We hope everyone had a great week!

This week, I attended Google Cloud Next in San Francisco. The MIS team will be on the road quite a bit this month. We will be attending Salesforce Dreamforce, Fortinet Championship PGA Event, IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing & Engineering, Oracle Cloud World, Intel Innovation 2023, AI Summit, Microsoft Special Event, and Connected Britain.

Our MI&S team published 20 deliverables:

• 9 Forbes insight columns
• 6 MI&S blogs 
• 3 podcasts   
• 2 research papers

Over the past week, the press quoted us with 10 citations. They wanted to hear about Arm, Cisco, Meta, MySQL, NVIDIA, SD-WAN, and Xbox.

 

MIS Quick Insights:

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

• According to Hugging Face, Intel’s Gaudi 2 just beat the performance of NVIDIA’s H100 on the BridgeTower model. Gaudi 2 has special hardware that can decode and transform images without relying on the CPU, reduces the waiting time for the AI chip, and increases its efficiency. Hugging Face tested the performance of both chips on a vision-language model called BridgeTower. The model can understand both images and text. Hugging Face found that Gaudi 2 was 41% faster than H100 and 2.5 times faster than NVIDIA’s A100 GPU. This signals that the AI accelerator market is about to become interesting.

AR/VR (Anshel Sag)

• N/A

Carrier/Wireless (Will Townsend)

• Mavenir continues to slip, now losing share in 4G and 5G mobile core to Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, Nokia, and Cisco. The company seems to be in survival mode, and its prospects look bleak as mobile network operators may seek mobile core solutions from infrastructure providers with more substantial financial balance sheets and staying power.

Datacenter:

Networking– (Will Townsend)

• Cisco and Nutanix recently executed a global partnership to simplify hybrid, multi-cloud adoption. It’s a smart move that combines the depth of both companies’ portfolios and could open mutual incremental revenue opportunities.

Server/Storage (Matt Kimball)

• Pure Storage had another solid quarter. 6% YoY overall revenue growth, 27% YoY in ARR growth, Evergreen/One as-a-service orders doubling, and record sales for its FlashBlade portfolio. Oh, and an NPS of 81.4 – the highest in the industry. Here’s the thing – while Pure Storage is, as its name implies – a storage company – it understands that differentiation is baked into user experience. This is not simply about capacity and speed – it’s about making life easier for the storage administrator and IT professionals who have todeploy environments that support various uses and data types. Ease of deployment, ease of management, and simplification of storage architectures – are critical considerations for IT organizations. And Pure’s product (and positioning) is spot on.
• Pure Storage strikes again. With the release of Pure Block Store for Azure VMware Services (AVS), the company is delivering on simplicity, cost, and a seamless hybrid VMware environment – that is finally truly hybrid for Azure. Here are a couple of highlights to call out:
  • Independent scale of storage. By utilizing Azure’s Premium SSDv2 storage, users can now expand storage capacity into the petabyte range without scaling compute instances. The company is estimating that customers can save up to approximately 60%.
  • Hybrid means hybrid – by utilizing Pure storage on-prem and Pure Block Store for AVS – a lot of the complexities (and time consumption) associated with migrating many workloads to the cloud go away (e.g., database). Any IT organization trying to manage data and apps across its entire on-prem and cloud estates appreciates the limitations when trying to make hybrid environments truly hybrid. Pure Block Store for AVS (and previously released AWS) will be a foundational element.

Cloud (Matt Kimball)

• Google Cloud Next took place this week, and the company revealed its Distributed Cloud (GDC) platform. This fully integrated Google Cloud environment is tailored for edge, AI, and database (AlloyDB) services. I like what the company is doing in attempting to simplify the edge deployment challenges many enterprise organizations face. And it certainly feels like this is a direct response to HPE, Dell, and Lenovo’s success with their respective as-a-service offerings at the edge. It is unclear if GDC will replace its Anthos offering (delivered in partnership with HPE).

