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Braze Expands Its Customer Engagement Platform with Agentic AI and Creative Operations

Gerry Murray — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Cisco's Universal Quantum Switch Advances Hardware-Agnostic Distributed Quantum Networking

Heather West, PhD — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The Cisco Universal Quantum Switch represents a meaningful early step toward establishing the foundational networking layer of the quantum era, directly addressing the modality interoperability problem that has kept quantum systems siloed and incompatible. While still a research prototype, the device's vendor-neutral, infrastructure-compatible design signals that Cisco is building a credible full-stack quantum networking strategy with the potential to define how quantum systems connect and interoperate at scale.

Google Cloud Next 2026: Building the Agentic Enterprise

Matthew Eastwood, Dave McCarthy — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At Google Cloud Next ’26, Thomas Kurian delivered Google Cloud’s most integrated and enterprise-credible AI story to date. Building on last year’s agentic enterprise vision, Google returned with a more production-oriented model spanning AI infrastructure, Gemini-centered agent platforms, data modernization, security, productivity, and ecosystem execution. Key announcements included eighth-generation TPUs for training and inference, the Virgo Network fabric, Gemini Enterprise, the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, Agentic Data Cloud, deeper Wiz integration, and new Workspace intelligence capabilities. Google also introduced a $750 million partner fund and highlighted commitments from Accenture, Deloitte, McKinsey, BCG, Salesforce, and SAP. Customer examples from Merck, GE Appliances, NASA, Home Depot, Macy’s, Vodafone, and Virgin Voyages showed momentum beyond digital natives. From IDC’s perspective, Next ’26 signaled a shift from AI-native vision to a more complete enterprise operating model.

VAST Data Closes Series F Funding at a $30B Valuation

Natalya Yezhkova, Carol Sliwa — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

On April 22, 2026, VAST Data announced the closing of its Series F funding, which values the company at $30 billion, more than triple its $9.1 billion Series E valuation from late 2023. Drive Capital led the funding round, with Access Industries as co-lead, and additional investors included Fidelity Management & Research Company, NEA, and NVIDIA. The total transaction value, including primary and secondary capital, reached about $1 billion. VAST Data reported surpassing $4 billion in cumulative bookings and finishing its most recent fiscal year with more than $500 million in committed annual recurring revenue (CARR), positive operating margin, and positive free cash flow.

The company frames itself as an AI operating system provider, built on its proprietary Disaggregated Shared Everything (DASE) architecture, which brings together multiprotocol scale-out storage, vector databases, event processing, and agentic compute runtimes into a unified platform. Prominent customers include CoreWeave, Crusoe, Mistral AI, JPMorganChase, and the U.S. Air Force, with some environments powering millions of GPUs.

Comcast Business 2026 Analyst Event Highlights Accelerated AI-Driven Focus to Bolster Enterprise Growth

Paul Hughes, Ghassan Abdo, Jitesh Bhayani, Peter Chahal, Jason Leigh — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Comcast Business' 2026 Analyst Event highlighted that the company is at a pivotal and transformational moment, where its infrastructure, AI capabilities, and partner ecosystem products are now an integrated solution. This comes at a time when the enterprise digital transformation curve is peaking and businesses are looking for a strategic partner that can manage the pace of change and support long-term business outcomes.

Figma's Expansion Strategy in Japan: Strengthening Its Positioning as an AI-Powered Platform and Expanding Value Creation Support

Tatsuhiro Soga — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This Market Note examines the latest developments in and strategy behind Figma's expansion in the Japan market as the company broadens its product portfolio for the AI era. Figma, based in California, provides a collaborative design and product development platform.

As AI-enabled development support tools and vibe coding become more widespread, efficiency is improving in prototyping and the early stages of application development. At the same time, SaaS vendors are expected to face growing pressure to move beyond functionality alone and instead leverage the best practices and operational knowledge they have accumulated through customer engagement to help customers create business value. In this environment, "Figma's advisory services will increasingly need the capability to identify and articulate concrete value-creation opportunities based on each customer's workflows, product development processes, and existing design assets," says Tatsuhiro Soga, research analyst, Software, Services, and IT Spending, IDC Japan.

This is the English translation of the Japanese document (IDC #JPJ54302326).

From Design Tool to AI Platform: Key Takeaways from Canva Create 2026

Roger Beharry Lall — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Canva Create 2026 was, as always, an energetic event, but this year it marked a significant evolution for the company, as it shifts from a design platform with AI tools to an AI platform with design tools. The introduction of Canva AI 2.0 reframes the company as offering a system that spans ideation, creation, and execution, with capabilities such as conversational design, agentic orchestration, memory, and integrated workflows.

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Carbon Accounting and Management Applications 2026 Vendor Assessment

Amy Cravens — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study evaluates vendors in the rapidly evolving carbon management software market. Driven by regulatory mandates and stakeholder expectations, carbon management has become a core enterprise function, shifting from basic emissions reporting to integrated, decision-oriented platforms. The document highlights vendor strengths, challenges, and strategic differentiators, providing technology buyers with guidance on selecting solutions that align with compliance, operational integration, and decarbonization objectives.

"Carbon management is no longer a reporting exercise," said Amy Cravens, research manager, ESG and Sustainability Software at IDC. "It's the new foundation for enterprise strategy, risk, and value creation in a decarbonizing world."

IDC Survey: IDC's Cloud Data Logistics and Protection Survey, Executive Summary, Part 2 — Budgets, Containers, and Skills Gap

Johnny Yu — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey asked respondents who were familiar with their organizations' compute infrastructure to identify commonly adopted strategies and pain points surrounding various aspects of data infrastructure management and data protection.

The results of the survey are weighted by IT spending per country and divided into two documents. This is the second document, and it focuses on IT budgets for data protection, container data protection, and IT skills gap.

EMEA Enterprise Networking Market Shares, 2025: 3Q25 Update

Len Padilla — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC presentation presents EMEA enterprise networking equipment vendor shares for the enterprise Ethernet switch, router, and wireless LAN segments for 3Q25.

“The EMEA enterprise network infrastructure market has returned to growth, with datacenter Ethernet switching driving the market as a result of AI initiatives. While networking for AI is a dominant force, wireless LAN revenues are also showing healthy growth, nearly returning to 2023 levels,” said Len Padilla, senior research director, European Networking and Life-Cycle Services.