Special Breaking Analysis: Inside the AI-Networking Fabric Debate – Why Purpose-Built is Winning and Why Openness Still Matters
We believe the center of gravity in AI infrastructure has shifted from servers to AI factories, where networking is perhaps as critical as compute. Our analysis of an interview with NVIDIA SVP of Networking, Gilad Shainer, indicates NVIDIA’s thesis is straightforward. Specifically, that scale-up fabrics (NVLink/NVLink Fusion) plus scale-out Ethernet purpose-built for AI (Spectrum-X) — and increasingly scale-across for multi–data center topologies (Spectrum-XGS) — deliver superior determinism, efficiency, and time-to-outcomes at giga-scale. At the same time, the market is too large and heterogeneous for any single fabric to dominate; open standards and merchant Ethernet will continue to win broad adoption, and even NVIDIA is embracing open interfaces and ecosystems to complement its proprietary advantages. In our view, NVIDIA is a somewhat rare case where first-mover advantage has paid off. Its early conviction in parallel computing, GPUs, CUDA/NCCL software moats, and the Mellanox acquisition now underpin a defensible systems position across scale-up, scale-out, and (increasingly) scale-across.
288 | Breaking Analysis | Cyber is Your #1 Risk and You’re Likely Unprepared
Cybersecurity is the number one risk facing enterprises today, and yet organizations remain dangerously unprepared. Executives are not blind to the problem — they understand the financial exposure, the reputational stakes, and the business impact of a major breach. They acknowledge gaps in their defenses and recognize the vulnerabilities that could cripple their mission-critical systems. But awareness has not translated into readiness and true business resilience remains elusive for the vast majority of firms. Data strategies are especially important – specifically data governance, data protection, and data quality. These remain essential elements of cyber resilience, but they’re only part of the equation. True business resilience requires confronting a multitude of dimensions — from application security to identity, supply chain integrity, operational continuity, infrastructure defenses and more. The uncomfortable truth is that most firms still lack the cohesive strategy, investment, and execution to protect their most vital assets.
How Avocado OS Simplifies the Path to Scale
Avocado OS, developed by Peridio, brings cloud-native practices to embedded Linux, enabling scalable, AI-ready development at the edge. Learn how it simplifies embedded workflows without sacrificing system integrity.
287 | Breaking Analysis | Decoding Trump’s Intel Pivot
Donald Trump’s 180 on Intel is at least directionally correct, certainly more so than calling for the ouster of Lip-Bu Tan, Intel’s CEO. But a contemplated investment by the US in Intel, as reported by Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, without a significant restructuring of Intel’s entire business, is a recipe for failure in our view. Specifically, we continue to urge Intel’s board to spin out its foundry business. Every day it waits further decreases foundry’s value. Moreover, we call on the U.S. government to use money from the CHIPS Act and its influence on large US chip designers, and TSMC, to secure a position for a US-domiciled company in advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
From PoC to Product: Scaling Agentic AI in Financial Services
In this episode of Next Frontiers of AI, host Scott Hebner is joined by Peyman Parsi, Senior Principal for Financial Services at MongoDB, to examine a critical industry challenge: why roughly two‑thirds of AI projects in financial services stall before reaching production, and why those that do often fail to scale with the business. With the advent of agentic AI and its higher‑stakes use cases, this challenge is only becoming more pressing.
The conversation examines the organizational, technical, and trust barriers that prevent promising proofs-of-concept from scaling, ranging from legacy infrastructure and governance gaps to rising costs, bias, and unclear ROI. Scott and Peyman discuss how financial institutions can overcome these obstacles by adopting trusted, agentic architectures built on strong data foundations.
Fermyon Advances AI Deployment for the Next Generation of Cloud Computing
The explosive growth of AI workloads, particularly at the edge, is forcing organizations to rethink their application architecture. Traditional infrastructure strategies are straining under the weight of new compute demands, data locality requirements, and the need for rapid deployment. WebAssembly (WASM), once a browser-centric curiosity, is now emerging as a credible, lightweight runtime for distributed […]
286 | Breaking Analysis | Cloud Quarterly – Azure’s AI Pop, AWS’ Supply Pinch and Google’s Execution
AI is currently running on a one lane, CapEx highway that is capacity constrained. Hyperscalers are the largest contributor to the momentum and as such, investors keep score with cloud growth rates. But this past quarter you had to read the footnotes and the fine print to go beyond the massive investments fueling the wave. Microsoft put up eye-popping Azure growth again, but a big part of that acceleration is Azure serving AI inference — notably ChatGPT — now neatly included in the revised definition of what’s included in Azure. This is great for headlines but not conducive to apples-to-apples comparisons over time. Meanwhile, AWS delivered the largest revenue for cloud infrastructure and sent a clear message that demand exceeds supply. Meaning growth is capped by power and components, not pipeline. That creates a weird optics penalty — AWS showing growth in the high teens on a $120B-plus run rate and it’s deemed “concerning.” But it also telegraphs future upside as capacity goes online and depreciation cycles progress.
SUSE’s Secure, Portable Approach to Hybrid Workloads
Explore how SUSE empowers secure, flexible AI deployment across hybrid environments. Learn how SUSE supports software supply chain integrity, container security, and developer velocity for enterprise AI.
Why Brand Matters in the Age of AI Discovery
In this episode of Next Frontiers of AI, host Scott Hebner is joined by Mick Hollison, founder and CEO of Redline Advisors, former CMO of CrowdStrike and Cloudera, and one of the industry’s leading voices on strategic messaging and brand elevation. Together, they unpack a pressing question: in an AI-first world where algorithms increasingly shape buyer discovery and decision-making, does brand still matter? The answer is a resounding YES, but not in the way it used to. The days of traditional “search and click” are numbered, being replaced by AI-guided discovery and engagement.