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AI Rewrites the Optical Network Investment Playbook

Ajeet Das — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note explores how AI is fundamentally reshaping the optical network investment landscape. AI-driven bandwidth demand is now the primary force shaping optical network investments, as operators shift from routine upgrades to structural changes focused on AI and edge datacenter interconnects. Over the next three years, the market will see a leap in network capacity, with 6T becoming the dominant tier and bypassing incremental upgrades. Vendors and service providers must align their strategies with this rapid transition to capture emerging opportunities in AI- and edge-driven optical infrastructure.

"AI isn't just driving optical network investment; it's rewriting the entire playbook, forcing operators to leap generations into capacity planning." — Ajeet Das, research director, Telcom Network Infrastructure, IDC

Market Forecast: EMEA Enterprise Network Infrastructure Forecast, 2026–2030

Chris Barnard — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC presentation provides a forecast for the WLAN, non-datacenter/campus, and datacenter Ethernet switch market for 2026–2030.

The EMEA enterprise network infrastructure market is expected to achieve a high single-digit compound annual growth rate over the next five years. While branch and campus networking will expand at a relatively modest pace, the primary growth driver will be datacenter Ethernet switching, fueled by increasing investment in AI initiatives.

Market Share: Worldwide Cloud and Datacenter Networks Shares, 2025

Petr Jirovsky, Paul Nicholson — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study examines the 2025 market shares of the leading vendors in the cloud and datacenter networks market.

Rapid AI-driven infrastructure buildouts reshaped the competitive landscape in 2025 and drove fast growth across the market. Vendors raced to meet surging demand for high-performance datacenter connectivity, with hyperscale and neocloud demand driving much of the movement in vendor rankings.

"The datacenter network market has seen substantial growth and been transformed by AI workloads spanning generative AI through to inference, alongside accelerating cloud expansion and network modernization," said Paul Nicholson, research vice president, Cloud and Datacenter Networks at IDC.

Market Share: Worldwide and U.S. Device and Print Management Market Share, 2025 — Strong Years for Market Leaders

Evan Hardie, Geoffrey Wilbur — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study examines the 2025 market shares of the leading vendors in the device and print management market.

"The importance of print and device management software continues to grow as organizations adjust to hybrid work, Windows Protected Print (WPP), and ARM device printing requirements. Providers that address key IT pain points and deploy AI in practical, value-driven ways are likely to outperform, while others risk falling behind," said Evan Hardie, research director for Data and Analytics and Consumer Devices lead at IDC.

Nielsen's DoubleVerify Deal Adds Verification Signals, but extends the industry’s neutrality issue

Roger Beharry Lall — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The Nutanix Cloud Platform Gets an MCP Server

Rob Tiffany — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Nutanix has announced an open-source, Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the Nutanix Cloud Platform, giving AI agents and coding assistants a governed pathway to operate hybrid cloud infrastructure through natural-language commands. The move reflects a broader infrastructure-vendor pattern of wrapping agentic AI access in existing role-based access control, auditing, and throttling frameworks rather than exposing raw APIs, signaling that enterprise AI operations adoption will hinge as much on governance guardrails as on automation capability.

Building the AI-Ready Enterprise: Cisco's Vision for Integrated Infrastructure and Security

Sakshi Grover, Pushkaraksh Shanbhag, Rajiv Ranjan, Vinay Gupta — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note presents IDC's key observations from Cisco India Analyst Day 2026, held in Bengaluru, India. The event highlighted Cisco's strategy to enable AI-ready enterprises through the convergence of AI infrastructure, networking, security, observability, customer experience, and AI-driven operations. IDC examines how Cisco is evolving from a networking-centric portfolio toward an integrated platform approach designed to simplify AI operationalization, strengthen cyber-resilience, and support enterprise AI deployments at scale.

Figma’s Product Expansion Illustrates Design-Led Development as an Emerging Form of Intent-Driven Development

Arnal Dayaratna — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

IDC Survey: Sustainability Software, 2026 — Vendor Selection and Satisfaction Trends

Amy Cravens — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey examines how organizations select, consolidate, and rate sustainability software vendors in 2026. Drawing on survey results on 816 organizations across 17 countries and 15 industries, IDC finds vendor selection is shifting from scale to fit: niche specialists are defending distinct segments as institutional platforms capture the largest, fastest-growing share of the market. Stacks are consolidating rather than diversifying, and satisfaction now tracks organizational maturity more than stack size or vendor type. Vendors that pair platform breadth with defensible niche depth are best positioned as the market bifurcates.

"The sustainability software market is splitting into two winning strategies: platforms that win on breadth and incumbency, and specialists that win by going deep in a niche. Fit is beating feature count, and growth is coming from vendors expanding within the accounts they already hold, not necessarily from displacing incumbents," said Amy Cravens, research manager, Sustainability/ESG Software at IDC.

Market Forecast: Europe Page Volume Forecast, 2026-2030

Phil Sargeant — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study provides the five-year forecast for the European hardcopy page volume market. It contains IDC’s review and forecast of the page volume market for the home and office segments in Europe from 2025 to 2030. Data for 2025 is recorded, and data for 2026 to 2030 is forecast.

“European page volumes will continue to decline as organizations implement new AI and digitization processes that reduce the demand for printed pages in the business process,” said Phil Sargeant, senior program director, Imaging, Hardcopy Devices, and Document Solutions at IDC.