Data Center Insights
Cloud Stack. GPUs. Interconnects.
Available for purchase
The OrionX Deep Dive Industry Survey for Data Centers is now available for purchase.
See below for details.
Available for download
Many of OrionX Constellation(tm) research papers are available for download. No registration or payment is required.
Data Center blog
Insights and perspectives about infrastructure, cloud software, system architecture, CPUs, GPUs, interconnects and networking, storage, memory, from OrionX research analysts
Available for purchase
The OrionX Deep Dive Industry Survey for Data Centers
OrionX Research conducts periodic customer surveys to assess the state of the data center market, trends, and vendor preference. Current and past survey results are available for purchase.
The survey results can help you:
- Gain a thorough understanding of the state of the Data Center market
- Set strategy
- Guide investments
- Validate assumptions based on industry pulse and customer sentiment
- Identify existing strengths of offerings, and areas of opportunity or concern
- Gain customer perspective to position future offerings
- Use credible and compelling content to fill gaps between product launches
This OrionX Research offering includes the slide presentation with tens of charts and a phone briefing for your team by OrionX analysts.
Our Research team is open to preparing special reports that drill down into specific aspects of this research, and the OrionX Customer Engagement team can work with you to create and execute campaigns.
Available for download
The Top-5 Technologies All Organizations Must Understand
Talk given at the Stanford HPC-AI Conference. We discuss the digital infrastructure of the future enterprise and the state of critical technology trends. OrionX works with clients on the impact of Digital Transformation on them, their customers, and their messages. Generally, they want to track, in one place, trends like IoT, 5G, AI, Blockchain, and Quantum Computing. And they want to know what these trends mean, how they affect each other, and when they demand action, and how to formulate and execute an effective plan. This talk is a somewhat technical summary of such discussions.
Digital Transformation
Constellation Summary
Report Type: Evolution
Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies – Why What When
Blockchain, cryptocurrencies, smart contracts have emerged as unignorable technologies, with potentially far-reaching implications. The talk covered the essence of these technologies, focusing on what is real, what is a promise, impact on other key trends such as IoT, AI, and Quantum Computing, and why they might or might not deliver on their promises. Smart contracts and ICOs will be covered in a future presentation. Contact us if you’d like to request a speaker.
(This is the full slide deck supporting a keynote speech given at the Advanced Scale Forum conference in 2018.)
Digital Transformation
Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies
Report Type: Event
Critical Technologies of the Future
In this futuristic talk, we look at how information revolution is changing everything and provide a snapshot of some critical technologies that are currently driving that change: IoT, Blockchain, Quantum Computing, AI, Cybersecurity, 5G,… all resting on a foundation of Mobility, Cloud, and HPC.
This talk has evolved since 2011. Most recently, it was presented at the HPC-AI Advisory Council conference held at Stanford University in Feb-2018. A video of the talk is available on InsideHPC.com. Contact us if you’d like to request a speaker.
Digital Transformation
Critical Technologies of the Future
Report Type: Event
Case Study: The World Bank Performance Analysis
A rare look inside and a fascinating glimpse into how real world customers evaluate, test, and make decisions between different server technologies. We examine a major server refresh at the World Bank. We were fortunate to receive data directly from the bank concerning their needs, the server alternatives they evaluated, their evaluation criteria, the results of their analysis, and, of course, their final decision.
The Cost of Data Loss and How to Avoid It
Almost every business is now data driven and many are realizing that their data is one of their most valuable assets. But how well are they protecting that data from IT problems that can cause data loss? In this report, we discuss the value of data and take a look at a readily available solution designed to protect against data loss.
OrionX 2017 Data Center Predictions
The data center market is hot, especially now that we are getting a raft of new stuff, from promising non-Intel chips and system architectures to power and cooling optimizations to new applications in Analytics, IoT, and Artificial Intelligence.
Here is our Top-10 Data Center Predictions for 2017.
The Return of Vector Processing
Digital transformation, cloud computing and application elasticity, open source software, and new app areas like AI and IoT are driving a renaissance in system architecture. This is an area of interest and research for us at OrionX.
