#intelbusiness — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #intelbusiness, aggregated by home.social.
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NVIDIA Reveals Rubin AI and Blackwell Ultra || Tech Field Day News Rundown: March 19, 2025
NVIDIA unveiled new AI-focused chips at its GTC conference, including the Blackwell Ultra series launching this year and the next-gen Vera Rubin GPUs set for 2026. CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the company’s shift to an annual release cycle, a departure from its previous biennial schedule. This move reflects NVIDIA’s response to the growing AI market and increasing competition. This and more on the Rundown.
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Amazon Music | Audio | YouTube
2:29 – Taara Spun Out from Google’s Parent Company Alphabet
Alphabet has spun off Taara, its laser-based internet backbone provider, into an independent company focused on delivering high-speed connectivity to underserved regions. The newly formed company will continue developing its wireless optical communication technology, which aims to provide reliable internet without the need for traditional fiber infrastructure.
Read More: Alphabet spins off laser-based Internet backbone provider Taara
6:41 – Intel Names Lip-Bu Tan as New CEO
Intel has appointed Lip-Bu Tan as its new CEO, succeeding Pat Gelsinger who stepped down in December 2024. Tan, formerly CEO of Cadence Design Systems and an Intel board member, aims to revitalize the company by streamlining operations and focusing on advanced chip manufacturing, including AI server chips, to better compete with industry leaders like TSMC. Following the announcement, Intel’s stock surged nearly 8%, reflecting investor optimism about Tan’s strategic vision.
Read More: Intel Names Lip-Bu Tan as New CEO
12:38 – DevOps Gets Empowered by Semaphore Going Open Source
Semaphore has open-sourced its core CI/CD platform under the Apache 2.0 license, aiming to provide developers with greater flexibility and transparency. This move addresses the limitations of existing CI/CD solutions by combining enterprise-grade reliability with the customizability of open-source software. By making its codebase publicly accessible, Semaphore empowers developers to explore, modify, and enhance the platform to suit their unique requirements, fostering a community-driven approach to innovation.
Read More: Semaphore Goes Open Source: A New Dawn for DevOps Professionals
16:38 – Microsoft’s New Quantum Chip Greeted with Major Skepticism
Microsoft’s recent announcement of its Majorana 1 quantum chip, claimed to be a significant advancement in quantum computing, has been met with skepticism from the scientific community. Experts question the validity of Microsoft’s findings, citing a lack of peer-reviewed evidence and unproven underlying physics, leading to concerns about the legitimacy of the breakthrough.
Read More: Microsoft’s New Quantum Chip Greeted with Major Skepticism
22:04 – Solo.io Launches Kagent for Agentic AI-Driven Cloud Ops
Solo.io has launched Kagent, an open-source agentic AI framework designed to automate cloud-native operations within Kubernetes environments. Built on Microsoft’s AutoGen, Kagent integrates with existing tools to streamline tasks like configuration, troubleshooting, and network security, enabling DevOps teams to leverage AI-driven automation.
Read More: Solo.io’s Kagent Brings Agentic AI to Cloud-Native Operations
25:37 – Amazon, Google, and Meta Nuclear Datacenters by 2050
Amazon, Google, and Meta are investing heavily in nuclear energy as part of their strategy to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. These tech giants plan to power their operations with 100% renewable energy, with nuclear energy playing a key role in meeting their ambitious sustainability goals. Alongside nuclear, they are exploring advanced technologies like carbon capture to reduce their environmental impact and address the urgency of climate change.
Read More: Amazon, Google, Meta Are Going Super Nuclear by 2050
29:38 – NVIDIA Reveals Rubin AI and Blackwell Ultra
Nvidia unveiled new AI-focused chips at its GTC conference, including the Blackwell Ultra series launching this year and the next-gen Vera Rubin GPUs set for 2026. CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the company’s shift to an annual release cycle, a departure from its previous biennial schedule. This move reflects Nvidia’s response to the growing AI market and increasing competition.
Read More: Nvidia announces Blackwell Ultra and Rubin AI chips
40:58 – The Weeks Ahead
Upcoming Tech Field Day Events
Networking Field Day 37 – March 19 – 20
Tech Field Day Extra with HPE – April 8
AI Infrastructure Field Day 2 – April 23 – 24
Mobility Field Day 13 – May 7 – 8
Security Field Day 13 – May 29 – 30
Host Information
Stephen Foskett is the President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the Tech Field Day Event Series, now part of The Futurum Group. Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn or on X/Twitter.
