NTT Research held its signature Upgrade event in the heart of Silicon Valley this week. I had an opportunity for a third year in a row to join customers, partners, and company executives over two days for a visionary keynote, compelling panel sessions, and impactful technical demonstrations. With a continued theme of summarizing my event attendance with three big takeaways – let’s dive in! Incubation Designed To Scale Innovation Upgrade kicked off with its keynote emphasizing NTT Research’s efforts that serve as a foundation for meaningful innovation. It is a message that I have heard at past Upgrade events, but this year the Japanese tech giant put wood behind the…
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The concept of cloud computing can be traced back to the 1960s, rooted in the notion of time-sharing. This year marks its twentieth anniversary, and the cloud continues to play an instrumental role within IT and OT organizations. Cloud services provide scalable, cost-effective on-demand compute, networking, and security infrastructure to power business operations. Its ability to be treated as an operational expense is invaluable, as well as its ability to provide new features and capabilities to meet ever-changing applications and workloads, including the rise of generative AI and agentic frameworks. Over the past several weeks, I have had an opportunity to spend time with two NTT DATA executives and attend…
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MediaTek welcomed a group of industry analysts to its annual event at the beautiful Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco’s Nob Hill district this week. I have always loved the hotel’s early 1900s Neoclassical architecture, and in many ways, its symmetry and simplicity echo MediaTek’s corporate DNA and humble yet confident culture. With a continued theme of summarizing my event attendance with three big takeaways – let’s dive in! No Longer The Value Play Historically, MediaTek has competed with Qualcomm in mobility SoCs as a value play. The strategy served the company well, allowing it to establish a leading position in the category. However, through a relentless pursuit of silicon development,…
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Image: RSA Conference 2026 RSA Conference yet again welcomed scores of security practitioners, executives, and infrastructure providers to San Francisco this year. I had the opportunity to attend in person and meet with thirty companies over four long days. Not surprisingly, agentic AI security punctuated all my conversations. With a continued theme of summarizing my event attendance with three big takeaways – let’s dive in! You Can’t Protect What You Can’t See Agentic frameworks are moving at hyper speed, and enterprises are struggling to keep pace. Historically, technology roadmap refreshes were measured in years. In contrast, modern AI application innovation can be measured in months. OpenClaw experimentation is a glaring…
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Image: OFC Conference 2026 Artificial intelligence can trace its symbolic birth back to the Dartmouth Conference in the summer of 1956. It had to be a wild concept at the time, a gathering of academic researchers that pondered the concept of machines that could think. Seven decades later, it has become a mainstream reality. Since the introduction of ChatGPT four years ago, and amid today’s rapid acceleration of agentic frameworks, compute has remained a focal point as GPU silicon evolves. However, the ultimate bottleneck of scaling modern AI applications and workloads is the advancement of networking infrastructure, and optical networking will play a significant role. As expected, AI infrastructure anchored…
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Image: NVIDIA Agentic AI security is a hot topic, one that I expect to discuss in every conversation I have with infrastructure providers at the upcoming RSA Conference. To no surprise, it was also a focal point for NVIDIA at its GTC event this week. The undisputed AI GPU leader is staking out fertile agentic security ground with the introduction of its NemoClaw “enterprise-ready” AI agent platform, but is it ready? On the surface, it is another strategy by NVIDIA to dominate the deployment of modern AI and solidify its ability to lock in its AI stack. What Is NemoClaw? The announcement payload at GTC was massive, demonstrating the company’s…
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Okta held its Showcase event in New York City this week. I had an opportunity to attend the livestream among many of its partners and customers in the famed Rockefeller Plaza to learn more about Okta’s ambitions to capitalize on the need for stronger AI agent security. With a continued theme of summarizing my event attendance with three big takeaways – let’s dive in! An Agentic Blueprint To Secure Enterprises Founder and chief executive Todd McKinnon kicked off Okta Showcase, speaking to the power of agentic AI and what the company is doing broadly with its Okta for AI Agents platform to secure non-human identities and safeguard against its weaponization…