Vector processing was an interesting topic to re-emerge recently. First during the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC), and again in various announcements in implicit and explicit ways.
The Emergence of High Performance Interconnects
Multi-processor architectures have been used to improve application performance since the 1960s which has significant impacts upon system and software design as well as the orchestration required to coordinate communication between processors, memory, storage, networks and any other component that affects workload performance.
The larger or more complex the workload the more important it is that the components of the system are well balanced and do not create a choke point that impairs expected performance.
The High Performance Interconnects Market Landscape
One of the most important components of a high performance computing solution is the interconnect that ties the resources together. In fact, interconnect speeds have advanced at a rate of 30% annually over the past four decades. This compares well with Moore’s Law, which indicates 41% annual improvement. Thus the increase in interconnect performance has had, and will continue to have, a large impact on the performance of high performance systems.
Major vendors in this market include Mellanox, vendors with an exclusive focus on Ethernet such as Cisco, Juniper Networks, HPE, Brocade, et. al., and Cray, SGI, and Intel.
Customer Evaluation Criteria for High Performance Interconnects
With increasing adoption of scale-out architecture, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and extreme-scale processing, High Performance Interconnect (HPI) technologies have become a more critical part of IT systems. Today, they represent their own market segment.
In this research report, we examine key evaluation criteria for HPI technologies. How do customers select a technology and a vendor? What are the key issues and tradeoffs? How does one match a given workload to an appropriate interconnect and topology?
Assessment and Ranking of Major Interconnect Vendor Offerings
From a market share perspective, the HPI market is currently led by: InfiniBand and Ethernet, followed by proprietary offerings from HPC vendors such as Cray and SGI, and the newly introduced Omni-Path Architecture (OPA) from Intel.
As a proxy for the HPI market segment, the TOP500 list of the most powerful systems in the world provides a glimpse of market dynamics at the very high-end: over 40% are based on InfiniBand, 44% use Ethernet, and 15% are built with proprietary interconnects. However it is worthwhile to note that only five of the TOP100 systems are Ethernet-based, and the highest is ranked in the 74th position.
DriveScale Launches Scale-out Solution
DriveScale’s solution for scale-out computing is a significant advance in system design and deserves serious consideration by enterprises and cloud service providers alike, especially for Big Data workloads.
The DriveScale team’s record of innovation and execution, together with the quality of the company’s early customers (AppNexus, ClearSense, and DST Systems) and partners (Foxconn), and the level of funding it has received ($15m Series A) position it well for the market.
OrionX 2016 Data Center Issues and Predictions
Here at OrionX.net, we are fortunate to work with tech leaders across several industries and geographies, serving markets in Mobile, Social, Cloud, and Big Data (including Analytics, Cognitive Computing, IoT, Machine Learning, Semantic Web, etc.), and focused on pretty much every part of the “stack”, from chips to apps and everything in between. Doing this for several years has given us a privileged perspective. In this report, we capture some of the trends in Data Center technologies.
Data Center/Cloud Computing Blog
Analyst Roundtable: AI HPC Cloud Quantum Crypto Fusion – OXD29
Analyst roundtable with Adrian Cockcroft, Stephen Perrenod, Chris Kruell, and Shahin Khan covering AI, HPC, Cloud, Quantum, Crypto, Fusion.
In this episode: Dessert vs Forest company culture, Nvidia earnings, Altman-Ive, Humane AI, Post Smartphone User Interface, Java Ring, MeGPT, Soopra.ai, Model Context Protocol (MCP) in AI, Bitcoin Strategic Reserve legislation, Bitcoin Lock Protocol, Fusion Energy, Liquid Carbon, Steve’s CryptoSuper Mining Report.
@HPCpodcast-98: Hyperion Research on HPC, AI, Quantum – In Depth
We are delighted to have as special guests today three of the top analysts in the HPC, AI, Cloud, and Quantum fields, representing the industry analyst firm Hyperion Research. Earl Joseph is Hyperion CEO, Mark Nossokoff, Research Director, and Bob Sorensen, Senior VP of Research.
