We hope everyone had a great week!  

This week, Anshel, Will, and I attended Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 

Next week, Paul will be in Las Vegas, attending APS Quantum. 

Our MI&S team published 17 deliverables:  

• 4 Forbes insight columns  
• 5 MI&S blogs 
• 7 podcasts    
• 1 research papers 

The press quoted us with 9 citations. Journalists wanted to hear about AMD, AWE, Edge, Microsoft, MWC, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Quantinuum.  

MIS Quick Insights: 

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

• A large international collaboration led by researchers at John Hopkins University recently published a paper describing how biological brain-machine technologies could eclipse existing AI created in today's hardware. The paper describes a technology called organoid intelligence (OI) which is an emerging bio-AI field using 3D cultures of human brain cells (brain organoids) and brain-machine interface technologies. Since organoids are similar to biological brain structures and functions, they could act as biological hardware and possibly be more efficient than today's hardware running huge models like GPT-3.

AR/VR (Anshel Sag) 

• N/A

Carrier/Wireless (Will Townsend) 

• Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2023 highlights:
  • Nokia's new brand campaign launched at MWC aims to reinvigorate its focus on the enterprise, but a new brandmark will not do it alone. Nokia has the proper hardware, software, and overall portfolio depth to make a serious run for enterprise customers. Its traditional CSP selling motion has limited its success in the past, but new partnerships with Dell Technologies should help pull it into more enterprise deals.
• The GSMA used MWC this year as a launching pad for a new framework that aims to provide universal network application program interfaces (APIs) to the developer community called Open Gateway. Open Gateway offers eight initial open APIs, and the most compelling ones include Quality of Service on Demand (QoD), edge site selection and routing, and device location verification. Open Gateway could accelerate 5G service innovation. If the MNOs are smart, they will jointly invest in monetizing compelling 5G applications to retire mobile network investments and improve consumer and enterprise subscriber ARPU.                     

Datacenter:  

Networking- (Will Townsend)  

• Cisco and NTT announced a strategic partnership at MWC to further mutual private networking efforts. What I like about the tie-up is the focus on integrating cellular into existing LAN and WAN enterprise deployments. One of the challenges is not to create overlay networks that have the potential to increase operational complexity. Given both company's capability depth and customer install bases, I expect to hear great things in the future.
  • Just before MWC, HPE made a significant statement with its intention to acquire core networking infrastructure provider Athonet. This transaction at close gives its Aruba Networking portfolio an instant seat at the table for private 5G opportunities versus a more reactive fallback with having Celona on its price list.
• Security: RSA Conference is the yearly event showcasing security, but there was a lot of discussion around 5G security at MWC. 5G NR does improve security significantly over 4G LTE from an encryption standpoint, but its impact on proliferating industrial IoT sensors and devices will expand threat surfaces greatly. Enterprise endpoint security solution providers will benefit from sales upside as 5G SA deployments become a reality in the year's second half. It is also important to note that Nokia has a strong service provider-oriented security portfolio, and with its rebranding effort, it is well positioned to take share.      

Server (Matt Kimball)

• It's earnings season for the major server vendors, and each "big three" showed impressive growth in datacenter related offerings. Dell, HPE, and Lenovo all reported strong numbers across both server and storage segments, with Lenovo becoming the third largest server vendor. Each of these vendors is playing to its strengths and has been able to drive growth based on these respective organizational and product-focused capabilities.
• While it's been a strong quarter for the server vendors in terms of datacenter portfolios, some are reporting a more difficult macro-outlook due to the massively slumping PC market. The negative outlook for the upcoming quarters due to this PC slump cannot be allowed to impact the necessary investments in maintaining server/storage positions. Those that have shed its PC business (HPE) will continue to drive strategic investments and GTM motions. 
• I'm a big fan of what Dell is doing with its Telecom Infrastructure Blocks. The telecom (and cloud) spaces have unique needs, and vertically integrated solution stacks simplify the process of rolling out and managing infrastructure. The Dell portfolio (XR500, XR7000, XR8000) seems to hit the performance band needs of telco nicely – and the company is claiming significant hard cost savings and the hard-to-measure savings associated with time to operation and time to value. 
• HPE made another security-related acquisition this week, scooping up SSE vendor Axis. This acquisition enriches the HPE SASE portfolio and complements the company's GreenLake focused approach to the market. Hybrid is the name of the game, and Axis plays nicely into the vision the company laid out with Project Aurora back in 2021. 