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Image © 2026 GSMA / MWC During Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2026, AI, global connectivity frameworks, and large-scale infrastructure solution providers commanded the conversations, but three emerging technological innovators show great promise. Specifically, IQSTEL, pureLiFi, and AGIBOT stood out for their potential advancements in three distinct and critical sectors: AI-driven telecommunications, optical wireless communications (LiFi), and embodied intelligence through humanoid robotics. These businesses are demonstrating how the combination of specialized intelligence and alternative transmission mediums can address long-standing market inefficiencies by going beyond the industry’s customary focus on hardware scaling. This research note provides an analytical overview of these innovators, exploring how their tech stacks can unlock new telecom use cases and monetization opportunities. The…
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/willtownsend/2026/03/09/ocudu-aims-to-scale-open-source-ai-ran-innovation
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Fortinet welcomed a record number of attendees to its Accelerate 2026 event in Las Vegas. I had the opportunity to spend a full day with the company’s leadership team and customers, learning more about the firewall category leader and its broad, deep portfolio of secure networking solutions. With the theme of summarizing my event attendance with three big takeaways, let’s dive in! FortiOS 8.0 And FortiSOC Two big announcements punctuated Accelerate 2026. First, the introduction of FortiOS 8.0 builds on the company’s investment in the operating system launched nearly 25 years ago, which powers its security fabric. Enhancements include AI runtime security controls, SASE enhancements, and new quantum-safe capabilities. From…
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Image © 2026 GSMA / MWC Mobile World Congress Barcelona is the perennial event for the mobility industry. From its start exactly twenty years ago, MWC has showcased the latest in cellular infrastructure and device advancements dating back to the second “G.” Two decades is an eternity in any industry, and this year’s show highlighted the rapid advancements in cellular infrastructure and mobile devices. From my perspective, I walked away (after logging thirty miles dashing between halls at the Fira) with three big takeaways – so let’s dive in! AI Everywhere Not surprisingly, an overwhelming theme of AI everywhere punctuated MWC this year. From my perspective, AI washing has evolved…
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/willtownsend/2026/02/23/the-importance-of-optical-networking-in-the-ai-era
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I had the opportunity to attend T-Mobile’s Capital Markets Day in New York City on February 11. Over two and a half hours, chief executive Srini Gopalan and his executive leadership team took a group of industry and financial analysts through a look back and a look forward at its overall business, including its recent Q4 and full-year 2025 financial results. Three things stood out for me: First, the “Uncarrier’s” relentless focus on continually refining its network capabilities, subscription value, and customer experience is resulting in significant top-line revenue growth, exceptional gross earnings, and substantial free cash flow. In Q4, this equated to 2.4 million postpaid net customer adds and…
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Identity is the new hack. Cybersecurity architects, security operations center analysts, and C-suite IT executives are all struggling to maintain security posture and control with the growing use of modern AI tools by bad actors. Fundamentally, enterprise security now starts with identity access management, but it must evolve to stay one step ahead of an escalating threat landscape. With these points in mind, I will dive deeper into the challenges of securing identity and highlight what I find compelling about Cisco Duo’s approach after spending time with its leadership team late last year. Identity Is The New Hack Numerous published research reports indicate that the lion’s share of today’s security…
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Last year, a group of researchers at UC San Diego and the University of Maryland revealed a startling discovery utilizing an inexpensive satellite receiver system made with off-the-shelf components – not purpose-built spyware. Following three years of data collection and analysis from a vantage point in La Jolla, the team was able to collect a myriad of confidential data from geosynchronous satellites. As mobile network operators, including AT&T, T-Mobile, Vodafone, and others, adopt non-terrestrial networks to expand coverage, the study highlights the need for stronger security provisions. In this research note, I will outline the types of confidential data intercepted, the initial responses from operators, and what should be considered…
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This year marked my third visit in as many years to NTT’s R&D Forum in Tokyo. The event’s theme of a “quantum leap” was a clever play on words related to the highly performant connectivity needed for future quantum computing workloads — and it reminded me of the television show of the same name from the early 1990s. I continue to be impressed with NTT’s forward-looking approach to connectivity, embracing its historic strengths as a solution integrator, optical networking infrastructure provider and telecom mobility services operator with its Docomo business unit. This represents a unique set of capabilities that are further augmented by NTT’s broad ecosystem of partnerships. At the…
