Gamers may enjoy a ready supply of Nvidia GPUs, but that may soon change as the AI market heats up.
During the pandemic and crypto heyday, Nvidia’s GPUs were in short supply. The sudden uptick in demand for personal computers and crypto mining rigs combined to drive the price of Nvidia’s GPUs through the roof and make it almost impossible to actually buy one.
Those days may return faster than anyone — except Nvidia, of course — may like. At the GTC 2023 Keynote yesterday, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang made it clear that Nvidia is all-in on AI.
“We are at the iPhone moment of AI,” Huang said during his keynote, in which he touted the number of companies rolling out Nvidia’s AI systems. The list of companies includes Atos, AWS, Cirrascale, CoreWeave, Dell, Gigabyte, HPE, Lambda, Lenovo, Oracle, QCT, and Supermicro.
As TechRadar’s John Loeffler points out, the increased demand for Nvidia’s chips in the AI market could eventually force the company to choose between the consumer gaming market and the more profitable commercial market. This could lead to a significant reduction in available GPUs, or it could lead to Nvidia pulling out of the market altogether.
Another major company is moving its headquarters out of California, as Tesla is moving its headquarters to Texas.
California has been losing companies at a record pace. Oracle, HPE and a slew of smaller companies have been leaving, or moving their headquarters out of the state. In fact, 2021 is set to double the rate of defections over 2020.
Tesla is now poised to follow suit, with CEO Elon Musk announcing the company would move headquarters to Texas at its shareholder meeting.
“I’m excited to announce we are moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas,” Musk said, according to The Washington Post. “Just to be clear, though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California. This is not a matter of Tesla leaving California.”
Cost of housing was a major factor for the move.
“It’s tough for people to afford houses and a lot of people have to come in from far away,” Musk said. “There’s a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area.”
California is in the midst of a “brain drain” as companies leave the state at double the rate in 2021 as 2020.
There have already been a number of high-profile companies that have announced plans to move their headquarters away from California, including Oracle and HPE, both of which moved to Texas. Unfortunately for the Golden State, the pace of companies leaving is picking up.
According Stanford’s Hoover Institution, there were 265 companies that moved their headquarters out of California from January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2021. The first half of 2021, however, accounted for 74 of those defections. The monthly averages for the first half of 2021 was greater than the monthly averages for the first half of 2018 and 2019. 2021 is also on course to double the number that left in 2020.
The top destinations are Texas, Arizona and Nevada. The Hoover Institution attributes the migration to high real estate taxes, expanding civil liability and disproportionate legal costs of doing business. The COVID-19 pandemic has also opened the door for more remote work, making expensive Silicon Valley headquarters less important.
Notably, the Hoover Institution’s data is not comprehensive, as many smaller companies move without the news coverage or public awareness that major tech companies bring.
Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced its acquisition of Ampool, in an effort to modernize the SQL stack.
SQL is still one of the most widely-used database workload. With the increased adoption of cloud computing, however, SQL does have limitations. Ampool is the developer of a distributed SQL engine based on the open source Presto.
HPE plans to use Ampool’s engine to accelerate “HPE Ezmeral analytics runtime for interactive SQL workloads.” This will help HPE better address customer needs, especially in data-intensive scenarios, such as AI, machine learning and analytics.
“The acquisition builds on this strategy by adding Ampool’s technology components and open source expertise to the Ezmeral portfolio, which will over time turn into a set of SQL acceleration services made available through the HPE GreenLake cloud platform,” writes Anant Chintamaneni, Vice President and GM, HPTE Ezmeral. “This acquisition is also further evidence of HPE’s investment, focus and execution toward building out an open-source-based, IP rich capability for the HPE Ezmeral software portfolio, to deliver superior end to end analytics in fast growth markets.”
Microsoft and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have partnered to bring AI and edge computing to the International Space Station (ISS).