Join us for an In Depth discussion of the current state and future trends in HPC, AI, Quantum, Cloud Computing, Exascale, Storage, Interconnects and Optical I/O, and Liquid Cooling.
@HPCpodcast-97: Addison Snell on HPC, AI, Hyperscalers – In Depth
In this In-Depth feature of the @HPDpodcast, Addison Snell, co-founder and CEO of Intersect360 joins Shahin and Doug as they discuss a wide range of topics in HPC, AI, and Quantum Computing.
@HPCpodcast-95: Adrian Cockcroft on SC24, RISC-V Summit, AWS Reinvent
Review of SC24, RISC-V Summit, and AWS Reinvent. Topics include: HPC and AI Clouds, CXL, Liquid Cooling, Optical Interconnects, Optical Computing, Novel CPUs and GPUs, the state of RISC-V in servers and supercomputers, TOP500, Chiplets, AWS CPU and GPU strategies.
@HPCpodcast-89: Rick Stevens and Mike Papka of Argonne National Lab
We discuss the Aurora supercomputer, Exascale, AI, reliability at scale, technology adoption agility, datacenter power and cooling, cloud computing, quantum computing.
@HPCpodcast-88: Mike Heroux of Sandia on ECP, HPC Software
Dr. Mike Heroux joins us to discuss HPC software in general and the Exascale Computing Project (ECP) software efforts in particular. Topics include performance vs. portability and maintainability, heterogeneous hardware, the impact of AI on workloads and tools, the emergence of Research Software Engineer as a needed role and a career path, the convergence of commercial and HPC software stacks, and what’s on the horizon.
@HPCpodcast-87: Penguin Solutions on AI Infrastructure – Industry View
In this special instance of our Industry View feature we are joined by Jonathan Ha who is Senior Director of Product Management for AI at Penguin Solutions. We discuss the design and deployment of large scale AI infrastructure: why AI at scale is such a critical need, where the challenges lie, and what it takes to do it right.
@HPCpodcast-79: Travis Humble of ORNL on Quantum Tech
We discuss the state of Quantum Information Science with our special guest Dr. Travis Humble, a global authority on the subject, director of the Quantum Science Center, a Distinguished Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and director of the lab’s Quantum Computing Institute.
@HPCpodcast-78: 2023 Year in Review
2023 Year in Review is our annual special edition as we look back at one of the more eventful years in recent history for HPC, AI, Quantum Computing, and other advanced technologies.
@HPCpodcast-73: Peter Ungaro – Industry View
We are delighted to have a rare opportunity to catch up with none other than Pete Ungaro, long time luminary and admired leader in HPC/AI. In this episode of Industry View, we cover many topics including the Cray journey, the HPE acquisition, the opportunities and challenges of AI, the geopolitics of high tech.
@HPCpodcast-72: Vanessa Sochat and Alan Sill – HPC.social Community
Vanessa Sochat and Alan Sill ,the creators of the HPC.social project join us as we discuss the broad HPC/AI community and their efforts to enable it digitally through a broad multi-channel platform that includs Slack, Discord, Mastodon, GitHub, a jobs board, a community map, and the effort’s main site HPC.social.
@HPCpodcast-71: Alain Andreoli – Industry View
We are starting a new feature, looking at HPC, AI, and other advanced technologies through the lens of industry leaders. In this episode, we have the pleasure of a very lively conversation with Alain Andreoli, a longtime luminary of HPC and IT. Mr. Andreoli was with HPE for more than 7 year where he served as group president and EVP of the Hybrid IT Group, helping shape HPE’s strategy for HPC including the acquisition of SGI in 2017.
@HPCpodcast-63: Quantum Computing with Bob Sorensen
What’s the latest in quantum computing? Special guest Bob Sornesen of Hyperion Research joins us again to discuss market growth, customer sentiment, recent advances in noise management, applications, and the geopolitics of quantum computing.
@HPCpodcast-59: HPC Software
This episode starts to look at HPC software and its convergence with traditional enterprise IT software. We cover the evolution of software through phases of IT, the roster of relevant HPC software from development environment to system administration, and end-user requirements, and traditional and emerging applications. Future episodes and guests will focus on various aspects of HPC software.
