoming article on ERP and SCM Change Management.
https://www.sap.com/products/erp/rise.html#migration
Oracle Cloud SCM has updates, releasing some new features geared toward logistics.
These supply chain management enhancements come at a volatile time and an unpredictable global environment. These improvements are assets that help adapt to the many supply chain disruptions.
Some new features are part of the transportation and trade management modules using Oracle Cloud Analytics and Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence, navigating regulatory compliance with a new trade incentive program, improving logistics network modeling, and updating mobile capabilities.
https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/oracle-introduces-new-supply-chain-logistics-capabilities-2024-02-13/
In the first part of my Forbes article, I explored how ERP systems. In part two, I provide my insights into supply chain management (SCM) as I explore what 2024 has in store for this industry. I’ll review trends, challenges, and SCM systems from many vendors.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2024/02/06/erp-and-scm—what-to-expect-in-2024-part-2/?sh=101e233f5ed9
SAP uses ERP for sports in its Sports One product, a cloud-based platform that enhances its sports data capabilities. It now includes new features for analytics in scouting, training, basketball, team management, and player availability, among others. The platform, which already supports monitoring player performance, fitness, and health, can be applied to soccer, ice hockey, basketball, handball, and rugby.
https://www.sap.com/products/technology-platform/sports-one.html#overview

Financial Tech (Melody Brue)

Qualcomm announced a collaboration with J.P. Morgan to design an in-vehicle wallet that streamlines the payment process and simplifies security complexities. The development involves a unified biometric sign-on for convenient payments related to in-vehicle and external services such as premium navigation, streaming content, EV charging, parking, and drive-thru meals. The companies are using Qualcomm’s identity token management platform to develop interfaces for automakers to integrate and personalize in-vehicle wallets.
Visa announced new payment capabilities for its Visa Commercial Pay, a suite of B2B payment tools targeted at corporations. Visa Commercial Pay lets users add virtual cards to employees’ digital wallets, such as Apple Pay or Google Pay. The solution gives companies more granular control over employee spending. Admins can set spending limits and designate specific approved merchants. Visa is focused on the digital wallet capabilities to a share of the growing virtual card spend. Research suggests that the global virtual card spend will increase more than 350% (from $3.1 trillion in 2023) in the next five years.
Affirm Holdings (AFRM), a consumer financing firm, posted a smaller-than-expected loss in Q2, with revenues of $591 million, surpassing Wall Street estimates of $521 million. The company reported a loss of 54 cents per share, beating analyst projections of 72 cents per share. Despite favorable guidance and positive financial metrics, AFRM stock fell over 13% to $42.74, possibly due to profit-taking after a significant prior increase in stock value.

HCM (Melody Brue)

IIoT and IoT (Bill Curtis)