Compute (Matt Kimball)

• Hot Chips 2023 was this week, and as with all Hot Chips events – there was plenty of news.  Two big reveals had to do with Arm and Intel, respectively.
• Arm unveiled its Neoverse Compute Subsystems (CSS) and V2 platforms. CSS is a platform and program that enables partners to deliver custom silicon to the market and/or customers much faster and cheaper. How much faster? Well, Arm estimates about 80 engineering years more quickly. I see a massive play for CSS across many segments and verticals.
• Arm’s V2 is its second-generation high-performance computing platform for Neoverse. This platform is the foundation of NVIDIA’s Grace CPU and (by extension) the CPU in the Grace-Hopper superchip. V2 shows solid performance relative to its x86 competitors. Even with some cries of unfair benchmark comparisons, the CPU still compares very well.
• Intel released more details on its 2024 Xeon roadmap. The company is releasing two core architectures to address the disparate requirements of the enterprise (and cloud) datacenter.
• Sierra Forest is the company’s efficient (E) core supporting scale-out deployments in single socket and dual socket space. Sierra Forest will ship with up to 144 cores and the memory, I/O, and security capabilities to make it a viable competitor in the x86 space.
• Granite Rapids is the company’s performance (P) core, designed to support computationally challenged workloads – AI, HPC, analytics, EDA, ERP, and data-intensive applications. Intel did not provide much detail on Granite Rapids other than it will support more cores than the current Sapphire Rapids generation (4th Gen Xeon).  I expect the company will continue improving upon the acceleration engine strategy that has made its current generation of CPUs competitive in the AI space despite core performance disadvantages.
• I like Intel’s approach. I think it enables the company to dial in performance more precisely across these different ends of the performance spectrum without compromise.  And I like that the company is methodically rebuilding its design and manufacturing discipline. This is critical to maintaining the trust of its customers.
• VMware Explore came and went, and as usual with this show, there was a lot of news from the companies and the ecosystem. Here’s what stood out to me:
  • The company made excellent strides in several ways in bridging the gap between app and cloud orchestration.  Tanzu Application Engine helps application owners establish performance, resiliency, and location requirements in a declarative fashion, assuring these requirements are baked into the deployment and monitoring.
  • Tanzu Intelligence Services should be a big hit within IT operations, integrating some Aria capabilities. As cloud operations are so tightly coupled with cloud-native application performance, it only makes sense that an organization would want to leverage what is seen in cloud operations to guide how and where applications reside and run. This integration is a set of practical tools that can immediately impact cloud operations across any measurement vector – cost, performance, utilization, efficiency, and security. This is going to be an extensive toolbox for platform engineers.
  • vSAN Max should also be well received as it enables the independent scaling of storage from compute. This is a long overdue capability and is being supported by others.
  • Finally, I like ESXi lifecycle management in VSphere+. This should make life easier for organizations with large VMware (vCenter) environments across multiple locations. Typically, when managing and upgrading these environments, IT organizations would have to perform operations on a location-by-location basis manually. With ESXi lifecycle management – this gets reduced to a few clicks of the mouse. So, these updates go from days, weeks, or even months to just a few hours.

ESG (Melody Brue)

• N/A

Enterprise Data (Robert Kramer)

• Rubrik, with the recent acquisition of Laminar, a specialty of securing data across major public clouds like AWS, Azure, Google, and Snowflake, extended its support to include Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive. This allows customers to use Laminar’s capabilities to continuously identify unprotected or overexposed sensitive data in these platforms, allowing for proactive risk mitigation and data leak detection. This will allow organizations to protect sensitive data across a broader digital environment, including AWS, GCP, Microsoft Azure, Snowflake, BigQuery, and various SaaS applications. While this is a competitive market, this move certainly augments Rubrik’s value proposition. Upcoming will be my briefing with Rubrik.
• Teradata has partnered with Nordcloud, an IBM subsidiary skilled in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, to facilitate the transition of on-premises data to Teradata’s VantageCloud for European businesses. The collaboration seeks to accelerate cloud deployments and enhance the capabilities of cloud-based analytics and AI. VantageCloud is equipped with sophisticated analytics and AI functionalities, and the involvement of Nordcloud enables easier integration with other cloud platforms, thereby increasing its versatility. I like this alliance as it is mutually beneficial, attracting customers to both companies.
• Couchbase has announced two major initiatives to boost developer productivity and encourage collaboration. First, they’ve introduced generative AI features, known as Capella iQ, to their Database-as-a-Service, Couchbase Capella™. This feature assists developers in writing code more efficiently by generating sample code based on natural language queries, aiming to speed up the development process for new apps. Second, they’ve launched the Couchbase AI Accelerate Partner Program under their global Couchbase PartnerEngage initiative. This program is designed to make developing AI-powered applications easier and offers perks like early beta access and AI workshops. Open to various organizations, the program aims to encourage collaboration and ease the deployment of AI-driven apps. Both initiatives are intended to increase the value derived from data stored in Capella. I completed a recent briefing and will have further details in my upcoming announcement.
• Google Cloud Next 2023 highlighted many new features and a strong commitment to advancing database technology through its open data platform. This included next-gen AI capabilities via AlloyDB AI and AlloyDB Omni. Also, Duet AI revealed an interactive workspace that can be used for code generation for Cloud Spanner, while Cloud Spanner Data Boost optimizes analytics and machine learning tasks by dynamically allocating resources. The platform has introduced multiple features to streamline and improve data analytics. BigQuery Export to Bigtable enables direct analytics data serving, removing the need for ETL tools. Duet AI in BigQuery aids in SQL query handling, while BigQuery Studio makes data exploration and analysis easier by integrating Python notebooks via Colab BigQuery DataFrames provides a Python API for analytics and machine learning. Vertex AI adds real-time analytics capabilities by merging AI Platform and AutoML features with BigQuery. Additionally, Looker Studio has been upgraded to allow for customizable line visuals and functionalities in its charts. More details are coming soon in my analysis of Google Cloud Next ’23.

