Comments on: Where Cloud And AI Titans Rule The Network https://www.nextplatform.com/2023/11/01/where-cloud-and-ai-titans-rule-the-network/ In-depth coverage of high-end computing at large enterprises, supercomputing centers, hyperscale data centers, and public clouds. Tue, 14 Nov 2023 18:13:27 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 By: Slim Albert https://www.nextplatform.com/2023/11/01/where-cloud-and-ai-titans-rule-the-network/#comment-215848 Fri, 03 Nov 2023 02:32:02 +0000 https://www.nextplatform.com/?p=143185#comment-215848 Interesting analysis (and also the recent ones of AMD, AWS, Intel, TSMC, plus the 08/16/23 Supermicro)! I wonder if plotting some curves (eg. Revenue) in semi-log form (eg. log(Revenue) vs quarter) may help tease-out some of the factors contributing to those evolutions (essentially assuming an underlying exponential growth, and looking for deviations). The early-COVID boost in datacenters, late-COVID trough, current recovery, and imminent AI-related growth, might be more readily identifiable on such semi-log, relative to longer-term trends (or not).

There could also be some opportunity for multi-species modeling of the supply chain, maybe in Lotka-Volterra style, with fabs (TSMC, IFS, …), chipmakers (Intel, AMD, …), boxers (Supermicro, Arista, …), and eventual consumers (AWS, …). Fabs might be seen as autotrophs with others representing heterotrophs at higher levels of the “food” web. Inspiring stuff!

]]> By: Timothy Prickett Morgan https://www.nextplatform.com/2023/11/01/where-cloud-and-ai-titans-rule-the-network/#comment-215827 Thu, 02 Nov 2023 13:39:45 +0000 https://www.nextplatform.com/?p=143185#comment-215827 In reply to John S.

Well said, John.

]]> By: John S https://www.nextplatform.com/2023/11/01/where-cloud-and-ai-titans-rule-the-network/#comment-215825 Thu, 02 Nov 2023 12:37:35 +0000 https://www.nextplatform.com/?p=143185#comment-215825 I love the idea of Arista and SuperMicro systems in any small(ish) HPC cluster for an engineering focused team. You want the fastest gear at the cheapest price and you don’t need all the feel good features of the HPE or Cisco crew, you just need the basics done well and which let you get the job done.

So many people seem to love Cisco or HPE/Dell since they’re terrified of making a purchasing mistake or getting outside their comfort zones.

I pushed the SuperMicro FatTwin systems about 8 years ago for my $WORK and they turned out great. Reliable, easy to manage, and without the crap extra features (like HPE wanting extra money for remove console AFTER the OS boots. Thieves they are!) which just get in the way at scale.

So if the big cloud guys are buying these, it tells you Arista is focussed on just the features needed to be useful and remotely manageable and scalable. Which is a great for even a small shop with just a few of them, since it frees up time for other more fiddly bits.

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