On February 14, an erroneous system message appeared on Microsoft’s Azure console, stating that “Azure IoT Central will be depreciated on March 31, 2027.” In a February 16 IoT blog post, Microsoft wrote, “The message is not accurate and was presented in error.” The company emphasized that all such product retirements follow Azure’s standard service notification process, including a 3-year advance notification period. Azure customers have plenty of time to react, regardless of the future of Azure IoT Central, so there’s no immediate business impact. However, this incident and the recent termination of other high-profile IoT services such as Google IoT Core, IBM Watson IoT Platform service, and Arm’s Pelion unit remind us that services like these must evolve rapidly or face extinction as IoT computing environments converge with mainstream enterprise systems.
BitLocker, Microsoft’s hard drive encryption technology for Windows, has several known vulnerabilities. For instance, a hacker can pull the key from a RAM snapshot of a running computer, somehow obtain an externally stored recovery key, or pull the key from the unencrypted TPM communication bus. Last week, a clever hacker revealed a scalable TPM hack process, defeating BitLocker in less than a minute by sampling TPM bus traffic during the measured boot sequence. It’s incredibly simple and quick. A $10 Raspberry Pi Pico grabs the key from the easy-to-tap TPM bus. He posted a how-to video, source code for the Pico, and a design for a multi-pin probe to grab the signals from the board. This well-known vulnerability isn’t new, but automating the key recovery process makes the hack practical and accessible to “script kiddies.” It’s easy to defend against this hack – just set a PIN. There’s an important lesson here for engineers designing electronic devices. Anyone can pull signals from circuit boards, so never expose secrets on accessible wires. Bill’s first law of data security applies here: With physical access, all bets are off.
Walmart bought Vizio for $2.3 billion, leading to speculation about why the retailer would buy a TV supplier. The answer is Walmart Connect – a closed-loop advertising platform offering in-store displays, search placements, ads on Walmart’s web properties, social media coverage, and “content to commerce” influencer experiences. But the closed-loop aspect is a game-changer. Correlating online activity with in-store and online behavior and sales gives advertisers accountable, measurable results. Walmart needs a smart TV content delivery platform to extend Walmart Connect into customers’ living rooms, and that’s where Visio’s SmartCast smart TV operating system comes in. SmartCast competes with Amazon’s Fire OS (a fork of Andriod), Roku OS, and Samsung’s Tizen OS but currently runs only on Vizio TVs, so it only has about 3% market share. Walmart bought Vizio to get a living room OS platform for hosting Walmart Connect. Given Walmart’s size, this strategy could generate enough back-end advertising revenue to disrupt TV pricing like Vizio did in 2002.
Consumer security camera maker Wyze experienced a “security incident” last week that affected 0.25% of customer accounts. It wasn’t a hack or a breach – it was a software bug that resulted in 13,000 users seeing thumbnail images from cameras “that were not their own.” Here’s what caused this privacy violation. An AWS outage took down Wyze devices for several hours. When all the cameras suddenly returned online, a “third party caching client library” overloaded and “mixed up the device ID to user ID mapping.” In an email to customers, the company says it fixed the problem, so it can’t happen again. The incident illustrates that privacy violations aren’t always a result of nefarious activity. Today’s complex applications are mashups of third-party software components, often with bugs and limitations triggered by novel combinations of unpredicted events. Kudos to Wyze for fully explaining the situation and rapidly correcting the problem, but there’s a lesson here for all software engineers – bugs can be just as bad as breaches. Exhaustive, end-to-end corner-case testing is the only way to ensure quality in a world of software mashups, and it’s a huge ongoing expense that few companies take seriously.
Swedish LoRaWAN network operator Netmore Group acquired New Hampshire-based LoRaWAN network operator Senet, extending Netmore’s footprint of 11 European countries into the US. The combined company has over a million connected devices under management and a “large contracted backlog,” mostly utility metering. “Purpose-driven investors” Polar Structure AB and Fisk Ventures drove the deal, aiming for global “sustainability at scale.” On the surface, this acquisition makes strategic sense, but the companies did not disclose financial terms.
NXP announced the first chips in a new series of general-purpose MCUs – the MCX A14x and A15x. Powered by the Arm Cortex M33 core, NXP plans to release various package and memory variants through 2024. More significantly, the company concurrently announced low-cost FRDM development boards supported by a new version of MCUXpresso Developer software. Developers expect a unified software toolchain spanning the entire MCU product line, with native support for Zephyr, FreeRTOS, device hardware, and all relevant network stacks, so it’s great to see NXP stepping up software investments to meet these expectations.
Atlanta-based fiber infrastructure provider FiberLight announced a $20 million investment in a 92-mile fiber optic infrastructure project along State Highway 130 near Austin. In collaboration with the Autonomy Institute, the project delivers 100GB connectivity (or more) at each of 240 Public Infrastructure Network Nodes (PINNs) situated every 2000 feet along the SH 130 corridor. The highway, boasting sections with 85 MPH speed limits (the nation’s highest), is an underutilized artery around Austin’s east side, running primarily through rural land ideal for industrial development. The Austin ABIA airport, Austin Executive Airport, the Tesla Gigafactory, Samsung Semiconductor, Dell, the F1 racetrack, an Echostar earth station, and dozens of other large businesses have easy access to the road. “Corridor of the future” is an advanced concept, recognizing that network access is as essential for development as roads, electricity, water, and wastewater.

