We hope everyone had a great few weeks!

The Moor Insights & Strategy team will be busy on the road over the next couple of months. As we head into next week, I will attend VMware Explore in Las Vegas and Matt and Will will virtually attend.

Our MI&S team published 40 deliverables:

• 8 Forbes insight columns
• 17 MI&S blogs 
• 13 podcasts   
• 2 research papers

Over the past two weeks, the press quoted us with 10 citations.  They wanted to hear about 5G, Arm, Axiado, NVIDIA, OCP, RingCentral, and Samsung.

 

MIS Quick Insights:

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

• Meta has unveiled Voicebox, a speech generation model capable of synthesizing text-to-speech in six languages, removing noise from speech recordings, and correcting mispronounced words. Unlike other autoregressive models employing a flow-matching architecture, Voicebox is trained on more than 50,000 hours of audio data. It can execute tasks not explicitly trained for, such as cross-lingual style transfer. Despite its capabilities, Meta will not be open-sourcing Voicebox due to concerns about potential misuse. To counter these risks, Meta has created a classifier model that can readily differentiate between original audio and speech synthesized by Voicebox.
• AWS announced the availability of Amazon BedRock agents, allowing developers to create agents that manage and execute complex tasks. BedRock for foundation models will automate prompt engineering and orchestration with the new agent capability. Once configured, an agent will automatically build the prompt and securely augment it with company-specific data to provide natural language responses to the user. As a fully managed capability, developers do not have to worry about provisioning or managing infrastructure. They can seamlessly support monitoring, encryption, user permissions, and data source management without writing custom code.

AR/VR (Anshel Sag)

• N/A

Carrier/Wireless (Will Townsend)

• T-Mobile recently announced its deployment of 4X carrier aggregation, and it should significantly bolster both capacity and speed across its 5G Standalone network deployment. By merging two channels of 2.5 GHz, one channel of 1900 MHz, and one of 600 GHz spectrum, T-Mobile claims it is achieving peak speeds of up to 3.3 Gbps in recent tests. The latter is astounding, especially since mmWave spectrum is not a component.
• Nokia recently launched an innovative small-cell platform to allow cable operators to lower the costs tied to MVNO mobility service operations with mobile offload. I penned a Forbes article that delves into the details, leveraging CBRS/ OnGo PAL spectrum licensing and Nokia’s all-in-one, Strand-Mount solution. Given the value provided, Nokia will replicate its initial win with Charter Communications with other cable operators.

Datacenter:

Networking– (Will Townsend)

• Juniper Networks recently reported earnings for its fiscal 2Q. The infrastructure provider states that its GAAP net income decreased an astounding 78% year over year. This financial performance likely represents an effort on Juniper’s part to invest in its growing footprint within the enterprise, given margin growth and net revenue were in the low double digits.
• Nile is a start-up that hopes to leverage another round of funding to bring innovation to networking as a service through the deeper integration of security. It is a crowded networking infrastructure market, but the company’s ground-up architectural design could be a winner, given there are no legacy hang-ups to refactor.

Data Compute (Matt Kimball)

• We are seeing green shoots from Intel’s efforts to correct course. While the company is still down year-over-year, it has turned a tidy profit and is looking for a stronger second half.  The company’s finances were buoyed by client, while datacenter and AI (DCAI) saw a slight loss of $4B in revenue. As we see in the client numbers, the discipline and urgency Gelsinger drives through the organization are paying off. I expect Xeon to take a little longer to turn as the company has to resolve some performance and credibility challenges. Delivering Emerald Rapids on time will be a good step in the right direction.
• Intel and AMD earnings are out for 2Q. As AMD continues to perform quite well in the cloud, Intel seems to have found its organizational footing and discipline as it seemingly trends in the right direction. While both companies saw a YoY and QoQ decline in revenue due to a slowdown in cloud sales, the numbers are still substantial, and I expect we will see a ramp in 2H as the newer generation CPUs roll out in greater volume.
  • A couple of things I noticed from the presentations. First, I did not see a mention of AMD’s Bergamo in the cloud. I would have expected to see a spotlight on one of the CSPs adopting – or at least rolling out services on a limited basis.
  • Second, it is very curious to see Intel delivering a 96-core (192 thread) CPU to AWS on a custom basis. While I don’t know frequencies and how the company achieved core scale, it is impressive, nonetheless. This puts Xeon at par with EPYC (in terms of core count). I have to think this is a higher margin part for Intel. I also wonder if there is an opportunity to add this to the Xeon portfolio for the larger market.
• After releasing MySQL HeatWave Data Lakehouse to beta in 4Q of 2022, Oracle officially launched the Lakehouse to the general public.  The company demonstrated incredible performance in typical Oracle fashion on everything from loading schemas to querying. And as we’ve become used to, the company makes all of its testing publicly available for customers to replicate in their environments. I am a big fan of Oracle’s aggressiveness in chasing after the data market. While an excellent service, Lakehouse is more than just a point solution. It demonstrates Oracle’s relentless attack on playing the role of the data management platform for a new generation of developers.

Storage/Server (Matt Kimball)

• What to make of Lenovo’s latest round of storage announcements? After dominating the low end of the storage market, the company announced its recent DG Series all-flash array (AFA) launch to go after the performance-hungry AI and analytics markets. I like how the company approached this space, as it is somewhat tiered between performance value and raw performance. The DG5000 and DG7000 should play nicely in the performance-value space, utilizing QLC to drive down pricing. Given the company’s success in delivering compute solutions to the HPC, AI, and high-end analytics market, these DG solutions should be an easy cross-sell.
• VAST enters the data management market with the launch of its VAST Data Platform. Think unified storage tightly integrated with the data management stack, allowing the custom tagging of unstructured data to drive faster, easier, and cheaper deep learning across the large enterprise.
• This is a bold move. And I’ve seen some analysis/commentary questioning how the company can move up the stack and compete with established players. Here are my two cents – as a large enterprise IT organization embarking on deep learning projects, I want to work with a company that “gets” data and, more importantly, “gets” my data. The company has established itself well in the storage space and understands the enterprise data challenges. Further, I think the team at VAST is unique – it’s not your average storage company looking to jump into an adjacent space.
• I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out and whether VAST has started a trend for other high-performance storage players to jump in and play.
• Dell showed off its progress in the generative AI space this week as it announced some updates to its portfolio, spanning servers, storage, services, and workstations. What I find the most interesting about this announcement is not the details but how much the company is (smartly) leaning into the GenAI space and showing off its relationship with NVIDIA. GenAI is where a lot of enterprise IT spend is directed, which will also impact downstream projects. I like the company’s approach and showcasing its viability through partnership, and customer wins.

ESG (Melody Brue)

• N/A

Financial Tech (Melody Brue)

• N/A

IioT and IoT (Bill Curtis)

• The rivalry between LoRaWAN and Sigfox is coming to an end – eventually. This week, Semtech (LoRa) and Unabiz (Sigfox) agreed to integrate the two technologies, unifying a good part of the unlicensed LPWAN world. Device-side integration plans are still sketchy, but Unabiz will run the Sigfox network stack on a dedicated MCU and access Semtech’s LoRa radio subsystem via APIs. Although this initial approach seems complicated and costly, converged devices work on both networks, enabling single-SKU platforms with much greater coverage. The future of LPWAN is now a little clearer.
• PTC’s ThingWorx is a leading IIoT solutions platform. After 26 years at PTC and 13 years at the helm, Jim Heppelmann is stepping down as CEO. Mr. Heppelmann is now Charman of the Board. Neil Barua, who joined PTC in January as part of PTC’s acquisition of field service management (FSM) software provider ServiceMax, will assume the CEO role in February 2024. Mr. Heppelmann is an influential thought leader in the industrial IoT world, and I hope he remains engaged for years to come.

Modern Work (Melody Brue)

• RingCentral’s recent acquisition of select assets from Hopin, a leading online audience engagement technology provider, adds value to its video product portfolio, expanding options for interactive events. The acquisition includes Hopin’s flagship Events platform, an all-in-one event management solution for virtual and hybrid events, and Hopin Session, an interactive meeting engagement tool. This move also brings onboard Hopin’s team of engineers, product, and GTM professionals, infusing a startup-like energy into RingCentral. The deal’s timing is opportune as RingCentral focuses on simplifying business communications and delivering intelligent, connected experiences. Additionally, in this economy, there are budget constraints around live events. Overall, I think RingCentral’s strategic acquisition addresses current challenges in hosting quality hybrid meetings and positions them for future growth in the virtual gathering space.
• The recent uproar surrounding Zoom’s terms of service (TOS) and potential privacy implications raised concerns about the company’s use of customer data for AI model training. This is part of a much broader concern about the use of AI technology, but Zoom has been heavily criticized for its mishandling of the situation. The company immediately released revisions and clarifications to the TOS, and CEO Eric Yuan pledged never to use customer data to train AI models. I appreciate the company’s swift and transparent action and think Zoom is well-equipped to provide secure and customized AI solutions without using customer data for training. Patrick Moorhead and I will analyze this more deeply in Forbes.
• Zoom’s decision to bring employees back to the office two days a week may seem like a shift away from remote work, but a closer look reveals a nuanced approach. Zoom’s policy applies mainly to some workers within 50 miles of its offices two days a week. Zoom’s office environment has changed with a broader focus on collaboration and a shift in the purpose of the space. News headlines suggest that the company that wants you to work remotely is now RTO must mean remote/hybrid work is dead. This is certainly not the case, as more than 50% of companies still have some hybrid model. I think it shows that Zoom is focusing on being more than a video conferencing solution. The company, of course, is best known for that, but it has a comprehensive suite of communication and collaboration services. These include Zoom Team Chat, Zoom Phone’s VoIP system, Zoom Whiteboard, Email and Calendar. Zoom also recently acquired the Workvivo employee communication app. As Zoom grows parts of the business beyond video conferencing (smartly so, as pandemic-level video conferencing will likely never be the same), having teams in the office together at least some portion of the time to collaborate makes sense to me.
• Five9 intends to acquire Aceyus, an advanced data integration and analytics leader. Aceyus specializes in ingesting data from various customer data sources, which allows (it is already a partner) businesses to transition smoothly from legacy systems to Five9’s platform while maintaining consistent reports and insights. This acquisition will enhance Five9’s ability to personalize customer journeys by leveraging contextual data from disparate systems. The partnership should optimize Five9’s AI and automation solutions for better customer experiences, which will only happen with quality data that is accessible and unsiloed. Aceyus’s ability to maintain data and insights consistently across environments should also facilitate large-scale cloud migrations more seamlessly for faster ROI.

Personal Computing (Anshel Sag)

• N/A

Quantum Computing (Paul Smith-Goodson)

• Atom Computing and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently announced a collaborative project to explore the first use of quantum computing to assist in managing and optimizing the U.S. power grid.
  • Atom Computing’s first task will be to provide an optimized solution using quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) or variational quantum eigensolver algorithms to re-route and restore simulated feeder lines that carry electricity from a substation to a local or regional service area. NREL will use those results to evaluate the effectiveness of quantum optimizations.
  • I wrote a complete description of the project in Forbes here.
• With the support of the Commonwealth Government and leading Australian institutions, Silicon Quantum Computing has raised $50.4m in a Series A round to build the world’s first scalable, error-corrected quantum computer. Michelle Simmons, the CEO, says that the funding will enable SQC to achieve its next milestone of creating the world’s first logical qubit in silicon, positioning the company as a potential key hardware manufacturer for the global quantum computing industry.
• Airbus, BMW Group, and Quantinuum have collaborated to create a hybrid quantum-classical workflow for simulating chemical reactions in fuel cells. Quantinuum’s H-Series quantum computer was used to model the oxygen reduction reaction on a platinum-based catalyst. The objective is to discover materials to improve fuel cell performance and reduce costs.  A research paper is here.
• Amazon Braket now supports Wolfram Language, a symbolic programming language used in Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha. Wolfram is recognized for its advanced computational capabilities, comprehensive built-in features, symbolic computation, and rule-based programming. This integration provides Wolfram users with a tool for quantum simulations, circuit optimization, and result analysis.

 

Security (Will Townsend)

• Check Point Software recently published a report finding that the popular Peloton fitness platform is highly vulnerable to attack through its operating system, applications, and API calls. Not only is personal information accessible, as well as the ability to remotely spy on a user, but bad actors can also infiltrate a corporate network if an enterprise-connected device is present near the equipment. This news is a glaring example of how securing IoT devices is difficult. It should warn other connected consumer goods manufacturers to step up their game with hardened security.
• I expect Generative AI to be the lead headline at BlackHat USA 2023. The challenge will be translating the much-ballyhooed capability into tangible security operations and outcomes and determining how it fits into existing point solution frameworks.

Columns Published 

1. No, Zoom Is Not Stealing Your Data. Here’s Why. By Melody Brue
2. Groq’s Record-Breaking Language Processor Hits 100 Tokens Per Second On A Massive AI Model, by Paul Smith-Goodson
3. RingCentral Acquires Hopin Assets For Enhanced Virtual And Hybrid Events, by Melody Brue
4. AST SpaceMobile Aims For The Stars In Texas, by Will Townsend
5. VAST Shakes Up Data Management, by Matt Kimball
6. AWS Turbocharges Foundation Models With Smart AI Agents, by Paul Smith-Goodson
7. Snapdragon’s Soccer Success Story, by Anshel Sag
8. Nokia Helps Cable Operators Create Value With 5G Mobile Offload, by Will Townsend

Blogs Published (MI&S)                                                             

1. Banning NVIDIA Chips In China Likely Won’t Deter China’s AI Progress, by Patrick Moorhead
2. Samsung Unpacked 2023: Years Of Persistence Leads To Higher Degrees Of Fold Success, by Patrick Moorhead
3. Bendigo And Adelaide Bank — Achieving Findability Of Customer Documents, by Patrick Moorhead
4. The Importance Of Cloud-Native Application Security In The Modern Work Era, by Will Townsend
5. AWS HealthScribe Uses Generative AI And Real-Time Doctor-Patient Conversations To Update Medical Charts, by Paul Smith-Goodson
6. Samsung Holds Its Leadership Position With Latest Foldables, Tablets, And Wearables, by Anshel Sag
7. The Power Of The Prompt: Unleashing AI’s Full Potential For Work Productivity, by Melody Brue
8. Research Note: Lenovo Expands Its Storage Portfolio, by Matt Kimball
9. Atom Computing Could Forever Change The Way We Manage The U.S. Electrical Grid, by Paul Smith-Goodson
10. Avaya CEO: “There’s Not A Company In This Space I’d Trade Balance Sheets With”, by Melody Brue
11. The Extraordinary Ubiquity Of Generative AI And How Major Companies Are Using It, by Paul Smith-Goodson
12. Microsoft Puts AI Chat To Work With Bing Chat Enterprise, by Melody Brue
13. Unpacking Lead-Clad U.S. Telecom Cable Concerns, by Will Townsend
14. Strategic Partnership Between IonQ And QuantumBasel Could Transform Switzerland Into A European Quantum Powerhouse, by Paul Smith-Goodson
15. What Amazon Prime Day Data Could Tell Retailers About 2023 Holiday Shopping, by Melody Brue
16. Fear, Uncertainty And Doubt In The Radio Access Network Market, by Will Townsend
17. PayPal Makes Strategic Moves With Expansion Of Venmo Offerings, by Melody Brue

Research Paper(s):

• RESEARCH PAPER:Winning The Data-Centric Digital Business In This Decade, by Matt Kimball
• RESEARCH PAPER: IBM Research Gets Us Closer to Quantum Advantage, by Paul Smith-Goodson

 

Podcasts:

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

1. The G2 on 5G Podcast – Rakuten Symphony CEO is Out, Dish and Echostar merger, Intel + Samsung vRAN
2. The G2 on 5G Podcast – T-Mobile Network Slicing Beta, Qualcomm Earnings, AT&T RedCap Call
3. The G2 on 5G Podcast – Q2 Carrier Earnings, T-Mobile 4x CA, Intel and Ericsson 5G SoCs, and More!
4. The G2 on 5G Podcast – NTT 6G, Huawei 5G Smartphones, 5G Americas NTN, CISA and NSA Network Slicing

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

1. The Six Five Insider with Micron’s Ryan Baxter
2. Ep 178: We are Live! Talking Amazon, AWS, AMD, Qualcomm, Lattice Semi, Apple, Zoom
3. Ep 177: We are Live! Talking Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, Google, T-Mobile, Intel, Adobe, Figma
4. The Six Five Insider with Micron’s Girish Cherussery
5. The Six Five Connected with Diana Blass: Copyright, Deep Fakes, and Data Privacy in the Age of AI
6. The Six Five Insider Edition: Enterprise AI Needs a Data Foundation You Can Trust
7. How Leaders Can Build a Resilient Workforce in the Age of AI — Six Five On the Road at .conf23
8. Ep 176: We are Live! Talking Oracle, SAP, IBM, Microsoft, Lenovo, Broadcom

 

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

• Ep9-MI&S Datacenter Podcast: VAST Data, Intel, AMD, Nile, LK-99, Black Hat, Quantum, Cloud CPUs, AWS
• Ep5- MI&S Hot Desk Podcast: Zoom, RingCentral, Five9, Aceyus, RTO.

 

Citations: 

1. Arm / PC Mag / Anshel Sag https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/windows-on-arm-report-card-11-years-in-and-still-not-a-bulls-eye
2. Axiado/ Axiado.com / Patrick Moorhead https://axiado.com/axiado-ceo-gopi-sirineni-at-six-five-summit-2023/
3. NVIDIA/ CNBC / Patrick Moorhead https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/11/nvidia-ai-driven-rally-pushed-earnings-multiple-higher-than-tesla.html
4. NVIDIA / TechTarget / Anshel Sag https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/news/366547692/Nvidia-seeks-to-help-enterprises-with-generative-AI
5. OCP/ Data Center Frontier / Patrick Moorhead  https://www.datacenterfrontier.com/hyperscale/article/33009117/thats-so-meta-google-microsoft-take-hold-at-ocp-in-collaborative-spirit
6. RingCentral/ Voip Review / Melody Brue https://voip.review/2023/08/04/ringcentral-expands-video-solutions-hopin-assets-acquisition/
7. RingCentral/ AMI / Melody Brue https://amimagazine.global/Meetings/Technology/RingCentral-acquires-core-events-assets-from-Hopin-for-undisclosed-sum
8. RingCentral/ Business Wire / Melody Brue https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230802513699/en/RingCentral-Expands-Video-Offerings-With-Acquisition-of-Events-and-Session-Product-Lines-From-Hopin
9. Samsung/ Android Central / Anshel Sag https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/samsung-should-make-galaxy-z-flip-fe

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)

• August
  • Zoom Perspectives, Silicon Valley, Aug 1-3 (Melody Brue)
  • Black Hat – Las Vegas, August 8-10 (virtual) (Will Townsend)
  • VMware Explore – Las Vegas, August 21-24 (Will Townsend, Matt Kimball, Patrick Moorhead)
  • Google Cloud Next, San Francisco, August 29-31 (Pat Moorhead)
• September
  • IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing & Engineering, Bellevue WA, September 17-22 (Paul Smith-Goodson)
  • Salesforce Dreamforce, September 11-13 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Fortinet Championship PGA Event – Napa Valley, September 11-15 (in person) (Will Townsend)
  • Intel Innovation 2023, September 19-20 (Anshel Sag, Patrick Moorhead, Paul Smith-Goodson)
  • Oracle Cloud World, September 18-20 (Patrick Moorhead, Matt Kimball-Virtual)
  • AI Summit, Austin Sept 20-21 (Paul Smith-Goodson)
  • Connected Britain – London, September 20-21 (Will Townsend)
  • MWC Las Vegas – September 26-28 (Will Townsend)
• October
  • RingCentral Analyst Event (Melody Brue)
  • Ceridian Analyst Summit and Insights User Conference, Las Vegas, October 1-4 (Melody Brue)
  • Zoomtopia, San Jose, October 3-4 (Melody Brue)
  • Box Works October 11, (virtual) (Melody Brue)
  • 5G Americas, Dallas, October 11-12 (Anshel Sag)
  • OpenText, Las Vegas, October 11 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Lenovo Industry Analyst Event, October 16-19 (Patrick Moorhead, Matt Kimball)
  • 5G Techritory – Riga, October 18-19 (in person) (Will Townsend)
  • com Analyst-Only Executive Q&A October 19 (virtual) (Melody Brue)
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit, Maui October 24-26 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Money 20/20, October 23-26 (Melody Brue)
  • WebexOne, Anaheim, October 23-26 (Melody Brue)
  • 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 (in person) (Will Townsend)
  • UCX USA, Austin, November 13-14 (Melody Brue)
  • SC 23, November 13-15 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • 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 (Patrick Moorhead)
• February
  • Mobile World Congress, February 24-29th (Patrick Moorhead)

 

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The Team

Analysts, Analysts In-Residence, Contributors

• Patrick Moorhead, Founder, CEO, Chief Analyst; Broad technology coverage plus deep insights into Cloud & SaaS, Personal Computing Devices, Semiconductors, & Automotive
• Melody Brue, Principal Analyst, Modern Work and ESG
• Bill Curtis, Analyst In-Residence, IIoT, and Deep IoT Technology
• 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
• Jacob Freyman, Junior Analyst

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