Financial Tech (Melody Brue)

• N/A

IIoT and IoT (Bill Curtis)

• N/A

Modern Work (Melody Brue)

• Verizon is preparing to sunset its BlueJeans video collab product, working with partners like Google and Cisco to transition customers. The decision to get out of video conferencing comes down to Verizon focusing on its core networking, cloud, 5G, and wireless strategy. The company is trying to differentiate themselves in UC by being “uniquely mobile first.” Verizon says the company remains bullish on UCaaS despite its decision to eliminate BlueJeans by the end of 2023.
• Google made several AI announcements (surprise!) at Google Cloud Next. The company announced the general availability of Duet AI in Workspace apps, including Docs, Gmail, Drive, Slides, and more. Duet AI acts as an AI assistant with capabilities ranging from drafting emails to attending meetings and taking notes in your absence to making you look better on Google Meet. Making GAI truly useful with unstructured data will be one of the biggest challenges to getting to widespread adoption. Anyone paying attention to GAI for workplace productivity should also be paying attention to content management and a consistent file naming strategy – or AI that does that for you. Duet AI in Workspace and Microsoft 365 Copilot both have the potential to be productivity game changers if they can securely extract the unstructured data that already exists within those applications.
  • I look forward to using the tools to see how it works. The demos make it look magical, but the feedback from users on social media has been wildly mixed.
• Microsoft is updating the licensing of Microsoft 365, Office 365, and Teams in the EEA and Switzerland Starting October 1, 2023. This addresses concerns raised by the European Commission that Microsoft has violated EU competition regulations by bundling Teams Office 365 and Microsoft 365. Companies offering competitive products have complained that bundling creates an unfair advantage, although most companies use multiple collaboration tools. In those regions, Microsoft will offer commercial Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites in the EEA and Switzerland without Teams and A standalone Teams offering for Enterprise customers, meaning new subscribers needing Teams with 365 will require two SKUs. Microsoft says current subscribers are unaffected. That could likely change, and the decision could reach beyond the EEA and Switzerland.
• Box released its preliminary financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, ending July 31, 2023, reporting a 6% YoY revenue growth. The company is in a good position to capitalize on enterprise GAI with Box’s Content Cloud. As siloed and unstructured datasets present an obstacle to fully utilizing AI, companies will increasingly look to consolidate and centralize data into a unified platform like Content Cloud. The company is set to release Box AI — which is now in private beta — soon. I expect to hear more about it at the BoxWorks customer and developer event on October 11.

Personal Computing (Anshel Sag)

• N/A

Quantum Computing (Paul Smith-Goodson)

• China Mobile and CETGC have launched a quantum cloud computing platform that combines quantum and general computing power. The platform uses 20-qubit quantum chips developed by CETGC and provides an open testing environment for quantum fusion computing. The platform also allows public access to universities and other agencies through a quantum computer interface that simplifies the use of quantum computers. The platform aims to solve complex computing problems in various fields, such as AI, biomedicine, intelligent transportation, and more.
• Quantinuum and Chubu University in Japan have announced a new partnership to explore quantum computational linguistics and cognition. The collaboration will focus on developing compositional models for cognition with potential applications for taking advantage of the latest generation of quantum computers.
  • The partnership builds on earlier discoveries by Coecke and Ozawa that there are parallels between quantum and cognitive systems, exploring the application of the mathematical structures of quantum theory to observed features of human language and cognition. It is hoped that this work may explain a range of intractable problems, such as the role of context in generating meaning in text, or cognitive phenomena, such as the “question order effect.”
• VMware has announced a new partnership with NVIDIA to make it easier for enterprises to utilize generative AI. The platform will provide businesses with everything they need to build, train, customize, and deploy generative AI models tailored to their data and use cases.
  • The platform is a full-stack, out-of-the-box solution for working with generative AI. It includes generative AI software and the necessary tools and infrastructure to develop models. Key features include model building, training pipelines, data customization, and secure deployment capabilities.
  • VMware Cloud Foundation powers the platform. It provides the core virtualized infrastructure. It is optimized specifically for AI workloads, with acceleration powered by NVIDIA.