This episode is sponsored by Lenovo.
@HPCpodcast-51: Bob Coecke on Quantum in Pictures (Book)
Bob Coecke, co-author of the recently-released book Quantum in Pictures: A New Way to Understand the Quantum World joins us to discuss why quantum mechanics is so hard, the inspirations behind the book, and how he’s working to make quantum computing more accessible through his work.
@HPCpodcast-49: 12 Myths & Legends with Satoshi Matsuoka and Torsten Hoefler
We caught up with Prof. Matsuoka and Hoefler to discuss Myths and Legends in High-Performance Computing” which tackles 12 important topics, helps formulate the right questions, and instigate the important discussions.
@HPCpodcast-46: Year in Review 2022
Year-in-review double-issue episode covering some of the notable topics of the past year including: HPC market growth, China, exascale and future of supercomputing, quantum tech, SC22, AI, ACM Turing Award, interconnects, Nvidia-Arm deal, Chips and Science Act, HPC software, and fusion energy.
@HPCpodcast-45: Quantum Networking, Sensing, Computing at Brookhaven National Lab
Kerstin Kleese van Dam, Gabriella Carini, and Meifing Lin of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) join Shahin and Doug to discuss all things Quantum, covering Quantum Sensing, Quantum Networking, and Quantum Computing. We also get a glimpse of BNL and its global leadership across a wide range of research that it conducts.
Dataquest: Hot ice cream, sleepless cats and affordable quantum computers
“We do not expect a ‘transistor moment’ yet, where a particular approach to quantum computing would break away. Superconducting, Trapped ion/atom, Photonics, Electron spin, Topological, etc. and possibly combinations of them will continue to receive significant R&D investment.” – Shahin Khan
@HPCpodcast-37: John Gustafson on Feynman, Gustafson’s Law, Posit Format
How did Richard Feynman end up playing the bongo drums? How did a new take on Amdahl’s Law helped propel massively parallel computing and become Gustafson’s Law? And what’s wrong with IEEE 754 number format that the new Posit format fixes? We go to the source as we welcome special guest John Gustafson in another very lively conversation.
@HPCpodcast-35: Hot Chips Conference, Quantum Update, Frontier
Hot Chips conference: UCIe, 3D packaging, Silicon Photonics, inference in the device or in the data center, edge, CXL, code generation. Update on Quantum Computing. And dedication ceremonies for the Frontier exascale system.
@HPCpodcast-33: Equity-Diversity-Inclusion in HPC
We caught up with Melyssa Fratkin, Industrial Programs Director at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), and co-chair of Texas Women in HPC to discuss the state of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in HPC and her recommendations on how to accelerate progress in this important area.
@HPCpodcast-32: The Role of Marketing in HPC
A lot has changed in HPC and a lot has changed in marketing. What should smart organizations do to improve their market presence? We discuss this with special guest and “SC Perennial” Mike Bernhardt.
@HPCpodcast-29: Up Close and Personal with Frontier, and What Lies Beyond
The HPC User Forum held a special event at ORNL last week, included a viewing of the facilities and discussed the future of supercomputing hardware and software and staffing challenges of HPC sites. Doug Black was there.
@HPCpodcast-27: Thomas Sterling, The State of HPC
Dr. Sterling is Professor of Intelligent Systems Engineering at the Indiana University (IU) School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, and President and Co-founder of Simultac. His many achievements include the creation in 1994 of the “Beowulf cluster” with Donald Becker at NASA, a system that helped drive the scale-out computing architecture.
@HPCpodcast-25: Satoshi Matsuoka, TOP500, Fugaku Supercomputer, Nintendo
Winner of the Purple Ribbon Medal, one of Japan’s highest honors, Prof. Satoshi Matsuoka oversaw the development and launch of the Fugaku supercomputer, currently number 1 on the TOP500 list. He joins us in a super fun conversation covering a wide range of topics.
