Welcome to the weekly highlights edition by CIO Influence. It covers top cloud, cybersecurity, data management, AI and IT news weekly updates. In this roundup, we bring you the latest developments from the tech giants during the week. These updates offer valuable insights into the evolving digital landscape, from cybersecurity measures to technological innovations.
#1 Red Hat OpenShift Now Available on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Red Hat, Inc. and Oracle have announced the general availability of Red Hat OpenShift on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Compute Virtual Machines (VMs). Red Hat OpenShift is the industry’s leading hybrid cloud application platform, built on the backbone of Kubernetes. It makes it easier to build and deploy cloud-native applications.
OCI, distributed across 69 regions, now gives customers flexibility to run Red Hat OpenShift where they need to meet compliance, performance, and cost requirements. This availability marks a key milestone in the extended collaboration between Red Hat and Oracle, starting with the certification of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for OCI bare metal and Oracle Cloud VMware Solution workloads.
#2 Rethinking Data Storage in the Data Awakening Era by Huawei
Huawei redefines data storage for the awakening era based on six dimensions:
- Ultra-performance
- Data resilience
- New data paradigm
- Scalability
- Sustainability
- Data fabric
This guide has propelled the recent launch of the high-performance OceanStor A800 for AI applications.
Huawei’s OceanStor A800 improves performance, scalability, and energy efficiency. It can enhance storage performance by a factor of 10 compared with traditional storage and can support high bandwidth and high IOPS to improve the efficiency of AI process handling. Advanced structures and technologies ensure high reliability, ransomware detection accuracy, and the ability to retrieve data rapidly and eliminate hallucination in large AI models.
Huawei’s redefinition of data storage is a commitment from the company to solve customers’ challenges and meet their demands. It ensures the delivery of leading AI-ready data infrastructure for much greater value to customers.
#3 HPE Delivers Aurora, the Second Exascale Supercomputer, to Argonne National Laboratory
At ISC High Performance 2024, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced the delivery of Aurora, the world’s second exascale supercomputer, in collaboration with Intel for the United States Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. The supercomputer hits 1.012 exaflops on 87% of the system, making it the second-fastest supercomputer in the world on the TOP500. Aurora is also HPE’s second exascale system and the largest AI-capable system globally, leading on the HPL Mixed Precision (MxP) Benchmark with 10.6 exaflops on 89% of the system.
Aurora built with HPE Cray EX supercomputer, which is purpose-built for exascale computing. In addition, it boasts the largest deployment of open, Ethernet-based supercomputing interconnect—HPE Slingshot—for high-speed networking across its compute blades, processors, and GPU units.
Scientists will leverage Aurora’s AI capabilities for various scientific projects, such as mapping the brain, particle physics, and accelerating drug design. In the meantime, Rick Stevens, an Associate Laboratory Director at Argonne National Laboratory, says he expects Aurora to change the trajectory of their research projects.
#4 Dell PowerEdge Servers Announced for Diverse Workloads Across Data Centers and Edge Environments
Dell Technologies is expanding its server portfolio with enhanced performance and efficiency features for flexible deployment scenarios ranging from data centers to edge locations. These new servers represent the most recent version of the evolution of server technology developed for the needs of large enterprises and small businesses.
What does Dell PowerEdge offer?
The new Dell PowerEdge servers are designed to make operations easy and efficient. Their configurations are versatile enough to support nearly any size organization, from cloud service providers (CSPs) to businesses at the edge. With the new performance capabilities, these servers provide a flexible way for customers to handle virtually any workload efficiently.
The newest Dell PowerEdge R670 CSP Edition and R770 CSP Edition are designed specifically for cloud service providers. They are optimized to perform at the highest density levels and scale out for specific cloud workloads. They include the new Smart Cooling technology, designed to optimize energy consumption, and front I/O for easier serviceability, ideal for special-purpose data centers.
The new Intel Xeon 6 Efficient core processor in these servers provides up to 2.3x more performance per rack than previous generations. In addition, the new servers come with the Dell Open Server Manager to make management easier in large, heterogeneous environments.
The Dell PowerEdge T160 and R260 also offer small-form-factor computing for small businesses and remote offices. These servers use the latest Intel Xeon E-2400 Processors, which deliver twice the performance of previous generations while shrinking size, energy consumption, and latency.
#5 IBM Updates Qiskit, the World’s Most Widely Used Quantum Software
IBM has announced the next generation and expansion of Qiskit, its widely used quantum software. Initially released as an open-source SDK in 2017, Qiskit has enabled over 550,000 users to build and run quantum circuits on IBM’s quantum hardware systems, executing over 3 trillion quantum circuits to date.
This new generation of Qiskit has transformed into a full software stack that delivers more performance capabilities. It has evolved from a popular SDK for quantum computing experiments to a stable SDK and suite of services designed to enable users to achieve greater performance when running complex quantum circuits on IBM’s 100+ qubit quantum computers.
This expansion will provide IBM Quantum Network members with the most advanced Qiskit capabilities to explore the next generation of quantum algorithms in their respective fields—critical for discovering quantum advantage.
#6 Lenovo Unveils ThinkPad P14s Gen 5 Mobile Workstation with Upgraded Performance using AMD Ryzen PRO Processors
Lenovo introduces the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 5, a portable 14-inch workstation designed to deliver high performance for professionals. Powered by AMD Ryzen PRO 8040 HS-Series processors, this workstation is known for energy efficiency and is suitable for on-the-go usage. The AMD Ryzen PRO HS-Series processors boast integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, including a Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which enhances performance in AI workflows.
Key Features:
- ISV certifications ensure compatibility with applications like AutoCAD, Revit, and SOLIDWORKS.
