Agents, Exits and Ecosystems: Cloud Shifts and Storage Surges This Week - Episode 79

In this week’s episode, we explore a flurry of announcements shaking up the enterprise infrastructure world. OpenAI rolls out o3 and the compact o4-mini, models built for high-performance reasoning and optimized agent use. Meanwhile, European enterprises are reportedly eyeing a hyperscaler exodus, signaling potential shifts in cloud strategy. Google Cloud counters with major momentum—launching its Distributed Cloud tailored for Gemini workloads and pushing forward with Firebase Studio, designed to streamline developer workflows. We also dive into Google’s newly released agent2agent protocol from Cloud Next, and the expanding Agent Space ecosystem. On the storage front, Dell makes key updates across its portfolio, Hammerspace secures a $100M round, and Microsoft partners with Western Digital and Iowa’s Critical Materials Recycling to recover rare earth elements from aging HDDs. Plus, AWS slashes S3 Express One Zone pricing—great news for performance-conscious IT leaders.