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Rackspace and AMD Partner to Create an Enterprise AI Cloud

Rob Tiffany — Thu, 07 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The Rackspace-AMD MOU represents a significant move to establish a new category of governed, fully managed enterprise AI infrastructure by embedding AMD Instinct GPUs and EPYC CPUs directly into Rackspace's operated stack, owning accountability from silicon to outcomes. This partnership directly addresses the demand among regulated enterprises for a single, trusted operator of production AI that combines dedicated, accelerated compute with governance, sovereignty, and compliance built in from the ground up.

IBM Sharpens EMEA Proposition Around Hybrid Cloud, AI, and Sovereignty Value Proposition

Archana Venkatraman — Wed, 06 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note analyzes IBM’s strategic vision, road map, and product updates as announced during its EMEA Analyst Insights event in Madrid in March 2026. IBM used its EMEA Analyst Insights event to position itself as an end-to-end technology partner for AI-ready enterprises that centers on hybrid cloud, AI, developer productivity, and governance. The core message is that the vendor’s hybrid cloud and AI strategy is gaining commercial traction, supported by strong 1Q26 performance, software AI growth, and z17 momentum.

“IBM’s EMEA strategy is landing in the right place at the right time. Enterprises are no longer evaluating AI, sovereignty, resilience, and governance as separate agendas; they are looking for an integrated operating model for trusted AI at scale. IBM’s value proposition is strongest where it combines hybrid cloud, sovereign-by-design architecture, and operational AI governance into a single enterprise proposition. The real test now is delivering repeatable, high-impact outcomes for EMEA organizations,” said Archana Venkatraman, senior research director, IDC.

Platform and Professional Services Revenue Models Are Changing in the Agentic AI Era: Implications for Government IT Buyers

Massimiliano Claps — Wed, 06 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective analyzes how professional services and platform vendors are embedding agents into their offerings, how they build bundles, and how they transition toward hybrid, outcome-based pricing.

"Agents are not features; they are work-performing actors embedded in business processes, customer journeys, strategic planning decisions, and IT and business operations. Government IT buyers need to update their acquisition and contract management practices to harness the value and control the costs over the life cycle of AI agents," says Massimiliano Claps, research director, IDC Government Insights.

State of Functions-as-a-Service, Q2 2026

Matthew Flug — Wed, 06 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The functions-as-a-service (FaaS) market is undergoing a fundamental architectural shift as AI agents and inference workloads demand orchestration-centric, stateful execution models. FaaS vendors are moving aggressively to close the gap between traditional serverless limitations and the demands of AI-driven workloads, including stateful execution, observability gaps, and cold start latency. This IDC Market Presentation draws on primary survey data to assess how FaaS is evolving from a simple compute model into a critical enabler of enterprise AI initiatives at scale.

“Building AI-powered applications has become the top priority for FaaS buyers, and stateful functions are quickly becoming table stakes for vendors looking to support long-running, multi-step, context-aware AI workflows. FaaS vendors must position functions as a coordination layer that enforces governance, ensures compliance, and manages agentic execution across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.” — Research Manager Matthew Flug, Intelligent Application Modernization and Deployment Platforms, IDC

Sustainable IT Infrastructure Strategies in Europe for Digitally Responsible Enterprises

Cristiano Quattrini, Margot Juros — Wed, 06 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective examines how European enterprises are redefining IT infrastructure strategies to align digital transformation with sustainability objectives. As regulatory pressure, energy constraints, and AI-driven demand increase, retailers must integrate energy efficiency, decarbonization, and circularity into infrastructure design. Sustainable IT is emerging as a critical enabler of resilience, compliance, and long-term business value.

"Sustainable IT infrastructure is no longer a technical optimization but a strategic imperative in Europe, where regulatory pressure, energy constraints, and AI-driven demand are converging. Retailers that embed sustainability into infrastructure design today will be better positioned to balance performance, cost, and environmental responsibility while maintaining long-term competitiveness." — Cristiano Quattrini, senior associate advisor, IDC Retail Insights

Worldwide Server Market Summary and Outlook, 4Q25

Kuba Stolarski — Wed, 06 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation offers an overview of the worldwide server market and related trends and forecasts for the fourth quarter of 2025. Detailed results were released on March 12, 2026, in IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker and on March 19, 2026, in IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker Forecast. This presentation provides insights into the regional, vendor, and market-level performance as well as details on key developments and trends in the market, including accelerated servers (GPUs and other accelerators), offering advice to suppliers on how to navigate various issues present in the current market and developing over the next five years.