@HPCpodcast-24: Fastest AI Supercomputer, Chips Prices, IBM Quantum
Fastest AI supercomputer according to Google, price hikes by TSMC and Samsung, visualization of a black hole in our own galaxy, and IBM’s ambitious and well-executed quantum computing roadmap.
@HPCpodcast-23: ACM Turing Award Winner Jack Dongarra
We cover the Turing Award, TOP500, the state of HPC benchmarks, China’s Exascale systems, and future directions in algorithms. We also talk about future of supercomputing and AI systems, and discuss proliferation of new architectures. This is another episode you’d want to listen to more than once!
@HPCpodcast-21: HPC Storage with Gary Grider of LANL
Another must-listen episode, this time covering HPC storage with Gary Grider, leader of the high performance computing division of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). News: Quantiniuum, investigating war crimes, multi-faceted math, and TSMC’s quarterly revenues.
@HPCpodcast-20: New Segment Top-of-the-News, Storage
A new segment, Top of The News, covers Federal funding for PsiQuantum and Global Foundries, the AMD-Pensando deal, and Fujitsu’s cloud offerings. The main topic is storage as we discuss Computational Storage, Erasure Coding, Storage-Class Memory, and Data-Centric AI.
@HPCpodcast-16: AI in Science, a Conversation with Rick Stevens of ANL (part 2)
We continue our discussion of AI in Science with Rick Stevens of Argonne National Lab. In addition to the new ways AI can help advance science, we also discuss ethics, bias, robustness, security,and explainability of AI, and whether AI can replace scientists. We end with a snapshot of Quantum Information Science (QIS).
@HPCpodcast-15: AI in Science, a Conversation with Rick Stevens of ANL (part 1)
A special 2-episode discussion of AI in Science with Rick Stevens, Associate Laboratory Director and leader of Exascale Computing Initiative at Argonne National Laboratory and Professor at University of Chicago. Rick also led a series of Town Halls during 2019 focused on the relevance and applications of AI in scientific research. This is part 1 of our conversation.
@HPCpodcast-14: Cyberwarfare in the Age of AI and HPC
Special guest Richard Stiennon, research analyst and author of Security Yearbook 2021, joins Shahin and Doug to discuss the state of advanced cyberwarfare involving AI and supercomputing, and its potential role in the war in Ukraine.
@HPCpodcast-12: Framework for Top-10 Tech Trends
Web3, IoT/Edge, AI, HPC, Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, GPUs and Quantum, Cyber Risk, 5G, and BioTech represent the top-10 tech trends. Why are there so many big technology trends right now? Doug and Shahin discuss a framework to help make sense of why these trends point to important changes, how these trends are related, and what they mean individually and together.
@HPCpodcast-11: HPC Cloud Growth, Decision Parameters
HPC Cloud continues to grow rapidly as cloud providers pursue HPC workloads and build a variety of hardware configurations to attract them, and as Edge and Cloud help each other grow. We discuss the many dimensions of the decision to use public clouds for HPC.
@HPCpodcast-10: HPC Market Size – “Exceptional Growth in 2021”
Doug Black and Shahin Khan are joined by Hyperion Research CEO Earl Joseph to discuss Hyperion’s market findings. Topics include traditional HPC, AI, Cloud, the impact of Covid, industry and global perspective, and what to expect in the future.
@HPCpodcast-9: Quantum Computing Status and Investments
In episode 9 of the @HPCPodcast, we cover the recent wave of news about quantum computing: melding of quantum & classical computing, error correction, financial & investment announcements, M&A and partnerships, and the connection between quantum computing and HPC.
@HPCpodcast-8: Intel Points to Zettascale in 2027
After SC21, Patrick Kennedy of Serve the Home online publication got quite the scoop when he met with Intel’s Raja Koduri to discuss Zettascale projections and plans, stipulating a 2027 timeframe. Is that realistic? Tune in and let us know what you think.
@HPCpodcast-6: Year in Review 2021
From COVID to Climate Change, Edge to Exascale, and AI to Autonomy, 2021 was an impactful year for HPC and Supercomputing, leading some of the most notable global technology advances and some of the most exciting business opportunities of our time. This episode is a lightning “year in review 2021” as we look back and look forward. Join us!
