The equipment that fills data centers is evolving rapidly, driven by the need to fulfill the seemingly insatiable appetite of AI applications. The Open Compute Project (OCP) was founded by Meta/Facebook to promulgate equipment standards and its annual Summit has grown from a small specialized gathering, to an event that strains the capacity of the San Jose Convention Center. Senior research analyst Perkins Liu returns to offer his take on this meteoric growth with host Eric Hanselman. AI requirements are pushing ever greater scale both logically and physically, with the width of server racks doubling in the Open Rack Wide (ORW) specification to support greater density and better serviceability. The OCP Foundation is also working on silicon interoperability and is setting specifications for chiplet integration. Liquid cooling has moved from a nice to have feature to a required capability as a means to dissipate the huge amount of energy drawn by ever denser GPU arrays. Energy delivery is changing with the advent of higher voltage DC power. The early OCP efforts on 48 volt DC are paling in the face of new 800 volts designs. The OCP Foundation is also expanding its mission to include education, with the establishment of the OCP Academy. It aims to raise workforce skills in open hardware and will offer online training in data center technologies. That underscores not only the expansion of the OCP Foundation's mission, but also the increasing scale of the ecosystem that supports data center environments and complexity and interdependency that AI creates. More S&P Global Content: Sustainability continues to drive datacenter infrastructure evolution Webinar: Talk to the Expert - Artificial intelligence, datacenters and energy: Is APAC ready for th… For S&P Global subscribers: Air cooling remains prevalent, but liquid cooling is gaining momentum – Highlights from VotE: Datac… Adjusted definitions of datacenter markets in China align with socioeconomic processes Datacenters increasingly use direct current to cope with AI workloads Credits: Host/Author: Eric Hanselman Guest: Perkins Liu Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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Security Gravity
There are many ways to frame conversations around cyber security. They can take on many aspects of security, ranging across the technical to the human. With the press towards platform consolidation, it's critical to reconsider the interaction between the human and technical elements and research director Scott Crawford and Javvad Malik, CISO advisor at KnowBe4, join host Eric Hanselman to dig into this important interplay. It's all too easy to fall into security practices that focus on technical requirements and don't account for the friction that is created for the people who use them. It's also easy to drop into a mindset that better security is just a matter of user education. Effective security requires thinking about user experience, as well as technical controls. Authentication is one of the most frequently experienced security interactions and also one where a technical focus can have the highest impact on the people using. Authentication happens often and is also a key element in securing IT environments. The push to multifactor authentication, for example, is an important step in security enforcement and can require a significant change in how people interact with the systems that support their daily lives. A wholistic approach to security can help teams move beyond the frustrating cycle of user training and shift to collaborative security implementations. More S&P Global Content: The evolution of security platforms – 6 centers of gravity shaping the market AI for security: Agentic AI will be a focus for security operations in 2025 From KnowBe4: The Hidden Cybersecurity Threat: Securing the Human-AI Relationship For S&P Global Subscribers: Security for agentic AI: Key areas of focus Worlds colliding: Uniting proactive and reactive security Identity & Access Management Market Monitor & Forecast Beyond ITDR: Viewing identity security through a wider lens Credits: Host/Author: Eric Hanselman Guests: Scott Crawford, Javvad Malik Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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Is there an AI bubble?
