Microsoft Releases First In-house Microprocessor Architecture Designed for GenAI Workloads

by Beatriz Valle, posted in IT Leader
B. Valle

Summary Bullets:

• The Azure Maia 100 and Cobalt 100 chips are the first two custom silicon chips designed by Microsoft for its cloud infrastructure.

• Microsoft is looking for alternatives to expensive Nvidia chips, following the lead of cloud rivals Amazon and Google, which released their own chips years ago.

In the kerfuffle surrounding Microsoft’s involvement in OpenAI’s boardroom saga last week, some of the most salient news out of Microsoft’s Ignite event got a bit lost in the news cycle. However, the announcement that Microsoft is coming to market with its own proprietary microprocessor technology is a big deal for the industry. The company is the last of the big three US hyperscalers to launch bespoke AI chips. Google was the pioneer with its TPU architecture, in 2016. In 2018, Amazon followed with a slew of CPU chips, the Inferentia and Trainium architectures. The company also has the ARM-based Graviton series for AI workloads. Google, which released the fifth generation of its TPU chips during Google Next 2023, is also rumored to be working on the development of ARM-based processors. The company already supports virtual machines powered by ARM-based Altra chips, but doesn’t have its own proprietary technology like Amazon’s in-house ARM-based CPUs.

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AT&T Reveals Plan to Spin Off its Cybersecurity Unit

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in Secure
Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services

Summary Bullets:

• Last week, AT&T answered the looming question concerning the fate of its cybersecurity organization when it announced plans for a spin out in early 2024

• At least in the near term, AT&T will hold majority ownership in the fledging company with Chicago-based investment house WillJam Ventures also taking a share.

After months of rumors swirling that AT&T was shopping its cybersecurity unit, the telco giant broke its silence last week by announcing it is spinning out the unit in early 2024. The company will keep a majority ownership stake in the standalone company with a new investment from WillJam Ventures, the Chicago-based investment firm involved in the deal. WillJam has a history in cybersecurity. The company currently has a stake in the PCI compliance vendor Viking Cloud as well as XDR provider GoSecure. WillJam facilitated the deal to sell TrustWave to SingTel for $850 million in 2015.
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Microsoft Hires Former OpenAI CEO to Head New AI Research Unit   

by Beatriz Valle, posted in Big Data, IT Leader, Network
B. Valle

Summary Bullets:

• Sam Altman, former CEO of OpenAI, was ousted by the company’s board and now works for Microsoft, where he will head a new AI research unit.

• Emmett Shear, former CEO of game-streaming platform Twitch, has been appointed as CEO of OpenAI after the defection of swaths of employees.

It would be an understatement to say that the events surrounding Sam Altman’s dismissal as CEO of OpenAI during the weekend came as a surprise. The shocking news left Silicon Valley and the tech world at large reeling, and the timing (on a Friday evening) meant only mainstream outlets were covering the news on Saturday, with much of the specialist trade press caught unawares. By Monday morning, and in classical GenAI fashion, several light years had gone by: Sam Altman was employed again, only to head a new specialized AI research team at Microsoft, and CEO Satya Nadella had announced on X that Altman, together with other defecting colleagues at OpenAI, was joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI unit. Microsoft’s Nadella added: “We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success”. No kidding.

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From the Deep Freeze – Metaverse

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

Summary Bullets:

• The metaverse fell hard because of how high it flew, and initial metaverse world implementations had severe technical and social flaws.

• Metaverse worlds may not survive, but AR/VR/XR will. These technologies have strong enterprise use cases and potential for more as the technology grows.

During our annual predictions exercise in late 2022, I predicted that the metaverse (AR/VR/XR) was going into a winter, a period of decline, frustration, and of course the airing of the metaverse grievances. Every technology goes through a cycle of hype and decline, the bigger the hype, the bigger the decline. Interest in metaverse was so high, companies were creating metaverse divisions, making bold predictions, and in general very publicly spending money. After all, Mark Zukerberg wouldn’t have renamed his company and spent billions on nothing, would he? The hype on metaverse was artificially boosted by another technology segment that specializes in hype and hot air, namely crypto/blockchain/Web3. Claims were that the metaverse couldn’t function without blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and it would be the first big ‘Web3’ application to hit the market. All the arrows pointed up and the fear of missing out got checks written and plans altered.