Alastair Cooke is a Tech Field Day Event Lead, now part of The Futurum Group. You can connect with Alastair on LinkedIn or on X/Twitter and you can read more of his research notes and insights on The Futurum Group’s website.
Gestalt IT and Tech Field Day are now part of The Futurum Group.
The Gestalt IT Rundown is your look at the IT news of the week. Be sure to subscribe to Gestalt IT on YouTube for even more weekly video content.
#AI #NVIDIAGTC #Rundown #AWSCloud #DemitasseNZ #GestaltIT #Google #GoogleCloud #Intel #IntelBusiness #Meta #Microsoft #Nvidia #SFoskett #TechFieldDay #TechstrongTV #TheFuturumGroup
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NVIDIA Reveals Rubin AI and Blackwell Ultra || Tech Field Day News Rundown: March 19, 2025
NVIDIA unveiled new AI-focused chips at its GTC conference, including the Blackwell Ultra series launching this year and the next-gen Vera Rubin GPUs set for 2026. CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the company’s shift to an annual release cycle, a departure from its previous biennial schedule. This move reflects NVIDIA’s response to the growing AI market and increasing competition. This and more on the Rundown.
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Amazon Music | Audio | YouTube
2:29 – Taara Spun Out from Google’s Parent Company Alphabet
Alphabet has spun off Taara, its laser-based internet backbone provider, into an independent company focused on delivering high-speed connectivity to underserved regions. The newly formed company will continue developing its wireless optical communication technology, which aims to provide reliable internet without the need for traditional fiber infrastructure.
Read More: Alphabet spins off laser-based Internet backbone provider Taara
6:41 – Intel Names Lip-Bu Tan as New CEO
Intel has appointed Lip-Bu Tan as its new CEO, succeeding Pat Gelsinger who stepped down in December 2024. Tan, formerly CEO of Cadence Design Systems and an Intel board member, aims to revitalize the company by streamlining operations and focusing on advanced chip manufacturing, including AI server chips, to better compete with industry leaders like TSMC. Following the announcement, Intel’s stock surged nearly 8%, reflecting investor optimism about Tan’s strategic vision.
Read More: Intel Names Lip-Bu Tan as New CEO
12:38 – DevOps Gets Empowered by Semaphore Going Open Source
Semaphore has open-sourced its core CI/CD platform under the Apache 2.0 license, aiming to provide developers with greater flexibility and transparency. This move addresses the limitations of existing CI/CD solutions by combining enterprise-grade reliability with the customizability of open-source software. By making its codebase publicly accessible, Semaphore empowers developers to explore, modify, and enhance the platform to suit their unique requirements, fostering a community-driven approach to innovation.
Read More: Semaphore Goes Open Source: A New Dawn for DevOps Professionals
16:38 – Microsoft’s New Quantum Chip Greeted with Major Skepticism
Microsoft’s recent announcement of its Majorana 1 quantum chip, claimed to be a significant advancement in quantum computing, has been met with skepticism from the scientific community. Experts question the validity of Microsoft’s findings, citing a lack of peer-reviewed evidence and unproven underlying physics, leading to concerns about the legitimacy of the breakthrough.
Read More: Microsoft’s New Quantum Chip Greeted with Major Skepticism
22:04 – Solo.io Launches Kagent for Agentic AI-Driven Cloud Ops
Solo.io has launched Kagent, an open-source agentic AI framework designed to automate cloud-native operations within Kubernetes environments. Built on Microsoft’s AutoGen, Kagent integrates with existing tools to streamline tasks like configuration, troubleshooting, and network security, enabling DevOps teams to leverage AI-driven automation.
Read More: Solo.io’s Kagent Brings Agentic AI to Cloud-Native Operations
25:37 – Amazon, Google, and Meta Nuclear Datacenters by 2050
Amazon, Google, and Meta are investing heavily in nuclear energy as part of their strategy to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. These tech giants plan to power their operations with 100% renewable energy, with nuclear energy playing a key role in meeting their ambitious sustainability goals. Alongside nuclear, they are exploring advanced technologies like carbon capture to reduce their environmental impact and address the urgency of climate change.