中国整体云计算市场预测，2026—2029

Rachel Liu, Lee Zhang, Tina Cui — Wed, 06 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

本报告通过对公有云服务商、专属云服务商、私有云技术提供商等的直接访谈，以及二手资料研究，分析了中国整体云计算市场的发展近况和趋势。报告给出了未来5年中国整体云计算市场，以及公有云服务、专属云服务、企业专属云/私有云、云专业和管理服务四个子市场的规模预测，并对该领域的市场发展提出了一些建议，旨在为中国云服务商以及云IT服务商提供参考。

“在生成式AI技术驱动的AI原生浪潮下，中国云计算市场进入了新的发展阶段。AI不仅将驱动包括中心云、专属云到边缘云在内的分布式云基础设施革新，也将重构整体中国云计算生态格局。中国所有云厂商及其合作伙伴都必须围绕AI云优先战略开展新技术研发、新商业模式探索、行业解决方案深耕、精细化运营和业务区域扩张。”——IDC中国企业级研究组研究总监刘丽辉表示。

AI-Ready Data Storage Infrastructure: Market Overview

Phil Goodwin, Ashish Nadkarni, Dave Pearson, Carol Sliwa, Johnny Yu — Tue, 05 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This market overview is a brief synopsis of vendors that IDC has identified as having important capabilities for IT organizations looking to improve and make their data storage infrastructure AI-ready. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list, as there are dozens or hundreds of IT suppliers able to offer solutions for specific AI-related needs. Rather, it addresses some of the major suppliers in the category. It is divided into two groups: storage system suppliers and storage software suppliers, grouped together. Suppliers are listed in alphabetical order.

This IDC study discusses the requirements for AI-ready data storage infrastructure that are wide ranging and diverse. Some suppliers take a platform approach, while others take a best-of-breed approach for specific capabilities. This document highlights some of the key vendors that IDC has identified for AI-ready data storage technology.

“IT organizations have learned that AI project's success depends upon quality data being delivered to the right place at the right time,” said Phil Goodwin, research vice president, Infrastructure Software at IDC. "Architecting storage systems support AI workloads performance to optimize GPU clusters as well as data logistics to assure data quality, security, and governance.”

IDC Survey: Cloud Adoption in European Financial Services — From Scaling to Managing Complexity

Dr. Chris Marshall — Tue, 05 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey uses key data extracted from IDC’s 2025 Industry AI and CloudPath Survey, which provides comprehensive data on AI and cloud adoption across 30+ industries, tracking 360 AI use cases, and 370 cloud applications. This presentation focuses on the financial services industry in the Europe region, using extensive data from the survey to deliver key insights on FSIs and their usage of GenAI in their institutions. The presentation looks into key trends regarding current levels of implementation of GenAI, the factors that influence purchasing decisions, and the future outlook for GenAI and what this means for agentic AI usage in the financial services industry in Europe.

IDC’s Worldwide Digital Sovereignty Taxonomy, 2026

Tue, 05 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study presents a comprehensive reframing of the digital sovereignty (DxSo) landscape, reflecting the evolving priorities and complexities of the market. The taxonomy, first introduced in 2023 and revised in 2024 to emphasize cloud sovereignty, now aligns with a broader DxSo concept, expanding from the original three pillars of data, technical, and operational sovereignty to four primary technology markets: business apps, business platforms, IT infrastructure, and IT operations and assurance.

This updated taxonomy provides a detailed hierarchical mapping of primary and secondary markets, offering clarity on how organizations can assemble technologies, operational models, and strategies to achieve coherent and consistent digital sovereignty. It offers a robust, forward-looking framework that captures the dynamic nature of digital sovereignty, enabling stakeholders to navigate regulatory, operational, and technological challenges with greater clarity and strategic intent.

The taxonomy supports IDC’s research and deliverables, including market forecasts, vendor profiles, and customer buying patterns, and is foundational for related services such as the Digital Sovereignty CIS and the forthcoming Sovereign AI Infrastructure Index SIS.

IDC defines digital sovereignty as the capacity for digital self-determination by nations, organizations, and individuals, emphasizing total control over data management, storage, and processing. The taxonomy’s segmentation covers a wide range of technology markets, including new and reclassified secondary markets under each primary category. Business apps and business platforms now encompass a broader set of software and development tools, while IT infrastructure and IT operations and assurance consolidate previously fragmented markets, reflecting the convergence of compute, storage, networking, and management functions.

The taxonomy also introduces a refined digital sovereignty strategy stack, which articulates the layered approach organizations must take — from applications, platforms, and infrastructure to various assurance levels (IT, business, governance, and customer) — to ensure resilience, compliance, and operational sovereignty. Cloud remains central to digital sovereignty, with IDC positioning sovereign cloud as a subset of DxSo, subject to all relevant data laws and regulations, and applicable to both public and private cloud deployments.

IDC’s methodology ensures the taxonomy remains aligned with other IDC frameworks and addresses critical questions around stack completeness, data residency, and market measurement. The taxonomy is designed to track global DxSo spending and its economic impact, providing actionable insights for IT buyers, vendors, and service providers.

“Digital sovereignty has switched gears over the years. It has evolved from digital self-determination and digital self-sufficiency to survivability at the national level, given the crucial nature of digital technologies underpinning society and critical national infrastructure. As a result, this taxonomy has also evolved and now encompasses the IT products, platforms, and services that are needed to assure sovereignty at a much broader scale, going further than just data sovereignty and cloud sovereignty, and even the relatively newer concept of AI sovereignty,” said Rahiel Nasir, research director, Cloud and Infrastructure Services, IDC.