HPE has been working with NASA to create a commercial, off-the-shelf supercomputer for use on the ISS. The Spaceborne Computer-2 (SBC-2) is specifically built on the HPE Edgeline Converged Edge system, designed for the harshest edge environments — which space certainly qualifies as.
Microsoft and HPE are working to connect the SBC-2 to Azure, to enable cloud computing, along with AI and machine learning development in the ultimate edge environment.
“HPE and Microsoft are collaborating to further accelerate space exploration by delivering state-of-the art technologies to tackle a range of data processing needs while in orbit. By bringing together HPE’s Spaceborne Computer-2, which is based on the HPE Edgeline Converged Edge system for advanced edge computing and AI capabilities, with Microsoft Azure to connect to the cloud, we are enabling space explorers to seamlessly transmit large data sets to and from Earth and benefit from an edge-to-cloud experience. We look forward to collaborating with Microsoft on their Azure Space efforts, which share our vision to accelerate discovery and help make breakthroughs to support life and sustainability in future, extended human missions to space.” —Dr. Mark Fernandez, Solutions Architect of Converged Edge Systems at HPE and Principal Investigator for Spaceborne Computer-2
Microsoft first announced its Azure Space program in October, as a concerted effort to bring cloud computing to space.
“Today’s announcement advances Azure Space in bringing Azure AI and machine learning to new space missions and emphasizes the true power of hyperscale computing in support of edge scenarios—connecting anyone, anywhere to the cloud,” writesTom Keane Corporate Vice President, Azure Global, Microsoft Azure. “Our collaboration with HPE is just the first step in an incredible journey and will provide researchers and students access to these insights and technologies, inspiring the next generation of those who wish to invent with purpose, on and off the planet.”
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has won a $35+ million contract to build one of the fastest supercomputers for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
NCAR is US “federally funded R&D center focused on advancing knowledge of geosciences, including meteorology, climate change, and solar activity.” The organization’s work is more important than ever as the threat from climate change continues to increase.
The new system will be housed at NCAR’s Wyoming Supercomputing Center in Cheyenne. The system will be a major upgrade over the existing one, providing almost 3.5X faster speed. The supercomputer will go operational in 2022 and help NCAR create digital models of various weather effects to better understand them.
“This new system, powered by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, is a major step forward in supercomputing power, providing the scientific community with the most cutting-edge technology to better understand the Earth system,” said Anke Kamrath, director, Computational and Information Systems Laboratory at the National Center of Atmospheric Research. “The resulting research will lead to new insights into potential threats ranging from severe weather and solar storms to climate change, helping to advance the knowledge needed for improved predictions that will strengthen society’s resilience to potential disasters.”
Oracle has become the latest major company moving its headquarters from California to Texas.
Wednesday, December 2, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HEP) announced it was moving its headquarters from California to Houston. Oracle is now the second major company in as many weeks to announce such a move, with plans to move its headquarters to Austin.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott broke the news via Twitter.
BREAKING: Oracle just announced they have moved their Headquarters to Austin.
Texas is truly the land of business, jobs, and opportunity.
“We believe these moves best position Oracle for growth and provide our personnel with more flexibility about where and how they work,” Oracle told AFP News.
“Depending on their role, this means that many of our employees can choose their office location as well as continue to work from home part time or all the time.”
As the pandemic has transformed the workforce, leading to widespread adoption of remote work, it’s a safe bet HPE and Oracle won’t be the last companies to move to greener pastures.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is moving its headquarters to Houston, Texas, a reflection of the changes COVID-19 has brought.
In 2015, Hewlett Packard split into two companies. The original PC and printer division continued on as HP, Inc. HPE, on the other hand, focused on cloud services, software and IT infrastructure.
Antonio Neri, President and CEO, announced the plans to relocate headquarters from Silicon Valley to Houston, Texas. HPE already has a presence in Texas, with it being its largest employee site.
As we look to the future, our business needs, opportunities for cost savings, and team members’ preferences about the future of work, we have made the decision to relocate HPE’s headquarters to the new campus under construction in Spring, Texas, just outside of Houston.
