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Broadcom Mainframe AR Forum 2026: Agentic AI Comes to the Mainframe on the Platform's Own Terms

Jim Mercer — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At its 2026 Analyst Forum in Boston, Broadcom's Mainframe Software Division (MSD) laid out an agentic AI strategy anchored in the idea that AI capabilities belong within products customers already license, not in separate AI-branded SKUs that require new procurement cycles. The company unveiled an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server road map spanning its DevOps, Data Management, and AIOps value streams, with several tools already in beta under existing entitlements. Broadcom also reaffirmed Open Mainframe Project Zowe's role as the open source integration layer enabling both modern developer tooling and MCP-based AI connectivity.

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Quantum Computing 2026 Vendor Assessment

Heather West, PhD — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study provides an assessment of worldwide quantum computing vendors with commercially available offerings through the IDC MarketScape model.

"2026 marks an inflection point for the quantum computing industry. Although fault-tolerant quantum computing has not yet been fully realized, a growing body of empirical business and scientific results is beginning to validate the long-term commercial direction of the market," said Heather West, PhD, senior research manager and research lead, Global Quantum Computing Research, IDC. "As a result, vendors are increasingly competing not just as hardware developers, but as providers of broader quantum computing platforms integrating software, HPC, AI, cloud, and sovereign infrastructure capabilities."

Photonic Computing Moves Closer to Commercial Viability: Q.ANT Demonstrates

Heather West, PhD — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At ISC High Performance 2026, Q.ANT's second-generation photonic NPU ran both a generative AI diffusion model and NXAI's xLSTM-based TiRex for sequential prediction, the first time a diffusion model of this complexity has executed on photonic hardware. IDC views the demonstrations, alongside Q.ANT's PyTorch integration, first commercial orders, and European supercomputing deployments, as evidence that photonic computing is transitioning from research to early commercial platform, though system-level efficiency validation remains a key next step.

AI Factories: Emerges as the Core Infrastructure Building Block for the Token Economy

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation provides IDC's definition for AI factories, an emerging class of IT infrastructure designed to standardize and accelerate the buildout of IT platforms optimized for the unique needs of production-scale AI workloads. The presentation covers three major topics:

What is an AI factory?
How are AI factories transforming AI infrastructure architectures and operating models?
How do AI factories impact infrastructure markets?

The presentation highlights major AI factory components and integration strategies and notes how AI factories will be covered across IDC's Trackers and taxonomies.

Equinix Deploys Secure AI Factories Across Global Datacenter Footprint in Collaboration with Cisco and NVIDIA

Andrew Buss, Mikhail Jaura, Luis Fernandes — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Equinix has expanded its collaboration with Cisco and NVIDIA to deploy the Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA across its global datacenter footprint, while also partnering with Presidio to bring the Programmable AI Technology Hub (P.A.T.H.) Lab into its facilities so enterprises can test and validate AI infrastructure before committing to full-scale deployment.

By combining standardized AI factory blueprints, NVIDIA reference architectures, and Equinix's interconnection density, specialized power, and advanced cooling, the initiative aims to de-risk AI investments and help customers move projects smoothly from pilot to production at scale.

HPE Discover 2026: From AI Infrastructure to the Agentic Enterprise

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

HPE Discover 2026 marked a meaningful step in HPE's shift from an AI infrastructure provider to an enterprise AI operating platform. The event centered on operationalizing AI at scale through a more unified architecture spanning GreenLake, Private Cloud AI, networking, storage, security, and financial services. HPE positioned GreenLake Intelligence as an emerging control plane for agentic operations. Private Cloud AI also expanded its focus to governance, data readiness, and production AI workflows. Networking emerged as one of the most strategically significant themes of the event. Following the Juniper acquisition, HPE is positioning networking as both an enabler of AI infrastructure and a beneficiary of AI-driven automation. Self-driving networking was another major theme, reinforced by deeper Aruba–Juniper integration across campus, datacenter, edge, and AI Factory environments. HPE also sharpened its infrastructure economics story through Morpheus, VMware migration offers, HPE Financial Services (HPEFS), and new ecosystem partnerships. Collectively, the announcements position HPE around governance, autonomous operations, networking intelligence, sovereignty, and AI-era economics.

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

Evan Hardie, Geoffrey Wilbur, Tim Greene — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Perspective provides a description of the market definitions and assessment criteria for IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Print Management Solutions 2026 Independent Software Vendor Assessment (forthcoming).

