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Cloud Computing solutions, including Software, Infrastructure, Platform, Unified Communications, Mobile, and Content as a Service are well-established and growing. The evolution of these markets will be driven by the complex interaction of all participants, beginning with end customers.

Edge Strategies has conducted over 80,000 interviews in behalf of our clients in both mature and emerging markets with decision-makers across the full cloud ecosystem- including Vendors, Service Provider and End Customer organizations.

Typical projects include:

  • Identifying target market segments
  • Designing Service Portfolios
  • Designing Application and Services Features
  • Developing Value Proposition and Messaging for each customer segment
  • Analyzing competitive alternatives and determining best practices
  • Designing Activation Programs
  • Building process to reduce churn, build loyalty and measure Customer Lifetime Value
  • Improving the User Experience

We provide current, actionable insight into business decision processes across market segments, from SMBs to Large Enterprises. Our work leverages a deep understanding of the business models of key Cloud Ecosystem participants including:

  • Cloud Service Providers ( CSPs)
  • Web Hosting Providers
  • Communication Service Providers
  • ISVs and Automation Providers
  • MSPs and IT Channels

Our experience allows us to get up to speed quickly on new projects. We are experts in designing and conducting quantitative and qualitative research. Based on our focused findings, we work with our clients to make the decisions necessary to gain early success in a variety of markets, including SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, UCaaS, and mobile/device services.    

 

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News

  • Sam Altman: Meta tried to lure OpenAI employees with billion-dollar salaries

    After reports suggested Meta has tried to poach employees from OpenAI and Google Deepmind by offering huge compensation packages, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman weighed in, saying those reports are true. He confirmed them during a podcast with his brother Jack Altman. “There have been huge offers to a lot of our team,” said Sam Altman, “like $100 million in sign-on bonuses, more than that in annual compensation.” According to Altman, the recruitment attempts have largely failed. “I’m really glad that, at least so far, none of our best people have chosen to take it. Sam Altman says he thinks it’s because employees have decided that OpenAI has a better chance of achieving artificial general intelligence, AGI, than Meta. It could also be because they believe that OpenAI could one day be a higher-valued company than Meta.

  • Hackers lean into social engineering to attack Apple security — Jamf

    Every Mac, iPhone, or iPad user should do everything they can to protect themselves against social engineering-based phishing attacks, a new report from Jamf warns. In a time of deep international tension, the digital threat environment reflects the zeitgeist, with hackers and attackers seeking out security weaknesses on a scale that continues to grow.  Based on extensive research, the latest edition of Jamf’s annual Security 360 report looks at security trends on Apple’s mobile devices and on Macs. It notes that we’ve seen more than 500 CVE security warnings on macOS 15 since its launch, and more than 10 million phishing attacks in the last year. The report should be on the reading list of anyone concerned with managing Apple’s products at scale (or even at home). Security begins at home With phishing and social engineering, protecting personal devices is as important as protecting your business machines. According to Jamf, more than 90% of cyberattacks originate from social engineering attacks, many of which begin by targeting people where they live. Not only that, but up to 2% of all the 10 million phishing attacks the company identified are also classified as zero-day attacks — which means attacks are becoming dangerously sophisticated.  This has become such a pervasive problem that Apple in 2024 actually published a support document explaining what you should look for to avoid social engineering attacks. Attackers are increasingly creative, pose as trusted entities, and will use a combination of personal information and AI to create convincing attacks. They recognize, after all, that it is not the attack you spot that gets you, it’s the one you miss. Within this environment, it is important to note that 25% of organizations have been affected by a social engineering attack — even as 55% of mobile devices used at work run a vulnerable operating system and 32% of organizations still have at least one device with critical vulnerabilities in use across their stack. (The latter is a slight improvement on last year, but not much.) The nature of what attackers want also seems to be changing. Jamf noticed that attempts to steal information are surging, accounting for 28% of all Mac malware, which suggests some degree of the surveillance taking place. These info-stealing attacks are replacing trojans as the biggest threat to Mac security. The environment is similar on iPhones and iPads, all of which are seeing a similar spike in exploit attempts, zero-day attacks, and convincing social-engineering-driven moves to weaponize digital trust. The bottom line? While Apple’s platforms are secure by design, the applications you run or the people you interact with remain the biggest security weaknesses the platform has. Security on any platform is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain, even while attack attempts increase and become more convincing and complex.  Defense is the best form of defense Arnold Schwarzenegger allegedly believes that one should not complain about a situation unless you are prepared to try to do something to make it better. “If you see a problem and you don’t come to the table with apotential solution, I don’t want to hear your whining about how bad it is,” he says. With that in mind, what can you as a reader do today to help address the growing scourge of Apple-focused malware? Here are some suggestions from Jamf: Update devices to the latest software. Protect devices with a passcode. Use two-factor authentication and strong passwords to protect Apple accounts. Install apps only from the App Store. Use strong and unique passwords online. Don’t click on links or attachments from unknown senders. And, of course, don’t use older, unprotected operating systems or devices — certainly not when handling critical or confidential data. Layer up, winter is coming Organizations can build on these personal protections, of course. Apple devices need Apple-specific security solutions, including endpoint management solutions; enterprises should adopt device management; and they should prepare for the inevitable attacks by fostering a positive, blame-free culture for incident reporting and by eliminating inter-departmental siloes. Investment in staff training is important, too.  It is also important to understand that in a hybrid, multi-platform, ultra mobile world there is no such thing as strict perimeter security anymore. That’s why it is essential to secure endpoints and implement zero-trust. It’s also why it is important to adopt a new posture toward security — there is no single form of effective security protection. At best, your business security relies on layers of protection that together form an effective and flexible security defense. You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, and Mastodon.

