By S&P Global Market Intelligence
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The podcast currently has 188 episodes available.
We’re all familiar with consumer payments technology in its various forms, but business transactions have a different set of requirements and a very different set of technologies and market participants. McKayla Wooldridge joins host Eric Hanselman to look at the results of a recent study and explore the dynamics of this complex market. The core accounting operations of any business are their lifeblood and change can be challenging, but the pressure to digitize to streamline operations, reduce errors and fraud and better manage cash flow are fueling interest in B2B payments. Much like transitions in other areas, like logistics or healthcare, going digital has to include a bridge from existing methods to electronic payments. In a world where 16% are transacting in cash, that’s no small task.
There are many players in this market, including software vendors looking to centralize on platforms for both payables and receivables, as well as banks with business-focused payment technologies. Moving from paper checks to credit card backed transactions might be a good first step, but businesses need to leverage the data that their payment activities generate to realize the full set of benefits. There’s a lot of ground to cover, but significant benefits for those that can do it well.
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The primary exposure to advances in technology for most is in the consumer world. Phones, video and gaming are driven by the latest innovations, but have been experiencing a softening of the markets. Analyst Neil Barbour returns with host Eric Hanselman to look at recent research in consumer technology and explore some global market shifts. Phone replacement cycles have lengthened and North American and European markets are softer. How saturated they are remains a question for discussion. The new iPhone announcement has raised interest, but the unknown impact of the need for AI-capable end user devices is still hovering in the future. There have to be compelling applications to complete the picture and they’re not yet fully defined. The markets will need more than early adopters to thrive.
Asia Pacific consumer technology markets are transforming and may offer interesting opportunities. Console gaming in China is seeing a focus that could drive an industry that is in the doldrums in other parts of the globe. Home broadband connections are projected to grow and could drive technology purchases. It’s still early days, though.
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The flagship event for Salesforce, its Dreamforce conference, returns to San Francisco and some of the 451 Research analyst team who will be there join host Eric Hanselman to talk about what they expect and the key issues that will be in play. Sheryl Kingstone is looking at practical technology implementations as enterprises try to make sense of the real delivered value that’s beyond the hype. Paige Bartley is exploring the challenges in balancing data quality and controls while supporting privacy and regulatory mandates. James Curtis is digging into the infrastructure technologies that are needed to support the innovation needed. Generative AI will be front and center in much what’s going on at Dreamforce. It’s already seeing significant application in customer service. But organizations are wrestling with managing data to feed their AI engines. There’s a growing question as to the role of platforms like Salesforce in becoming the overarching manager of all data resources, certainly one that will generate a lot of discussion at Dreamforce.
The annual 451 Research breakfast will be taking place at Dreamforce and listeners should contact the analyst or account team to register to attend.
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The annual VMware Explore conference kicked off in Las Vegas in a new situation with the company now being part of Broadcom, after its acquisition. 451 Research analysts Jean Atelsek, Melaney Posey, Henry Baltazar and Liam Eagle were there with host Eric Hanselman and this special episode captures their insights about what was happening at the conference and how things have changed. After acquisition, there have been significant changes in VMware’s go to market motion, including a repackaging of products, a change in licensing model and some upheaval in its partner ecosystem. There has been a renewed focus on simplifying the private cloud experience to offer a more competitive position relative to hyperscale cloud providers. There has been a strong push on the merits of a private cloud-based AI approach, identifying benefits in cost, security and privacy. All of this momentum is being driven by a new version of VMware Cloud Foundation – VCF 9. There is lots of promise, but like the delivery date for VCF 9, specifics can be elusive.
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To predicate a business decision on the risk and potential reward, it’s important to understand the size of the reward. Correctly estimating the Total Available Market (TAM) and the smaller Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) is critical to that planning process. Research director Greg Zwakman joins host Eric Hanselman to look at the challenges in creating TAM and SAM estimates that support decision processes and build a convincing business case. There are a host of difficulties, including a dearth of relevant data, that can lead to “narrative” sizing. The problem with enthusiastic storytelling, is that it may not lead to great decisions and it won’t convince business leaders or investors.
A realistic TAM/SAM estimate has to be built on a defensible foundation, starting with an assumption tree with its roots firmly fixed in achievable market values. Use cases for the products and services and the use case density informs the perspective on market motions. An objective assessment of competitors, their successes and market geographies complete the circle. Enthusiasm is a key part of making a product or service succeed, but the business case needs a lot more!
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Connectivity had been having a moment through the pandemic, but the urgent need for high-performance interconnection has rolled back a bit and fiber optic networks and the markets around them are showing the effects of that change. Kagan analysts Natalie Colakides and Mohammed Hamza join host Eric Hanselman to look at what’s going on in fiber markets. While backbone business is solid, investments in last mile build out, the connections to homes, has slowed. As nations look to address the digital divide, the gap between the well and less connected, they’re having to push harder and invest more. The density of urban environments allowed greater scale, but rural fiber is more expensive to build per subscriber, given the lower density. At the same time, urban take up rates, the percentage of subscription to available services, are much higher than rural rates. It could be caused by rural often being served by brands that are less well known. More effective marketing could also be a key to accelerating fiber markets, but it will have to overcome latent friction in changing from existing services. With advances in digital homes, consumers will need more bandwidth eventually, but the question is when greater numbers of services and devices will drive them to upgrade. The stall in the current market has led to some consolidation-driven M&A and more may occur opportunistically. Growth is in the future, the only question is when it will happen.