"As the complexity of customers' print management needs and security requirements continue to increase, vendors are adjusting their offerings to meet their customers' evolving needs, including an accelerating cloud transition and increased integration of artificial intelligence," says Evan Hardie, senior research director, Imaging, Printing, and Document Solutions at IDC. "By evaluating the print management solution competitive landscape, IDC can help businesses understand the breadth and importance of these solutions and where to turn for help."

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Sustainability Strategy Services 2026 Vendor Assessment

Dan Versace — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study provides a comprehensive analysis of the global sustainability strategy services market, highlighting a pivotal shift from compliance-driven engagements to sustainability as a lever for enterprise value creation, operational resilience, and capital allocation. This transformation is propelled by evolving buyer demand, regulatory complexity, and the rapid maturation of AI technologies, fundamentally reshaping service offerings, delivery models, and commercial structures.

Five key trends define the current market landscape: the repositioning of sustainability from compliance to value, the ubiquity and integration of AI in sustainability workflows, the crystallization of two delivery archetypes (pure-play strategy advisory and integrated tech-led services), regulation as a demand engine rather than the end goal, and the evolution of commercial models toward outcome-based and risk-reward pricing. Vendors are increasingly embedding sustainability KPIs into core business metrics; leveraging generative and agentic AI for disclosure, scenario modeling, and regulatory horizon scanning; and offering platform-based solutions for continuous compliance and operational support.

Vendor differentiation now centers on delivery model, technology depth, sector specialization, and commercial flexibility. The assessment profiles leading global firms — including Accenture, Atos, Bain & Company, BCG, Capgemini, CGI, Deloitte, EY, Fujitsu, IBM, KPMG, McKinsey, NTT DATA, PwC, Schneider Electric, and TCS — detailing their strategic direction, depth of capabilities, proprietary platforms, and sector-specific expertise. Each vendor’s strengths and challenges are evaluated, with guidance for buyers to match delivery archetype to internal readiness, assess AI maturity, plan for procurement complexity, and validate industry and geographic specificity.

The market rewards vendors that connect environmental ambition to financial outcomes, operationalize through AI-enabled platforms, and sustain transformation via managed services. Vendor selection is less about who offers sustainability services and more about which archetype, sector depth, technology stack, and commercial structure best fit the buyer’s transformation agenda. The assessment underscores the importance of starting with the business question, aligning vendor selection to organizational readiness, and being deliberate about scope, scale, and commercial structure.

In summary, the sustainability strategy services market is at an inflection point, with leading vendors positioned to drive enterprisewide transformation by integrating sustainability into core business strategy, leveraging advanced technology, and delivering measurable outcomes. Buyers are advised to prioritize value creation, technology integration, and sector-specific expertise when selecting partners for their sustainability journey.

“Sustainability strategy is no longer a compliance checkbox; it’s the new engine of enterprise value, capital allocation, and operational resilience. In 2026, the winners will be those who embed sustainability into the P&L, harness AI as a core enabler, and transform ambition into measurable business outcomes,” said Dan Versace, senior research analyst on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Business Services at IDC.

IDC’s Worldwide Used Device Tracker Taxonomy, 2026

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study provides a comprehensive overview and definitions for the used device market. The definitions provided in this document represent the scope of IDC’s used device research. This taxonomy outlines market segmentations and measurement methodologies for the used smartphone industry, including classification by technology, vendor, geography, and revenue metrics.

“IDC’s used device taxonomy presents a standardized and detailed framework of the used smartphone market,” says Anthony Scarsella, research director for IDC’s Mobile Phone Tracker. “The taxonomy document serves as a guide for users to understand how the used smartphone market data is collected, processed, and monitored on an ongoing basis.”

Ivalua Launches IVA Studio: IVA Is All Grown Up — a Polished and Powerful Showcase for the Ivalua AI Strategy

Patrick Reymann — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Ivalua has formalized the general availability of IVA (Intelligent Virtual Agent) and its underlying agentic engine, IVA Studio, marking a decisive step beyond the chatbot era into fully agentic, autonomous procurement execution. Built on a 100% organically developed, unified S2P data platform, IVA is architected as a true cross-platform single agent, capable of taking action across the entire S2P life cycle from supplier onboarding and sourcing through contract management, eprocurement, and accounts payable, eliminating the hassle of today's agent swarm with governance enforced at every step, LLM portability, and a compounding skills framework that converts organizational expertise into reusable, auditable AI behavior. IVA is not a bolt-on or an API-connected overlay; it is a platform that acts with intelligence, and it is ready from day 1.