The enthusiasm for AI has been impressive and it's leading to the inevitable questions about whether or not all of it is warranted. Melissa Otto CFA, head of S&P Global's Visible Alpha research team, returns to discuss concerns about an AI bubble with host Eric Hanselman. Defining what actually indicates a bubble might be the trickiest aspect of the question. Is it outsized levels of debt? Unrealistic valuations? Both debt and valuations are high, but are they unreasonably so? So much depends on seeing what AI capabilities can deliver and we're still in the early days of understanding what ROI really is. There are still challenges in getting the domain approaches right. Doing real analytical work is more challenging and there is still more work to do in integrating with business processes. And it's not just the technical aspects that are in play. It's possible that macroeconomic restraints are holding back even more enthusiastic spending that could create a bubble. Current interest rates create caution in taking on additional debt. It's also possible that rate cuts could unleash more risk taking and overextension through debt. That might be an indicator of a looming bubble. Or maybe not… More S&P Global Content: Datacenter & Energy Innovation Summit 2025 Otto: Markets are grappling with how to price AI-related stocks Netflix earnings preview: Q3 2025 Next in Tech podcast, Episode 239: AI Infrastructure Next in Tech podcast, Episode 221: Datacenter slowdown? For S&P Global Subscribers: Shifting AI exits Venture capital outlook: Investments surge as exits lag Hyperscaler earnings quarterly: AWS, Azure and Google Cloud capex projections trend still higher Tech Trend in Focus: GPUaaS market momentum Credits: Host/Author: Eric Hanselman Guest: Melissa Otto, CFA Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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Stablecoins
The world of cryptocurrencies has seen no shortage of upheaval, but regulatory clarity that has arrived with recent legislation has created opportunities. Stablecoins are an area that's seeing renewed interest in FinTech as a means of reducing friction for global payments. Jordan McKee, Sampath Sharma and Nathan Stovall return to the podcast with host Eric Hanselman to look at how stablecoins are being put to work and how they're being used. For applications like cross border trade and the remittances trade, stablecoins can increase speed and potentially reduce costs. They can be considered another payment rail through which to conduct business. Stablecoins are not without challenges. There are regulatory imperatives to be met, like anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC). Trust needs to be built in the market and education is needed around their potential benefits and risks. Traditional banks are getting involved, but they have additional stumbling blocks. There are technical hurdles, such as the readiness of backend systems to handle the higher precision values of stablecoins. And there are new concerns around custody risk, as handling wallets and the enhanced security required are new skills for many. The potential benefits and lucrative markets may give them enough incentive to take the plunge. More S&P Global Content: US banks maintain favorable earnings while confronting economic uncertainty Money20/20 Europe 2025: Key trends and developments Balance sheet, M&A and capital raising strategies for a volatile environment Next in Tech | Ep. 230: FinTech Advances Street Talk | Episode 142: Despite Looming Rate Cuts, Strong Deposit Franchises Still Take The Cake For S&P Global subscribers: Data Insight: Cross-border payments volume to surpass $17 trillion by 2030 Cross-Border Payments Market Monitor & Forecast - Data Visualization Cross-border payments, stablecoins generate buzz at a low-key Money20/20 Asia Tariffs create urgency for payment optimization strategies among large merchants, SMBs Credits: Host/Author: Eric Hanselman Guest: Jordan McKee, Sampath Sharma, Nathan Stovall Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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Industrial Metaverse
Some might think that the metaverse has been a passing technology fad, but rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated. While the language may have shifted to things like spatial computing and augmented reality, the technologies and use cases have been flourishing. Analysts Neil Barbour and Ian Hughes return to discuss recent study results and industrial metaverse progress with host Eric Hanselman. Companies are working to build a digital thread that runs through their organizations, linking the physical and virtual worlds. They're leveraging digital twins to simulate operations and putting AI to work creating and populating the virtual environments in which they run. When gaming companies shift to building virtual large world models in partnership with defense contractors, the metaverse has clearly shifted gears. Virtual environments are being used for training as well as strategic planning. Smart phones are being integrated into retail space planning and assessment and emergency teams are playing Tetris to secure helicopter landing sites. The metaverse is alive and well and making some large steps forward. More S&P Global Content: 451 Digital Industries Insider Metaverse Survey: Nearly half of consumers interested in buying smart glasses Metaverse Digest: A look at Augmented World Expo, Snap updates Lens Studio As the Esports World Cup Wraps, Kagan Looks at the Growing Potential of Competitive Gaming For S&P Global Subscribers: Industrial metaverse adoption grows – Highlights from Metaverse B2B survey Metaverse Digest: Generative AI interactive world-building accelerates More consumers piling into virtual worlds – Highlights from Metaverse Consumer survey The dawn of industrial AI Credits: Host/Author: Eric Hanselman Guests: Neil Barbour, Ian Hughes Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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