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Enterprise browsers have long served as an organizational control point, complementing other security solutions delivered as a service and through clouds, but they are rapidly evolving as the user interface for modern AI applications. To address the need for safe and secure generative AI usage, enterprise browsers are quickly morphing into purpose-built offerings to enforce AI runtime security, integrate business context, and infuse zero-trust least privileged access. Following Black Hat USA earlier this year, I boldly predicted that 2025 would become the year of the enterprise browser. In that Forbes contribution, I did not call a winner. Instead, I highlighted a handful of companies I judged to be leading the…
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Every fall for the past six years, Gigamon hosts engaging discussions with its customers and business partners during its signature Visualyze Bootcamp virtual event. This year, a major theme centered on how the company’s deep observability pipeline is evolving in the AI era. Keynotes from Chief Executive Shane Buckley and other executives also underscored that network-derived telemetry is quickly becoming foundational in unlocking new ways for enterprises to detect threats, troubleshoot application performance, and close compliance gaps across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. In this piece, I will dive deeper into these areas and share why I believe Gigamon continues to refine its solution strengths and deliver continued value through product…
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In recent years, semiconductor companies have expanded their activities to include system development. This trend is not surprising since it provides critical infrastructure space, power, and performance optimization opportunities within datacenter deployments to keep pace with demanding workload requirements. Modern AI, including generative and agentic frameworks, will benefit from this development activity in many ways, especially given rising power consumption and throughput demands. Case in point: both NVIDIA and AMD are moving towards more fully integrated rack solutions, while hyperscalers and cloud service providers are designing both servers and switches to complement their own custom silicon designs. As AI surges in importance, there is a need for shorter time-to-market. There…
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Black Hat USA 2025 returned to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, marking its 27th year in North America. With more than 22,000 participants, the event unwound over six days with an agenda that focused on deep dives into cybersecurity, underlying research efforts, practitioner training, vendor summits, technical demonstrations and social events. The rise of new types of attacks in the threat landscape is not slowing down, but accelerating at a monumental pace, fueled by the same modern AI tools that defenders are using. Bad actors are increasingly leaning into generative AI to dramatically improve the sophistication of phishing campaigns and create new forms of malware. They are…
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On the heels of a new partnership with identity and access management leader Okta, Palo Alto Networks surprised the tech industry with its recent announcement to acquire identity stalwart CyberArk for an eye-opening $25 billion. If approved by regulators, this deal represents a massive combination of two highly successful and mature cybersecurity infrastructure providers. This opens up a discussion about the value of identity management, what this tie-up could produce both short and long term and how customers might benefit. With that context set, let’s dive in. (Note: Palo Alto Networks is an advisory client of my firm, Moor Insights & Strategy.) The Value Of Identity And Privileged Access Management…
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Agentic AI promises to unlock enterprise transformation through massive improvements in the automation of workflows. The potential benefits are enormous. However, agentic workflows are a complicated engineering undertaking, to say the least. Agntcy is an open source collective formed in March 2025 with a vision for building a framework for what it calls the Internet of Agents. Since it was founded by Cisco’s Outshift incubation unit — which then recruited other members — the collective has focused on the coordination and orchestration of agents while ensuring proper identity access management protocols as those agents access enterprise data, open-source tools and customized large and small language models. Endorsing this approach — and giving…
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Two decades ago, British mathematician Clive Humbly coined the term “data is the new oil.” His forward-looking statement has certainly come to fruition. With the rise of modern AI, including generative and agentic AI applications and workloads, data plays an invaluable role in the training and inference functions tied to large and smaller algorithmic models. More specifically, in the context of AI-powered cybersecurity and operations, it is network-derived application metadata that matters. If you are not leveraging it, you are potentially flying blind in a digital infrastructure storm. Network and data observability tools are unlocking newfound capabilities for organizations, but the augmentation of intelligence derived from telemetry flows is critical.…
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, and the company’s recent Discover annual user and partner conference in Las Vegas served as a showcase for its past decade of accomplishments, as well as the ten-year anniversary of its acquisition of Aruba in 2015. The event also served as the debut for HPE’s new brand mark, refreshing a stodgy and text-heavy logo by incorporating a variation on Hewlett Packard’s iconic green badge that is meant to appear open to the future. HPE’s future is decidedly agentic in its focus, as evidenced by Discover’s overall theme and the race for the company and other IT infrastructure providers to capitalize on…