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US Business FWA Services Show Strategy Disparity Among Operators

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Mobilize
Kathryn Weldon – Research Director, Business Network and IT Services – Americas

Summary Bullets:

• Verizon discloses progress in business FWA (LTE/5G business internet) every quarter and has added 133,000 business subscribers in Q3 2023.

• AT&T and T-Mobile tout consumer FWA progress but do not disclose business FWA stats. Can the market be so different for these three service providers?

FWA is considered a growth market for US operators, and on the consumer side, it is already threatening cable operators that are determined to maintain their broadband advantage while potentially dabbling in their own FWA initiatives.

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KubeCon 2023: GlobalData’s Top 10 Open-Source Technologies Enabling App Modernization

by Charlotte Dunlap, posted in IT Leader

C. Dunlap
Research Director

Summary Bullets:

• The advent of GenAI is driving important new OSS technologies including little known PyTorch, as well as LF AI & Data

• eBPR received serious buzz during KubeCon for its claims of revolutionizing the observability/security arena

Burgeoning open-source software (OSS) supporting app modernization and GenAI (respectively) dominated during last week’s KubeCon in Chicago. KubeCon is a twice annual Kubernetes conference, hosted by CNCF, attracting DevOps-related personas looking to gauge the latest trends, technologies, and OSS methods. These technologies are most closely aligned with enterprise projects enabled through Kubernetes containers/environments, microservices/serverless computing, observability, application (API) security, FinOps (cloud cost management), and a slew of various developer tools which complement popular application platforms and ease development/deployment efforts.

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eSIMs Should Fuel Growth in Cellular IoT for the Enterprise

by John Marcus, posted in Internet of Things
J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

• eSIMs first emerged in 2016, with strong potential for adoption in both consumer applications and industrial IoT.

• A new standard was published earlier in 2023, which will make using eSIMs for IoT easier for device makers and enterprise users, likely prompting growth in cellular IoT market opportunities.

SIM cards have long been a tool for mobile operator control of user devices. Dedicated to and often issued by an operator, once inserted in a device, there is a good chance the device would remain subscribed to the operator’s service as long as it was being used. ‘Control’ may be too strong of a word, but plastic SIMs certainly helped maintain a high level of customer ‘stickiness.’ Swapping out SIM cards – which provide user identification and authentication for network access – is a slow and clunky process whether there is one device or 10,000 devices involved.

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Colt’s Completed Lumen EMEA Asset Grab Gives it Scale to be a New Force in the Enterprise and Wholesale Markets

by Gary Barton, posted in Network
Gary Barton – Analyst, Business Network and IT Services

Summary Bullets:

• The acquisition doubles Colt’s EMEA network capacity, gives it 10+ subsea cable systems and landing stations, and cements its position as a leading partner for hyperscalers in the region.

• Colt has achieved growth and stability through a laser-tight market focus – the scale of this acquisition will challenge that stability.

GlobalData previously covered Colt’s acquisition of Lumen’s EMEA assets when the deal was first announced (for more, please see: Colt to Acquire Lumen’s EMEA Assets, Significantly Driving Its Growth Trajectory and Edge Strategy, November 9, 2022). This blog provides an update now that the deal has been completed.

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Vodafone Exits Spain – Scale or Fail in Europe?

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Communicate, Internet of Things, Mobilize, Secure
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• Vodafone Spain, with 2022 revenues down 6.5% year-on-year to EUR3.9 billion, is to be sold to Zegona for up to EUR5 billion.

• Disposal is symptomatic of ‘scale or fail’ among established operators where cashflow and profits are squeezed, but substantial investment in fiber and 5G is required.

Vodafone has agreed to sell its Spanish business for up to EUR5 billion (at least EUR4.1 billion in cash and up to EUR900 million in redeemable preference shares) to Zegona Communications, a company that looks to acquire telecoms and assets and turn them around commercially. The deal is expected to close in H1 2024.

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Okta’s Market Valuation Takes a Hit After the Identity Management Company Discloses Breach

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in Secure
Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services

Summary Bullets:

• Okta admitted on October 20, 2023 that the company detected “adversarial activity that leveraged access to a stolen credential” to breach the company’s support management system.

• The cybercriminal tapped into customer files as part of recent support incidents; Okta was careful to note that the support case management system is distinct from the production Okta service.

Cyberattacks are expensive, and not just for enterprises and consumers. After Okta disclosed that threat actors had breached its customer support systems, the identity and access management supplier saw its market cap collapse. Over the course of a week, the company’s share price plummeted by 9%, and the company lost nearly $2 billion in its valuation.

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