  • How US employers can protect immigrant tech workers

    The ongoing protests in Los Angeles have pushed a national issue further into the spotlight: recent actions by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), including the detention of immigrants and, in some cases, the revocation of visas. Naturally, immigration is a hot-button topic. But for companies with diverse workforces — particularly those employing foreign-born workers on H-1B visas — the priority is not to take a political stand, but to provide appropriate counsel and protection for affected employees. Rajeev Madhavan, cofounder and general partner at Clear Ventures in Silicon Valley, notes that while these issues have not yet directly impacted the computer science and AI sectors where he invests, work visa approvals are taking longer than usual. “The H-1B visa is a very impractical — or at the very least, unpredictable — process. As a result, when you hire someone on an H-1B visa, it may take much longer than you realize to get it,” he says. This poses a challenge for the US startup and technology ecosystem, Madhavan says, pointing out that many tech founders are immigrants. “They went to do some good work at places like Google, Meta, or any of these companies, and spend three, four years getting experience — getting their green card in the process — and then they turn to becoming an entrepreneur on some idea that they originate,” Madhavan says. Of the 42 US-based companies appearing on Forbes’ 2025 list of the top 50 startups developing promising AI applications, for example, 60% were founded by people born outside the United States, according to the Institute for Progress. And new research from Stanford’s Venture Capital Initiative found that 44% of America’s billion-dollar startups were founded by immigrant entrepreneurs. Because of the uncertainty around immigrants’ place in the US workforce under the Trump administration, Madhavan is seeing more talent either working remotely or launching ventures in other markets, such as Canada, China, and India. He’s concerned about the long-term implications of this shift. “You will certainly have a lot more stringent rules that will be enforced, which is actually very sad — our leadership and technical background may get eroded in that process,” he says. What Madhavan sees potentially happening on a national scale can also unfold within individual companies. We spoke with business leaders and legal experts about how to best support foreign-born talent, sustain a strong culture during turbulent times, and reinforce an employer brand that genuinely welcomes diversity. Three rules: compliance, compliance, and compliance Jean-Noël BenHamou, a licensed US and Canadian attorney and executive managing partner of BHLG, which specializes in global immigration law, explains that much of the online fear surrounding visa revocation and deportation stems from misinformation. “The US immigration system is far from being perfect, but it is nevertheless based on the rule of law. And it does not just revoke visas without serious cause,” he says. Because of this legal foundation, BenHamou believes maintaining immigration status is straightforward — if approached with diligence. “When it comes to immigration, we have the same three rules: Compliance, compliance, and compliance. This is the name of the game,” he says. Compliance can be a heavy burden for individual employees. “It’s hard to do your job and know foreign countries’ law at the same time,” says Thomas Sykstus, an attorney from Bond, Botes, Sykstus & Tanner. To ease that burden, Sykstus recommends that companies offer proactive legal support, beginning with clear organization. For H-1B professionals, that means keeping thorough records — including approval letters, I-94 records, job offer letters, and pay stubs — readily accessible. H-1B workers should be provided with copies of all such records, and companies should also be able to quickly produce these documents on behalf of their employees. BenHamou stresses the importance of promptly reporting any changes in work status. “If your role changes — whether it’s a promotion, whether it is a shift in responsibilities, whether it is a change in location, whether it’s a change from full-time to part-time — these changes must be reported,” he says. While this might seem like a routine task, he notes, many workers fail to recognize the significance of such changes. “If it is a material change, it needs to be reported. And if it is not clear whether or not it would be considered a material change, then in an abundance of caution, just disclose it,” he advises. Another common misstep is violating visa terms through actions that may seem harmless. Moonlighting, for example, is common in the tech industry but is off-limits for H-1B holders. “It technically is a violation of your visa conditions: You’re hired by the petitioning employer for that specific role, for that specific location. Anything outside of that, they haven’t sponsored you. That’s where the issue is,” says Sykstus. While H-1B professionals should strive to stay in good standing with the law, BenHamou reassures them that not every minor infraction poses a risk to their visa. “A regular parking violation is not going to get you in trouble. I think that any crime that would involve moral turpitude would definitely put you in big problems: for instance, DUI or reckless driving, causing death or severe injuries. These are the types of crimes that you want to stay away from, period,” says BenHamou. ICE at the door Despite following best practices, H-1B holders may still face visits from immigration authorities. BenHamou warns that site inspections by ICE or US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may become more common. “So employees should always have access to their original visa documents. Bring your passport to work. Bring your approval notice. Be prepared for any type of encounter,” he says. Under intense pressure from the White