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The impact of generative and agentic AI on tech stacks and IT infrastructure is far-reaching, and radio access networking that supports 5G and eventually 6G mobile connectivity also stands to benefit tremendously. The potential to infuse intelligence to convert static, rules-based processing to dynamic, real-time optimization is not a new concept, given the widespread adoption of AIOps within enterprise network deployments. However, more modern applications of AI have enormous potential to enable massive, public mobile networks to self-optimize based on traffic patterns, interference, and even user behavior. It is no surprise that NVIDIA is leading the charge in AI RAN investigations, demonstrating how AI and machine learning can improve RAN…
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Cloud security provider Zscaler recently held its annual Zenith Live event in Las Vegas, and “zero trust everywhere” was a central theme. This year, I had an opportunity to spend time again with not only chief executive Jay Chaudhry, but also Joyce Kim, who leads the company’s overall marketing efforts, and Adam Geller, who serves in a newly created product leadership role. In this research note, I will share my insights from the event keynotes and leadership conversations, analyze the solution announcements, give my perspective on what the company can improve upon, and provide my take on Zscaler’s ability to deliver on its promise of zero trust everywhere. Riding the…
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When I speak with network and security professionals, I often find telemetry pipeline management is still flying under the radar. It’s too often treated as an afterthought — something cobbled together with leftover IT budget. But in today’s hybrid, cloud-driven, AI-heavy environments, that mindset can leave your organization exposed and underperforming. In my latest research note for Moor Insights & Strategy — RESEARCH NOTE: The Value of Telemetry Pipeline Management — I explore why telemetry pipelines should be treated as a strategic asset — a core component of modern IT infrastructure. As the volume and complexity of data grow, especially from AI inference and training workloads, enriched telemetry is becoming essential for…
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At Google Cloud Next 2025, the cloud services provider unveiled details related to its new Cloud WAN offering and commitment to cloud security. In this piece, I will highlight the solution’s capabilities and provide insights on what I find noteworthy. Leveraging Massive Network Investments Google has made significant investments in network connectivity over the course of nearly three decades to support services that include its search, Gmail, cloud, and cross-cloud services. With over two hundred points of presence and two million miles of fiber, there is ample opportunity to monetize its infrastructure further. So, it was not surprising that at Google Cloud Next this year, the company launched a new…
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In today’s digital economy, a highly performant network matters. From the delivery of Software-as-a-Service applications to the facilitation of AI workloads, unfettered access to cloud services for economical scale, and collaboration tools designed to enhance productivity — networks underpin it all. Yet, for too long, business leaders have viewed the network as just another piece of commoditized IT infrastructure rather than the backbone underpinning optimized business outcomes. Networks serve as the foundation for agility, foster innovation, and can provide a competitive advantage. However, many deployments suffer from poor performance, unnecessary downtime, and a lack of visibility that can cripple business operational efficiency. That’s why observability, specifically deep observability, should be…
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For the past several years, the MITRE ATT&CK (Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge) framework has provided an analysis of cybersecurity threat actor tactics, techniques, and procedures and, in the process, measures how well endpoint security solutions detect and prevent cyber threats. Last year’s Round 5 focused on the ability of almost thirty EDR solution providers to detect, analyze, and describe the techniques of threat group Turla through the execution of multiple attack scenarios. This year’s Round 6 focuses on ransomware emulation and macOS infiltration by a North Korean threat actor profile, including adversary behaviors in abusing legitimate tools and defensive capabilities. The recent round kicked off in late May…
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Gigamon held its fifth annual Visualyze Bootcamp virtual event over three days in early September. Since its founding 20 years ago, the company has developed a deep observability pipeline that leverages network intelligence to detect threats often missed by traditional security tools. The Bootcamp serves as an opportunity for Gigamon to share its industry and technical knowledge with customers. Most organizations using cloud services employ a multi-cloud model to benefit from competitive pricing and access to best-of-breed service offerings. Additionally, the trend toward containerization and virtualization aims to enhance operational and cost efficiencies. However, hybrid cloud deployments can introduce complexities that require careful management. The Bootcamp addressed many of these challenges, with…
