Author: Steven J. Schuchart Jr.

Steven is Principal Analyst for Enterprise Networking at GlobalData, covering networking hardware and software for the data center and enterprise, including switching, routing, SDN, SD-WAN, and related technologies. This includes NFV for enterprise, automation, AI/ML for networking, location services, and the convergence of networking and security. Steven will also be covering the new edge, as the network edge evolves SD-WAN and IoT and the opportunities around re-inventing the edge as companies move towards digitization. Steven's technology career began over 25 years ago in Fortune 500 IT for retail, where he was a network architect. Prior to Global Data, Steven has served as Managing Technology Editor at Network Computing Magazine, where he did his own testing and writing, Principal Network Analyst for Network Infrastructure at Current Analysis, and most recently at Cisco Systems, where he worked in Data Center switching, Cloud, and Enterprise Switching.

Near Miss – Funding is Not the Only Threat to the CVE Program

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in Secure
S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• The foundations of the cybersecurity industry shook as the CVE program is nearly ended over short-sighted budget considerations.

• It is hard to convey how crucial the CVE system is worldwide.

This news was kept in the dark. If it would not have been for a leak of an internal memo to social media, it would have hit the cybersecurity landscape like a musket ball to the forehead. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system is a load-bearing piece of the world’s cybersecurity infrastructure, and it was still perilously close to being suspended. The current US administration’s FIRE – READY – AIM approach to cost cutting was to blame for what could have been a catastrophic loss.

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Post-Quantum Cryptography – The Tempest Begins

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in Communicate, Secure
S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

  • Governments have issued advisories as to when and how enterprises, institutions, and government agencies should begin their journey to PQC.
  • While there is much speculation as to when quantum computing will advance to become a threat, the time to act is NOW.

While the AI trend has made a lot of noise dominating headlines, the world of quantum computing has been moving forward much more quietly. More qubits, new error correction, and in general just more improvements in the field as fundamental research continues to point the way. Quantum computing will provide the means to crack some of the hardest problems in the world and will lead to advances in healthcare, chemistry, materials science, and so much more.

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Intel’s Future is Murky – CEO Gelsinger Abruptly Retires

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in IT Leader
S. Schuchart

In a shocking move, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired from his position as CEO as well as his seat on Intel’s board. The resignation is effective as of December 1, 2024. Intel is currently looking for a new CEO, and in the meantime, it has appointed David Zinser – Intel CFO and Michelle Johnston Holthaus – CEO of Intel Products as interim co-CEOs. Officially, Gelsinger retired. Unofficially, it’s likely he didn’t have a choice. The board needed to sacrifice somebody important to Wall Street.

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New AMD Pensando Offerings for AI, HPC, and Hyperscalers Shine

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in Cloud Enable
S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

  • On October 10, 2024, AMD announced the latest editions of its DPU lineup from its acquisition of Pensando.
  • The UEC 1.0 standard will be a big deal in HPC and AI circles.

One of the drivers of high-end networking on the server side is the data processing unit (DPU) also sometimes referred to somewhat erroneously as NIC accelerators. These are add-in networking and services cards for servers in high-performance or hyperscaler environments. Not only do these cards handle traditional NIC acceleration tasks and encryption offloading, but they have their own CPUs and memory. They can support advanced processing and are often used for security and monitoring, among other specialized things – the cards are programable. These cards run outside of the operating system on the server and most often feature ARM-based processors. By running separately on their own operating system, they are extremely useful in security and isolation from the base platform.

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Qualcomm Rumored to be in Talks to Acquire Intel

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in IT Leader
S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• Qualcomm and Intel are big players in delivering the semiconductors that are used worldwide every day.

• There are significant financial considerations as to how Qualcomm could possibly finance a purchase as large as Intel.

Recently, it’s been reported that Qualcomm is in the early stages of negotiations to buy out Intel. Intel has been suffering from disappointing financial performance and has been restructuring the company as well as opening its fabrication plants to third parties. Intel has recently announced that it will be separating its fabrication business from the rest of Intel as part of its reaction to continued poor financial performance. Its recent travails have in part been caused by its being late to the party for chips designed for use in AI systems (more specifically GPUs), unlike chip rival Nvidia. Intel has also suffered from competition from long-time rival AMD in both the desktop and server market.

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The Parable of Generative AI and the Data Center Construction Boom

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in Big Data

S. Schuchart

AI, in all its hyped glory, has induced changes into almost every part of the information technology (IT) sector. We’ve seen NVIDIA’s value skyrocket over its market-leading GPUs for AI. We’ve seen Intel take a tumble over its failure to capitalize on the growth in AI chips. And we’ve seen every IT sector vendor add the term ‘AI’ to seemingly every solution.

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Fortinet’s Latest Annual Skills Gap Report Shows Increasing Awareness, Threats

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in Secure
S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• Cybersecurity threats are increasing.

• The preferred solution to increase cybersecurity risks is certifications for IT staff as well as security awareness training for all staff.

Cybersecurity is hard. Lack of skills, education, and modern security products + architectures make it worse.

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UK Government Investigating HPE Acquisition of Juniper

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in Cloud Enable, IT Leader
S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• The addition of Juniper’s enterprise business is unlikely to have a serious anticompetitive effect on the robust campus access market, which includes LAN and WLAN networks, as well as the management and policy software that runs them.

• Juniper will make HPE’s data center business more attractive to enterprises, but often the server/storage decision and networking decision is made separately, especially in greenfield situations.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has started an investigation into HPE’s plan to acquire Juniper Networks, which is set to complete in late 2024 or early 2025. With a deal size of approximately $14 billion dollars and HPE’s position in the enterprise infrastructure market, it’s not a surprise that the deal is receiving scrutiny by regulators. There has been a spate of acquisitions in the tech sector that have been blocked in the last few years, including Nvidia buying Arm and the CMA also put the acquisition of VMware by Broadcom under considerable scrutiny.

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Peek Into the Future by Following Test and Measurement

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader
S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• The impact of IT technologies that are growing beyond IT is staggering and shows the need for advanced test and measurement.

• According to the GlobalData Deal Trends database, there have been over 20 acquisitions in this space since 2020 and numerous asset purchases and partnerships.

For every technology product that comes to market, both hardware and software, there is testing. One of the best ways to see where a market is heading, and what technologies are coming up in the next 4+ years, is to watch the testing market. The software testing market for development and deployment gets a lot of press – mostly because that kind of software testing is part of the production chain both at independent software vendors (ISVs) and in enterprises. However, the broader testing market is where the latest technologies that are not even close to release are being evaluated, where chip designers, chip manufacturers, engineers, and product companies are doing cutting edge research. These test tools can be specialized hardware, software, or both. In addition, many of the largest multinational enterprises use testing tools to validate and tweak advanced designs in their own IT and OT environments. Much of this research is done hand in hand with the testing equipment companies. Keeping an eye on what’s happening in the testing/measurement market shows clearly the investments being made for the future.

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Proposed TikTok Ban is a Symptom of the Need for Strong Privacy Laws

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in Big Data

S. Schuchart

The news has been abuzz for the last few days about the US federal government banning TikTok in the country unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, sells the company. Federal lawmakers contend that TikTok is beholden to the Chinese government and that ByteDance would be compelled to share TikTok data on Americans if asked, constituting a national security threat.

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