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IDC ProductScape: Worldwide AI-Enabled Asset-Intensive Enterprise Asset Management Applications, 2025–2026

Brian O'Rourke — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC ProductScape offers a comprehensive guide on the key functionalities of AI-enabled asset-intensive enterprise asset management applications, featuring products from Hitachi Energy, IBM, IFS, KloudGin, Octave (Hexagon), Oracle, Oracle Utilities, Ramco, SAP, ServiceNow, and Ultimo. 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.

VMware Reinforces VCF Strategy with VKS Enhancements and Ecosystem Expansion to Better Support Mission-Critical and AI-Enabled Workloads at KubeCon Europe

Max Pepper — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

VMware's KubeCon Europe (that took place March 23–26) announcements highlight the continued evolution of positioning VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) as an AI-native private cloud platform with VKS 3.6 enhancements and the expanded partner ecosystem with F5, Kong, and Tigera Calico delivering incremental improvements in security, regulatory compliance, and operational resilience for running both VM- and Kubernetes-based workloads. Meanwhile, the strategic move of Velero to the CNCF helps reinforce VMware's alignment with the cloud-native ecosystem and expands opportunities for broader adoption and partnerships across multicloud and hybrid cloud environments.

Agents as Apps: The Rise of Agents — A Vendor Business Model Reset

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Since early 2025, new AI agents have been hitting the market, and recently, the pace has increased significantly. These new agents are reshaping business processes while helping organizations reinvent themselves around a new technology operating model. In this AI era, the winner is not the app with the best UI but the agent that reliably completes outcomes — at scale, with trust and economic leverage.

This comprehensive guide brings forward the trends driving the markets and highlights the 10 moves enterprise software vendors and services providers must make quickly to survive in the agentic era. Without this immediate strategic focus and emphasis, vendors will face limited growth — and even extinction.

"The world is changing quickly. AI agents represent the next evolution of the application model, shifting from tool-based interaction to outcome-based execution," said Mickey North Rizza, group vice president, Enterprise Software, IDC. "Don't get left behind!"

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide AI-Enabled Utility Customer Experience Management Solutions 2026 Vendor Assessment

Gaia Gallotti, Jean-François Segalotto — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study evaluates vendors providing AI-enabled customer experience management (CXM) solutions to utilities worldwide. It analyzes vendors' capabilities, strategies, and comparative positioning in a market undergoing structural transformation. The report provides utilities with a structured framework to assess vendor offerings across industry depth, platform architecture, data readiness, AI integration, and ecosystem extensibility. It is intended to support utilities as they modernize customer operations to reduce cost to serve, strengthen customer trust, enable electrification-driven business models, and scale AI adoption responsibly.

"Utilities are operating in an environment defined by increased customer vulnerability, heightened regulatory scrutiny, expanding product portfolios, and rising expectations for seamless digital engagement," said Gaia Gallotti, research director, IDC Energy Insights. "At the same time, generative AI is beginning to deliver measurable productivity gains within customer operations, particularly across contact centers and digital self-service. Utilities that modernize their CXM platforms with strong data foundations, embedded AI capabilities, and flexible, industry-specific architectures will be better positioned to reduce cost to serve, unlock new revenue streams, and build long-term customer trust in an increasingly complex energy landscape."

NVIDIA and Storage Partners Back New STX Reference Architecture to Accelerate Agentic AI

Carol Sliwa, Henry Arzumanian — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At GTC 2026 in San Jose, NVIDIA spotlighted storage as a critical component of the infrastructure necessary to keep AI factories running at optimum performance with the launch of its BlueField-4 STX reference architecture. Major AI storage players confirmed their intention to codesign and support STX — which includes the previously announced Inference Context Memory Storage (CMX) platform to accelerate and scale agentic AI — starting in the second half of 2026. Many storage vendors also took the occasion to provide updates on their support for the NVIDIA AI Data Platform, a customizable reference design introduced at last year's GTC event, as well as the latest developments on their AI infrastructure.

