Next in Tech

The headlines around the levels of capital spending on AI have talked about financial market reactions and the impacts on balance sheets, but there are other effects this spending is having. Research director Brenon Daly returns to the podcast to talk about how reduced cash flow and dwindling reserves are hitting the M&A markets with host Eric Hanselman. Hyperscalers had been steady acquirers as they look to grow organically. They've gone from an active footing to taking a big step back from acquisitions. With so much capital being directed at AI infrastructure, there's very little left for acquisitions. 
With the leaders in strategic acquisition pulling back, the range of exit options for early stage companies has narrowed. Hyperscalers have not only been acquirers, but they also set the tone for acquisition trends. SaaS deals have picked up some of the slack, but this is a market that has been significantly curtailed and it will take some time to come back.
 
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Building AI doesn't leave much money for buying
Hyperscaler earnings quarterly: Cash flows running low as AI portfolios evolve
Going the wrong way on the 'K'
Bruises and bargains in the tech M&A market
Host/Author: Eric Hanselman
Guest: Brenon Daly
Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible

We've talked extensively about the demand side of data centers and AI and it's important to consider what's taking place in sustainably addressing it. Analyst Tony Lenior returns to the podcast to discuss his recent research with host Eric Hanselman. Booming demand has raised concerns that hyperscalers and data center operators would abandon sustainability goals, but, while some timelines have been pushed back, they continue to be some of the largest buyers of renewable Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) and are driving carbon-free energy pursuits. That's despite three major energy shocks in the last six years. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are seeing wider deployment and rapid technology advances and are a means to addressing wind and solar's intermittency. 
Water is another key resource associated with the data center operation and an area where progress is being made. It's part of a more complex set of interconnections, though as direct water consumption is typically what's measured, but secondary water consumption can be just as significant. Nuclear power is carbon-free, but consumes large quantities of water for cooling. Hydropower has even more complicated impacts on water use, despite its fundamentally sustainable nature. Sustainability concerns are critical to understand and very challenging to fully resolve.
 
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Nearly two-thirds of planned US BESS projects eligible for 40% tax credits
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Microsoft opens new windows into renewable investment, doubling down on decarbonization
Amazon delivers on green commitments, but emissions rise amid the AI boom
Google's search for power sustainability is yielding results, but AI slows progress
Powering data centers: Leveraging energy community incentives in a changing regulatory landscape
Host/Author: Eric Hanselman 
Guest: Tony Lenoir
Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible

Labeled Security Summer Camp by some, the Black Hat and DEF CON security conferences have been the premier events for security researchers and practitioners. Analysts Dan Kennedy and Justin Lam returned from the heat of Las Vegas to discuss their take on what went down in the desert with host Eric Hanselman. More than 23,000 attendees were reported to be part of the sprawling Black Hat start to the week and DEF CON has grown to be its equal in size. There was more discussion about the realities of what AI can do for and against security operations. The implications around Mythos have raised fears of a cascade of vulnerability disclosures that will overwhelm our ability to remediate them, but a growing risk comes from AI tooling being able to create more complex environments and processes to make complex vulnerabilities more easily exploitable.
On the security defense side, AI's ability to interpret complex interactions and relationships is showing potential to reduce the risk of rolling out new controls by understanding what policies could break. It's an area where there have historically been delays in improving protections where concerns that new controls might break existing applications or access held security teams back. One of the greatest benefits of the conferences, though, may be the ability of security professionals to gather together and have the informal interactions that are needed to support each other in the complex world that information security has become.
 
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Fulcrum accountability, aligning personas and progress in data security
Host/Author: Eric Hanselman 
Guests: Dan Kennedy and Justin Lam
Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible

Quantum computing might be seen by some as a distant future, but quantum computers are doing useful work today and having impacts on a range of areas in technology. Analyst Ellie Brown and host Eric Hanselman were at IBM's Quantum Day and explore not only what they saw there, but also the broader implications that advances in quantum technology are having. Behind all of the shiny stainless steel cabinets are the exotic superconducting "chandeliers" that have become the face of quantum computing and also racks of classical computing systems that are translating computational results and managing operations and interconnection. While the quantum systems are advancing rapidly, the pipeline of skilled talent that can put it to work is still under development. The ecosystem of coding tools, simulators and algorithms is moving forward, but it has to be able to scale.
Quantum impacts on information security and trust are just beginning to be understood in the wider technology community. With the risk of quantum computing breaking some types of encryption looming around the end of the decade, organizations of all sizes should be scrambling to assess their risks and starting to implement quantum safe protections. 451 Research data shows that enterprises are starting on the journey, but they need to be much further ahead to meet timelines that keep getting closer with each new quantum advancement.
 
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Quantum's advances come with major cybersecurity implications
Host/Author: Eric Hanselman
Guest: Ellie Brown
Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible

Adoption of AI has been dramatic, but the boost that the release of the OpenClaw agent technology delivered in November of last year was even more so. The mad rush to put agents to work has had wide ranging impacts, including market impacts on the supply of the venerable Mac Mini computer. That intensity and the need to manage the shockwaves agents are creating are what analysts Jean Atelsek and Marissa Incera joined host Eric Hanselman to discuss. There are now a proliferation of agents and they are creating demands on enterprise infrastructure that are outstripping those of initial AI adoption. The quandary enterprises are wrestling with is how to harness agentic power without limiting the innovations they can provide and still bounding the activities they can undertake.
Effective agent use requires more than just an agent framework running on a single system. There has to be mediated access to data, management of context and memory in the agentic flow and security around agent action. The headlines are already filled with stories of the havoc that can be wreaked by misguided attempts. It requires a lot of diligence to get this right.
 
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Optimizing agentic AI systems
Pricing the agentic enterprise: Megawatts, outcomes and intelligence in industrial environments
Infrastructure and data challenges persist, agentic ones await – Highlights from VotE: AI & Machine Learning
Host/Author: Eric Hanselman
Guests: Jean Atelsek and Melissa Incera
Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible
Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun and Sophie Carr