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Agentic AI and the Governance Impact for Service Providers — A Practical Framework for Security and Governance

Linus Lai — Tue, 05 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The shift from generative AI (GenAI) to agentic AI, which plans, decides, and executes tasks autonomously across enterprise systems, is reshaping the services industry and outpacing the controls needed to run it safely. Agents are a guaranteed area of 2026 budget growth, regardless of broader IT spend, yet the resulting risk surface keeps senior leaders up at night. This presentation maps the agentic evolution of services across adoption phases and lays out a practical governance response that plans for risk and policy oversight for forensics and accountability, plus a concrete set of risk controls service providers can operationalize now to capture the upside of autonomous agents while meeting the provenance and oversight expectations of clients, regulators, and boards.

Inside the Trends Driving the AI Economy

Matthew Eastwood, Kitty Fok, Thomas Meyer, Sandra Ng, Robert Parker — Mon, 04 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

These event proceedings were presented at the IDC Directions conference in Boston in April 2026.

As AI transforms industries, new markets — and new data — are emerging just as quickly. In this session, IDC analysts share key insights from the firm's newest research covering AI infrastructure, robotics and physical AI, AI agents, and the rapidly evolving global AI landscape. Walk away with practical insights and data on the topics shaping today's most important technology conversations.

Tying It All Together: Considerations for AI-Ready Datacenters

Andrew Buss, Madhumitha Sathish — Mon, 04 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

These event proceedings were presented at the IDC Directions conference in Boston in April 2026.

This session brings all things infrastructure together with a discussion on what IT leaders need to know to navigate the infrastructure landscape in the AI era and what tech vendors should be doing to help clients succeed.

IBM Earnings, 1Q26: Data, Service as a Product, and AI Extension in Z and Power Laying the Foundation for Enterprise-Grade AI

Rick Villars, Lars Goransson, Chris Drake, Devin Pratt — Sat, 02 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

IBM delivered a strong start to 2026, with revenue up 6% y/y in constant currency to $15.9 billion. All references in this document are in constant currency. The increase was led by Software growth of 8% and Infrastructure growth of 12%, while Consulting grew 1%. Results were supported by continued AI momentum across software, data, automation, and infrastructure, including stronger demand for GenAI products, IBM Z, and storage. IBM also expanded its margin, grew its free cash flow of 13% to $2.2 billion, and reaffirmed its full-year growth and cash flow outlook.

IBM Software delivered a strong AI-led quarter, with ARR reaching $24.6 billion, up 10% y/y. The clearest AI signal came from Data, which grew 16%, driven by a rebranding and replatforming of IBM data products within the watsonx.data portfolio, stronger partnerships, and contributions from DataStax and Confluent. Management also pointed to ongoing GenAI innovation across the portfolio, AI editions of core software, and the growing relevance of automation as enterprises build and govern multimodel, agent-based environments. Red Hat grew 10%, reinforcing IBM's position in the hybrid AI platform layer.

国内データセンターファシリティ市場予測、2026年～2030年

Mimei Ito — Fri, 01 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

本調査レポートは、国内データセンター（DC）ファシリティ市場の新設／増設市場と保守／更新市場を主な対象として、市場規模の推計と予測を行っている。本調査レポートが対象とするDCファシリティ市場とは、建築物、電気設備、冷却システムなどである。対象とするDCは、国内に設置された事業者DCと企業内DCである。

「AI（Artificial Intelligence）インフラ設置が急がれる中、建設工期の短縮が課題となっている」と、IDC Japan、Software, Services, and IT Spendingのリサーチマネージャーである伊藤未明は述べている。

IDC ProductScape: Worldwide Enterprise Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting Applications, 2026

Megha Kumar — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The IDC ProductScape offers a comprehensive guide on the key functionalities of enterprise planning, budgeting, and forecasting applications, featuring products from Anaplan, Board, Epicor, IBM, insightsoftware, OneStream, Oracle, Planful, Prophix, SAP, Strata Decision Technology, Vena, Workday, and Unit4. The status of each functionality is categorized as fully supported, partially supported, partner provided, road map, or not supported, aiding technology purchasers in quickly identifying which vendors align with their changing requirements.

