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IDC FutureScape: Three Cloud Trends Shaping the European Cloud Market, 2026

Carla Arend, George Ayad, Luis Fernandes, Rahiel Nasir — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Web Conference Proceeding was conducted on January 29, 2026.

Where should you focus to succeed in the European cloud market in 2026? With ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, tightening regulation, and accelerating AI adoption, European organizations must prioritize investments that balance innovation, governance, and cost control.

As AI moves from experimentation to large-scale deployment, getting cloud strategy right has become a critical business imperative. IDC’s European cloud research team developed its top 10 cloud predictions for 2026 and beyond, highlighting three key themes that will define the market this year.

Carla Arend, Rahiel Nasir, and Luis Fernandes explore the following trends shaping the European cloud market in 2026:

Addressing sovereignty and risk
The rise of specialized AI cloud providers and edge infrastructures
Agent-driven cloud modernization

IDC ProductScape: Worldwide Cloud Deployment–Centric Application Platforms, 2026

Matthew Flug — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC ProductScape offers a comprehensive guide on the key functionalities of cloud application deployment platforms, featuring products from Akamai, AWS, Broadcom, Cloudflare, F5, Google, Microsoft, Mirantis, Nutanix, Oracle, Red Hat, Salesforce, Upsun, and Vercel. 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.

Industry Analysis Perspective: Worldwide Electric Utilities, 2026

John Villali, Heriberto Roman, Nigel Wallis — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Industry Analysis Perspective provides technology vendors — including sales, marketing, product, and channel managers — with essential insights into the electric utilities sector worldwide for 2025. It clarifies how the industry functions, enabling readers to identify specific areas in which their technology solutions add real value.

This document offers a comprehensive view of the electric utilities landscape, detailing business dynamics, key players, and future directions on both regional and country levels, along with the implications for IT strategies in the sector.

“Worldwide, the electric utilities sector enters 2026 in a state of transformation: rising demand due to AI-driven datacenter growth alongside diverging regional energy trajectories. Vendors must develop a comprehensive understanding of how these organizations operate across their value chains and their regional dynamics. Only then can they make the most of engaging with this financially stable, asset-intensive industry.” — IDC Energy Insights team

MDSap: Accelerating Digital Transformation Through SAP Cloud Modernization and Propriety Innovation in the EMEA Region

Eren Eser — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Vendor Profile presents MDSap, including the company's history, product portfolio, strategy, and road map. The document provides an overview of MDSap's wide array of technology services and solutions designed to accelerate digital transformation (DX) initiatives for enterprises.

F5 GTC 2026 and AppWorld 2026 Announcements — F5 Delivers Solutions for Improved "Tokenomics," AI Infrastructure, and Application Delivery

Paul Nicholson — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

F5's recent announcements at NVIDIA GTC 2026 and F5 AppWorld 2026 advance the company's capabilities across networking for AI and AI for networking, delivering both platform and advanced modular features. The integration of BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes with NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs enables enterprises and cloud providers to optimize token economics, maximize GPU utilization, and scale AI workloads efficiently — enhancing token throughput and time to first token. F5's new AI-driven and oriented solutions, including F5 Insight for ADSP and certified Red Hat OpenShift Operators, empower organizations with deep observability, actionable intelligence, and streamlined security controls. This approach can reduce AI infrastructure costs, accelerate productivity, and support rapid innovation, positioning F5 to offer secure, scalable, and responsive AI-powered digital experiences across distributed environments.

IDC Market Glance: Unified Communications and Collaboration, 1Q26

Jitesh Gera, Denise Lund — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Glance depicts how IDC defines the market segments of the worldwide unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) market and indicates some of the players in each of these segments. It also defines and identifies the key players in the market segments adjacent to the UC&C market, which are closely related to business communications.

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide API Management 2026 Vendor Assessment

Shari Lava — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study on worldwide API management for 2026 highlights a rapidly evolving market driven by multiple factors of AI business transformation in a hybrid and multicloud world. API management solutions are increasingly central to AI enablement, software development, and enterprise integration, powering modern applications and serving as the backbone for agentic orchestration. Vendors are expanding capabilities to address API sprawl, unify governance, and support event-driven architectures, with public cloud services outpacing on-premises adoption. The market is projected to grow at a 14.1% CAGR, reaching $42 billion by 2029. Buyers face persistent challenges with fragmented integration, security, and legacy system modernization, while observability, reliability, and AI-powered automation are the most sought-after features. As regulatory and sovereign AI requirements emerge, flexible deployment and robust governance will be critical for future API strategies.

According to Shari Lava, group vice president, AI, Data, and Automation, "API management is no longer just about securing and publishing APIs — it is the foundation for AI enablement, software development, and connectivity. As enterprises shift toward hybrid and multicloud architectures, the ability to unify governance, automate life-cycle management, and expose APIs as agent-ready tools will define market leaders. The winners in this space will be those that deliver robust, federated platforms that support both legacy modernization and rapid AI innovation, enabling organizations to maximize API reuse, security, and operational excellence."

IDC Survey Spotlight: Do AI Returns Mask SaaS-Driven Cost Overruns?

Jevin Jensen — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight, based on IDC's 2025 Intelligent Cloud and Edge Operations with FinOps Survey, explores that while AI projects are yielding rapid returns, cost control remains a challenge for enterprises. Nearly half of enterprises report seeing a return on their investment within a year (45%), yet only 37% feel their costs align with expectations.

SaaS-led "AI abstraction" is accelerating the adoption of AI, with 88% of businesses already using or planning to use AI-based SaaS. However, this shift results in unpredictable spending, including costs associated with tokens, API calls, and variable computing resources. IDC suggests that leading companies will respond by establishing AI-FinOps, which will involve shared responsibility between CIOs and CFOs.

IDC Survey Spotlight: Innovation Budgets and Spend on AI

Rob Tiffany — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight looks at ICT innovation budgets and the types of AI projects they are being spent on. The budget tug-of-war between innovation projects and maintaining existing systems is highlighted. Within the innovation budget, generative, agentic, and predictive AI projects are evaluated and compared. This document draws upon data collected from IDC's 4Q25 Cloud Pulse Survey.

IDC Survey Spotlight: What Comes After Adoption to Drive FinOps at Scale?

Jevin Jensen — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight examines the evolving role of FinOps in large enterprises and how expectations for AI capabilities within FinOps tools are changing. As FinOps adoption reaches new levels, shifts in how organizations evaluate supporting technologies signal a broader transition in market priorities. These developments highlight a move toward greater operational discipline and raise important questions about how vendors should position and evolve their FinOps strategies.