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Enterprise Connect 2026: Collaboration Take; AI and New Work Canvases Arrive

Wayne Kurtzman — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Enterprise Connect (EC) 2026 was held from March 10 to 12, 2026, at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, Nevada. This replaced the years-long home of the event in Orlando, Florida. Attendees found a smaller conference that reflected the major shift from last year's "AI's possibilities" to this year's urgent need to launch AI and agents and determine ROI. While AI and agents were the top theme, significant announcements were made in bringing new work surfaces or canvases to the forefront of the new era of work. This IDC Link analyzes the event, many of the announcements, and the overall trends.

IDC ProductScape: Worldwide Cloud-Based Core P&C Insurance Platforms 2025

Surya Narayan Saha — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The IDC ProductScape offers a comprehensive guide on the key functionalities of policy administration, underwriting, claims processing, and billing, into a unified, modular framework, featuring products from BriteCore, Duck Creek Technologies LLC, Peak3 HOLDING PTE. LTD., Guidewire Software Inc., Majesco, Inc., Salesforce, Inc., Sapiens International Corporation N.V., Insurity, Inc., Intuitive Web Solutions, LLC, SAP Fioneer, and DXC Technology Co. 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.

IDC Survey Spotlight: In Which Areas Do Managed Service Providers Deliver the Greatest Value to Enable Organizations’ Public Cloud Strategies?

Francesca Ciarletta — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight analyses the role that managed service providers play in enabling European organizations' use of public cloud IaaS and PaaS. The analysis is based on IDC's European IT Services Survey, conducted in September 2025 among respondents from 700 organizations across Europe.

IDC Survey Spotlight: What Are the Drivers and Impact of Workload Repatriation?

Adam Reeves — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight examines the drivers and impact of workload repatriation, highlighting that cloud movement is increasingly bidirectional. According to the IDC's March 2026 PaaS Decision-Maker and Business Value Survey, organizations report repatriating ~18% of application workloads from public cloud PaaS to on premises over the past year. The leading drivers are workload/application performance (36%) and security (30%), making predictable performance, stronger security controls, and hybrid operating models critical for PaaS retention.

IDC Survey Spotlight: What Are the Top Challenges Faced When Considering Adoption of Specialist Cloud Providers?

Daphne Chung — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

In this IDC Survey Spotlight, IDC delivers findings and insights from specialist cloud survey data with highlights of adoption trends and the operational challenges organizations face in the region, across subregions, and countries in the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) region.

IDC Survey Spotlight: What Clouds Are the Most Important for AI Workloads?

Adam Reeves — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight examines which cloud platforms organizations prioritize for AI/ML, generative AI (GenAI), and agentic AI workloads, and what those preferences signal about production needs and platform selection. IDC's PaaS Decision-Maker and Business Value Survey, conducted in December 2025, shows that AI is now mainstream in production, with 74% of organizations already using it and 25% planning to adopt within 12 months. PaaS leads as the primary destination for AI workloads.

IDC Survey: Cloud Professional Services Usage and Trends in the UAE, 2026

Derrick Chikanga — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study presents the views of CIOs in the UAE and the broader Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa (META) region on cloud professional services and their organizations' related needs for 2026. The report provides high-level insights into organizations' current service requirements and the technical expertise they demand from cloud service providers. Cloud skills shortages and their potential impact on business operations are also highlighted. Furthermore, the study provides recommendations for addressing current market challenges.

The data presented and analyzed in this report is derived primarily from the META portion of IDC's Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) Cloud Survey, which was conducted in September 2025. The META subsample comprised 590 decision-makers from organizations with more than 100 employees.

IDC Survey: PaaS Decision-Maker and Business Value Survey — Cloud and PaaS Adoption

Adam Reeves — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey is an excerpt from IDC’s December 2025 PaaS Decision-Maker and Business Value Survey, which highlights a series of questions related to cloud and PaaS usage. It includes questions specifically related to the drivers, benefits, and challenges associated with using PaaS, as well as trends in organizations’ approaches to PaaS.

This IDC Survey interviewed over 310 individuals from midsize to large organizations in the United States who are leaders, decision-makers, or influencers over their organization’s platform-as-a-service and cloud application deployment platform strategy.

MariaDB to Acquire GridGain to Strengthen Real-Time Data Infrastructure for Agentic AI

Devin Pratt, Stewart Bond — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

MariaDB has announced a definitive agreement to acquire GridGain, the in-memory computing company behind Apache Ignite. MariaDB is positioning the deal as a way to combine its relational database, integrated vector search, and AI capabilities with GridGain’s in-memory data grid and real-time processing to create a unified platform for transactional, analytical, and AI workloads across hybrid environments. IDC views this announcement as part of a broader shift in the DBMS market toward converged data platforms that bring transactional, analytical, and AI capabilities closer together to reduce latency and minimize data movement. IDC is also seeing vendors embed vector search, real-time analytics, and automation more directly into core database platforms as AI use cases move closer to production.

MariaDB announced a definitive agreement to acquire GridGain Systems, the in-memory computing company behind Apache Ignite. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and financial terms were not disclosed. Both companies are privately held. MariaDB became privately held after K1 acquired 100% of its shares in 2024 and last publicly reported quarterly revenue of $13.6 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2024. GridGain’s public materials highlight strong revenue growth and cash-positive operations, but the company has not publicly disclosed revenue.

MariaDB has been assembling a broader AI-ready platform through integrated vector search, the MariaDB Exa partnership for high-performance analytics, and the reacquisition of SkySQL to strengthen cloud delivery. The GridGain acquisition extends that strategy into in-memory and real-time data processing, which may appeal to buyers seeking a more open alternative to fragmented or proprietary data stacks. The key question is whether MariaDB can integrate these assets into a coherent platform with consistent operations, governance, and performance in production.

NSWのITモダナイゼーション支援の動向と戦略

Masaru Muramatsu — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

本調査レポートは、独立系システムインテグレーターであるNSW（本社：東京都渋谷区）が、中期経営計画において注力分野の一つとするITモダナイゼーションビジネスの動向と戦略の最新状況について考察したものである。

「NSWの体系化された段階的ITモダナイゼーション手法は、レガシーシステムのITモダナイゼーションにおいて企業が抱えるリスク低減や効率化といった課題に対応し、企業の保有する技術的負債の解消を促進することが期待される。NSWは「技術的負債の解消」から「デジタルビジネス化」まで支援サービスを拡張、体系化することで、企業のデジタルビジネス化に貢献できるであろう」とIDC Japan、Software, Services, and IT spendingのシニアリサーチアナリストである村松大は述べている。