Modern Work (Melody Brue)

Google has simplified its AI offerings by consolidating them under a single platform called “Gemini.” This platform replaces previous products like Bard and Duet and now serves as both the model and the product to deploy all of Google’s AI globally. Gemini includes various AI features such as a chatbot, search engine capabilities, and integration with Google Workspace. Google reports that over one million users have benefited from features like “Help Me Write” for enhanced productivity through Duet AI. Duet AI will now transition to Gemini for Workspace, and soon, consumers with the Google One AI Premium plan can use Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Meet.
I was invited to be a judge for this year’s Box.org Impact Fund grant awards. Box has awarded six $25,000 grants to support nonprofit organizations advancing child welfare, supporting crisis response, and protecting our planet. The grants were awarded based on their impact, inclusion, scale, and alignment with the theme of digital transformation. In addition to the Box.org grants, Box has provided over $39 million in in-kind Box product discounts and product donations to nonprofits this year. You can read more about the grantees here, and I will share more on the Impact Fund and the judging experience soon.
RingCentral has introduced a unified patient care solution for global healthcare organizations, featuring new integrations with Electronic Health Record (EHR) providers like Epic, Cerner, and AllScripts. This initiative, powered by a partnership with SpinSci, a patient engagement software platform, enhances patient experiences, streamlines workflows, and reduces administrative burdens. RingCentral’s AI-powered communications suite aims to provide high-touch assistance across digital channels, offering a comprehensive view of patient records to accelerate triage and improve care delivery. RingCentra’s solution shows the transformative impact of cloud and generative AI in the healthcare industry to deliver optimal and secure patient experiences, improve documentation, and reduce administrative burden.
At Cisco Live in Amsterdam, Webex announced the availability of its new app designed for Apple Vision Pro on the App Store for visionOS. I’m unsure how different the app will be from any “Persona” meeting experiences you would have on FaceTime, Zoom, or any other platform. Still, Webex says it offers an immersive meeting experience, utilizing eyes, hands, and voice, although the demo shows more of a body from the waist up. The Webex app allows users to arrange participant videos and shared content windows that scale to “life-size.” Webex for Apple Vision Pro integrates AI-powered features such as background noise removal, real-time translations, and live polling that you would get on Webex meetings or devices. Users can transition between Apple Vision Pro and other devices, with calendar integration just as you can now jump from phone to desktop or car. Cisco also announced that Webex for Apple TV 4K is generally available, providing additional collaboration options on larger screens.

Personal Computing (Anshel Sag)

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman asked for up to $7 trillion for his AI semiconductor plans to fulfill the needs he foresees. I think this is simply too much of an undertaking for any one person or company, but it’s possible that he could further fuel the race to provide AI chips as demand continues to be voracious. That said, I do believe that optimization will also be key as there simply aren’t enough raw materials or power to supply enough compute.
I believe the NVIDIA effort to build custom chips is an attempt to keep companies from developing their chips and moving away from things like CUDA and other NVIDIA tools. This is also an excellent way to grow its data center business and appease investors. There is a real risk that more diverse silicon could fragment the industry away from NVIDIA’s tools and libraries.
Google’s rebrand of Bard to Gemini is a bit unexpected but comes with the launch of the Gemini Ultra model and its launch as a service for $20 a month with Google One. This is a great deal considering that Google One has 2TB of storage for $9.99 a month, so Gemini Ultra is just $10 if you already have Google One, as I do. I haven’t noticed any major differences yet, but I’m excited to use it when integrated into more apps.
Arm has shown that its diversification strategy is working, and with the smartphone industry seemingly being back at its normal growth pace, servers and automotive are much more attractive to Arm’s bottom line, which explains the huge share price climb.

