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Beyond the Agentic SOC: Splunk and Cisco Build the Data and Observability Layer for AI

Michelle Abraham, Duncan Brown, Christopher Kissel, Katie Norton — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At .conf26, Splunk paired new agentic skills for detection, threat hunting, investigation, and governance with a broader set of foundational moves designed to make machine data usable for AI at scale. To help both security and AI teams track the behavior of AI agents in their environment, Agent Observability is designed to monitor the performance and cost of AI agents and prevent undesired actions before they can be executed.

Fastly Adds AI Runtime Control and AI Firewall to its AI Portfolio

Matthew Flug — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Fastly recently introduced AI Runtime Control (ARC) alongside AI Firewall and new API Security capabilities, with ARC serving as a managed gateway that channels enterprise model calls across public and self-hosted providers and centrally enforces access, budget, rate-limit, failover, and logging policies. The launch adds model governance to Fastly's delivery and security portfolio, offering customers a way to manage AI access, spend, and provider resilience.

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide AI-Enabled Accounts Receivable Automation Applications for the Enterprise 2026 Vendor Assessment

Kevin Permenter, Jordan Steele — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study provides an assessment of accounts receivable (AR) automation software providers serving enterprise organizations with 1,000+ employees. This study evaluates the capabilities and strategies of vendors in the market and examines the criteria most important for technology leaders selecting an enterprise AR automation platform.

At enterprise scale, AR is evolving beyond collections automation toward a revenue-to-cash control layer that coordinates customer accounts, credit, collections, disputes, deductions, payments, cash application, intelligence, and increasingly autonomous actions across complex financial environments.

"The next phase of enterprise AR is not about generating more collection activity. It is about coordinating the decisions that determine when revenue becomes cash while giving finance the visibility and control to know why those decisions were made." — Kevin Permenter, research director, Financial Applications, IDC

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Accounts Receivable Automation Software for Small and Midmarket Businesses 2026 Vendor Assessment

Kevin Permenter, Jordan Steele — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study provides an assessment of accounts receivable automation software providers serving small and midmarket organizations with 0–999 employees. This study evaluates the capabilities and strategies of vendors in the market and examines the criteria most important for technology leaders selecting an AR automation platform.

For small and midmarket businesses, the value of AR automation increasingly lies in shortening the operational distance between the invoice and usable cash. That requires more than automating collections. It requires a coordinated approach to customer payment experience, collections, disputes, cash application, and cash intelligence.

"The real measure of AR automation is not how much collection activity the software can generate. It is how effectively the platform removes the friction standing between an invoice and usable cash." — Kevin Permenter, research director, Financial Applications, IDC

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Agentic Marketing for B2C Enterprises 2026 Vendor Assessment

Gerry Murray — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC MarketScape evaluates agentic marketing platforms available to enterprise organizations and provides essential guidance for technology buyers in this segment. This study defines the market, evaluates vendors serving enterprise buyers, and assesses platforms against a broad definition of agentic AI. IDC finds that autonomy and system integration are largely solved problems in this market, while independent judgment and cross-agent coordination remain works in progress. Given the governance, ROI, and security scrutiny enterprise deployments face, IDC advises buyers to evaluate platforms as they would evaluate a new hire, with clear supervision, defined scope, and ongoing performance review.

"Enterprise buyers should scrutinize vendors' agentic marketing solutions on interoperability, governance, and road maps as well as on proprietary IP, best practices, data assets, and cost transparency because at scale, those are the defining differentiators," said Gerry Murray, research director, Enterprise Marketing Applications and Agents at IDC.

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Print Management Solutions Independent Software 2026 Vendor Assessment

Evan Hardie, Geoffrey Wilbur, Tim Greene — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC MarketScape study assesses the market for print management software solutions among the most prominent global independent software vendors and identifies their strengths and challenges. This assessment discusses both quantitative and qualitative characteristics that position vendors for success in this important market. This IDC study is based on a comprehensive framework to evaluate print management delivered within the context of an engagement.

"Print management remains a persistent challenge in 2026, and IT teams face constant pressure to optimize devices, control costs, and maintain security, even as hybrid work has simply become the baseline that print must support. What's changing is the platform underneath print itself: Microsoft's move toward driverless, IPP-based printing through Windows Ready Print and Protected Print Mode is forcing vendors to rethink device compatibility, while ARM-based and Copilot+ PCs add further disruption to users' ability to print. At the same time, agentic AI is pulling print management into a broader layer of document intelligence and workflow automation. Securing print in this environment increasingly means moving to the cloud and a SaaS billing model that offers more budgeting predictability. As the landscape evolves, buyers should seek a solution aligned with their business and technology goals," says Evan Hardie, senior research director, IDC.

Dreamforce 2026: The Agentic Enterprise Comes to Life

Mickey North Rizza — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Salesforce held its annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, CA, on September 15–17, 2026. The event was well attended, with at least 43,000 onsite and thousands online for the keynotes.

IDC Survey Spotlight: How Are Enterprises Using GenAI Across Each Stage of the Content Life Cycle?

Jordan Jewell — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight examines how enterprises are applying generative AI (GenAI) across 11 stages of the content life cycle, from planning and ideation to distribution and repurposing. The results, from IDC's June 2026 CX Path Survey, reveal near-universal adoption but significant variation in whether organizations use GenAI to improve efficiency or outcomes — or both.

IDC Survey: 2026 CIO Sentiment Survey Part 4 — Technology Purchasing Process and Partner Selection

Martina Longo — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey examines how CIOs and CTOs approach technology purchasing, procurement, and partner selection, based on responses from IDC's May 2026 Worldwide CIO Sentiment Survey.

This report covers who drives the sourcing process, what triggers a purchase, where CIOs and CTOs engage across the buying journey, what criteria are used to select vendors and partners, sourcing preferences and frustrations for AI providers, and how vendor performance and investment benefits are measured.

Survey findings highlight that sourcing authority remains concentrated in the CIO and CTO line, with security and finance leaders carrying more weight than the procurement function itself, and engagement peaking at the architecture and risk review rather than at contracting. Selection is driven by capabilities and regulatory compliance before price, while lack of transparency and overpromising on capabilities are emerging as the leading sources of friction with AI vendors.

IDC Survey: IDC Worldwide Supply Chain Survey: Manufacturing

Simon Ellis — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey provides insight into the supply chain challenges and opportunities manufacturing companies are facing, their current priorities, the drivers of change in the strategic focus of their supply chains, the impact of ongoing disruptions (protectionism/tariffs, economic uncertainty), and the use of modern digital technologies, particularly AI. The data for this presentation comes from the IDC's 2026 Supply Chain Survey and reflects the manufacturing respondent base across all regions polled. The sample size for this survey was 1,374, fielded in June 2026, with 792 specific to manufacturing.