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The soaring estimates for energy demand are impacting utilities, datacenters and the companies that rely on both of them. Sustainability targets are taking a hit as power providers grapple with meeting technology driven growth and Adam Wilson from S&P’s Commodity Insights team and Dan Thompson from 451 Research’s datacenter group join host Eric Hanselman to discuss where this is leading. Datacenter demand is real and new builds are kicking off that are fully funded. Power availability and cost have become a key criteria for site selection. Both datacenters and power generation investments are long term plans, often decades in the making, but the large shift in demand has upended those strategies.
Simply getting power from where it’s available to where it’s needed is one of the major challenges. Grid interconnection and power transmission improvements are underway to address some of the gaps, but new technology is many years away. Small modular nuclear reactors (SMR) are only in their early stages and battery storage is still maturing in its capacity. It may not be until 2030 when technology and grid capacity reach parity with demand.
This the final episode that completes the conversations that had started with the AI, datacenter and energy webinar.
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For the first time since the pandemic, the Kagan Media and Telecom Summit was back in person in New York, with a packed agenda looking at topics ranging from sports media rights to broadband technology and regulatory changes. Analysts Justin Nielson and John Fletcher join host Eric Hanselman to explore the insights and aspects that made up the Summit. There are media rights deals that have shattered previous records in the NBA and women’s sports, such as the U.S. National Women’s Soccer League. Advertising technology has changed how market participants are looking at monetization. Given this is an election year, ad spending will be booming and additional advertising channels add complexity to value and pricing.
Broadband was a new addition to the Summit program, given the importance of interconnection and the various developments that are roiling the markets. There are ongoing concerns about effective ways of addressing the digital divide, the gap between those that are digitally well-connected and those that are not, whether that’s because of availability or economic issues. The U.S. federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program is trying to be the Rural Electrification Act (REA) for the new century, but funds have been delayed for years and still won’t address economic inequities. The intersection of broadband and content is swinging the pendulum on bundling of service offerings back to packaging of offerings, after years of focus on unbundling. Content providers, streaming services and service providers and hoping to garner new business as consumers look for simplification.
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With larger portions of IT budgets being consumed by cloud, there’s a greater imperative to understand the nature of price, value and availability of cloud services. Since its inception in 2015, the Cloud Price Index (CPI) has tracked the current state of cloud services across the globe. New data tools have made it even more valuable and analyst Gabriella Brown joins host Eric Hanselman to explore how clients are putting it to work and the trends that are shaping the changes taking place. Using a basket of goods model and scanning of millions of offered services, the CPI normalizes cloud capabilities, allowing comparisons between providers and regions.
The FinOps movement is bringing new rigor to managing cloud costs and building capabilities to plan more strategically. With a greater focus on sustainability, the CPI can target green and low carbon regions for workload deployment. It also tracks trends, like the reduction and, in some cases, elimination of discounts on new instance types. While they can offer better value in price for performance, it’s an indication that cloud providers may be looking at more margin retention in their offerings, as they adapt their supporting infrastructure to deal with demand from AI.
Host: Eric Hanselman
Guest: Gabriella Brown
Links to show content: https://clients.451research.com/reports?cat0=349
Generative AI is having far reaching impacts on datacenters and new data shedding light on the nature and extent of the impacts. Analysts Melissa Incera and Dan Thompson return to the podcast to dig into the data and discuss the ramifications for enterprises, datacenter builders and operators and those putting AI to work with host Eric Hanselman. The computational requirements of generative AI are unique, taking demands similar to high performance computing or cryptomining and spreading them across a vast new community of users. The demands for GPU-based capacity are consuming more power, sometimes with order of magnitude increases. It’s also driving retrofitting of existing datacenters. The need for higher capacity and innovations like liquid cooling are causing a new surge. We’re at the beginning of the shift from a focus on model training to greater amounts of inferencing, changing where capacity is needed.
Looking at money flows in this market offers additional nuance. Investments in AI startups have been massive. Capital investments from hyperscalers in their own infrastructure is also massive, but it remains to be seen if they’ll pay off in equivalent amounts of revenue. Is all of this sustainable? It’s an complicated question in the many aspects of the word.
Host: Eric Hanselman
Guests:
Melissa Incera
Dan Thompson
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Webinar replay (registration required)
For 451 Research clients:
https://clients.451research.com/reports/204284
https://clients.451research.com/reports/204175
451 Research commissioned report highlights:
New Report from S&P Global Market Intelligence and Vultr Provides Unique Glimpse into Path to AI Maturity
Full report (registration required)
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