The move is, at least in part, in response to the changes the COVID-19 pandemic has brought. Employees have become more accustomed to working remotely, leading to HPE embracing more flexibility. This, in turn, has caused the company to reevaluate its real estate strategy.
Houston fits in well with HPE’s long-term goals. As the fourth largest city, Houston is also the most diverse. This gives the company a broad pool from which to recruit. HPE is currently constructing a 440,000 square-foot campus that is expected to be operational in 2022. Neri emphasized relocation will be entirely voluntary, and there are no layoffs associated with this move.
At the same time, the company will keep its presence in Silicon Valley:
We aren’t leaving Silicon Valley, a region inextricably linked to our rich history and heritage since Bill and Dave founded Hewlett Packard. Our San Jose campus will remain a hub for technological talent and innovation.
Notably, San Jose will become the new headquarters for our Aruba Intelligent Edge business. The explosion of devices, applications and data at the edge continues to drive demand for secure connectivity, and through our Aruba business, we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the $39 billion edge market opportunity, which the pandemic has only accelerated with the need for digital workplace solutions.
Neri is optimistic the decision was the right one, at the right time:
Given our company’s long history in the region, this move makes sense for HPE. The world has changed, and we are changing with it for the benefit of all of our stakeholders.
For the second time in two years, HPE is warning of a firmware bug in its SSD drives that will brick them unless an update is applied.
In a support advisory, HPE details the issue involving HPE SAS SSDs running firmware older than HPD7. Those drives running the earlier firmware will completely fail once they reach 40,000 hours of operation.
“IMPORTANT: This HPD7 firmware is considered a critical fix and is required to address the issue detailed below,” reads the advisory. “HPE strongly recommends immediate application of this critical fix. Neglecting to update to SSD Firmware Version HPD7 will result in drive failure and data loss at 40,000 hours of operation and require restoration of data from backup if there is no fault tolerance, such as RAID 0 or even in a fault tolerance RAID mode if more SSDs fail than can be supported by the fault tolerance of the RAID mode on the logical drive. Example: RAID 5 logical drive with two failed SSDs.”
HPE says it was “notified by a Solid State Drive (SSD) manufacturer of a firmware defect affecting certain SAS SSD models” that were used in HPE server and Storage products. The company also makes it clear that, because the failure only occurs after “40,000 hours of operation and based on the dates these drives began shipping from HPE, these drives are NOT susceptible to failure until October 2020 at the earliest.”
Even so, IT professionals should begin upgrading the firmware on impacted drives as soon as possible to ensure no data loss when the 40,000 hour threshold is crossed.
Hewlett Packer Enterprise (HPE) has announced the availability of an as-a-service 5G portfolio to help telecom companies roll out 5G networks.
According to the company, by making its portfolio of hardware and software solutions available as-a-service, it will help telcos rapidly deploy 5G networks and start turning a profit, by reducing the initial cost. The “edge-to-cloud, platform as-a-service strategy is uniquely positioned to help telcos capitalize on the 5G opportunity, by leveraging a cloud-native software stack for 5G core, optimized telco core and edge infrastructure blueprints, and Wi-Fi 6 enabled services. Built on open and interoperable platforms combined with carrier grade infrastructure and modular software components, the portfolio of offerings allows telcos to incorporate more automation, become more agile, and deploy new 5G services faster across the telco core, the telco edge and into the enterprise.”
With the increased emphasis on edge computing and the potential of 5G networks, HPE’s solution is designed to overcome some of the problems with previous generations of network equipment, especially those posed by proprietary equipment. By basing its solution on open source technology, HPE’s 5G portfolio will help telcos more fully realize the potential of the next generation network.
