Moor Insights & strategy Weekly Update Ending may 7, 2021

By Patrick Moorhead - May 10, 2021

I hope you all had a great week!

This week, the MI&S team will be attending several events: IBM Think (myself, Steve, Matt, Paul, and Will) and Cloudera Spring Spotlight (myself and Matt). Melody will be attending Finovate Spring and Fast Company Innovation Festival 360.

Last week, I attended Five9 Industry analyst Summit, HPE Storage Day, Microsoft Biz Apps Summit, and MediaTek analyst Day (with Will and Anshel). Several of the MI&S team attended Dell Technologies World(myself, Matt, Steve, and Will).

Our MI&S team published 21 deliverables:

The press quoted us with 12 citations. Journalists wanted to hear about Amazon, Apple, Dell, Global Foundries, Google, IBM, Intel, and MVNO.

Quick Insights:

President's Corner (Patrick Moorhead)

Inflation: For those who have never experienced inflation in their lifetimes should look at the latest U.S. Consumer Price Index. It’s not a positive sight. The US Administration needs to take a hard look at how much it wants/needs to stimulate the economy.
XaaS: With Dell Tech officially entering the structured (non-bespoke), XaaS space with APEX, the two ends of the cloud candle are officially on fire. From one side, you have traditional on-prem companies moving to on-prem as-a-service and cloud native companies going from the public cloud to on-prem hybrid solutions. Interestingly, if Dell Tech were to invest in capex in Equinix and provide a credit card swipe and account creation, it would have a public cloud. Something to think about.
2nm IBM: IBM demonstrated once again that it is a leader in semiconductor research with its 2nm nanosheet device. Don’t forget that IBM licenses technology to companies like Samsung, Intel and TSMC.
Hybrid work cameras: It’s exciting to finally see big improvements here or coming to market. The Poly P15 is here and take video and audio to the next level. Dell even teased a 4K camera with DSLR optics. I cannot wait.
Monopolies: Reminder- it's not illegal in the U.S. to be a monopoly. It is illegal to use that monopoly power to harm consumers and competition. Harm can be measured in pricing (below cost or increased), lack of innovation, exclusionary contracts, etc.

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

AR/VR (Anshel Sag)

Carrier/Wireless (Will Townsend)

T-Mobile announced Q1 earnings this week, and it was impressive. The carrier beat consensus earnings per share by nearly double, and revenue grew a remarkable $8B year over year. I believe the long-term outlook for T-Mobile is bright. It has just begun rolling out enterprise services and has an IoT business inherited from the Sprint acquisition that should benefit from its 5G deployment leadership in the United States.

Datacenter:

Storage- (Steve McDowell)
- It was a big week for storage-as-a-service as both Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise jumped into the market in a big way. HPE unveiled its new Alletra storage-as-a-service brand, bringing its Nimble and Primera storage technologies into the GreenLake fold. Dell, on the other hand, expanded its Apex offerings to include top-to-bottom storage-as-a-service. Dell's Apex will be managed by Dell but implemented by the hosting powerhouse Equinix. The cloud business model is an attractive one for enterprises, and the OEMs continue to respond to both the demands of their customers and the threat of the public cloud providers. The choice is good.
- Commvault continues to execute, delivering its fourth consecutive quarter of beat-the-street numbers. Commvault's Metallic cloud-based backup services was an exceptionally bright spot, doubling its annual recurring revenue quarter-over-quarter. In a very crowded and competitive market, Commvault continues to do well.
- VAST Data, which delivers high-performance storage built on non-traditional software-defined storage architecture, has been doing remarkably well in market segments where performance is king. The company closed an $83M series D funding round which valued VAST, post-money, at a staggering $3.7B. Pure Storage's market cap hovers at around $5.3B. Keep an eye on VAST. It doesn't do a lot of marketing, but its very successful in the segments it which it competes. Its war-chest is full after this most current round, so I expect we'll see them becoming much more visible.
Networking- (Will Townsend)
- I am impressed with Cisco's smart building platform launched this week. The networking giant is leaning into its industrial IoT, location-based services, and deep networking capabilities to deliver a set of offerings that are sustainable, cost-effective. It can enable a safe return to campus environments post-pandemic.
Server- (Matt Kimball)
- N/A

FinTech (Melody Brue)

Late last month, the SEC announced that Alex Oh was appointed Director of the Division of Enforcement. Oh has since resigned following a judge's questioning of her conduct in a lawsuit involving Exxon Mobil Corp.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler told Congress on Thursday that regulators are considering whether new rules are needed to police game-like apps that encourage frequent stock trading. During the GameStopped hearing, whether Pay for Trade Order (PFOP) creates a potential conflict of interest between the brokerage and customer was debated, and if more disclosures are needed around short selling.
- Gensler also raised the issue of sentiment analysis – the practice of natural language analysis, machine learning, and data analytics to mine various words and tie those words to changes to stock prices. Sentiment analysis has increased in use recently. These algorithms are being used in online retail investor forums by more sophisticated institutional investors. Gensler voiced his concern about bad actors potentially taking advantage of influential platforms.
RegTech is the next big thing in FinTech. Regulatory compliance is one of the most fundamental challenges facing FinTechs and must be addressed aggressively. As we are witnessing in crypto, if regulation doesn't exist yet, it will. The limitations of constructing a great user experience in FinTech do not lie in the limitations of web or mobile technologies. It is the complexity of building a product around the constructs of complex laws, regulations, and contracts governing the financial services industry. Successful FinTechs will seize this as an opportunity to outcompete rather than view it as an obstacle.
As innovation can only move at the speed of regulation, which by design moves slowly, the challenge will be to find ways to comply with regulation seamlessly by designing products proactively to solve regulatory concerns.