Microsoft Agent 365: The Control Plane for Operationalizing Agents for Day 2 and Beyond

Archana Venkatraman — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Perspective analyzes the importance of agent observability, governance, and security in operationalizing agentic AI. Agent 365’s greatest value lies in making agents visible, governable, and operationally manageable at scale. For Microsoft, the opportunity is to position Agent 365 not simply as a security layer, but as the operational system of control for the agent era.

“Agent 365’s core value is that it gives ITOps and security teams a unified control plane to observe, govern, and secure agents as they move into production. Its strongest differentiation is to make agent activity visible, traceable, and manageable in ways that reduce operational risk, strengthen trust, and support confident business adoption,” said Archana Venkatraman, senior research director, Observability, AIOps, and Cloud Governance, IDC Europe.

Solvares Group Acquires More-IQ: Innovation to Drive Field Service Scheduling Optimization and Resolution

Aly Pinder — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note explores the recent acquisition of More-IQ by Solvares Field Service and its broader relevance to the field service market.

Sourcing Strategies for Organizations when Utilizing Managed Cloud Services

David Tapper — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation examines organizational sourcing strategies in utilizing managed service providers (SPs) and partner ecosystems, particularly public cloud providers, when using managed cloud services. This presentation will provide organizations, whether they currently utilize these services or are considering using these services, with a blueprint for developing an optimal sourcing strategy when selecting managed SPs for managed cloud services.

Key factors analyzed in determining what shapes the underpinnings of an optimal sourcing strategy for managed cloud services includes the changing structure in the community of managed SPs, alternatives for managed cloud services with public cloud providers, strategic partnership requirements enabling transformation to cloud, the role of managed SPs in supporting public clouds, sourcing strategies and challenges in using public cloud providers for managed public cloud services, key capabilities requirements for managed cloud services, and criteria in down selecting managed SPs for managed cloud services. This presentation also provides organizations with a framework of building blocks as guidelines to select the right managed SPs for services that are centered on factors which organizations emphasize as critical, including: determining optimal bundling requirements, controlling and optimizing value of partnership-based managed cloud services, defining means of achieving value expectations, ensuring availability of critical capabilities, having access to key resources in optimizing financial management, and requiring critical support to ensure operational excellence.

“Organizations looking to utilize managed SPs for managed cloud services need to carefully assess the providers that organizations are considering across a wide array of issues with the goal of building a sourcing strategy that balances achieving critical business and IT objectives with the degree of risk that firms are willing to take in handing over the management, continuous support and control of their technology environments to a third-party service provider. Factors that organizations need to consider when developing a sourcing strategy for managed SPs must include clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of both managed SPs and partners used to support provisioning of managed cloud services, ensuring that managed SPs can deliver the value required, requiring that managed SPs utilize strategic capabilities needed to meet SLAs as well as business and IT goals, ensuring that the managed SP utilizes FinOps in optimizing financial management and expecting managed SPs to incorporate robust governance.” — Program VP David Tapper, Outsourcing and Managed Cloud Services, IDC

2026年国内ITサービスベンダーの海外ビジネス戦略と日系企業のグローバル展開支援

Tatsuhiro Soga, Masaru Muramatsu — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

国内ITサービス市場は、企業のITモダナイゼーションやAI（Artificial Intelligence）活用への支出拡大を背景に成長基調にあるが、長期的には総人口の減少による経済規模の縮小によって、市場成長の鈍化も懸念される。このため、国内ITサービスベンダーにとって海外ビジネスの拡大は、次なる市場機会の候補となり得るが、大手グローバルベンダーの存在など留意すべき事項もある。

「国内ITサービスベンダーは、欧米やインドの大手ITサービスベンダーと正面から競うのではなく、重点市場を特定した上で、ドメインやソリューションに特化した高付加価値なサービスを訴求すべきである。加えて、持続的成長には、自律性の高いガバナンスモデルの構築と、迅速な意思決定を可能とする運営体制の構築が重要となる」と、IDC Japan、Software, Services, and IT Spendingのリサーチアナリストである曽我龍宏は述べている。