Cisco Talks Agentic Identity at RSAC

Frank Dickson, Emanuel Figueroa, Grace Trinidad — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At the RSAC 2026 Conference, Cisco announced new capabilities aimed at securing AI agents, particularly those interacting through Model Context Protocol (MCP) by extending zero trust principles into agentic environments and combining identity, access control, and runtime monitoring. Cisco's Duo Agentic IAM introduced identity constructs for AI agents, enabling organizations to discover agents, associate them with ownership, and manage their life cycle. Cisco Secure Access applies policy enforcement to regulate what agents can access and what actions they can perform, using contextual and time-bound authorization to align privileges with operational context and task requirements.

The announcement underscores a pivotal industry shift: AI agents now act with autonomy comparable to digital employees, raising the stakes for identity-driven governance. Cisco's framing acknowledges that securing agentic AI is no longer an extension of IAM; it is the next frontier of identity itself. By integrating Duo IAM with its SASE offering, Cisco aims to provide consistent policy enforcement.

This shift signals a deeper architectural reality: As AI agents gain the ability to initiate, chain, and execute actions across enterprise systems, identity emerges as the first anchor of trust. Cisco's announcement reflects a recognition that agent governance cannot rely on traditional access models; it requires continuous evaluation of who the agent is, what it is allowed to do, and why a given action is justified in context.

15 Key Trends Shaping EMEA Partnering Ecosystems in 2026

Stuart Wilson, Andreas Storz — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation discusses 15 key trends that will shape EMEA partnering ecosystems in 2026 and beyond. The document describes how accelerated AI innovation and adoption, buying behavior, and changing competitive dynamics reshape partner business models, vendor ecosystem strategies, and go-to-market models across the region.

2026 Strategy for Software Delivery: Mandates, Tactical Priorities, and Tech Investment Areas

George Mironescu — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation discusses the key software engineering mandates and technology investment areas for 2026. The presentation draws on insights from over 1,000 decision-makers surveyed from November 2025 to January 2026 for IDC's AI and Cloud-Native Software Delivery Survey.

The presentation provides insights into the thinking of various roles involved in shipping software, including application development, solution architecture, infrastructure and platform engineering, security, and IT leadership.

Drawing from 2025 initiatives and areas where delivery gaps persist, the presentation informs senior IT leaders about the most important tactical and strategic priorities shaping the agenda in 2026 and beyond.

Adobe 1Q26 Earnings: Enterprise AI Is a Resilient Moat

Gerry Murray — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Adobe announced its FY 1Q26 earnings results on March 12, 2026, reporting continued growth across its three audience segments: business professionals and consumers, creators and creative professionals, and marketing professionals. The results highlight how generative and agentic AI capabilities are increasingly embedded across Adobe's product portfolio, enabling enterprises to accelerate digital content production, streamline marketing workflows, and deliver personalized customer experiences (CX) at scale.

Agentic AI Adoption in Asia/Pacific: From Experimentation to Enterprise Scale

Deepika Giri, Shashank Nigam — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation explores how Asia/Pacific enterprises are moving decisively from AI pilots to enterprise-scale implementation. The emphasis is on agentic AI orchestration, unified platforms, and establishing AI-ready data foundations. Organizations are strengthening infrastructure, enhancing data quality, and transforming their workforce to enable automation, augment decision-making, and unlock business value. Effective change management, governance, and leadership are essential for scaling agentic AI. IDC recommends building resilient foundations, preparing talent, and redefining value metrics to ensure secure, trustworthy deployment and sustained innovation.

"Asia/Pacific enterprises are rapidly advancing AI adoption by making data excellence, infrastructure readiness, and workforce transformation top strategic imperatives. Achieving scalable business impact demands not only robust governance and agile leadership but also a culture that champions agentic AI as a catalyst for enterprisewide innovation and competitive advantage," says Deepika Giri, associate VP, IDC Asia/Pacific.