ESG (Melody Brue)

• N/A

Financial Tech (Melody Brue)

• Better Mortgage introduced the "Better Equity Unlocker" program, allowing Amazon employees with vested equity to finance their homes without selling their shares. The loan is secured by the pledged equity and is available in Florida, New York, and Washington state. The company plans to expand to at least 25 more states in Q2 and eventually nationwide. The Equity Unlocker product was built on AWS (Better.com has been an AWS customer since 2015) and is currently available to Amazon employees. Still, the company plans to offer the program to other companies. The partnership comes when mortgage originations are down and interest rates are high, which has caused a decline in Better.com's business. It was designed to cater to employees at high-growth companies where workers are increasingly compensated with equity, sometimes forgoing cash. Equity unlocker mortgages will carry a higher rate – 0.25 to 2.5 percentage points above market – depending on the down payment structure. It is available to current and former Amazon employees with vested equity, which could be good news for the many recently laid-off employees. 
• JP Morgan Chase has restricted the use of ChatGPT in the workplace. The decision was driven by the concern over sensitive financial information being shared with the chatbot and the possibility of regulatory action. Amazon issued employee guidance recently to urge employees not to use ChatGPT for "any Amazon confidential information (including Amazon code you are working on)."

IioT and IoT (Bill Curtis) 

• N/A

Modern Work (Melody Brue)

• Zoom's FYQ4 earnings beat expectations, and revenue was better than expected for its online (individuals and small groups) and enterprise segments. The company is well-placed for hybrid work and has shown customer growth despite increasing scrutiny on tech spending in a down economy. Wall Street analysts have expressed concerns about the consumer business and competition from offerings like Microsoft Teams. Zoom also recently announced that it would lay off about 15% of its employees (around 1,300 people) due to the macroeconomic climate affecting its growth. Zoom CEO Eric Yuan cut his salary by 98% and will forgo his bonus as he takes responsibility for overhiring mistakes. In an employee email, he stated, "I want to show accountability not just in words but in my own actions." While the move likely doesn't materially impact Yuan financially, it shows accountability and solidarity beyond that of many tech companies with recent layoffs.

Personal Computing/ Collaboration (Anshel Sag)  

• N/A

Quantum Computing (Paul Smith-Goodson) 

• Spain is the latest country to begin a quantum initiative. A Spanish consortium will be the first to build a quantum computer in southern Europe. Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech and GMV will form a joint venture to construct the inaugural quantum computer that will be located at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre as part of the Quantum Spain initiative. The quantum computing startup will lead the installation of a superconducting quantum computer scheduled for some time his year.
• The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign received a $5.8 million award from the Army Research Office, a directorate of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory, to develop a new quantum computing architecture. Researchers will use fluxonium, a promising new superconducting qubit, to control and modularly connect superconducting cavities storing quantum information. A successful demonstration of communication between cavities by entangling the fluxonium qubits will give proof of principle to modular quantum computing. The research will focus on developing a modular platform consisting of multimode cavities controlled by fluxonium ancillary qubits.    

Retail Tech (Melody Brue) 

• N/A

Security (Will Townsend) 

• N/A             

Space (Paul Smith-Goodson) 

• N/A    

Columns Published  

1. Ampere Is Driving Sustainability Using The Right Metric- Power At The Rack, by Patrick Moorhead
2. ArcelorMittal: The Digital Transformation Of A Steel Maker, by Patrick Moorhead
3. Morpheus XR: Simplifying The Enterprise Collaboration And Training Space In VR, by Anshel Sag
4. Cloud Culture And The IT Shift: From Control To Collaboration, by Melody Brue

Blogs Published (MI&S)                                                               

1. An Open Approach To Hybrid Data Clouds, by Patrick Moorhead
2. Qualcomm's New Snapdragon X75 And X35 5G Modems Move The 5G Goalposts Even Further Out, by Anshel Sag
3. ActivTrak Provides Insights, Not Surveillance, To Maximize Employee Productivity, by Melody Brue
4. IBM Demonstrates Groundbreaking Artificial Intelligence Research Using Foundational Models And Generative AI, by Paul Smith-Goodson
5. Cisco Live EMEA 2023—Simplicity, Security, And Sustainability, by Will Townsend

Research Paper(s): 

• RESEARCH PAPER: A Hybrid Data Platform Is Critical For Digitally Transformation Businesses, by Patrick Moorhead

 Podcasts: 

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

• N/A

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

1. The Six Five On the Road with Rob Bearden, Cloudera CEO
2. The Six Five In the Booth with Nokia at Mobile World Congress 2023
3. The Six Five In the Booth with Marvell Technology and Nokia at Mobile World Congress 2023
4. A Mission to Modernize and Monetize the World's Networks
5. Swisscom's Embrace of the Cloud
6. How IBM and Vodafone are Working to Create a Quantum-Safe World for Telcos
7. IBM Consulting and Samsung Partnering to Create Future of Enterprise Mobility Solutions

Moor Insights & Strategy Podcast 

• N/A

Press Citations:  