Home Automation/ Smart Home (Mark Vena)

This could have ramifications for the connected home. Amazon has always had its sights set on the smart home ever since Alexa came along -- but now the online retailer is thinking bigger and envisioning entire smart neighborhoods. First announced in 2019, the effort is called Amazon Sidewalk. It uses a small fraction of your home's Wi-Fi bandwidth to pass wireless low-energy Bluetooth and 900MHz radio signals between compatible devices across far greater distances than Wi-Fi is capable of on its own. In some cases, as far as half a mile, Amazon says.
Google's YouTube is tweaking its app for Roku to include access to its live-TV streaming subscription service, YouTube T.V. It will be interesting to see how this impacts the ongoing negotiations between Google and Roku. It's the latest escalation in a standoff between Google and Roku over a new distribution deal for YouTube T.V., a subscription service that streams live television channels and is typically used as an alternative to cable or satellite for cord-cutters.
According to a report earlier this week, Netflix has surveyed some users on a potential new service called N-Plus. That service could include custom playlists for T.V. series, behind-the-scenes production info, and podcasts, Protocol reported. N-Plus would be an "online space where you can learn more about the Netflix shows and things related to them," the Netflix survey said, according to the report.
HBO Max, the premium network's streaming service featuring all the channel's regular programming, also offers extra shows, movies, and originals that you can't get on its regular channels. This year, HBO Max is streaming all of Warner Bros.'s new, theatrically released movies at no extra charge the same day each film hits U.S. cinemas. The latest: Mortal Kombat, which will stream until May 23. It marks another attempt by HBO to enhance its reputation as the de facto source for first-run movies.

IIoT and IoT (Bill Curtis)

Personal Computing/ Collaboration (Anshel Sag)

Quantum Computing (Paul Smith-Goodson)

Security (Will Townsend)

I attended Dell Technologies World this week and am impressed by the company's broad and deep security portfolio and intrinsic security strategy. That strategy integrates exclusive features such as tamper-proof BIOS and authentication silicon into its server, storage, and client products. I believe Dell security is one of the best-kept secrets within Dell Technologies, complemented by a managed service offering anchored by VMware and Secureworks.

Podcasts:

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

Episode 51 - May 7, 2021
- Cradlepoint and Celona partner to deliver 5G services - what's the potential value?
- Verizon C-Band mmWave carrier ag trial? Hit 4.3gbps using 100MHz channel of C-band and 600MHz of mmWave.
- Starlink Speeds Reported by Ookla - Could this be a 5G FWA competitor in rural areas? Has 500K Orders in place.
- T-Mobile crushes Q1 earnings - is there additional upside?
- UScellular extended range mmWave 5G news (w Ericsson, Inseego, Qualcomm) at 7KM and 1Gbps
- India's big four operators (Bharti Airtel, MTNL, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone) are conducting 5G trials, but no equipment from Huawei or ZTE will be used though they were granted permission by the government last year. They are using Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, and C-DOT equipment instead.

DataCentric Podcast by Moor Insights & Strategy, with Matt Kimball and Steve McDowell

Inside Arm Neoverse & Arm9 with Arm's Brian Jeff
- Guest, Arm's Brian Jeff, Senior Director of Product Management for Arm's infrastructure business, discusses architectural enhancements being delivered in Arm9, the shifting enterprise landscape, and where Neoverse fits into it all.

SmartTechCheck Podcast by Moor Insights & Strategy, with Mark Vena

SmartTechCheck Podcast (5-7-21)
- Noopl CEO, Tim Trine, talks about his company's innovative new product designed to improve your hearing ability in noisy ambient environments dramatically.

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

It's An As A Service World
- Dell Tech World - APEX
- IBM 2nm Breakthrough
- T-Mobile Earnings $TMUS
- IBM Mainframes as a Service and LinuxOne
- Lattice $LSCC Earnings
- Microsoft Biz Apps Summit
Tech Earnings Palooza
- AMD Earnings
- Google Earnings
- Microsoft Earnings
- Apple Earnings
- Qualcomm Earnings
- Amazon Earnings and Best Place to Work.

Moor Insights & Strategy Podcast

Press Citations:

Amazon, earnings / WION https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/amazon-caps-blockbuster-big-tech-earnings-reports-with-profits-tripling-in-first-quarter-381693
Apple, Epic Games / TechXplore https://techxplore.com/news/2021-05-apple-fortnite-publisher-epic-games.html
Apple, Epic Games / USAToday https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2021/04/30/apple-fortnite-lawsuit-epic-games-banned-app-store-prices/4893324001/
Dell, VMWare / Business Journals https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2021/05/07/why-dell-is-spinning-off-its-vmware-stake.html
Dell, Cloud / Austin American Statesman https://www.statesman.com/story/business/2021/05/03/round-rock-dell-technologies-boomi-sells-cloud-business-4-million/4921950001/
Global Foundries, PsiQunatum / Venturebeat https://venturebeat.com/2021/05/05/globalfoundries-and-psiquantum-partner-on-full-scale-quantum-computerm-computer/
Google / TFIR https://www.tfir.io/what-is-google-infrastructure-for-everyone-else-paul-teich-equinix/
IBM, Chip / Siliconangle https://siliconangle.com/2021/05/06/ibm-research-created-worlds-first-2nm-chip/
IBM, Chip / Fastcompany https://www.fastcompany.com/90633872/ibm-2-nanometer-chip
IBM, CPU / TechTarget https://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/news/252500291/IBMs-2-nanometer-CPU-roadmap-heats-up-chip-manufacturer-race
Intel, Chip / CNET https://www.cnet.com/news/intel-investing-3-5b-in-new-mexico-fab-upgrade-boosting-us-chipmaking/
MVNO / BestMVNO https://bestmvno.com/featured/mvno-owners-discuss-future-of-industry/

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

AMD Radeon RX 6700XT
Cisco Webex Desk Camera
Intel Core i9-11900K, Core i5-11600K
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (AMD), HoloLens 2
OnePlus 9 Pro & OnePlus 9
Poly P15 Personal Video Bar
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G

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

May 2021
- Finovate Spring May 10-13 (Melody Brue)
- IBM Think, May 11-12 (Steve McDowell, Matt Kimball, Patrick Moorhead, Paul Smith-Goodson, Will Townsend)
- Fast Company Innovation Festival 360: Transforming the Next Era of Agriculture Through Innovation, May 12 (Melody Brue)
- Cloudera Spring Spotlight, May 14 (Patrick Moorhead, Matt Kimball)
- Nokia Roundtable, May 17 (Will Townsend)
- RSA Conference, May 17-20 (Will Townsend)
- Google IO, May 18-20 (Anshel Sag)
- 8x8 Industry Analyst Conference (Patrick Moorhead)
- Qualcomm 5G Summit, May 19-20 (Anshel Sag, Will Townsend)
- Vivecon, May 20 (Anshel Sag)
- Inside Quantum Technology Conference, Panel Member Quantum Policy – China, May 20 (Paul Smith-Goodson)
- Zendesk Industry Analyst Summit (Patrick Moorhead)
- Microsoft BUILD, May 24-26 (Patrick Moorhead)
- Spark + A.I. Summit, May 24-28 (Steve McDowell)
- Private Networks Forum, May 25 (Will Townsend)
- Google Data Cloud Summit, May 26 (Matt Kimball, Patrick Moorhead)
June 2021
- NetApp Analyst Summit, June 8-9 (Steve McDowell)
- Google A.I. Summit, June 10 (Matt Kimball)
- The Six-Five Summit, June 14-18 (Patrick Moorhead)
- HPE Discover, June 22 (Patrick Moorhead, Matt Kimball, Will Townsend)

July 2021
- Google Security Summit, July 14 (Matt Kimball)
August 2021
September 2021
- Storage Develop Conference, Sept 28-29 (Steve McDowell)
October 2021
- VMWorld, October 5-7 (Matt Kimball, Steve McDowell)
- NAB 2021, October 10-13, Las Vegas, in person (Steve McDowell)
- Nutanix .NEXT, October 12-14 (Matt Kimball, Steve McDowell)
- Google Next 21, October 12-14 (Matt Kimball)
- IEEE Quantum Week Oct 18-22 (Paul Smith-Goodson)

The Team

Analysts, Analysts In-Residence, Contributors

Patrick Moorhead, Founder, President, Principal Analyst; Broad technology coverage plus deep insights into Cloud & SaaS, Personal Computing, Semiconductors, Automotive
Bill Curtis, Analyst In-Residence, IIoT, and Deep IoT Technology
Matt Kimball, Senior Analyst, Datacenter Servers, CI, and HCI
Melody Brue, Senior Analyst, Financial Tech
Steve McDowell, Senior Analyst, Datacenter Storage, and Storage Technologies
Anshel Sag, Senior Analyst; V.R., P.C. Gaming, Mobile Platforms
Paul Smith-Goodson, Senior Analyst; Machine Learning, A.I. and Quantum Computing
Will Townsend, Senior Analyst; Security, Carrier Services, Networking
Chris Wilder, Contributor, Security
Mark Vena, Senior Analyst, Smart Home, and Home Security

Operations

Dan Pickens, Business Director
Paula Moorhead, Marketing Director, Website, and Social Media
Walker Pickens, Media Relations, and Writer
Zane Pickett, Office Manager, A.P., AR, travel, writer
Lee LeClercq Williams, Business Associate

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.