Read More: Amazon, Google, Meta Are Going Super Nuclear by 2050
29:38 – NVIDIA Reveals Rubin AI and Blackwell Ultra
Nvidia unveiled new AI-focused chips at its GTC conference, including the Blackwell Ultra series launching this year and the next-gen Vera Rubin GPUs set for 2026. CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the company’s shift to an annual release cycle, a departure from its previous biennial schedule. This move reflects Nvidia’s response to the growing AI market and increasing competition.
Read More: Nvidia announces Blackwell Ultra and Rubin AI chips
40:58 – The Weeks Ahead
Upcoming Tech Field Day Events
Networking Field Day 37 – March 19 – 20
Tech Field Day Extra with HPE – April 8
AI Infrastructure Field Day 2 – April 23 – 24
Mobility Field Day 13 – May 7 – 8
Security Field Day 13 – May 29 – 30
Host Information
Stephen Foskett is the President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the Tech Field Day Event Series, now part of The Futurum Group. Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn or on X/Twitter.
Alastair Cooke is a Tech Field Day Event Lead, now part of The Futurum Group. You can connect with Alastair on LinkedIn or on X/Twitter and you can read more of his research notes and insights on The Futurum Group’s website.
Gestalt IT and Tech Field Day are now part of The Futurum Group.
The Gestalt IT Rundown is your look at the IT news of the week. Be sure to subscribe to Gestalt IT on YouTube for even more weekly video content.
#AI #NVIDIAGTC #Rundown #AWSCloud #DemitasseNZ #GestaltIT #Google #GoogleCloud #Intel #IntelBusiness #Meta #Microsoft #Nvidia #SFoskett #TechFieldDay #TechstrongTV #TheFuturumGroup
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NVIDIA Reveals Rubin AI and Blackwell Ultra || Tech Field Day News Rundown: March 19, 2025
NVIDIA unveiled new AI-focused chips at its GTC conference, including the Blackwell Ultra series launching this year and the next-gen Vera Rubin GPUs set for 2026. CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the company’s shift to an annual release cycle, a departure from its previous biennial schedule. This move reflects NVIDIA’s response to the growing AI market and increasing competition. This and more on the Rundown.
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Amazon Music | Audio | YouTube
2:29 – Taara Spun Out from Google’s Parent Company Alphabet
Alphabet has spun off Taara, its laser-based internet backbone provider, into an independent company focused on delivering high-speed connectivity to underserved regions. The newly formed company will continue developing its wireless optical communication technology, which aims to provide reliable internet without the need for traditional fiber infrastructure.
Read More: Alphabet spins off laser-based Internet backbone provider Taara
6:41 – Intel Names Lip-Bu Tan as New CEO
Intel has appointed Lip-Bu Tan as its new CEO, succeeding Pat Gelsinger who stepped down in December 2024. Tan, formerly CEO of Cadence Design Systems and an Intel board member, aims to revitalize the company by streamlining operations and focusing on advanced chip manufacturing, including AI server chips, to better compete with industry leaders like TSMC. Following the announcement, Intel’s stock surged nearly 8%, reflecting investor optimism about Tan’s strategic vision.
Read More: Intel Names Lip-Bu Tan as New CEO
12:38 – DevOps Gets Empowered by Semaphore Going Open Source
Semaphore has open-sourced its core CI/CD platform under the Apache 2.0 license, aiming to provide developers with greater flexibility and transparency. This move addresses the limitations of existing CI/CD solutions by combining enterprise-grade reliability with the customizability of open-source software. By making its codebase publicly accessible, Semaphore empowers developers to explore, modify, and enhance the platform to suit their unique requirements, fostering a community-driven approach to innovation.
Read More: Semaphore Goes Open Source: A New Dawn for DevOps Professionals
16:38 – Microsoft’s New Quantum Chip Greeted with Major Skepticism
Microsoft’s recent announcement of its Majorana 1 quantum chip, claimed to be a significant advancement in quantum computing, has been met with skepticism from the scientific community. Experts question the validity of Microsoft’s findings, citing a lack of peer-reviewed evidence and unproven underlying physics, leading to concerns about the legitimacy of the breakthrough.