House, ICE is significantly ramping up efforts to find and deport undocumented immigrants. That makes it more likely for people who are in the country legally to be mistakenly targeted, according to former ICE director Sarah Saldaña. “You’re going to have [ICE agents] who are being pushed to the limit, who in a rush may not get things right, including information on a person’s status,” she told the New York Times. Sykstus notes that while ICE visits are more common in blue-collar industries such as construction, they are still possible in tech settings. In such encounters, he emphasizes, H-1B professionals should protect their rights. “Don’t speak with them. Don’t sign anything. Call an attorney first. Talk your options out,” he says. Companies that employ H-1B workers should also be prepared, with HR and legal teams ready to quickly step in with documentation and legal counsel. Employer responsibility beyond compliance While legal compliance is critical, BenHamou emphasizes that immigration support shouldn’t stop at the letter of the law. For companies, the responsibility goes deeper. “It’s cultural, it’s ethical, and it’s strategic,” he says. After an employee has fulfilled their I-9 requirements and completed onboarding, BenHamou believes their immigration status should be kept strictly confidential — limited to HR, senior leadership, and possibly their direct manager. He sees this discretion as a standard that should be embedded in the company’s culture. He also stresses the importance of transparency with potential hires around what it takes to achieve permanent residency in the US. “Those individuals are putting their life on hold for 5 to 10 years before seeing the end of the tunnel,” he says, referring to current USCIS processing times for green cards. Providing this clarity early on helps foster a healthier team dynamic. “As an employer, by being transparent and open about what it takes to get there from the first minute you join the company, you’re facilitating their integration with their team and vice versa. You’re bringing cohesion within the team,” he says.  Sykstus agrees that transparency is key. He recommends holding company-wide information sessions to explain how work visas like the H-1B function — not just under current law, but in anticipation of future policy changes. “If you know something’s coming down the pipe, sitting on the president’s desk, who is likely going to sign it, and it will affect your [employee’s] immigration status, it’s probably important to get ahead of the ball there,” he says. In light of recent instances in which visa holders who had traveled abroad were denied re-entry to the US, at least two major tech firms in Silicon Valley have advised H-1B holders to limit international travel, Sykstus says. “Sudden policy changes and heightened border security could bar re-entry. So if you leave, you might have trouble coming back, [even] if you’ve already been here and have had no problems whatsoever,” he says. This climate of uncertainty can understandably cause anxiety, not just for foreign workers, but also for teammates who rely on them and have formed friendships with them. Sykstus encourages companies to provide access to employee assistance programs or counseling services — whether in-house or through third-party providers — that include support for immigration-related stress. Angelina Gennis, a principal analyst at Forrester, adds that companies must also be prepared for situations where, despite best efforts, an employee has to leave the US due to circumstances beyond the company’s control. “However, what we can control is ensuring that our people are okay, even if they need to leave us — so what sort of resources we can offer legally if they do have to leave us to make sure that they get home safely,” she says. Supporting diversity in turbulent times Building a culture that supports global talent requires more than behind-the-scenes policy work — it must also be reflected in the company’s outward messaging. And that messaging must align with employees’ lived experiences, says Shahar Silbershatz, CEO of Caliber, a brand reputation analytics company. “If international hires feel uncertain, unsupported, or in the dark about immigration processes, that story travels quickly and can undermine even the most well-intentioned DEI messaging,” he says. According to Silbershatz, the solution lies in proactive and empathetic communication with employees. “That means explaining policy shifts in plain language, providing real support to impacted employees, and making your long-term commitment to diverse talent visible,” he says. Gennis believes businesses should first zoom out and anchor the conversation in their brand values. “That way, the company is being consistent in the messaging,” she says. Gennis also emphasizes the importance of equipping managers to lead these conversations with care. She advises training managers to engage employees thoughtfully, using intentional language, checking in personally, and ensuring team members understand both the process and where to seek support. This alignment between managers and the company’s employer brand is especially critical for organizations recruiting globally for highly specialized roles, such as in artificial intelligence. Just like these workers’ skills, the employer messaging must be targeted and intentional. Employers should be aware that internal communications around immigration policy may be leaked publicly, Silbershatz cautions. Leaders should “approach how they communicate any new policies with clarity and conviction, keeping employee well-being central to any messaging,” he says. That emphasis on clarity and care feeds into a broader organizational responsibility — one that BenHamou believes must be embedded in the company’s culture and long-term vision. “The goal is to build a workplace that does not just hire global talent — it’s to build a workplace that protects it, supports it, and thrives because of it,” he says.