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Bio: Will Townsend is a frequent Forbes contributor and advises some of the largest networking and telecommunications companies in the world. His more than thirty years of experience spans tenures spent with iconic companies such as Dell & Hewlett-Packard, serving in several senior level roles including sales, marketing, product management, and business development. Presently, Mr. Townsend manages the networking infrastructure and security practices for Moor Insights & Strategy, an analyst firm regarded as a leader in the technology sector based on principal and founder Patrick Moorhead’s #1 ranking by ARInsights. Mr. Townsend also ranks consistently within the top 100 technology analysts in the world according to ARInsights and by same…
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For many years, Juniper Networks was a service provider play. During that time, Juniper’s bigger rivals Cisco and Aruba made hay in the enterprise space while it stood on the sidelines, evidenced by flatlined gross revenue. However, the company has made significant inroads into the enterprise market. Juniper has established sales momentum through a mix of acquisitions in Mist Systems and 128 Technology, strategic partnerships with Anuta Networks for needed automation capabilities, and organic roadmap development and repositioning. At the same time, I believe Juniper has formulated the proper positioning, leaning into artificial intelligence credibly to create to power what it has coined as “experience first networking.” This week, the…
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Last week, I embarked on only my second business trip post-pandemic to the West Side borough of Manhattan in Chelsea. AT&T hosted a 5G event at the WarnerMedia Innovation Lab in the hip and trendy New York City neighborhood. Chelsea is a hotbed for tech, given I have also spent time there in the past with Verizon at the Alley co-working space that also hosts one of its 5G proof of concept labs. With all of that said, I would like to provide my insights into the event and related press releases that AT&T issued the same day. Announcement and panel insights On July 14th, AT&T issued a press release titled “AT&T…
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It seems like 2021 is clipping by at a fast pace. In February, I contributed an article to Forbes that speaks to Cisco’s role in facilitating Covid19 vaccine distribution and its broader inclusive recovery strategy. It features anecdotes and my insights related to the networking giant’s involvement with Walgreens and Renown Health. If interested, you can find that article here. In this post, I would like to provide visibility into Cisco’s additional efforts with STANLEY Healthcare and Sky Lakes Medical Center. STANLEY Healthcare STANLEY Healthcare’s stated mission is to provide innovative solutions for safer, more secure, and efficient care in senior living, hospitals, and clinics. Interestingly, it is part of Black and Decker known…
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Juniper Networks recently made two announcements that have the potential to dramatically accelerate the sales of its automation and AI-driven enterprise networking platforms. Consequently, I would like to provide my insights into what I find most compelling about each. Automation alignment under Paragon From my perspective, over the past year, Juniper has quickly assembled an impressive automation capability. Recently, the company announced a realignment initiative that better positions its various automation infrastructure components. I want to examine each in further detail: Delivering on the promise of an AI-driven enterprise The enterprise market finally began to open up to Juniper with its Mist Systems’ acquisition nearly two years ago. Mist’s focus…
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As a networking analyst, I travel the world to spend time with infrastructure providers of 4G LTE and 5G core, radio access, and transport solutions, as well as carriers, service providers, and end customers. One of my biggest takeaways recently is the growing momentum behind cellular-based private networking globally. However, many enterprises do not know where to start, and others are confused when faced with the choice of Wi-Fi vs 4G/ 5G. I believe that private cellular networking’s ultimate success will lie in the ability for its delivery as an integrated solution. Enterprises do not have the competency to piecemeal cellular-based networks together and also require examples of how cellular…
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The pandemic has affected small businesses dramatically. Larger organizations have tapped into federal programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) other resources. On the other hand, small businesses have had to compete with tens of thousands of others for limited Small Business Administration (SBA) and local city and state disaster relief funding. Further compounding their challenges, many small businesses are service oriented and adversely impacted by shelter-in orders and essential business rulings. For these reasons, I was excited to moderate a recent virtual session with a Cisco small business executive, small business partner and customer. I want to share some insights from that discussion. If you missed it, you could find…