Read More: Microsoft’s New Quantum Chip Greeted with Major Skepticism
22:04 – Solo.io Launches Kagent for Agentic AI-Driven Cloud Ops
Solo.io has launched Kagent, an open-source agentic AI framework designed to automate cloud-native operations within Kubernetes environments. Built on Microsoft’s AutoGen, Kagent integrates with existing tools to streamline tasks like configuration, troubleshooting, and network security, enabling DevOps teams to leverage AI-driven automation.
Read More: Solo.io’s Kagent Brings Agentic AI to Cloud-Native Operations
25:37 – Amazon, Google, and Meta Nuclear Datacenters by 2050
Amazon, Google, and Meta are investing heavily in nuclear energy as part of their strategy to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. These tech giants plan to power their operations with 100% renewable energy, with nuclear energy playing a key role in meeting their ambitious sustainability goals. Alongside nuclear, they are exploring advanced technologies like carbon capture to reduce their environmental impact and address the urgency of climate change.
Read More: Amazon, Google, Meta Are Going Super Nuclear by 2050
29:38 – NVIDIA Reveals Rubin AI and Blackwell Ultra
Nvidia unveiled new AI-focused chips at its GTC conference, including the Blackwell Ultra series launching this year and the next-gen Vera Rubin GPUs set for 2026. CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the company’s shift to an annual release cycle, a departure from its previous biennial schedule. This move reflects Nvidia’s response to the growing AI market and increasing competition.
Read More: Nvidia announces Blackwell Ultra and Rubin AI chips
40:58 – The Weeks Ahead
Upcoming Tech Field Day Events
Networking Field Day 37 – March 19 – 20
Tech Field Day Extra with HPE – April 8
AI Infrastructure Field Day 2 – April 23 – 24
Mobility Field Day 13 – May 7 – 8
Security Field Day 13 – May 29 – 30
Host Information
Stephen Foskett is the President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the Tech Field Day Event Series, now part of The Futurum Group. Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn or on X/Twitter.
Alastair Cooke is a Tech Field Day Event Lead, now part of The Futurum Group. You can connect with Alastair on LinkedIn or on X/Twitter and you can read more of his research notes and insights on The Futurum Group’s website.
Gestalt IT and Tech Field Day are now part of The Futurum Group.
The Gestalt IT Rundown is your look at the IT news of the week. Be sure to subscribe to Gestalt IT on YouTube for even more weekly video content.
#AI #NVIDIAGTC #Rundown #AWSCloud #DemitasseNZ #GestaltIT #Google #GoogleCloud #Intel #IntelBusiness #Meta #Microsoft #Nvidia #SFoskett #TechFieldDay #TechstrongTV #TheFuturumGroup
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NVIDIA Reveals Rubin AI and Blackwell Ultra || Tech Field Day News Rundown: March 19, 2025
NVIDIA unveiled new AI-focused chips at its GTC conference, including the Blackwell Ultra series launching this year and the next-gen Vera Rubin GPUs set for 2026. CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the company’s shift to an annual release cycle, a departure from its previous biennial schedule. This move reflects NVIDIA’s response to the growing AI market and increasing competition. This and more on the Rundown.
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Amazon Music | Audio | YouTube
2:29 – Taara Spun Out from Google’s Parent Company Alphabet
Alphabet has spun off Taara, its laser-based internet backbone provider, into an independent company focused on delivering high-speed connectivity to underserved regions. The newly formed company will continue developing its wireless optical communication technology, which aims to provide reliable internet without the need for traditional fiber infrastructure.
Read More: Alphabet spins off laser-based Internet backbone provider Taara
6:41 – Intel Names Lip-Bu Tan as New CEO
Intel has appointed Lip-Bu Tan as its new CEO, succeeding Pat Gelsinger who stepped down in December 2024. Tan, formerly CEO of Cadence Design Systems and an Intel board member, aims to revitalize the company by streamlining operations and focusing on advanced chip manufacturing, including AI server chips, to better compete with industry leaders like TSMC. Following the announcement, Intel’s stock surged nearly 8%, reflecting investor optimism about Tan’s strategic vision.