“Openness is essential to the evolutionary nature of 5G and with HPE 5G Core Stack telcos can reduce operational costs, deploy features faster and keep themselves open to multiple networks and technologies while avoiding being locked-in to a single vendor approach,” said Phil Mottram, vice president and general manager of the Communications and Media Solutions business unit at HPE. “HPE has one of the broadest 5G portfolios in the market and is uniquely positioned to help telcos build an open multi-vendor 5G core, optimize the edge with vRAN, and deliver connectivity and new compute services to the enterprise using MEC and Wi-Fi 6.”
OrbitsEdge is a startup aimed at providing above-the-cloud infrastructure in low Earth orbit. The Florida-based startup is positioning itself as the premier space-based, datacenter-grade computing and analytics provider in orbit.
With space exploration moving forward, especially in the commercial realm, there is an increasing need for infrastructure to support those endeavors. Having data center and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities in low Earth orbit would allow current and future space projects to process a large amount of data in orbit, rather than sending it planet-side, processing it and shipping it back. This would save a tremendous amount of money and improve response times by reducing latency. In addition, data centers in orbit would have other advantages, such as cooling and solar power.
OrbitsEdge has taken the next step, signing “an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to host HPE Edgeline Converged Edge Systems with its hardening solution, SatFrame, to enable commercial space companies to deploy computing in orbit and accelerate exploration.”
OrbitsEdge SatFrame “is a proprietary ruggedized satellite bus designed to protect sensitive hardware.” The SatFrame allows regular computer hardware to be used in space—and protected from the rigors of it—without expensive customization.
“Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the ideal partner for OrbitsEdge since its technologies have proven to withstand extreme environments on Earth and in space, with its deployment of the Spaceborne Computer in the International Space Station (ISS). This partnership follows HPE’s innovative strategy of enabling new solutions to be developed and deployed years in advance,” said Barbara Stinnett, chief executive officer of OrbitsEdge, Inc. “OrbitsEdge will leverage HPE’s edge technology to run sophisticated analytics such as artificial intelligence (AI) on the vast amounts of data that will be created as space is commercialized,” she added.
“We are committed to pushing technology limits to power the next era of innovation, whether it’s here on Earth or in space,” said Phillip Cutrone, vice president and general manager, Worldwide OEM at HPE. “The HPE Edgeline Converged Edge Systems provide datacenter-grade performance, data acquisition, industrial networks, and control in harsh edge environments to enable real-time insight and action. By combining our technologies with the OrbitsEdge SatFrame hardening design, the commercial space industry gains advanced systems to create new space-based applications and solutions.”
“Customers continue to affirm the need to accelerate the digital transformation and take advantage of the explosion of data we see around us,” says HPE CEO Antonio Neri. “This ultimately is the core aspect of how they derive an improved business outcome. We have a very complete portfolio from the edge to the cloud. Digital transformation starts with secure connectivity. We have a phenomenal platform called Aruba that provides a mobile-first cloud-first approach.”
Antonio Neri, President and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, discusses on CNBC the companies latest earnings driven by customers continuing to accelerate their digital transformation:
Customers Accelerating Their Digital Transformation
Customers continue to affirm the need to accelerate the digital transformation and take advantage of the explosion of data we see around us. This ultimately is the core aspect of how they derive (an improved) business outcome. Obviously, the uncertainty (do to the China trade war) can create a little bit of a pause. It takes a little bit longer for them to make decisions, particularly with larger deals. That’s what we saw (this quarter), elongated sell cycles.
We executed with incredible discipline both on the cost side and on the pricing side. We actually have done a remarkable job in the last seven quarters to continue to make our cost structure more competitive and to streamline everything across the company. When I became the CEO I established three key priorities for ourselves. One of them, at the core, was to start with our HP Next next program which was to rearchitect the company from the ground up. That included a cost-benefit but at the same time, a portfolio shift. We are seeing the benefit of the portfolio shift today in our margin profile. That gives us the ability to expand margins significantly. I believe we will deliver record levels of year-to-date free cash flow which gives us the confidence to raise the guidance again for seven consecutive quarters.