 

Security (Will Townsend)

• Google announced security enhancements to its portfolio at Google Cloud Next this year. Functionality includes cloud-native application protection, identity access management, next-generation firewalls, and API security. API integration may represent one of the biggest growing security threats, given hundreds of processes can run with little visibility, making malware detection a tricky endeavor.

Columns Published 

1. Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic Review: Don’t Sleep On It, Sleep With It, by Patrick Moorhead
2. Review: The New Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 Flexes On The Competition With Productivity, Performance And Personality, by Patrick Moorhead
3. VMware Introduces Frameworks And Services At Explore Conference To Enable Enterprise Adoption Of Generative AI, by Patrick Moorhead
4. Intel Hot Chips Reveal: A Deeper Look Into Xeon In 2024, by Matt Kimball
5. Juniper Networks And Its Beyond Labs Vision, by Will Townsend
6. Expanded Partnership Brings OpenText Core Content To Google Workspace, by Melody Brue
7. Connecting A Distributed Workforce With Employee Experience Platforms, by Melody Brue
8. Arm’s Hot Chip Reveal: Faster Silicon Development, Performance Uplifts, by Matt Kimball
9. VMware Explore 2023 Recap: It’s All About Your Data, by Matt Kimball

Blogs Published (MI&S)                                                             

1. New AWS Instances For HPC Enable Weather Forecasting, Crash Simulations And More, by Patrick Moorhead
2. Synopsys Announces Record Quarter, Raised Guidance And Its Next CEO, by Patrick Moorhead
3. QuEra Computing Inc. Hints At Moving From Analog To Digital Mode With 10,000 Qubits, by Paul Smith-Goodson
4. Druid Software And Napatech Overcome Challenges In Private 5G Networking, by Will Townsend
5. Telecom Carriers’ Quick Response To The Tragic Maui Wildfires, by Anshel Sag

Research Paper(s):

1. RESEARCH PAPER: MFA – The Alliance For Private Networks, by Will Townsend
2. RESEARCH PAPER: Wells Fargo Is Taking Its Stagecoach To Rocketship Speeds, by Melody Brue

 

Podcasts:

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

• The G2 on 5G Podcast – VMware Private 5G, Globalstar New CEO, SK ORIA, Verizon FWA, AT&T Internet

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

1. Ep 182: We are Live! Talking Google, Intel, Pure Storage, HP Inc., HPE, and Salesforce
2. Ep 181: We are Live! Talking NVIDIA, Zoom, Marvell, VMware, Oracle, and Arm

 

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

• N/A

 

Citations: 

1. Arm IPO/ AI / Patrick Moorhead / https://www.embedded.com/is-ai-the-winning-card-for-a-successful-arm-ipo/
2. Cisco / Cisco Services / Will Townsend / https://blogs.cisco.com/services/new-cisco-services-help-you-achieve-business-outcomes-faster
3. Meta / Augmented Reality / Anshel Sag / https://www.etcentric.org/meta-flamera-prototype-takes-on-ar-passthrough-challenge/
4. Meta / Augmented Reality / Anshel Sag / https://spectrum.ieee.org/meta-flamera
5. MySQL HeatWave Lakehouse / Cloud Data / Matt Kimball / https://blogs.oracle.com/mysql/post/3-reasons-to-consider-mysql-heatwave-lakehouse-and-what-they-mean-for-your-organization
6. NVIDIA / AI / Patrick Moorhead / https://biz.crast.net/nvidia-is-the-ai-king-but-the-threats-to-its-reign-abound-2/
7. NVIDIA / AI / Patrick Moorhead / https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nvidia-is-the-ai-king-but-threats-to-its-reign-abound-144635363.html
8. SD-WAN / Remote Access Revolution / Will Townsend / https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/13611/593670?utm_source=brighttalk-portal&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=all-brighttalk&utm_content=recorded
9. Xbox / Bluetooth & Gaming / Anshel Sag / https://gameishard.gg/news/xbox-series-x-has-made-buying-a-gaming-headset-a-nightmare-2/51604/
10. XBOX / Gaming / Anshel Sag / https://www.laptopmag.com/features/xbox-series-x-has-made-buying-a-gaming-headset-a-nightmare-heres-why