Read More: Intel Names Lip-Bu Tan as New CEO
12:38 – DevOps Gets Empowered by Semaphore Going Open Source
Semaphore has open-sourced its core CI/CD platform under the Apache 2.0 license, aiming to provide developers with greater flexibility and transparency. This move addresses the limitations of existing CI/CD solutions by combining enterprise-grade reliability with the customizability of open-source software. By making its codebase publicly accessible, Semaphore empowers developers to explore, modify, and enhance the platform to suit their unique requirements, fostering a community-driven approach to innovation.
Read More: Semaphore Goes Open Source: A New Dawn for DevOps Professionals
16:38 – Microsoft’s New Quantum Chip Greeted with Major Skepticism
Microsoft’s recent announcement of its Majorana 1 quantum chip, claimed to be a significant advancement in quantum computing, has been met with skepticism from the scientific community. Experts question the validity of Microsoft’s findings, citing a lack of peer-reviewed evidence and unproven underlying physics, leading to concerns about the legitimacy of the breakthrough.
Read More: Microsoft’s New Quantum Chip Greeted with Major Skepticism
22:04 – Solo.io Launches Kagent for Agentic AI-Driven Cloud Ops
Solo.io has launched Kagent, an open-source agentic AI framework designed to automate cloud-native operations within Kubernetes environments. Built on Microsoft’s AutoGen, Kagent integrates with existing tools to streamline tasks like configuration, troubleshooting, and network security, enabling DevOps teams to leverage AI-driven automation.
Read More: Solo.io’s Kagent Brings Agentic AI to Cloud-Native Operations
25:37 – Amazon, Google, and Meta Nuclear Datacenters by 2050
Amazon, Google, and Meta are investing heavily in nuclear energy as part of their strategy to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. These tech giants plan to power their operations with 100% renewable energy, with nuclear energy playing a key role in meeting their ambitious sustainability goals. Alongside nuclear, they are exploring advanced technologies like carbon capture to reduce their environmental impact and address the urgency of climate change.
Read More: Amazon, Google, Meta Are Going Super Nuclear by 2050
29:38 – NVIDIA Reveals Rubin AI and Blackwell Ultra
Nvidia unveiled new AI-focused chips at its GTC conference, including the Blackwell Ultra series launching this year and the next-gen Vera Rubin GPUs set for 2026. CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the company’s shift to an annual release cycle, a departure from its previous biennial schedule. This move reflects Nvidia’s response to the growing AI market and increasing competition.
Read More: Nvidia announces Blackwell Ultra and Rubin AI chips
40:58 – The Weeks Ahead
Upcoming Tech Field Day Events
Networking Field Day 37 – March 19 – 20
Tech Field Day Extra with HPE – April 8
AI Infrastructure Field Day 2 – April 23 – 24
Mobility Field Day 13 – May 7 – 8
Security Field Day 13 – May 29 – 30
Host Information
Stephen Foskett is the President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the Tech Field Day Event Series, now part of The Futurum Group. Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn or on X/Twitter.
Alastair Cooke is a Tech Field Day Event Lead, now part of The Futurum Group. You can connect with Alastair on LinkedIn or on X/Twitter and you can read more of his research notes and insights on The Futurum Group’s website.
Gestalt IT and Tech Field Day are now part of The Futurum Group.
The Gestalt IT Rundown is your look at the IT news of the week. Be sure to subscribe to Gestalt IT on YouTube for even more weekly video content.
#AI #NVIDIAGTC #Rundown #AWSCloud #DemitasseNZ #GestaltIT #Google #GoogleCloud #Intel #IntelBusiness #Meta #Microsoft #Nvidia #SFoskett #TechFieldDay #TechstrongTV #TheFuturumGroup
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Qiskit and IBM’s New Quantum Innovations | The Gestalt IT Rundown: September 25, 2024
We’re happy to have Dr. Bob Sutor joining us this week on the Rundown, since he covers quantum and advanced computing for The Futurum Group. IBM made two important announcements in the quantum space this week. The first announcement was Qiskit, a quantum SDK that runs on Python for quantum computers. This promises to bring quantum compute to a more mainstream audience and converting the underlying code to Rust. This solution is much faster than competing solutions from Google, Amazon, and Quantinuuum. IBM is also putting together an app store for quantum applications and runtime functions, including from third-party developers. This matches the moves that we have seen in areas like cloud and AI, and serves to push IBM as the leader in quantum computing. This and more on The Rundown.
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Amazon Music | Audio | YouTube
1:57 – Qualcomm to Buy Intel?
Qualcomm is exploring a potential acquisition of Intel, a move that could strengthen both companies and enhance U.S. leadership in the chip industry, despite potential antitrust review. Intel, under CEO Pat Gelsinger, is pursuing strategic changes to boost its competitive edge, including expanding its manufacturing capabilities and investing in next-generation technologies. A successful deal would significantly broaden Qualcomm’s portfolio and position both companies for growth in the rapidly evolving AI and semiconductor markets.
Read More: Qualcomm Approached Intel About a Takeover in Recent Days
4:11 – Kioxia No Longer Planning IPO
Kioxia has postponed its planned IPO, which we discussed on the August 28 show, due to challenges in achieving its target valuation amid a broader market downturn. Despite recent improvements in memory chip prices, the company has been impacted by a slump in the chip market, which they had already previously delayed its IPO in 2020. Kioxia, with a 14% share in the flash memory market, remains focused on listing when market conditions improve.
Read More: Exclusive: Bain-backed chipmaker Kioxia scraps October IPO plan, sources say
6:42 – Announcements from Dreamforce
At its Dreamforce conference, Salesforce introduced Agentforce, a suite of AI-powered agents designed to streamline app development and improve customer experiences across industries. The platform’s low-code AI tools, new partnerships, and enhanced AI models aim to drive adoption of these autonomous agents, helping businesses automate tasks and unlock the full potential of their data. By integrating AI more deeply across its ecosystem, Salesforce seeks to differentiate its offering and support customers in modernizing operations and achieving higher ROI through scalable AI solutions. For more on this, let’s turn it over to The Futurum Group’s Keith Kirkpatrick who was at the event.
Read More: Dreamforce Announcements Focus on AI, Agentforce, and Cloud Enhancements
16:32 – Commvault Buys Clumio
Commvault just announced its acquisition of Clumio, an AWS data protection specialist we’ve previously discussed here on the Rundown. The acquisition enhances Commvault’s cyber resilience capabilities for cloud-native applications and allows the company to leverage Clumio’s innovations, including rapid access to Amazon S3 data during critical recovery operations, expanding its offerings for AWS-based businesses. Clumio’s expertise in protecting complex data sets will now reach a global scale through Commvault’s platform.
Read More: Commvault Accelerates Cyber Resilience Capabilities for AWS with Acquisition of Clumio
20:07 – CISA Wants to Say Ciao to Ivanti EOL Units
In a very telling move, CISA has made a statement telling customers to move off of Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance 4.6. The notice comes as yet another security update has been released and Ivanti is not porting it to versions prior to 5.0. The CISA has been very up front about exploits this year and Ivanti is no stranger to having issues with their underlying code quality.
Read More: Ivanti Releases Security Update for Cloud Services Appliance
22:47 – Veeam Acquires Alcion
Veeam announced today that they are acquiring Alcion. Alcion has focused on SaaS backups since being founded back in 2022. Veeam had led an investment round for Alcion in 2023 and Veeam had also acquired Kasten, which was the startup that had been founded previously by Alcion founders. In addition to the acquisition, Niraj Tolia will move into the vacant CTO role at Veeam to help guide the integration between all the products.
25:29 – Qiskit and IBM’s New Quantum Innovations
We’re happy to have Dr. Bob Sutor joining us this week on the Rundown, since he covers quantum and advanced computing for The Futurum Group. IBM made two important announcements in the quantum space this week. The first announcement was Qiskit, a quantum SDK that runs on Python for quantum computers. This promises to bring quantum compute to a more mainstream audience and converting the underlying code to Rust. This solution is much faster than competing solutions from Google, Amazon, and Quantinuuum. IBM is also putting togetther an app store for quantum applications and runtime functions, including from third-party developers. This matches the moves that we have seen in areas like cloud and AI, and serves to push IBM as the leader in quantum computing.
Read More: Quantum in Context: IBM Qiskit Boosts Software Development Speed
Read More: Microsoft unveils new quantum computing hybrid solution in Azure
34:27 – The Weeks Ahead
Networking Field Day Exclusive with Nokia – September 24
AI Data Infrastructure Field Day 1 – October 2 – 3
Commvault Shift – October 8 – 9
Security Field Day 12 – October 16 – 17
Cloud Field Day 21 – October 23 – 24
Gestalt IT and Tech Field Day are now part of The Futurum Group.
The Gestalt IT Rundown is your look at the IT news of the week. Be sure to subscribe to Gestalt IT on YouTube for even more weekly video content.
#Dreamforce #Qiskit #QuantumComputing #Rundown #1 #Alcion #Clumio #Commvault #GestaltIT #IBM #Intel #IntelBusiness #Qualcomm #Salesforce #SFoskett #TechFieldDay #TheFuturumGroup #Veeam
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Tom Hollingsworth looks forward to Networking Field Day 35, next week's must-watch event #ArrcusInc #cPacket #GestaltIT #GitHedgehog #Intel #IntelBusiness #NetworkingNerd #SelectorAI #NFD35 https://gestaltit.com/tech-field-day/tom/summertime-fun-with-networking-field-day-35/
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Tom Hollingsworth looks forward to Networking Field Day 35, next week's must-watch event #ArrcusInc #cPacket #GestaltIT #GitHedgehog #Intel #IntelBusiness #NetworkingNerd #SelectorAI #NFD35 https://gestaltit.com/tech-field-day/tom/summertime-fun-with-networking-field-day-35/
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Tom Hollingsworth looks forward to Networking Field Day 35, next week's must-watch event #ArrcusInc #cPacket #GestaltIT #GitHedgehog #Intel #IntelBusiness #NetworkingNerd #SelectorAI #NFD35 https://gestaltit.com/tech-field-day/tom/summertime-fun-with-networking-field-day-35/
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Tom Hollingsworth looks forward to Networking Field Day 35, next week's must-watch event #ArrcusInc #cPacket #GestaltIT #GitHedgehog #Intel #IntelBusiness #NetworkingNerd #SelectorAI #NFD35 https://gestaltit.com/tech-field-day/tom/summertime-fun-with-networking-field-day-35/
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Tom Hollingsworth looks forward to Networking Field Day 35, next week's must-watch event #ArrcusInc #cPacket #GestaltIT #GitHedgehog #Intel #IntelBusiness #NetworkingNerd #SelectorAI #NFD35 https://gestaltit.com/tech-field-day/tom/summertime-fun-with-networking-field-day-35/
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Nature Fresh Farms – Optimizing Indoor Farming Practices with AI and Intel
Artificial intelligence is restyling one of the oldest jobs of mankind – farming. A growing presence of robots in the fields, and AI-based discovery and prediction, are driving farmers away from traditional farming towards precision agriculture.
One of the companies at the helm of this quiet transition is Nature Fresh Farms. Established in Leamington, Ontario in 1999, Nature Fresh Farms is one of the largest greenhouse farms in North America.
The farm sprawls over 250 acres of land. Organic peppers, berries, tomatoes and cucumbers grow in rows in the controlled environment of enormous hothouses. Keith Bradley, VP of IT and Security for Nature Fresh Farms, gave a presentation at the recent AI Field Day event, revealing the behind-the-scenes workings. NFF’s computerized plant lifecycle management is based off of a private, Intel-based infrastructure.
Controlled Environment Agriculture
Lately, the farming industry has survived several tough years in a row. Yields were devastated by unpredictable weather patterns involving record number of droughts and hard freezes, crop diseases, seasonal cycles, environmental problems, and labor shortage. This has turned many farmers and growers towards more intensive forms of agriculture.
Nature Fresh Farms is a passionate advocate of artificial intelligence for farming. Over the last 8 years, the farm has vigorously employed AI solutions to surmount many daunting challenges, and the outcome has been nothing short of satisfactory.
Little by little, Nature Fresh Farms has changed the way they do things, and think about the business in a whole new way through strategic adoption of AI.
“We are constantly looking at new ways to understand what the plant does,” says Bradley.
Real-World Data for Better Farming Practices
Greenhouse farming is a comprehensive rethinking of traditional farming as we know it. Eliminating the natural factors like sunlight and weather, by bringing the farm indoors is an impactful change. But for maximum payoff, farmers need to constantly monitor the vegetation growth.