1. AMD / WSJ https://partners.wsj.com/amd/demanding-better-data-centers/advancing-data-center-sustainability/ (Matt Kimball)
2. AWE / ARPost https://arpost.co/2023/02/27/awe-2023-right-around-the-corner/ (Anshel Sag) 
3. Edge! / EEtimes https://www.eetimes.com/edgeq-to-debut-single-chip-for-5g-private-networks/ (Will Townsend) 
4. Microsoft/ NBCPalmSprings https://nbcpalmsprings.com/2023/02/28/microsoft-windows-11-update-puts-ai-front-and-center/
5. Microsoft / Bollyinside https://www.bollyinside.com/news/technology/ai-is-prioritized-in-the-windows-11-update-from-microsoft/
6. MWC / World Media Podcast https://worldpodcasts.com/mwc-2023-predictions-oneplus-11-concept-teaser-moto-razr-3-leaks-and-more-with-anshel-sag-of-moor-insights-strategy/ 
7. NVIDIA / Networkworld https://www.networkworld.com/article/3688989/nvidia-plans-to-make-its-system-that-powers-chatgpt-available-in-the-cloud.html
8. Qualcomm / RCRWireless https://www.rcrwireless.com/20230301/analyst-angle/qualcomms-snapdragon-spaces-gains-momentum-with-telecom-operators-at-mwc-2023(Anshel Sag)
9. Quantinuum / Quantumzeitgeist https://quantumzeitgeist.com/h1-generation-quantum-processor-by-quantinuum-has-set-another-breaking-record-of-achieving-a-five-digit-quantum-volume/ (Paul Smith-Goodson)

Company: 

• N/A

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

• Inseego MiFi X Pro 5G hotspot 
• OnePlus 11 
• OnePlus Buds 2 Pro PSVR 2
• Solis Lite Global Mobile Wi-Fi hotspot   

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

• March
  • APS Quantum, Las Vegas, March 5-10 (Paul Smith-Goodson) 
  • SXSW, Austin, March 10-19 (Melody Brue)
  • LoRa Alliance Event - Orlando, March 14-16 (Will Townsend)
  • IBM z event, Poughkeepsie, March 14-16 (Pat Moorhead)
  • NVIDIA GTC (March 20-23) Matt Kimball, Pat Moorhead
  • Adobe Summit 2023, Las Vegas, March 21-23 (Melody Brue)
  • Enterprise Connect, Orlando, March 27-30 (Melody Brue)
  • Connected America – Dallas, March 28-29 (Will Townsend) 
  • HP Amplify, Chicago, March 28-29 (Pat Moorhead)
• April
  • Zoho Zoholics, Austin, April 3-4 (Melody Brue)
  • Fortinet Accelerate – Orlando, April 3-6 (in person) (Will Townsend) 
  • HPE Aruba Atmosphere – Las Vegas, April 23-28 (virtual) (Will Townsend)
  • RSA Conference – San Francisco, April 24-27 (virtual) (Matt Kimball, Will Townsend) 
• May 
  • Juniper Summit, Dallas. May 1-3 (Will Townsend)
  • ConnectX, New Orleans, May 8-10 (Will Townsend)
  • Nutanix .NEXT, Chicago, May 8 (Matt Kimball)
  • Intel Vision, Orlando, May 9-10 (Matt Kimball)
  • IBM Think, Orlando, May 9-11 (Pat Moorhead)
  • Event, Paris, May 15-16 (Pat Moorhead)
  • Event, Cambridge UK, May 17-18 (Pat Moorhead
  • Dell Tech World, Las Vegas, May 22-25 (Matt Kimball, Pat Moorhead)
  • Red Hat Analyst Summit, Boston/Virtual, May 23-24 (Matt Kimball)
• June
  • Cisco Live – Las Vegas, June 4-8 (Will Townsend)
  • Zscaler Zenith Live – Las Vegas, June 13-15 (Will Townsend)
  • HPE Discover – Las Vegas, June 20-23 (Will Townsend)
  • MongoDB World, New York, June 20-22 (Pat Moorhead)
  • Samsara Analyst Day, Austin, June 21 (Melody Brue)
• July
  • Lenovo Industry Analyst Conference, July 24-27 (Pat Moorhead)
• August
  • Google Cloud Next, San Francisco, August 29-31 (Pat Moorhead)

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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 Devices, Semiconductors, & Automotive  
2. Melody Brue, Principal Analyst, Modern Work and ESG 
3. Bill Curtis, Analyst In-Residence, IIoT, and Deep IoT Technology  
4. Matt Kimball, Principal Analyst, Datacenter Servers, CI, and HCI  
5. Anshel Sag, Principal Analyst; VR, PC Gaming, Mobile Platforms  
6. Paul Smith-Goodson, Principal Analyst; Machine Learning, A.I. and Quantum Computing  
7. Will Townsend, Principal Analyst; Security, Carrier Services, Networking  
8. Chris Wilder, Contributor, Security  
9. Jacob Freyman, Junior Analyst 

Operations  

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