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

• Alienware X16
• Alienware 720H, 620M and 420K
• Moto Razr+
• RedMagic Keyboard and Mouse
• Samsung Galaxy Fold5
• Samsung Galaxy Flip5
• Samsung Watch6 Classic

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

• September
  • Salesforce Dreamforce, September 11-13 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Fortinet Championship PGA Event – Napa Valley, September 11-15 (Will Townsend)
  • Circuit of the Americas Private 5G Tour – Austin, September 15 (Will Townsend)
  • IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing & Engineering, Bellevue WA, September 17-22 (Paul Smith-Goodson)
  • Oracle Cloud World, Las Vegas, September 18-20 (Patrick Moorhead, Matt Kimball & Robert Kramer)
  • Intel Innovation 2023, San Jose, September 19-20 (Anshel Sag, Patrick Moorhead, Paul Smith-Goodson)
  • AI Summit, Austin Sept 20-21 (Paul Smith-Goodson)
  • Connected Britain – London, September 20-21 (Will Townsend)
  • Fastly Altitude – NYC, September 25-26 (Will Townsend)
  • MWC Las Vegas – September 26-28 (Will Townsend)
• October
  • RingCentral Analyst Event, Las Vegas, Oct. 1-4 (Melody Brue)
  • Ceridian Analyst Summit and Insights User Conference, Las Vegas, October 1-4 (Melody Brue)
  • LogicMonitor Analyst Summit – Austin Oct 2-3 (Robert Kramer)
  • Zoomtopia, San Jose, October 3-4 (Melody Brue)
  • Adobe MAX, Los Angeles, October 10-12 (Melody Brue)
  • Honeywell Connect, Oct 10-12 (Bill Curtis)
  • Box Works October 11, (virtual) (Melody Brue)
  • 5G Americas, Dallas, October 11-12 (Anshel Sag)
  • OpenText, Las Vegas, October 11 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • GITEX Global, Dubai, October 16-20 (Melody Brue)
  • Lenovo Industry Analyst Event, Raleigh, October 16-19 (Patrick Moorhead, Matt Kimball)
  • com Analyst-Only Executive Q&A October 19 (virtual) (Melody Brue)
  • 5G Techritory – Riga, October 18-19 (Will Townsend)
  • com Analyst-Only Executive Q&A October 19 (virtual) (Melody Brue)
  • WebexOne, Anaheim, October 23-26 (Melody Brue)
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit, Maui October 24-26 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • SAP TechEd Virtual Analyst Summit, October 30 (Melody Brue)
• November
  • Dell Analyst Summit, November 1, Austin (Matt Kimball)
  • Cloudera Evolve, New York, November 2 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • NTT Field Event – Tokyo, November 10-18 (Will Townsend)
  • SC 23, November 13-15 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Veeam Analyst Summit – Seattle November 13-15 (Robert Kramer)
  • AWS re:Invent, November 27-30 (Patrick Moorhead)
• December
  • RingCentral Analyst Summit, Napa, Dec 4-6 (Melody Brue)
  • Marvell IA Day, December 5 (Patrick Moorhead, Will Townsend)
• January
  • CES 2024, January 7-11^th (Bill Curtis, Patrick Moorhead)
• February
  • Mobile World Congress, February 24-29th (Patrick Moorhead)

 

Subscribe

• Sign up here to get specific AI/ML/GAI, Datacenter, Cloud Services, Client Computing, IIoT, and Semiconductor content.

The Team

Analysts, Analysts In-Residence, Contributors

• Patrick Moorhead, Founder, CEO, Chief Analyst; Broad technology coverage plus deep insights into Cloud & Enterprise SaaS, Semiconductors, Automotive, Personal Computing Devices
• Melody Brue, Principal Analyst, Modern Work and ESG
• Bill Curtis, Analyst In-Residence, IIoT, and Deep IoT Technology
• Jacob Freyman, Junior Analyst
• Matt Kimball, Principal Analyst, Datacenter Servers, Storage, CI, and HCI
• Robert Kramer, Principal Analyst, Enterprise Data Technologies
• Anshel Sag, Principal Analyst; VR, PC Gaming, Mobile Platforms
• Paul Smith-Goodson, Principal Analyst; Machine Learning, A.I. and Quantum Computing
• Will Townsend, Principal Analyst; Security, Carrier Services, Networking

Operations 

• Dan Pickens, Business Director
• Paula Moorhead, Marketing Director, Website and Social Media
• Christian Babcock, Office Manager, AP & AR
• Lee LeClercq Williams, Business Associate
• Nigel Church, Business Associate, Writer, Editor
• Connor Kenyon, Six Five Sales & Business Development