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Market Forecast: Worldwide Content Delivery Networks Forecast, 2026–2030

Ghassan Abdo — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC presentation provides a worldwide forecast for the commercial content delivery networks (CDNs) market covering the 2026–2030 period. The architectural underpinnings of CDNs with massively distributed caching servers, supported with content acceleration algorithms, continue to provide the resiliency needed to manage substantial increases in media and web traffic, especially peak demand periods. CDN providers are augmenting content delivery with security, edge computing services, and observability to capitalize on growth potential in these areas.

"The transformation of the CDN marketplace is ongoing with a pivot toward enhanced edge use cases anchored in data sovereignty, inferencing, and media. The distributed edge will emerge as a control point for AI due to its physical proximity to customers." — Ghassan Abdo, research VP, Worldwide Telecom, Virtualization, and CDN, IDC

Market Forecast: Worldwide Core Talent Acquisition Technologies Forecast, 2026–2030

Abhinav Shrivastava — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC presentation provides a five-year forecast for the worldwide core talent acquisition (TA) technologies market for 2026–2030. This presentation examines market growth across deployment models, geographic regions, and key technology segments while analyzing the factors shaping demand for recruiting and talent acquisition solutions.

"Talent acquisition technology is undergoing a structural transformation that extends well beyond basic automation. Employers use AI to source, screen, and engage candidates, while job seekers leverage the technology to search, apply, and enhance their applications. Vendors that empower organizations to validate skills and drive scalable AI adoption for TA use cases will outperform those that delay these capabilities." — Abhinav Shrivastava, research manager, Talent Acquisition and Strategy, IDC

NASCO Bets on APM Adjudication as the Entry Point for Value-Based Care Administration

Jennifer Eaton — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note presents highlights from NASCO's inaugural Analyst Day held in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 17–18, 2026. NASCO presented its four-product administrative platform and detailed the first year of NASCO Evolve, launched in October 2025. Evolve is a purpose-built system for alternative payment model settlement management, addressing a common operational bottleneck that most health plans currently manage through manual Excel processes. The BCBSM production deployment demonstrates measurable results: settlement cycle time compressed from 45+ days to approximately 2 days, 80%+ operational efficiency gain, and near-perfect data accuracy. IDC's assessment is that NASCO has identified a real, underserved gap and built a technically credible solution. Key open questions involve the go-to-market strategy for non-BCBS health plans, AI contract ingestion fidelity at scale, and competitive dynamics as analytics-first VBC vendors extend into settlement.

Agentic Commerce: B2C Buyer Life-Cycle Opportunity Analysis

Ananda Chakravarty, Heather Hershey — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation looks at agentic commerce. As AI agents move from novelty to infrastructure, they’re quietly rewriting the rules of consumer retail. In this presentation, IDC analysts deliver the first rigorous, end-to-end map of what happens when shoppers stop browsing and start delegating purchasing decisions and execution to agentic AI.

Drawing on an analysis of 343 distinct factors across 5 journey stages and 4 stakeholder groups, the research cuts through the hype with a clear-eyed verdict: barriers currently outnumber opportunities, and the biggest disruption isn’t where everyone is looking.

The findings challenge conventional wisdom at every turn. Agentic commerce doesn’t just create new opportunities; it reallocates control, shifting competitive advantage upstream from brand influence to algorithmic selection. Merchants and brands emerge as the most exposed stakeholders, at risk of becoming metadata in an algorithmic race to the bottom of pricing. Perhaps most surprising is that the greatest value of agentic commerce isn’t in the dazzling front-end experience at all, but in the unglamorous back-end orchestration of fulfillment, inventory, and service.

For any leader trying to separate signal from noise in the agentic era, this research is essential strategic reading. It moves beyond “what AI can do” to the questions that will actually determine winners and losers of the agentic era of commerce:

What is agentic commerce?
Who absorbs the risk when an AI agent gets things wrong?
Who controls the interface of the experience?
Where does value ultimately consolidate?

The companies that internalize these lessons now will be the ones still visible if and when agents become the default front door to commerce.

