Surging numbers of data applications - from" machine-to-machine" generation (M2M) to Articial Intelligence (AI) - are like a tidalwave pulling a very long supply chain in its slipstream
- Data Centers - Exponential Demand Growth
- Data Centers - Infrastructure Challenges
- Networks and Fiber Optics
Cloud - Data Architecture Applications - is the current theme, to be followed in the coming weeks, by Data - Enterprise Platforms
Reaching out to Internet users
Serving the bulk of web traffic because they interconnect servers and insure geographic distribution, content distribution networks (or CDN) are 'edge and cloud' platforms which support proxy servers at location closest to a user to speed up its delivery
Akamai and Cloudflare stand out in the 'Cloud Managed Services' segment, but Fastly
Database applications - to store, organize, manage, and retrieve data
- configuring a production database management system for modern application developers- such as MongoDB or Couchbase
- or as an analytical database, storing and searching unstructured data - as ElasticSearch
- as a monitoring and analytics tool for information technology (IT) used to determine performance metrics as well as Event monitoring for infrastructure and cloud services - as DataDog
- delivering a security gateway - as Zscaler
- or prodiving full integration connecting data sources and applications - as Oracle
A complete review of data architecture applications is beyond the scope, and purpose, of this theme, but investors need to consider
- the overwhelming dominance of a very small 'posse' of giant firms - of which Microsoft, with Azure cloud services, is the preeminent symbol
- the opportunities of specialized challengers, appealing to client reluctant to enter exclusive relationships with full-service behemoths and supportive of diversification of their data management
The giants of the industry, Microsoft, Google, Meta and Amazon are cornering the market on data centers, as argued repeatedly in this thematic series, and they will undoubtedly go from strength to strength as data management and control, and data interpretation, penetrates modern society deeply
Over time, their tremendous power over social interactions - and this includes AI - will be questioned on the political (and geopolitical) plane but the national states are not yet prepared for the challenge
For now, investment opportunities will continue to emerge in specialized segments of which the theme gives a few examples