  • China’s MiniMax launches M1: A reasoning model to rival GPT-4 at 0.5% the cost

    Chinese AI startup MiniMax has thrown down the gauntlet to established AI giants, releasing what it boldly claims is the world’s first open-source, large-scale hybrid-attention reasoning model that could fundamentally change the economics of advanced AI development. MiniMax defines “hybrid-attention” as a combination of its Lightning Attention mechanism and Mixture-of-Experts architecture, which activates only the relevant parts of the model for each task. The Shanghai-based company said its new MiniMax-M1 model delivers a knockout punch to computational inefficiency, requiring just 30% of the computing power needed by rival DeepSeek’s R1 model when performing deep reasoning tasks — a breakthrough that could democratize access to sophisticated AI capabilities. “In complex, productivity-oriented scenarios, M1’s capabilities are top-tier among open-source models, surpassing domestic closed-source models and approaching the leading overseas models, all while offering the industry’s best cost-effectiveness,” the company said, announcing the hybrid-attention reasoning model. A David vs. Goliath moment in AI What makes MiniMax-M1 particularly intriguing isn’t just its performance — it’s how the company achieved it. While tech titans have been throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at AI development, MiniMax managed to train its model for a mere $534,700. To put that in perspective, DeepSeek spent $5-$6 million on its R1 model, while OpenAI’s GPT-4 reportedly cost over $100 million to develop. “The entire reinforcement learning phase used only 512 H800s for three weeks, with a rental cost of just $534,700,” the company explained. “This is an order of magnitude less than initially anticipated.” However, industry analysts urge caution. “MiniMax’s debut reasoning model, M1, has generated justified excitement with its claim of reducing computational demands by up to 70% compared to peers like DeepSeek-R1,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and CEO at Greyhound Research. “However, amid growing scrutiny of AI benchmarking practices, enterprises must independently replicate such claims across practical workloads.” Extended context capabilities M1’s most impressive feature might be its ability to handle massive amounts of information simultaneously. With a context window supporting one million input tokens and up to 80,000 output tokens, the model can essentially read and understand multiple novel tasks at once while maintaining coherence across the entire conversation. “A significant advantage of M1 is its support for an industry-leading 1 million token context window, matching the closed-source Google Gemini 2.5 Pro,” MiniMax noted in the post. “This is 8 times that of DeepSeek R1 and includes an industry-leading 80,000 token reasoning output.” For context, OpenAI’s GPT-4o can handle only 128,000 tokens — enough for about one novel task. M1’s expanded capacity opens doors for applications that were previously impractical, from analyzing entire legal documents to debugging massive code repositories. Real-world performance that matters Beyond impressive technical specifications, M1 demonstrates strong real-world capabilities across multiple benchmarks. The model comes in two variants — M1-40k and M1-80k, referring to their “thinking budgets” — with the larger version consistently outperforming its smaller sibling across most tests. In software engineering