Quantum Computing (Paul Smith-Goodson)

IonQ announced the opening of the United States’ first quantum computing manufacturing facility in Bothell, Washington. This milestone event expands IonQ’s Seattle operations from 65,000 to 105,000 square feet. It will also serve as the company’s second quantum data center. These teams are focused on the rollout of next-generation IonQ systems, including the IonQ Forte Enterprise and IonQ Tempo. IonQ’s CEO, Peter Chapman, emphasized the factory’s role in commercializing quantum technology and supporting the community. IonQ has also achieved significant business and technical milestones, including partnerships with global corporations and securing a $25.5 million project with the United States Air Force Research Lab. IonQ’s quantum systems are accessible via major cloud providers and direct API access.
ORCA Computing has acquired the Integrated Photonics Division of GXC, based in Austin, Texas. GTX has provided advanced photonics solutions to commercial and government entities, including DARPA. The acquired technology will strengthen ORCA’s near and long-term quantum computing roadmap. Orca deployed four of its PT-1 quantum photonics systems in 2023. GTX’s Integrated Photonics Division will merge with ORCA and should help advance its plans to build future photonic fault-tolerant quantum computers.

Security (Will Townsend)

Enterprise browsers infused with security controls beyond basic encryption could become cybersecurity’s next big product wave. Microsoft recently launched its first offering, and Palo Alto Networks is well positioned to bring one to market with its acquisition of Talon last year. Given the nature of modern work and BYOD, enterprise browsers could provide IT teams with the ability to blacklist higher-risk applications, prevent malicious downloads and monitor traffic. A handful of startups are marketing zero-trust browsers, a notion that, on the surface, seems far-fetched. However, enterprise browsers could deliver improved security controls and play a significant role in preventing social engineering attacks such as phishing.
Fortinet posted impressive financial results for its fiscal 4Q and end of year. The company continues to blend networking and security functionality effectively, making it easier for enterprises to manage and deploy highly performant and secure infrastructure. As Fortinet approaches $6 billion in top-line revenue, it is becoming a dominant player in SD-WAN and SASE services.

Sustainability (Melody Brue)

Research Paper(s):

Podcasts:

The G2 on 5G by Moor Insights & Strategy, with Anshel Sag and Will Townsend

The Six-Five Podcast by Moor Insights & Strategy and Futurum Research, with Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman

Moor Insights & Strategy Podcasts, with Patrick Moorhead, Melody Brue, CP Smith-Goodson, Matt Kimball, and Will Townsend.

Citations:

AMD & NVIDIA / AI Stock / Moor Insights & Strategy / https://uk.investing.com/analysis/amd-vs-nvidia-in-2024-which-ai-stock-makes-more-sense-for-your-portfolio-200599816
Apple / Vision Pro / Anshel Sag / https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/02/apple-vision-pro-what-is-spatial-computing-ar-vr/
Apple / Vision pro / Anshel Sag / https://amplify.nabshow.com/articles/connect-apple-vision-pro-digital-world/
Arm / Collaboration with Intel Foundry / Patrick Moorhead / https://www.fierceelectronics.com/analog/arm-and-intel-foundry-collaborate-building-past-work
Arm / Cortex-X5 / Patrick Moorhead / https://www.techpowerup.com/319330/alleged-arm-cortex-x5-underperformance-linked-to-power-consumption-concerns
Arm / Neoverse Compute Subsystems / Patrick Moorhead / https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2024/02/21/arm_neoverse_compute/
Arm / earnings / Patrick Moorhead / https://theticker.org/13369/business/arm-tops-forecasts-as-artificial-intelligence-spurs-growth-outlook/
Arm / earnings/ Patrick Moorhead / https://finance.yahoo.com/video/investors-advantage-arms-win-223630760.html
Cisco / Security Cloud / Will Townsend / Cisco / ITDR / Will Townsend / https://www.outlookseries.com/A0768/Security/3723_Cisco_Identity_Intelligence.htm
Cohesity / Cohesity & Veritas Deal / Patrick Moorhead / https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/cohesity-and-veritas-data-protection-business-to-combine-forming-a-new-leader-in-ai-powered-data-security-and-management/
Cohesity & Veritas / Data Protection Business Deal / Patrick Moorhead / https://www.securityinfowatch.com/industry-news/press-release/53096097/cohesity-and-veritas-data-protection-business-to-combine
Google / AI Subscriptions / Anshel Sag / https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/companies-charging-consumers-ai-subscriptions
Infoblox / DNS / Will Townsend / https://aithority.com/technology/infobloxs-new-ai-powered-soc-insights-capability-reduces-critical-security-operations-challenges/
Infoblox / DNS / Will Townsend / https://asiapacificdefencereporter.com/infoblox-launches-new-cyber-security-offering/
Infoblox / DNS Detection and Response Solution / Will Townsend / https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2024/02/15/infoblox-soc-insights/
Infoblox / DNS Detection & Response Solution / Will Townsend / https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/infobloxs-new-ai-powered-soc-insights-capability-reduces-critical-security-operations-challenges-302061207.html
Infoblox / DNS Detection & Response Solution / Will Townsend / https://techxmedia.com/infoblox-launches-ai-powered-soc-insights-for-security-ops/
Intel / Chip / Patrick Moorhead / https://www.fierceelectronics.com/electronics/us-invest-5-billion-chip-rd-through-new-center
Intuit / AI / Patrick Moorhead / https://www.webpronews.com/intuit-brings-generative-ai-to-tax-preparation-and-finance/
Matter / Matt Products / Bill Curtis / https://www.nxp.com/company/blog/it-just-works-the-developers-guide-to-making-matter-products-practical-and-profitable:BL-DEVELOPERS-GUIDE-TO-MAKING-MATTER-PRODUCTS
Microsoft / Quantum Computing / Paul Smith-Goodson / https://rcpmag.com/articles/2024/02/08/microsoft-quantum-computing-darpa.aspx
NVIDIA / Q4 earnings / Patrick Moorhead / https://www.cnbc.com/video/2024/02/21/nvidia-posts-q4-beat-on-revenue-and-earnings.html
Qualcomm / Earnings / Patrick Moorhead / https://www.sdbj.com/technology/semiconductors/qualcomm-has-9-9b-quarter/
Samsung / Galaxy Watch 6 Classic / Anshel Sag / https://www.businessghana.com/site/news/technology/302005/Samsung-s-Surprise-Galaxy-Ring-Who-s-This-Wearable-Actually-For
6G / Will Townsend / https://www.networkworld.com/article/1306615/ai-powered-6g-wireless-promises-transformative-change.html

New Gear or Software We are Using and Testing that is Public Knowledge

Vivo X100 Pro

Events MI&S Plans on Attending In-Person or Virtually (New)

