In this episode of Infrastructure Matters, hosts Camberley Bates, Steven Dickens, and Krista Macomber discuss the merger of Kioxia and Western Digital's solid-state storage units and Infinidat's announcements regarding high-end data storage devices. They also highlight MLCommons' new releases, including MLPerf 3.1 and MLPerf for storage, which includes large language models and storage benchmarks.

The conversation shifts to Lenovo's Edge server launch and its potential impact on AI deployments at the edge. They discuss the significance of AI-specific servers and the importance of deployment technology, including lightweight Kubernetes distributions and private 5G.

The discussion continues with a mention of Alcion, a backup company that uses AI to proactively identify potential security threats and intelligently schedule backups, highlighting Alcion's recent Series A funding round.

The hosts also cover announcements from Oracle CloudWorld and BMC Connect, discussing Oracle's partnership with Azure for running Oracle databases and BMC's product velocity and competition with ServiceNow.

They also cover Telesign's introduction of a service to uncover security breaches associated with phone numbers, emphasizing the importance of securing personal data and communication.

Finally, the hosts deep dived into Cisco’s acquisition of Splunk for a blockbuster $28bn fee.

Topics include:

• Kioxia and Western Digital's solid-state storage merger

• Infinidat's announcements on high-end data storage devices and expanded capacity

• MLCommons' new releases, including MLPerf 3.1 and MLPerf for storage

• Lenovo's Edge server launch for AI deployments at the edge

• Alcion's Series A funding and AI-based data protection

• Oracle's partnership with Azure 

• BMC's product velocity

• Telesign's service to uncover security breaches associated with phone numbers

• Cisco’s acquisition of Splunk