tasks, both versions scored 55.6% and 56.0%, respectively, on the challenging SWE-bench validation benchmark. While slightly trailing DeepSeek-R1-0528’s 57.6%, they significantly outpaced other open-weight models in this critical area of productivity. “MiniMax-M1-80k consistently outperforms MiniMax-M1-40k across most benchmarks, which fully validates the effectiveness of extended computational resources during testing,” the company added. Breaking down barriers to AI access Perhaps most significantly, MiniMax is releasing M1 under a true Apache 2.0 open-source license — unlike Meta’s Llama models, which use restrictive community licenses, or DeepSeek’s partially open approach. This decision could accelerate innovation by giving researchers and developers unprecedented access to cutting-edge reasoning capabilities. Gogia sees this as particularly significant for mid-market companies. “MiniMax’s M1 represents more than just architectural efficiency — it symbolizes the new accessibility of advanced reasoning AI for mid-market enterprises,” he noted. “With open-source licensing, reduced inference costs, and support for 1 M-token context windows, M1 aligns squarely with the evolving needs of midsize firms that seek capability parity with larger players but lack hyperscaler budgets.” The company is backing up its open-source commitment with competitive pricing for those who prefer API access. Input processing costs just $0.4 per million tokens for contexts up to 200,000 tokens, rising to $1.3 per million tokens for the full 1-million-token capability. “Due to its relatively efficient use of training and inference computing power, we are offering unlimited free use on the MiniMax APP and Web, and providing APIs on our official website at the industry’s lowest prices,” the company announced. What this means for the industry M1’s release comes at a pivotal moment in AI development, as the industry grapples with the massive computational costs of training and running advanced models. The timing is particularly noteworthy, coming just weeks after fellow Chinese company DeepSeek shook the industry with its own cost-effective approach to AI development. This pattern suggests Chinese companies are finding innovative ways to compete with better-funded Western rivals through superior engineering rather than just throwing money at problems. Yet challenges remain for Chinese AI models in Western markets. Despite technical achievements, Gogia notes that “Chinese LLMs remain under-adopted in North America and Western Europe” due to concerns around governance and regulatory compliance in industries with strict procurement frameworks. A company on the rise MiniMax isn’t exactly a household name yet, but it’s rapidly becoming one of China’s most-watched AI companies. Founded in 2021 by former SenseTime executives, the startup has raised $850 million from heavyweight investors including Alibaba, Tencent, and IDG Capital, achieving a $2.5 billion valuation. This M1 announcement kicks off what MiniMax is calling “MiniMaxWeek,” with additional product releases planned for the coming days. For enterprise users and developers, M1 represents something potentially transformative: enterprise-grade AI reasoning capabilities without enterprise-grade infrastructure requirements. However, as Gogia cautioned, “The real test will lie in how quickly CIOs can extract operational savings at scale, without compromising accuracy or governance.”

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