Channel Brief: Infinidat Launches New Arrays, Google Cloud Announces Layoffs

Good morning, folks - welcome to June!

This week, our Jessica C. Davis and Jim Masters are at IT Nation Secure, and I can't wait to hear the buzz from the show.

While Friday's Channel Brief talked about Dell's AI-investment-driven stock slump, today we're looking at the other side of the coin. Dell's server sales hit a high last quarter, as CRN reported, and the long-projected PC refresh is finally showing up on the company's balance sheet. Speaking of hardware, Infinidat launched its latest InfiniBox G4 family, featuring next-generation storage arrays for both all-flash and hybrid configurations and new cybersecurity capabilities, too. I spoke with Infinidat's CMO Eric Herzog a few weeks ago about the release, and the company has some great stuff going on!

We're also looking at Google Cloud's latest layoffs and Nvidia's move to bump Apple from the second most-valuable tech company spot. What else is going on? Drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know. And if you're heading to Pax8 Beyond next week, June 9-11, I'll be there, too. Hit me up and we'll grab a coffee!

In the meantime, grab your mug and a refill. Here’s what you need to know today.

Today’s Tech, Channel and MSP News

1. Google Cloud Layoffs: Google Cloud announced layoffs last week that mostly impacted the company's 'Go To Market' team, according to Business Insider. The total number of affected staff wasn't clear, though one employee said it was rumored that close to 100 employees in Cloud's GTM group in the Asia-Pacific region were cut, according to Business Insider. A Google spokesperson told Business Insider that number was lower.

2. Nvidia Chases Apple: Nvidia is set to overtake Apple as the world's second-most-valuable tech company, Reuters reported. Almost all AI applications rely on Nvidia's high-end chips, which has pushed Nvidia's stock higher over the past year. According to Stocklytics.com, the GPU market value will surpass 274 billion by 2029, representing a 33.2% CAGR from 2024. Currently, the GPU market is worth over $65 billion, up from $43 billion in 2023, underscoring the immense growth potential in the industry.

3. Kyndryl's AI for Service Desk: IT services management firm Kyndryl has announced Kyndryl Interactive AI for Service Desk solution, which the company said pairs advanced speech recognition (ASR) and natural language processing (NLP) technologies to recognize and understand rich conversation via contextually specific models with measurable business rules and dialog management. This capability can help customers improve employees’ workplace experience and make it simpler to implement conversational AI solutions. The new Kyndryl Interactive AI for Service Desk was designed to support employees through their preferred contact channel and in more than 15 languages, with more to come, Kyndryl said in a statement. The service uses AI models and human assisted understanding (HAU) technology from Interactions LLC and leverages Interactions’ Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) to ensure effective multi-intent conversations are understood, with the trusted accuracy of a human. HAU augments the AI to improve the user experience by reducing time and effort. Interactions IVA's Task Orchestration feature also engages digital agents combined with the IVA offering for a better response and faster resolution. The company claims Kyndryl Interactive AI for Service Desk can solve up to 70% of employee IT queries through digital channels.

4. Dell PC, Server Sales Rebound: Last week, it seemed that investors were disappointed by Dell's margins on its market-leading servers, which caused the tech giant's stock to plunge more than 20% by Friday morning. But that's not the full story. As CRN reported, Dell Technologies server sales hit a record high last quarter and the long-projected PC refresh is finally showing up on the company's balance sheet. Sales were up 6% year-over-year to $22.2 billion in its fiscal 2025 first quarter, which ended May 3, the company said. On the infrastructure side of the business, revenue was $9.2 billion, up 22% year-over-year, while sales of PCs and peripherals were flat at $12 billion. Orders for Dell Technologies' AI-optimized servers are also growing $900 million quarter-to-quarter, and COO Jeff Clarke said the company has "several multiples of the current $3.8 billion backlog" for those servers.

5. Infinidat Unveils New Storage Arrays, STaaS, and More: Infinidat launched its latest InfiniBox G4 family, featuring next-generation storage arrays for both all-flash and hybrid configurations, the company said. Alongside these new arrays, Infinidat enhanced its InfiniVerse infrastructure consumption services platform, advanced its storage-as-a-service (STaaS) offerings, hybrid multi-cloud support, and cybersecurity capabilities. CMO Eric Herzog told ChannelE2E that the new InfiniBox G4 storage arrays offer big performance improvements, with speeds up to twice as fast as previous models, including the InfiniBox SSA II solutions. The launch also introduces InfiniVerse Mobius, a new lifecycle management controller upgrade option. This allows customers to extend the life of their storage systems by upgrading controllers, ensuring that the system remains up-to-date and performs optimally throughout its lifecycle. Herzog said enhancements in cybersecurity include Automated Cyber Protection (ACP) which integrates with SOC, security information and event management (SIEM), security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) systems, and syslog functions for less complex environments. ACP triggers immediate, automated, immutable snapshots of data in response to security incidents, protecting InfiniBox and InfiniBox SSA II volumes and file systems. A Cyber Detection for VMware solution leverages AI and machine learning to detect and analyze the impact of cyberattacks on VMware environments, providing granular insights and ensuring resilience, he added.

6. Hurry Up, Cloud MSPs! Submit Your Survey to Our Top Cloud MSPs List: Every year Jessica C. Davis has worked on an MSP ranked list, she's blasted out the deadlines and written blog posts and sent emails telling people over and over that the deadline is close. And once the window closes to submit your MSP, there are always a handful of companies that ask to reopen the survey so they can submit their companies. Somehow they missed all the messages. Don’t let this be you! Our Top 250 Public Cloud MSPs survey is open now, but it closes in June. Don’t wait until the last minute. Get it done and check it off your list today so you don’t miss the deadline. If your MSP practice includes working with a cloud provider, this survey is for you. Here’s the link to participate. Participation is free. The survey closes in June. Submit your MSP here for recognition today! And if you want to check our lists from previous years, you can find them here.

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