Digital Transformation Starts With Secure Connectivity
It (the Huawei issue) is an opportunity for us. We have a very complete portfolio from the edge to the cloud. Digital transformation starts with secure connectivity. We have a phenomenal platform called Aruba that provides a mobile-first cloud-first approach. At the same time, we are here to serve our customers in the countries where they participate. We have a very diverse global supply chain that allows us to navigate through these challenges. I take this as an opportunity for us to serve our customers better and continue to provide the value they’re looking for. Obviously, we need to navigate through this uncertainty, whether it is Huawei or others. At the end, we are really focused on our business and our customers.
As our CFO Tarek Robbiati said we are focusing this year on stabilizing our business. We continue to shift our portfolio to higher value, higher margin and deliver everything we can as a service to our customers. You see the results of that in a portfolio mix in key strategic growth areas like high performance compute, which is the backbone for how analytics and AI will be run going forward. We are extremely excited about the completion almost of the acquisition of Craig which will be completed by the end of Q4. At the same time, in the core business, we have to continue to deliver what I call world load optimized hybrid cloud solutions delivered as a service. We are on that journey. We have made tremendous progress. We have a truly differentiated offer called HPE GreenLake, which is to deliver everything as a service.
Customers Accelerating Their Digital Transformation, Says HPE CEO Antonio Neri
We believe the Edge is the next frontier, says HPE CEO Antonio Neri. “When we talk about the enterprise of the future, we see an edge-centric, cloud-enabled, data-driven, enterprise,” notes Neri. “What that means is the cloud is moving closer to where the data is created. That’s driven by the use cases we see around us.”
Neri adds: “Whether it is healthcare, manufacturing, or transportation, everything is being connected. It started with connectivity and then soon after that is the security aspect. One thing is connecting devices and apps and one thing is connecting things to the network. That’s why our Aruba platform is such a unique asset because it provides connectivity and security with AI built-in at the core.”
Driving the Acceleration of the Digital Transformation
I would like to characterize that we had another strong quarter for the company. That’s further evidence that our strategy is working to accelerate the Intelligent Edge and to drive profitable growth in the core segment of the market called Hybrid IT. Because we are continuing to build our portfolio and we see the demand steady, we’re actually very confident to raise our guidance that we obviously beat in Q1. We see the rest of fiscal year 2019 as strong for us and give us the confidence to raise the guidance driven by the portfolio and the innovation we have and in the feedback we get from customers.
We see the demand steady. We have not seen any evidence of a downturn (due to tariffs, shutdown, etc.). Obviously, we are continuing to monitor the uncertainties around the globe, but the reality is that customers are making critical investment to drive that acceleration of the digital transformation. That’s all driven by the fact that the data around us has continued to grow. They need to extract the value of that data much faster than ever before. That’s why we see growth in segments like high performance compute, which for us grew 50 percent. Software around infrastructure grew 70 percent. Also, the connectivity in the Edge grew 20 percent in the wireless business. We see that as a continued trend.
When people ask me what’s going on around the globe with Brexit, for example, our UK business actually grew double digits. When you think about the government shutdown, actually one of the key products we sell in the government is high-performance compute, and it actually grew triple digits. So it has not had the impact, but obviously, we continue to monitor what’s going on around the globe.
Next Frontier: Edge Centric, Cloud-Enabled, Data-Driven
We believe the Edge is the next frontier. When we talk about the enterprise of the future, we see an Edge centric cloud-enabled data-driven enterprise. What that means is the cloud is moving closer to where the data is created. That’s driven by the use cases we see around us. Whether it is healthcare, manufacturing, or transportation, everything is being connected. It started with connectivity and then soon after that is the security aspect. One thing is connecting devices and apps and one thing is connecting things to the network. That’s why our Aruba platform is such a unique asset because it provides connectivity and security with AI built-in at the core.
