Cisco vs Fortinet

Small Language Models: When Smaller Is Better

This MLPills newsletter issue explains small language models (SLMs) — compact AI models designed to run under resource constraints such as limited memory, power, and latency budgets. It clarifies that 'small' is a comparative concept rather than a specific parameter count, and distinguishes SLMs from quantized frontier models and distillation. The article covers four main routes to building SLMs: curated data training, distillation, pruning, and quantization, and highlights examples including Microsoft's Phi-4 family, Google's Gemma 3n and Gemma 4 edge models, Hugging Face's SmolLM3, and Cisco's Antares vulnerability-localization models. It describes ideal use cases like classification, entity extraction, and tool selection, and recommends a layered architecture using deterministic code, small models, large models, and human oversight. The piece also cautions about evaluation, over-pruning, and privacy limitations of local inference.

• A 4B parameter model at 4-bit precision needs roughly 2 GB of memory; the same model at 16-bit needs roughly 8 GB.
• Microsoft's Phi-4 is a 14B parameter model, with a 3.8B Phi-4-Mini sibling and a Phi-4-Multimodal variant.
• Google's Gemma 3n models used per-layer embeddings, KV cache sharing, and activation quantization to reduce memory footprints.

Cybersecurity stock Zscaler's charts turn bullish: Jay Woods

In a CNBC Pro segment, technician Jay Woods discusses Zscaler (ZS), a cybersecurity company that has underperformed its sector peers. While CrowdStrike, Fortinet, Okta, and Palo Alto Networks have gained over 100% year-to-date, Zscaler shares fell as much as 65% from 52-week highs and remain down 13% this year. However, Woods observes a bottoming formation on both daily and weekly charts, with a bullish crossover in MACD and a breakout above $195 resistance. He suggests upside targets of $250-$265, representing 25-30% potential upside, with support at $165. The analysis highlights relative rotation within the cybersecurity sector, indicating that laggards like Zscaler may see renewed strength.

• Zscaler (ZS) shares fell as much as 65% from 52-week highs and remain down 13% year-to-date.
• CrowdStrike, Fortinet, Okta, and Palo Alto Networks have each gained over 100% year-to-date.
• Jay Woods identifies a bullish double bottom formation on Zscaler's weekly chart.

Fortinet Expands U.S. Presence with New Company-Owned Innovation Hub in New York City

Fortinet announced the opening of a new company-owned innovation hub in New York City, expanding its U.S. presence. This is part of Fortinet's strategic growth and investment in innovation.