@HPCpodcat-5: Quantum Computing Market Size
Special guest Bob Sornesen of Hyperion Research joins the crew to share the results of his international study to track down the size of the Quantum Computing market. Bob unveiled these results at the Q2B conference last week.
@HPCpodcast-3: Metaverse and HPC
Shahin Khan and Doug Black discuss the Metaverse, its consumer and industrial uses, competition for data, avatars and more realistic digital twins, commerce in the metaverse, and why so many parts of it, from immersive graphics to 5G include computationally intensive components.
SC21 Postview – What Happened at the SC21 Supercomputing Conference?
What Happened at the SC21 Supercomputing Conference? InsideHPC “pulled together a quartet of HPC thought leaders from the technology analyst and national lab communities to gather their reflections”
@HPCpodcast-1: HPC and AI Chips and Accelerators
Welcome to the @HPCpodcast where Shahin Khan and Doug Black discuss supercomputing technologies and the applications, markets, and policies that shape them. In this inaugural episode we cover HPC and AI chips and accelerators, startups, and unicorns, topics that are sure to reappear frequently.
HPC Brings AI to Enterprise Delivered as a Service
Shahin Khan recently moderated an HPE World Watch webinar on HPC and AI in the Enterprise delivered as a service. The discussion covers Cloud, HPC, and AI; how Digital Transformation is changing Enterprise IT; and what IT departments can do to stay in front of rapid change.
Edge Computing Drives the 4th Phase of IT
Edge Computing Drives the 4th Phase of IT
In this video interview, Shahin Khan talks about the strategic shift among core-cloud-edge and why compute at the edge, HPC at the edge, will seize the ascendancy in 2021.
The Impact of Exascale on Business | Exascale Day
From SiliconANGLE theCUBE:
Technology analyst Shahin Khan discusses the intersection of HPC with key industry trends such as 5G, IoT, edge, blockchain AI and quantum computing.
Edge Computing, with Tensor Networks CTO
In this era of “Too Much Data”, it is imperative to understand and have a plan for Edge Computing. We discuss it all with Bill Walker, CTO of Edge Computing pioneer Tensor Networks.
RISC-V CTO on Open Source Chips and Use Cases
Mark Himelstein, CTO of RISC-V joins us to discuss what we think will be a very important part of the information technology landscape. RISC-V has cracked the code on taking an open source community approach to chip design. We can expect to see it everywhere from embedded IoT, to communication fabrics, storage, AI, HPC, accelerators, and more.
The Top-5 Technologies All Organizations Must Understand
30 minutes to cover the basics and high level issues related to the technologies that will drive the digital infrastructure of the future enterprise. These include IoT, 5G, HPC, AI, Blockchain (including cryptocurrencies and smart contracts), and Quantum Computing.
Quantum Machine Learning (QML)
Special guest Dr. Max Henderson of Rigetti Computing joins the OrionX analyst team to discuss the short- and mid-term outlook for the intersection of AI and quantum computing and how it may affect businesses.
Digital Transformation (DX): Opportunity or Threat?
Digital Transformation (DX) is not just another slogan or IT upgrade, but a profound shift in what your customers want or will want, and what you have to do to deliver. It is a shift in your business model. Read about the many dimensions of DX and how OrionX can help you make it actionable.
State of the Market: Crypto/Blockchain, Quantum Computing
The OrionX Research team is back with Stephen, Shahin, and Dan going over the state of the market in Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, and Quantum Computing.
HPC and AI on Wall Street: Panel Discussion on Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies
HPC and AI on Wall Street Conference At the recent HPC and AI on Wall Street conference, I moderated a panel on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain. Panelists included Ryan Quick of Providentia Worldwide, Asha Dakshi of AlphaPoint, Eric Simone of ClearBlade, and Dan Simerman of the IOTA Foundation. Thanks to Jem Pagan of BluSky Consulting who […]
Top 50 of Crypto Mining – June 2019
Today, June 14, 2019, we released the second biannual list of Top 50 cryptocurrency mining pools. We do this in conjunction with the Top 500 supercomputing list that is released twice a year, in June and November. That list has been a matter of national pride for the US, Japan, China, and many other countries. […]
SC17 A Postview of the Supercomputing-17 Conference
Shahin and Dan review some of the most important technology advances out there, as seen at the SC17 conference. They discuss changes to the TOP500, New server chips (POWER and ARM), Liquid Cooling, and Quantum Computing. Also discussed: Y2Q, Quantum Supremacy, and Quantum-Safe cryptography.