3 Cs of the Intelligent Edge
Ultimately, it brings that cloud computing closer to actually where the data is created. We think about it as an integrated solution. Obviously, we need to provide customers the tools to be able to protect themselves and be compliant with the new regulatory policies being put in place, like for example, GPI in Europe. We are really focused on that and we actually believe we have one of the best solutions at the Edge today. The data continues to outpace the compute capacity and actually, 75 percent of that data is created at the Edge. That’s very exciting and that’s why I’m bullish about these Edge compute capabilities that the customers need going forward. It’s just physics.
AI is a Big Opportunity for Us
Two years from now we’re going to create twice the amount of data that we created in our entire human history. That data needs to be stored, it needs to be managed, it needs to be compliant, and most importantly, business outcome has to be derived. That’s why we see the need to bring that cloud compute closer to where the data is in a different form factor. We see AI as a big opportunity for us and all integrated with connectivity and security.
Customers are telling us that they are accelerating the digital transformation. We have a saying that the future belongs to the fast. People who can extract insights from the data faster are going to continue to win. We are very bullish about it because we have one of the best portfolios we ever had and our innovation is second to none.
The US is Ahead with 5G
5G is going to be an exciting opportunity for us. The US is ahead and is going to be one of the first countries, if not the first country together with Japan and others, to roll out 5G. We already see evidence of that. Our opportunity with 5G is to provide customers an integrated experience. 5G is a type of connectivity, but it is not the only type of connectivity. You are talking about 5G, talking about wire connectivity, you talk about wired network connectivity or wireless connectivity.
What customers are asking us is give me one integrated experience with one security control play. That’s where Aruba fits perfectly in that we’re going to provide a cloud-based solution that integrates 5G into that experience.
Every business has been disrupted by the digital transformation, says Hewlett Packard Enterprise President and CEO Antonio Neri. With that disruption is an explosion of valuable data. “That data has value,” says Neri. “Enterprises are looking to extract that value much faster than ever before because people who can get inside faster will win. We see that as a massive opportunity.”
Antonio Neri, President and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, discussed how the explosion of data, especially with the advent of 5G, is causing companies to invest in new technologies like AI and machine learning in order to extract maximum value from their data. Neri was interviewed by Fox Business at Davos 2019:
Extracting Value From Data is a Massive Opportunity
We live in an incredible time. Every business has been disrupted by the digital transformation. Occuring with that disruption is the explosion of the data we are creating. You just made a comment that data is the new oil. We say that data is the new currency. That data has value. Enterprises are looking to extract that value much faster than ever before because people who can get inside faster will win. We see that as a massive opportunity.
We are coming out of 2018 which was very strong. We saw an increase in spend in IT which was driven by security, more compute capacity, as well as storage capacity around this data. Also, we see the spend moving in a different direction. For example, new technologies like AI and machine learning to extract the value of the data. We see good momentum. Obviously, we see some signals for a little bit of slowdown. However, a little bit of slowdown doesn’t mean everything is going to stop. It’s actually still very strong.
Companies Are Digitizing Their Enterprises
I see companies putting more money into deploying new architectures like cloud and mobility. We live in a mobile-first approach. Companies are digitizing their enterprises making their enterprises much more efficient with this new technology.
Basically, they are moving faster than ever before. So we are actually very optimistic about the future. That data will continue to outpace the compute power which means that money will be spent in catching up with that need to process all of that data in real-time.
5G Accelerating the Digital Transformation of Every Industry
There’s obviously going to be a big investment in the telecommunications space to lay all this infrastructure. 5G actually favors the movement of data which means it is going to accelerate this transition and digital transformation of every industry. Last year at this event we talked about the Industrial Revolution 4.0. 5G will enable that because everything will be connected, everything will ingest data, and everything will process data.
We are very optimistic about the future of spending and the transformation of the business using this new technology. We think we are well positioned for the future and I think we have the portfolio to compete and win.
Extracting Value From Data is a Massive Opportunity, Says HPE President