BMC's July Release Lays the Foundation for Agentic AI with Governed MCP Access

Matthew Flug, Jim Mercer — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

BMC Software's July 2026 release establishes a governed foundation that prepares organizations for future agentic capabilities by connecting the Control-M and BMC AMI portfolios to live operational data as Model Context Protocol (MCP) clients. By making governance, visibility, and auditability preconditions for how agents will come to access production systems, the release lays the groundwork for control for BMC's stated goal of governed, agentic mainframe operations, an end state the company is building toward.

IDC ProductScape: Worldwide Retail Marketplace Platforms Software Providers, 2026

Cristiano Quattrini, Ornella Urso — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The IDC ProductScape offers a comprehensive guide on the key functionalities of retail marketplace platforms, featuring products from AOE, Flipkart, Izberg, Lengow, LogiCommerce, Marketplacer, Mirakl, Nautical Commerce, Octopia, Rithum, Spryker, Ultra Commerce, and VTEX. 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 vendors that align with their changing requirements.

IDC Survey Spotlight: Which Application Workloads Do Enterprises Across Regions Most Want to Use AI to Support and Augment Decision-Making?

Peter Marston — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight provides a worldwide view on enterprise sentiments for using artificial intelligence (AI) to support decision-making in application workloads. The document contains data from IDC's Application Services Survey, which was completed in August 2025. IDC's Worldwide Intelligent Application Services practice conducted this survey to understand enterprise preferences for utilizing AI as part of and to augment application services. The overall goal of the survey was to identify how organizations' preferences around application development and life-cycle management are evolving through utilization of AI and how application services providers can align their services offerings to address varied customer needs.

"Application services providers should understand how buyer organizations seek to leverage AI as part of application life-cycle management and business process decision-making to better support evolving customer needs as well as maintain deeper customer relationships," explained Pete Marston, senior research director, Worldwide Intelligent Application Services at IDC.

The Technology Adoption Divide: How Energy Technology Ownership Reshapes the Customer Relationship

Gaia Gallotti — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation demonstrates that energy technology adoption not only helps customers manage their bills; it also fundamentally reshapes their relationship with their energy provider. To a dramatic extent, customers who have invested in energy technologies are more satisfied, more interested in further investment, and more willing to trust their provider to actively manage their energy. They are, in short, better customers by every metric that matters. Customers without technology are the opposite: dissatisfied, disengaged, and increasingly at risk of being left behind as the transition accelerates around them.

IDC’s 2026 Energy Consumer Affordability & Trust Survey, conducted among 1,507 energy customers in 18 countries, suggests that the prize for doing so is greater than many utilities may realize.

The opportunity for utilities is to recognize this divide as the most actionable segmentation variable in their customer portfolios and to design product bundling, go-to-market strategies, and service models that move customers through the adoption curve deliberately. The technology is affordable. The customer appetite is there. What remains is the strategy to connect the two.

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Virtual Events Applications 2026 Vendor Assessment

Wayne Kurtzman — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study highlights a rapidly evolving market, shaped by shifting buyer and attendee expectations, aggressive vendor road maps, and significant industry consolidation. Geopolitical pressures and economic uncertainty are driving a resurgence in virtual events, as is the need to maintain a fresh revenue pipeline. AI-related features, especially those focused on intent and content development, were prioritized over non-AI features, but that pendulum is swinging back toward the middle. Buyers now demand advanced AI capabilities, seamless CRM and application integrations, and, most critically, richer engagement formats with outcome-based metrics. As browser tracking cookies phase out, first-party data from virtual events and community platforms is gaining newfound importance. This study, based on interviews with vendors and customers, evaluates their products, strengths, and challenges, and when to consider them.

"People are not attending in-person events at the same rate as before, yet when virtual events provide ways to engage attendees and allow them to connect with the people they need to, they can energize a brand," according to Wayne Kurtzman, research vice president, Social, Communities and Collaboration, IDC. "People do not want a broadcast; they want a meaningful engagement experience. Many vendors are now providing products that enable client organizations to grow."

IDC Survey Spotlight: Which Application Workloads Do Enterprises Most Want to Use AI to Support and Augment Decision-Making?

Peter Marston — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT