I hope you all had a wonderful week!  

Last week, several of us attended several events; NVIDIA GTC (Anshel, Matt, Steve, myself, Paul, and Will), HPE GreenLake Day (myself, Matt, Steve, and Will). I also attended Dell Match Play. Matt presented at Nutanix Database Summit.

Next week, Matt will be participating in the Oracle HeatWave Panel and attending Datacenter World (with Will). Will will be attending Aruba Atmosphere.

Our MI&S team published 17 deliverables: 

• 7 (Forbes or eWEEK) insight columns 
• 3 MI&S blogs
• 7 podcasts   
• 0 research papers

The press quoted us with 9 citations. Journalists wanted to hear about Apple, Cisco, HPE, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Zip. 

Quick Insights:

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

• The big news in AI hardware (and, as it turns out, also software) is the NVIDIA announcement of its Hopper architecture. As the 9th generation of NVIDIA's GPU, the H100 is a hardware accelerator containing 80 billion transistors, two types of cores, and built with 4nm fabrication. It provides 9X faster AI training and 30X faster inference than the A100. It also features a Transformer engine to accommodate Google's transformer machine learning, considered the largest and most complex machine learning model.

AR/VR (Anshel Sag)

• N/A

 Carrier/Wireless (Will Townsend)

• T-Mobile announced several initiatives recently to demonstrate the full potential of 5G. From my perspective, the most exciting announcement is the creation of DevEdge. DevEdge aims to speed the development of next-generation applications and use cases by providing developers with pre-certified chipsets and devices, streamlined IoT solution certification, and access to APIs and SDKs. This new program from T-Mobile is compelling and should serve as a model for other operators to scale-out new 5G service delivery as an extension or carrier proof-of-concept labs.      

Datacenter: 

• Storage- (Steve McDowell) 
  • HPE steps up its GreenLake offerings significantly, adding some of the easiest-to-use and most reliable storage-as-a-service in the industry. HPE delivers GreenLake block storage with near push-button simplicity while also offering a 100% data availability guarantee. The company does allow storage administrators to dive into the system's guts, but that shouldn’t be necessary with the tools provided—a significant step forward for GreenLake and HPE. 
  • GPUs keep finding new uses in the accelerated datacenter. Storage startup Nyriad this week launched two new storage arrays that use GPUs in combination with more traditional CPUs to assist in storing and recovering data. It's an interesting approach and a performant one if Nyriad’s claims for 18GB/second throughput holds.
• Networking- (Will Townsend) 
  • NVIDIA announced its Spectrum-4 networking platform at its signature GTC event. It is impressive given its performance, security, and low power consumption on the surface. NVIDIA is leveraging its Bluefield DPU platform to provide significant offload capability. Consequently, hyperscalers should find the platform compelling, given its workload requirements.     
• Server- (Matt Kimball)   
  • AMD officially launched its Milan-X CPU this week, targeting the HPC market with a uniquely bonded 3D V-Cache architecture that drives performance in a lower power envelope. While the company called out EDA, Fluid Dynamics, and Structural Analysis as three workloads that will see significant performance gains (up to 40%), I believe this release will further fuel the company’s momentum in the general-purpose compute space as well as enterprise IT will look at Milan-X as validation of EPYC’s enterprise readiness. AMD has made compute acceleration a strength with Milan-X, the MI 200, and the Xilinx product and IP portfolio. I’m looking forward to watching how the SC500 list evolves next year.  
  • Speaking of the SC500 list – NVIDIA’s launch of Grace and Hopper at GTC was huge and will further strengthen the company’s position as a leader in the datacenter space. Grace – 144 cores on a 5nm node process, built on Arm v9 architecture (first server part on v9?). The company is claiming up to 1.5x performance advantage of its x86 rivals. NVIDIA is also targeting the hyperscale market with Grace. I will be tracking the chips' progress in this market and what services CSPs are targeting with Grace. 
  • Cisco announced many innovations across its portfolio (Intersight, HyperFlex, UCS-X) geared at simplifying the lives of IT organizations tasked with modernization and the transformation that many businesses are undergoing. Intersight captures what IT organizations look for – full-stack observability with a way to separate the signal from noise and that “easy button” for IT professionals to quickly respond to infrastructure performance or operational challenges. HyperFlex Express was released to simplify support for ROBO and edge environments through ease of deployment and better economics. And UCS-X targets simplifying the deployment of resources to support the most demanding workloads. But for me, it’s how Intersight delivers cloud console-like simplicity for IT.  
  • One other note on Cisco and this release. Many conversations with IT professionals leave me feeling like hardware just doesn’t’ matter to enterprise IT anymore. Blame it on virtualization, the cloud, and HCI compute models that make hardware more “invisible” to the IT pro. However, part of this “invisibility” is attributed to Cisco's design effort in its hardware (like other server vendors). Simple lego-like blocks of compute, memory, storage, networking, and acceleration that just fit together and can be provisioned and reprovisioned on-demand—innovation at its finest.     

FinTech (Melody Brue)

• N/A

IIoT and IoT (Bill Curtis)

• Arduino announced a long-awaited and much anticipated Linux platform – the Portenta X8. Think of it as an industrial-grade Raspberry Pi with better performance, graphics, and security in a smaller form factor – a 66.04 x 24.40 mm SOM (same size as the RPi Zero). The microcomputer is an NXP i.MX 8M Mini (quad Cortex-A53 plus a Cortex-M4). The platform also includes a STM32H747AII6 microcontroller (same as the Portenta H7) for real-time tasks, an NXP SE050C2 crypto chip, WiFi, Ethernet (no header), and Bluetooth. For development, the module can plug into a Portenta Breakout board (available now) or the much larger Portenta Max Carrier (coming soon). Commercial customers can use Foundries.io cloud services to build custom Yocto distros supporting containerized (Docker) applications, layered OS maintenance, and incremental FOTA updates for fleets of devices. Although the price for the SOM ($239) is steep compared to RPi alternatives, this platform offers commercial-grade security, next-level embedded performance, and a software environment that supports long-term OS and application software maintenance. The Portenta X8 is an excellent example of the “device platform convergence” in this recent Forbes article here. 

Personal Computing/ Collaboration (Anshel Sag) 

• N/A

Quantum Computing (Paul Smith-Goodson)

• It is important news that Microsoft is back on track and is still conducting research in topological quantum computing. I'm glad to see it is not letting the embarrassment of its 2018 topological "technical errors" derail its efforts. It's most recent work includes the important observation of a 30 μeV topological gap. It is an important milestone and lays the groundwork for the potential future of topological quantum computing. A topological qubit would have several advantages, including an improved form of error correction. Since quantum information would be stored in two halves of an electron, if information is destroyed in one half, it would remain intact in the other half. Another important feature of a topological qubit is its two ground states that provide some protection from noise. It will be a big boost for the entire ecosystem if Microsoft is successful.
  • Recently there was some very interesting large simulation research by Google and Colombia University. It was interesting for two reasons: 1.) the team developed a new algorithm that reduced the statistical noise from qubits during quantum chemistry simulations. 2.) the algorithm used Quantum Monte Carlo instead of VQE to determine the ground state energy of three molecules - heliocide (H4), molecular nitrogen (N2), and solid diamond. The prior record for solving ground state energy used 12 qubits and VQE. According to Columbia chemistry professor David Reichman, these are the largest quantum chemistry calculations ever been done on a quantum device. 
  • We are getting closer to performing useful work with quantum computing.  

Security (Will Townsend)

• The U.S. government recently warned enterprises of potential Russian cyberattacks as the mass exodus of companies such as Starbucks and Mcdonald's continues amid sanctions over the attack on Ukraine. From my perspective, critical infrastructures such as energy and telecommunications are at the highest risk. Since both sectors deploy headless devices in the form of IoT sensors and devices, security operations teams will need to consider layering additional measures to thwart attacks. Consequently, agentless network segmentation solutions from companies such as startup Airgap Networks may be worth serious consideration.        

Space (Paul Smith-Goodson)

• N/A   

Columns Published (Forbes, eWEEK, UPLOAD VR, and others

1. KONE Elevates People Flow Through Digital Transformation, by Patrick Moorhead
2. The Samsung Galaxy A53 5G Offers A More Affordable Samsung Experience, by Patrick Moorhead
3. Review: Samsung Made The Galaxy S22 Is The Most Compact Smartphone Of 2022, by Patrick Moorhead
4. Review: Samsung Brings Back The Best Of The Note Legacy With The Galaxy S22 Ultra, by Patrick Moorhead
5. Qualcomm Chief Economist Explains How Global Economics And Geopolitics Affect Innovation, by Patrick Moorhead
6. One Year Review: The Dell UltraSharp 40 Curved Monitor Is Nearly Perfect For Creators, by Anshel Sag
7. The Biggest Mobile Device And Chipset Announcements At MWC 2022, by Anshel Sag

Blogs Published (MI&S)                                                              

1. Intel Foundry Services Going Big On RISC-V ‘Brawny Cores’ With Ventana Micro Systems Compute Tiles, by Patrick Moorhead
2. Oracle Forms Formula 1 Team In Partnership With Red Bull Racing, by Patrick Moorhead
3. Mobile World Congress 2022 Delivers In Three Key Areas, by Will Townsend

Research Paper(s):

• N/A

Podcasts:

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

• The G2 on 5G Podcast - Ep 91 - BMW & T-Mo, T-Mobile 5G Fwd, Verizon & DoD, iPhone SE X57 & More
  • T-Mobile and BMW announce a partnership for 5G connectivity - what’s compelling? (reference Pat’s article); DevEdge announcement 
  • T-Mobile 5G Forward, Innovation Hub, and AR 5G Towers, Digital Twins, etc.
  • Verizon awarded $1B in U.S. Dept of Defense contracts - what could be the impact of 5G?
  • The iPhone SE (2022) features a new Qualcomm Snapdragon X57 5G modem
  • Qualcomm and Movandi team up for mmWave and why it could be a game-changer for 5G
  • AT&T enables 5G global roaming in 35+ countries

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

• N/A

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

• Ep.115: Talking HPE, NVIDIA #GTC22, Luminar Buys Freedom, Enterprisecon ‘22, Adobe, and Microsoft
• HPE GreenLake Edge-to-Cloud Platform: The Power of the Cloud that Comes to You
• HPE Aruba Announces New NaaS Solutions
• Modernizing Data Management with HPE GreenLake Data Services
• Driving Momentum for the Hybrid Cloud World with HPE GreenLake Cloud Services
• Ep114: We’re talking Amazon Climate Pledge, What’s Ahead for Semis, Apple Flips and Flops, and more

Moor Insights & Strategy Podcast

• N/A

 Press Citations: 

1. Apple / Protocol https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/protocol-fintech/apple-fintech?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1 (Melody Brue)
2. Apple / Androidcentral https://www.androidcentral.com/mmwave-budget-android-phones (Anshel Sag)
3. Cisco / Yahoo https://www.yahoo.com/now/top-tech-analysts-latest-purpose-143214064.html
4. Cisco / Helpnetsecurity https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/03/25/cisco-innovations/ (Matthew Kimball)
5. Cisco, cloud / Techrepublic https://www.techrepublic.com/article/cisco-innovations-accelerate-hybrid-cloud-adoption/ (Matthew Kimball)
6. HPE / TechTarget https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/news/252514971/HPE-GreenLake-rolls-in-Aruba-adds-block-STaaS (Steve McDowell)
7. Microsoft / Windowscentral https://www.windowscentral.com/heres-what-russia-legalizing-piracy-could-mean-tech-companies (Anshel Sag)
8. NVIDIA / SDXCentral https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/nvidia-spectrum-4-puts-rivals-years-behind/2022/03/ (Will Townsend)
9. Zip, Klarna / TheStreet https://www.thestreet.com/investing/buy-now-pay-later-company-now-lets-you-finance-a-tank-of-gas (Melody Brue)

Company:

• N/A

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

• HP Omen 45L Desktop 
• HP Omen 27c Gaming Monitor 
• Lumina webcam
• MSI Creator 15 OLED Laptop
• Microsoft Surface Go 3 with LTE
• Samsung S22 Ultra and S22.

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

• March
  • Aruba Atmosphere, March 27- April 1 (Will Townsend)
  • Datacenter World, Austin, March 28-31 (Matt Kimball, Steve McDowell)
  • Oracle HeatWave Panel, March 30 (panel member) (Matt Kimball)
• April
  • HPE Houston Open House April 4 (Matt)
  • Advisories, Seattle, April 5-7 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Advisory, Phoenix, April 7 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • IBM Quantum Open House, April 12 (Paul Smith-Goodson)
  • Open Networking & Edge Executive Forum, April 12-14, virtual (Will)
  • NetApp Investment Analyst Day, April 22 (Steve McDowell)
  • NVIDIA Investment Analyst Day, April 22 (Steve McDowell)
  • NAB Show, Las Vegas, April 24-27 (Steve McDowell)
  • Infosys Cloud panel moderator, NYC, April 26 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Oracle Lab Grand Opening, Chicago, April 27 (Patrick Moorhead)
• May
  • Dell Tech World, Las Vegas, May 2-5 (Matt Kimball, Steve McDowell, Patrick Moorhead, Will Townsend)
  • MediaTek Analysts Day, Scottsdale, May 9-11 (Anshel Sag, Will Townsend)
  • IBM Think, May 9-13 (Steve McDowell, Patrick Moorhead)
  • SAP Sapphire, Orlando, May 9 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Red Hat Analyst Summit, May 10-11 (Matt Kimball)
  • Intel Vision, May 10-11 (Steve McDowell)
  • All In Summit, May 15-17, Miami (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Big 5G Event – Austin, May 16-17 (Will Townsend)
• June
  • RSA – San Francisco, June 6-9 (Will Townsend)
  • Pure//Accelerate TechFest, L.A., June 7-9 (Steve McDowell)
  • Six Five Summit 2022, Virtual, June 7-9 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Google Applied ML Conference, June 9 (Paul Smith-Goodson)
  • Lenovo Analyst Summit, June 13-15, (Matt Kimball)
  • Cisco Live, June 12-16 (Patrick Moorhead, Will Townsend)
  • Zscaler Cloud Summit – Las Vegas, June 21-23 (Will Townsend)
  • HPE Discover, June 28-30, Las Vegas (Matt Kimball, Paul Smith-Goodson, Steve McDowell, Will Townsend)
• July
• August
  • Flash Memory Summit, Aug 2-4, Santa Clara (Steve McDowell)
  • VMworld, San Francisco, Aug 28-Sept 1 (Steve McDowell)
• September
  • Quantum Open House Event, TBD (Paul Smith-Goodson)
  • SNIA Storage Developer Conference, San Jose, Sept 28-29 (Steve McDowell)
• October
  • Open Compute Global Summit, October 18-19 (Steve McDowell)

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The Team 

Analysts, Analysts In-Residence, Contributors

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

Operations 

1. Dan Pickens, Business Director 
2. Paula Moorhead, Marketing Director, Website, and Social Media 
3. Walker Pickens, Media Relations, and Writer 
4. Zane Pickett, Office Manager, AP., AR, travel, writer 
5. Lee LeClercq Williams, Business Associate 
6. Nigel Church, Business Associate, Writer, Editor
7. Jacob Freyman, Writer, and Researcher 
8. Connor Kenyon, Six Five Sales & Business Development