Artificial Intelligence Customer Sentiment – OrionX Industry Survey
Co-hosts Dan Olds and Shahin Khan review the results of a recent “Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning” survey that OrionX conducted with over 300 high tech, industrial and commercial companies. See the data and find out how these trends may impact organizations’ AI strategies.
Secure IoT is the superset trend in tech, the ultimate hashtag soup, here’s why
There are more Things than anything else! And they’re going online in droves, adding capability but also vulnerability, and making the Secure Internet of Things (IoT), the super set of the technology trends. Secure IoT is the place with the most interdisciplinary, and therefore, the most difficult challenges. If you believe, as you should, that […]
Data Loss, A Big Problem in Digital Transformation
Data loss is a subject whose time has come! Digital Transformation is upon us and with it the beginnings of a vibrant data economy. Extracting, manipulating, and making sense of the information content from physical assets and business processes is the essence of this new era. With it, come two growing problems: downtime, and data […]
What is new in the High Performance Interconnect (HPI) market?
Dan and Shahin revisit the high end of the networking market, discuss what’s new, how HPI technologies stack up, and unveil the OrionX rankings of key technologies based on market, customer, and product attributes. Four OrionX research papers on this topic are available here.
Does Oracle have the right Cloud Strategy?
David Simmons of Oracle and Peter ffoulkes of OrionX are Dan’s guests as they discuss Oracle’s strategy for Cloud in Enterprise IT. Dan Olds and Peter ffoulkes discuss the OrionX blog that instigated this episode.
For Enterprise Cloud, Oracle is the Only Choice Grounded in Reality
Snapshot of Cloud Computing for Enterprise IT There is a loudly expressed opinion that ‘the cloud’ is the future of computing and that companies such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft will dominate the market, replacing established hardware and software vendors such as IBM, Dell, HPE, and Oracle. In some ways, this is true especially for […]
New podcast for big ideas in tech
Here at OrionX.net, our research agenda is driven by the latest developments in technology. We are also fortunate to work with many tech leaders in nearly every part of the “stack”, from chips to apps, who are driving the development of such technologies. In recent years, we have had projects in Cryptocurrencies, IoT, AI, Cybersecurity, […]
Enterprise-HPC Industry Survey
In this inaugural podcast, co-hosts Dan Olds and Shahin Khan review the results of a recent “Enterprise HPC” data center survey that OrionX conducted with over 150 high tech, industrial and commercial companies. See the data and find out how these trends may impact organizations’ data center strategies.
The rise of AI marks an end to CPU dominated computing
Just as Intel, the king of CPUs and the very bloodstream of computing announced that it is ending its Intel Developer Forum (IDF) annual event, this week in San Jose, NVIDIA, the king of GPUs and the fuel of Artificial Intelligence is holding its biggest GPU Technology Conference (GTC) annual event yet. Coincidence? Hardly. With […]
Top-10 Data Center Predictions for 2017
A variation of this article was originally published in The Register, “Wow, what an incredible 12 months: 2017’s data center year in review”, Feb 6, 2017. The data center market is hot, especially now that we are getting a raft of new stuff, from promising non-Intel chips and system architectures to power and cooling optimizations […]
Deep Learning & Pieces of Eight
What does a Spanish silver dollar have to do with Deep Learning? It’s a question of standards and required precision.The widely used Spanish coin was introduced at the end of the 16th century as Spain exploited the vast riches of New World silver. It was denominated as 8 Reales. Because of its standard characteristics it […]
The Return of Vector Processing
Vector processing was an unexpected topic to emerge from the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC)held last week. On the Monday of the conference, a new leader on the TOP500 list was announced. The Sunway TaihuLight system uses a new processor architecture that is Single-Instruction-Multiple-Data (SIMD) with a pipeline that can do eight 64-bit floating-point calculations per […]
Research from OrionX
Today, we are announcing the OrionX Constellation™ research framework as part of our strategy services. Paraphrasing what I wrote in my last blog when we launched 8 packaged solutions: One way to see OrionX is as a partner that can help you with content, context, and dissemination. OrionX Strategy can create the right content because […]
What is the use of quantum computing without pictures or conversations?