February 2024
- MWC 2024, Barcelona, February 26-29 (Patrick Moorhead, Will Townsend -in person, Anshel Sag – virtual)
- RingCentral Analyst Summit, Bay Area, February 26-28 (Melody Brue)
- 8X8 Industry Analyst Summit, San Diego, February 29 (Melody Brue)
March 2024
- IBM Focus on IBM Research, March 5 (Paul Smith-Goodson – virtual)
- Salesforce TDX Analyst Conference, San Fran, March 5-7 (Robert Kramer)
- Cerebras Media & Analyst Day, March 12 (Paul Smith-Goodson – virtual)
- Connected Americas, Dallas, March 12-13 (Will Townsend)
- NVIDIA GTC, March 18-21 (Anshel & Patrick – in person, Matt Kimball – virtual)
- NXP, Detroit, March 21 (Bill Curtis)
- Enterprise Connect, Orlando, March 25 (Melody Brue)
- ElasticON Tour March 26, New York (Robert Kramer- TBD)
- Adobe Summit, March 26-28, Las Vegas (Melody Brue – hybrid, Robert Kramer, Patrick Moorhead)
April 2024
- Fortinet Accelerate, Las Vegas, April 1-5 (Will Townsend)
- Intel Vision, Phoenix, Apr 8-9 (Matt Kimball, Paul Smith-Goodson)
- Google Next, Las Vegas, April 9-11 (Robert Kramer, Patrick Moorhead)
- Software AG IUG April 9-11 Dublin, Ireland (Robert Kramer – TBD)
- NTT Upgrade, San Francisco, April 10-11 (Will Townsend)
- Appian World, Wash DC, April 15-17 (Robert Kramer)
- Datacenter World, DC, Apr 15-18, (Matt Kimball)
- Avaya Analyst Conference, LaJolla, April 16-18 (Melody Brue)
- Oracle Analyst Database Summit, San Francisco, April 24 (Robert Kramer, Matt Kimball)
May 2024
- MediaTek Analyst Day, Scottsdale, May 1-3 (Anshel Sag)
- RSA Conference, San Francisco, May 6-9 (Will Townsend)
- Red Hat Ansible Fest, Denver, May 7-9, (Matt Kimball)
- International Super Computing, Hamburg, May 12-16 (Matt Kimball)
- Blue Yonder, Dallas, May 13-15 (Robert Kramer)
- Informatica World, Las Vegas, May 20-23 (Robert Kramer)
- IBM Think, Boston, May 20-23 (Patrick Moorhead, Paul Smith-Goodson, Robert Kramer)
- Dell Tech World, Las Vegas, May 20-23 (Patrick Moorhead, Matt Kimball)
- Nutanix .NEXT, May 21-24, Barcelona (Matt Kimball)
June 2024
- SAP Sapphire, Orlando, June 3–5 (Melody Brue, Robert Kramer)
- Snowflake, San Francisco, June 3-5 (Robert Kramer)
- Broadcom Mainframe Analyst Summit, June 5-6, Boston (Matt Kimball)
- HPE Discover, June 17-20, Las Vegas (Matt Kimball)
- Augmented World Expo, Long Beach, June 18 – 20 (Anshel Sag)
September 2024
- Intel Innovation, Sep 23-26 (Matt Kimball)

The Team

Analysts

Patrick Moorhead, Founder, CEO, Chief Analyst; Broad technology coverage plus deep insights into Cloud, Enterprise SaaS & Semiconductors.
Melody Brue, Principal Analyst, Modern Work, HR Tech, Marketing Tech/CRM, Sustainability
Bill Curtis, Analyst In-Residence, IIoT, and Deep IoT Technology
Matt Kimball, Principal Analyst, Datacenter Compute & Storage, AI Semiconductors
Robert Kramer, Principal Analyst, Enterprise Data Technologies, ERP/SCM
Anshel Sag, Principal Analyst; Personal Computing
Paul Smith-Goodson, Principal Analyst; Machine AI Frameworks, Models, Tools and Quantum Computing
Will Townsend, Principal Analyst; Security, Carrier Services, Networking

Patrick Moorhead

+ posts

Patrick founded the firm based on his real-world world technology experiences with the understanding of what he wasn’t getting from analysts and consultants. Ten years later, Patrick is ranked #1 among technology industry analysts in terms of “power” (ARInsights) in “press citations” (Apollo Research). Moorhead is a contributor at Forbes and frequently appears on CNBC. He is a broad-based analyst covering a wide variety of topics including the cloud, enterprise SaaS, collaboration, client computing, and semiconductors. He has 30 years of experience including 15 years of executive experience at high tech companies (NCR, AT&T, Compaq, now HP, and AMD) leading strategy, product management, product marketing, and corporate marketing, including three industry board appointments.