This prompted using real-world data gathered from the farm. The Nature Fresh Farms greenhouses are installed with an assortment of edge sensors pointing down and looking closely at the vegetation. The data they pick up is computed locally at edge points. The information is hauled back nightly to a core datacenter when insights on a varying range of things are inferred – use of natural resources, irrigation level, yield measurement, growth forecast, ideal harvest times, ripeness, distressed crops, plant infections, and so on.
Data is synced up every hour for most updated information, says Bradley. “We’ve gained a lot of knowledge because we have the infrastructure to handle things,” he says talking about the technological changes it has embraced over the years. “We’re one of the few greenhouses that are going for a large infrastructure. We have the compute, and the storage, so we don’t have to go to the cloud.”
Cloud is not an option for farming companies. “Because most farms in our industry don’t have an Internet connection that can handle cloud-type resource, we have to be on prem or it won’t work for us,” he explains.
Nature Fresh Farms updates and tweaks its farming and harvesting plans based on data several times a year. Today the farm grows more high-quality produce per square meter than ever before.
“Every year we want to see an increase in yield. We measure everything by per meter square, and one of the big things that [technology] did for us is, we are seeing a good trend at a three or four increase per year. Think about the same plants growing more produce in the same space, and using the same amount of resources.”
A Xeon-Based Tech Stack to Power the Models
At the outset, Nature Fresh Farms’ in-house stack comprised a 3-core cluster that used Intel Xeon Gen2 processors. But, soon they realized that for a farm its kind and size, uptime is mission-critical. “An hour or two of downtime on the wrong day is too much. We could lose a crop in that window and it could cost us millions of dollars in damage.”
Need for more compute was felt, and the stack was updated with newer generations of Xeon CPUs. The performance gains were staggering, says Bradley.
“Each time we add nodes, we see a direct reduction. One of the ETLs that we run on our labor side compares how efficiently the labor is working. Earlier it would take 3 hours to run. With the latest generation, it is down to 30 minutes.”
Today, Nature Fresh Farms has 32 AI models of which a majority is home-grown on its private stack, and some borrowed from external vendors. With sizes ranging from 4 GB to 32 GB, the models are deployed on a 7-node cluster, of which two are dual-core 4th Gen Intel Xeon CPUs.
Leveraging AI for Higher-Value Yields
Nature Fresh Farms relies on a network of growers and their extensive farming knowledge. But working in different parts of the acreage, their knowledge is often siloed. The company uses its large language models to bring all the information together and provide the team a holistic view required to plan a response.
“We have multiple facilities where growers won’t see each other for weeks but once that data is in the system and that model is there, it’ll now know how to react.”
The models are retrained periodically to keep the predictions and calculations as close to accurate as possible. “It gives us an accurate forecast for what the sales department needs to sell, so that we’re not overselling. The farther away it is, the harder it is to predict but when we get closer, we know pretty accurately how many boxes of strawberries we’re going to pick, how much weight, what grade, etc.”
Inferencing is a big part of their AI workload. “One of the areas that we do a lot of inferencing with pictures is on the packing lines. There are multiple things that we got out of doing that that we never realized.”
Through a vision system, the models sort produces based on grade and maturity, a function that has helped maximize shelf-life by putting yields of the equal ripeness together.
“Vision actually looks at the vegetables, takes pictures as they are rolling in, and decides which shoot it should go down.”
Nature Fresh Farms is slowly transitioning towards Kubernetes as a way of modernizing some of the older models. “We’re trying to start getting rid of older models, and groom and grow them. Refining these models is one of the things our team always strives to do,” Bradley says.
Are CPUs going to be sufficient as operation scales, or are GPUs on the horizon? “I’ll probably say no. For our scale and size, we’re not at that point that we really need it,” replies Bradley.
With inference calls taking place only few times a day, GPUs will be an overkill, he explains. “As long as we get the results we need, I don’t see us wanting to change what we do.”
Be sure to watch Nature Fresh Farms’ presentation from the AI Field Day event to follow the discussion. Also check out Jim Davis’ view on Nature Fresh Farms’ use of AI and Intel CPUs in his article. You can also view the Intel Spotlight Podcast episode featuring Keith Bradley and Nature Fresh Farms.
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