Futuriom's Top Ten Stories of 2022

It’s the time of the season to reflect and take stock, to assess the work of the past year. At Futuriom, one of our end-of-year tasks has been to tally the articles and blogs that garnered the most attention during the past 12 months. This isn’t just an exercise in curiosity: We think it’s fair to say the stories with most pageviews highlight key interests among enterprise IT users and their vendors and service providers.

So without further ado, we present ten of the most popular items on Futuriom’s website in 2022, listed in order to most viewed:

10. “What’s Up with the Cohesity IPO?” Readers flocked to news of cloud-native data management vendor Cohesity, which ended 2021 filing for IPO, then backtracked in 2022. The market meltdown may be just one reason for the stall: In July, we noted an executive exodus that hinted at management problems. Not long after, we learned that Silicon Valley notable Sanjay Poonen was taking the helm as CEO, while founder Mohit Aron stepped aside to head up technology and product and to serve on the board. We’ll see what 2023 holds.

9. “The 2022 Futuriom 40.” Our list of the top private companies in cloud technology was a hit, with thousands of readers viewing our take on cloud firms that showed most promise. Over the year, four of the firms – Benu Networks, Infiot, Pluribus Networks, and WiteSand -- were acquired. A couple of others seemed to lose their mojo. But 2023 is a new year, and we plan a fresh list for release next month. Stand by!

8. “Why Would Broadcom Buy VMware? Here’s Why.” With rumors flying before the official announcement of Broadcom’s plan to buy VMware, we took a look at the benefits to enterprise datacenters that a union could bring. Specifically, we believe Broadcom could have its eye on data processing units (DPUs), which offload key processes from server CPUs to enable smart network interface cards (SmartNICs) that streamline datacenter throughput. We’ll see if we’re right once the deal goes through.

7. “Inside Cisco’s No Good, Horrible Quarter.” Fiscal third-quarter 2022 earnings didn’t shine for Cisco, and execs blamed external forces. We think there’s more to it: Cisco continues to suffer an existential crisis, as its hardware business model still dominates its sales culture, hindering growth in areas such as software and cybersecurity. That said, the vendor posted solid fiscal first-quarter 2023 results, thanks to an improved supply chain that loosened a backlog of hardware products – and software subscriptions attached to those products. We’ll see if the good news continues.

6. “U.S Fiber Optic Infrastructure Expands.” The year 2022 was a boom time for fiber broadband networking. Encouraged by government funding, telcos and ISPs extended fiber to areas formerly considered too sparsely populated to support broadband services. And spurred by the growing need for high-speed Internet access, local utilities embarked on projects to bring fiber networking to small cities and remote areas, modeling projects on the spread of gas and electric service decades ago. Results can be dramatic: Douglas Fast Net, a grassroots effort undertaken in Douglas County, Oregon, resulted in $28 million in annual benefits to the region.

5. “Google Pushes Forward on Private Wireless with Celona.” Private cellular LAN startup Celona has partnered with Alphabet's Google Cloud to bring private 5G networks to the enterprise edge. The deal highlights the growing popularity of private wireless networks, particularly ones, such as those touted by AWS, that are based on Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS). Though Google’s announcement featured other partnerships, Celona brings reseller arrangements with Verizon Business and NTT Ltd. (NTT’s venture arm is also an investor in Celona) and alliances that include HPE (NYSE: HPE).

4. “Pelosi Visit Highlights TSMC’s Role as World Power.” When then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flew to Taiwan last summer, the visit put pressure on the conflict brewing between the West and China over Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, NYSE: TSM), the powerhouse supplier of over half of the world’s semiconductors. Throughout the year, TSMC continued to flourish despite supply chain pressures – which led to more talk of its position on the world stage. U.S. legislation that curbs TSMC’s dealings with China have heated up the dialog.

3. “Is AWS Gonna Get Squeezed?” AWS has enjoyed fat margins in many of its data-processing and compute services. But with a general slowdown in tech spending has come a re-evaluation of cloud costs. Unless single cloud solutions bounce back to former boom times, hybrid and multicloud could get more attractive. That could result in a squeeze for AWS and other cloud providers that don’t widely enable multicloud services.

2. “What’s Behind the Cloud Slowdown.” Sales of cloud services have leveled off from the spike during the height of the pandemic. Still, cloud sales continue to outpace most other segments of business for AWS, Microsoft, and Google. Update for the record: For the quarter ended September 30, 2022, sales of AWS were up 27% compared to 33% for the prior quarter; Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud services, which include Azure, were 20%, same as the quarter before; and Google’s cloud revenues came in at 38%, up from 36% the previous quarter.

1. “2022 Multicloud Networking (MCN) Survey and Report.” Months of Futuriom research, including an end-user survey, show that momentum is building behind an approach to cloud networking based entirely on software --- software that makes networking responsive to application requirements. Our report details what CTOs, cloud architects, and network operators are looking for – and who is in position to deliver.

So that's our list for 2022. As ever, let us know what you think: Write to us at analyst@futuriom.com