The world of quantum computing frequently seems as bizarre as the alternate realities created in Lewis Carroll’s masterpieces “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass”. Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was a well-respected mathematician and logician in addition to being a photographer and enigmatic author. Has quantum computing’s time actually come or are we just […]
Dan Olds Joins OrionX
Dan Olds, who founded Gabriel Consulting Group more than a decade ago, has joined OrionX. An important part of the OrionX magic is the ability to understand technologies, the competitive landscape, and customer needs. We put a lot of effort into that. That is what clients need to connect products to customers, and to meet […]
IoT: The Ultimate Convergence
The Internet of Things (IoT) marketplace is expected to run into the trillions of dollars during the next 5 years. Gartner estimates 6.4 billion devices will be part of the Internet of Things this year. And they project $3 trillion of endpoint spending by the year 2020. [updated link] Gartner estimates 5.8 billion IoT endpoints […]
OrionX 2016 Technology Issues and Predictions
Here at OrionX.net, we are fortunate to work with tech leaders across several industries and geographies, serving markets in Mobile, Social, Cloud, and Big Data (including Analytics, Cognitive Computing, IoT, Machine Learning, Semantic Web, etc.), and focused on pretty much every part of the “stack”, from chips to apps and everything in between. Doing this […]
Benchmarks, Schmenchmarks: Big Iron Data and the November 2015 TOP500
There has been much discussion in recent years as to the continued relevance of the High Performance Linpack (HPL) benchmark as a valid measure of the performance of the world’s most capable machines, with some supercomputing sites opting out of the TOP500 completely such as National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois […]
Big Data and HPC: Convergence? (Part 2 of 2)
Last week, in Part 1 of this two-part blog, we looked at trends in Big Data and analytics, and started to touch on the relationship with HPC (High Performance Computing). In this week’s blog we take a look at the usage of Big Data in HPC and what commercial and HPC Big Data environments have in […]
Big Data meets HPC: Convergence? (Part 1 of 2)
Data volumes, velocity, and variety are increasing as consumer devices become more powerful. PCs, smart phones and tablets are the instrumentation, along with the business applications that continually capture user input, usage patterns and transactions. As devices become more powerful each year (each few months!) the generated volumes of data and the speed of data […]
OpenStack Cloud: “And then there were five!”
The IT industry is arguably going through its biggest transformation since the introduction of the IBM PC in the early 1980s, and a cloud service based approach is the likely destination for most enterprise workloads. On August 26th and 27th Mirantis hosted the “second annual” OpenStack Silicon Valley event at the Computer History Museum in […]
Peter ffoulkes Joins OrionX
Today, OrionX is celebrating another great milestone as we welcome a new partner to our team! Peter ffoulkes, who was most recently Research Director at 451 Research is joining OrionX. Thanks to the support of all of you, our clients, our colleagues, our community, OrionX is poised to continue to raise the bar for Strategy, […]
Long-Term Planning: The Next Hundred Years!
Long-term planning is an art. But it might take a real scientist to tackle a hundred-year planning horizon! Frank Wilczek is a Nobel Prize winner in theoretical physics, awarded for his work in quantum chromodynamics (quarks, to you and me). He is currently the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at M.I.T. Professor Wilczek was invited […]
Is In-Memory Computing the Holy Grail for Big Data Analytics?
The industry is awash with articles on big data. Big data news is not confined to the technical webpages anymore. You can read about big data on Forbes and The Economist for example. Each week the technical media reports on break through, startups, funding and customer use cases. No matter your source for information on […]