C. Dunlap Research Director Summary Bullets: • Eight prominent LLM/GenAI competitors are featured in GlobalData’s new LLM Competitive Landscape Assessment. Google Gemini has been named Leader. • In addition to core model capabilities, other factors are considered, including enterprise tools and partner ecosystems built around the GenAI model. GlobalData has just released its first LLM Competitive Landscape Assessment, highlighting the strengths and challenges of eight heavy-hitters in this space. The new report evaluates the competitors’ differentiators of core model technology including conte ..read more

R. Pritchard Summary Bullets: • Vodafone Business Germany’s partnership with Envoria offers CSRD-compliant ESG reporting for enterprises as service providers continue to shift toward offering technology-enabled business solutions. • Growing range of ESG reporting portals being made available to enterprises from telecoms services providers to meet evolving legislation and customer demand. Vodafone Business Germany has teamed with Envoria, a sustainability reporting specialist, to help its customers meet the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting requirements of the European Union ..read more

Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services Summary Bullets: • AT&T divulged that the call and text records of 109 million cellular customers had been unlawfully downloaded from a third-party cloud provider’s environment. • Wired magazine reports AT&T paid $370,000 to hackers to delete the records, which included cell site data. While the hacker provided a video of the deletion, there is no way to prove the threat actors don’t have a copy of the records. AT&T is feeling the heat after admitting that the call and text records of 109 million wi ..read more

I. Patel Summary Bullets: • News of Turkcell’s $27 billion investment over its 30-year span will spur further development in the country’s technology infrastructure as the operator seeks to sell a quarter of its shares, possibly to a wealthy Gulf player. • With this announcement, Turkcell is positioning itself strategically in Turkey as the go-to operator for enterprise solutions for government and large enterprises, and it is presenting itself as an indispensable partner for B2B services. Turkish telecoms operator Turkcell disclosed it has invested $27 billion in communications and technology ..read more

G. Willsky Summary Bullets: • A history of offers that are difficult to distinguish is a significant hurdle holding back Microsoft in the contact center space. • Implementing a definitive flagship contact center offer coupled with Microsoft Teams would go far in alleviating competitive pressure. Microsoft tore the wrapping paper from its latest contact center offer with the general availability of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center on July 1, 2024. When it comes to Microsoft, contact center is the gift that keeps on giving. Pre-dating this new arrival is a string of ancestors born annually ..read more

S. Schuchart Summary Bullets: • Cybersecurity threats are increasing. • The preferred solution to increase cybersecurity risks is certifications for IT staff as well as security awareness training for all staff. Cybersecurity is hard. Lack of skills, education, and modern security products + architectures make it worse. Fortinet’s latest 2024 Cybersecurity Skills Gap report backs that up and brings to light a few other contributing factors. Fortinet got responses from 1,850 decision-makers in technology, manufacturing, and financial services spread out fairly evenly across the globe. Overall ..read more

M. Rogers Summary Bullets: • Telco AI Leader: Data center industry leaders like Vertiv and Equinix are supporting the need for more liquid cooled data center infrastructure to meet demands of rising GPU use. • Dream Bigger: While today hyperscalers are deploying the technology, private AI will drive demand for liquid cooling in smaller enterprise data centers, with potential for bottlenecks. Data centers around the world hosting consumer and enterprise applications may see a shift towards using liquid cooling techniques, as opposed to the various forms of air cooling (e.g., room, rowm and rack ..read more

I. Patel Summary Bullets: • Qatar-based telecoms group Ooredoo and US chipmaker Nvidia signed a deal for Ooredoo to buy and deploy thousands of Nvidia graphic processing units (GPUs). • Ooredoo will build its AI cloud services platform and offer GPU-as-a-service to customers across its footprint: Qatar, Algeria, Kuwait, Tunisia, Oman, and the Maldives. In one of the most significant moves made by any telecoms operator in MENA to turbocharge AI capabilities, Ooredoo Group is boosting its 26 data centers by incorporating Nvidia’s high-density GPUs. It is also becoming the region’s first Nvidia C ..read more

R. Bhattacharyya Summary Bullets: • The complexities of implementing generative AI (GenAI) and integrating it with existing systems present a challenge to enterprises; most organizations report that deployments take much longer than originally anticipated. • Telefónica Tech is wise to expand its AI offerings for business customers and to offer tools focused on data management and governance. On June 18, 2024, Telefónica Tech announced it was expanding its partnership with IBM to help businesses in Spain adopt artificial intelligence (AI), including GenAI. The companies will offer Shark.X, a pl ..read more

C. Dunlap Research Director Summary Bullets: • All three cloud giants attended FinOps X for the first time, showing commitment to normalize cloud cost usage specs. • The cost of AI will impact FinOps budgets. No one is “running” in FinOps, said FinOps Foundation executive director J.R. Storment during last week’s June 19-22, 2024 FinOps X keynote speech. Storment described new community project stages as either being in the crawl, walk, or run phase, depending on their technology evolution and adoption rates. The FinOps X conference has only been around since 2022 but is quickly garnering a fo ..read more