Integrated AMD Radeon graphics provide seamless performance for graphics-intensive tasks. - ThinkShield security features and MIL-SPEC testing ensure durability and security for mobile power users.
- AMD has pushed AI PC technology forward with the introduction of AMD Ryzen AI on the ThinkPad P14s
- Gen 5. By leveraging the CPU, GPU, and on-chip NPU, these processors now give 39 AI TOPS of processing power, greatly improving the generative AI experience on PC. This technology upgrade elevates user experience across AI-enabled collaboration, content creation, and data analysis tasks.
Specifications:
- AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840HS processor with AMD RyzenTM AI and AMD Radeon integrated graphics
Supports Windows 11 Pro and various Linux-based operating systems - Up to 96GB DDR5 RAM and up to 2TB PCIe 4×4 Performance SSD
- FHD touch or non-touch displays with 3M Optical Film solution increase brightness to 400 nits while using less power
- Optional 8k OLED display with low blue light and X-Rite factory color calibration
- Features Wi-Fi 6E and optional 5G WWAN connectivity
- Mobility option with a 3Whr battery; customer replaceable (CRU) 52.5Whr battery extends working hours.
#7 Infosys and SAP Emarsys together Deliver hyper-personalized Omnichannel Experience to Clients
Infosys and SAP Emarsys, a cloud-based omnichannel customer engagement platform, have collaborated. This collaboration equips businesses to respond to the growing demand for omnichannel customer engagement. Emarsys’ customer engagement platform integrated with Infosys Cobalt, a suite of services, solutions, and platforms, enterprises accelerate cloud journey and enhance marketing campaigns to drive revenue growth and improve customer experience.
Key Highlights:
- The enterprises can orchestrate industry-specific, cross-channel marketing campaigns, reach their customers in real-time, and improve customer loyalty through personalization.
- Using the platform capabilities of AI and Infosys Topaz, businesses will have an opportunity to derive insights from across organizational silos that will help in enabling data-driven insights and predictive analytics for boosting revenue growth.
- The collaboration gives clients a 360-degree overview of campaigns, blending digital channels with in-store experiences in a cohesive customer experience to enhance brand engagement.
#8 NetApp and Lenovo Introduce Converged Infrastructure Solution for GenAI
In partnership with Lenovo, NetApp has released the NetApp AIPod, a converged infrastructure optimized for the generative AI era. This partnership leverages Lenovo ThinkSystem servers for NVIDIA OVX to deliver simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and power for enterprise AI.
The converged infrastructure solution is also designed for NVIDIA NIM inference microservices, the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform, and retrieval-augmented generation, which taps private data for AI without large-scale model training.
NetApp, a technology supplier for storing unstructured data, works to unleash the full value of enterprise data through inferencing and RAG. This integrates NetApp storage systems with high-performance servers from Lenovo and NVIDIA technologies to fast-track AI adoption and deployment.
#9 Persistent System Welcomes Vinit Teredesai, it’s New CFO
Effective immediately, persistent Systems has announced Vinit Teredesai as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He replaces Executive Director Sunil Sapre, who is retiring later this year. Vinit will provide financial leadership to Persistent as it continues growing.
What experiences does the new CFO bring?
Vinit has over 28 years of experience in finance with extensive exposure in accounting, auditing, taxation, fund-raising, risk management, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate restructuring. He previously worked as CFO at LTIMindtree Limited and Mindtree Limited and was earlier CFO and CIO at KPIT Technologies Limited. He is a Chartered Cost and Management Accountant and a Certified Public Accountant in the USA. He has completed a General Management program from the Sloan School of Management of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focusing on strategy, innovation, and technology.
#10 Key Generative AI Announcements of the Week from Google and OpenAI
1. OpenAI Announces GPT-4o and More Tools for ChatGPT Free Users
GPT-4o: OpenAI’s newest flagship model. GPT-4-level intelligence is now significantly faster, with extended text, voice, and vision capabilities.
GPT-4o is particularly great with shared images, where its abilities include menu translations, food historical facts, and recommendations. On the voice side, ChatGPT will soon be able to have much more natural voice conversations and even real-time video conversations with you. This update will soon hit an alpha state. Early access to the new alpha Voice Mode will be available to Plus users.
Improving global access. GPT-4o’s language capabilities have been upgraded for better quality and speed. ChatGPT now supports more than 50 languages in many of its capabilities.
GPT-4o is now being gradually rolled out to ChatGPT Plus and Team users and will shortly be available to Enterprise users. ChatGPT Free users will now get access to GPT-4o, but usage will be limited. Plus users will get message limits of up to 5x greater than free users. Team and Enterprise users will get even higher limits.
Free Users Get More: ChatGPT Free users will now enjoy:
- Experience of GPT-4-level intelligence
- Getting responses from the model and the web
- Capacity to do data analysis and chart creation
- Able to converse on uploaded photos
- File uploads to get the summarization, writing, or analysis done
- Getting access to GPTs and the GPT Store
- Enhanced experience with Memory to build a more helpful interaction.
2. Google I/O 2024 Announcements
The latest announcement by Google at I/O 2024 on Tuesday, its annual I/O developer conference. The improvements of Gemini promise to be more intuitive and versatile in AI experience, including key updates like:
- The 1.5 Pro version of Gemini features a million-token context window, which is now available to all developers worldwide.
- Gemini will empower a variety of Google products, from Search and Photos, to deliver next-level experiences in search and to simplify your memory recall.
- More productivity in Google Workspace; for example, summarizing emails with the help of Gemini to save a lot of time.
- The introduction of Gemini 1.5 Flash, a lower-parameter weight model optimized for low latency and inexpensive AI solutions.
- Project Astra focuses on multimodal understanding and real-time conversational capability, paving the way for universal AI agents that can help with everyday tasks.
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