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2026 Strategy for Software Delivery: Mandates, Tactical Priorities, and Tech Investment Areas

George Mironescu — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation discusses the key software engineering mandates and technology investment areas for 2026. The presentation draws on insights from over 1,000 decision-makers surveyed from November 2025 to January 2026 for IDC's AI and Cloud-Native Software Delivery Survey.

The presentation provides insights into the thinking of various roles involved in shipping software, including application development, solution architecture, infrastructure and platform engineering, security, and IT leadership.

Drawing from 2025 initiatives and areas where delivery gaps persist, the presentation informs senior IT leaders about the most important tactical and strategic priorities shaping the agenda in 2026 and beyond.

IDC Survey Spotlight: How Do Organizations Address Cross-Border Data Transfer Restrictions?

Rahiel Nasir — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight examines how organizations are increasingly addressing cross-border data transfer restrictions through architectural decisions rather than depending mainly on legal approaches. This includes prioritizing local data storage, regional cloud partnerships, and structured data placement strategies. In addition, enterprises are shifting toward infrastructure-led approaches to ensure compliance, making data sovereignty a key consideration in network and cloud design.

IDC Survey Spotlight: How Does Platform Strategy Maturity Correlate with SaaS Growth?

Frank Della Rosa — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

In this document, IDC examines how platform strategy maturity correlates with SaaS growth and revenue impact, based on data from IDC's 2026 SaaS Provider Pulse Survey. The analysis shows that more mature platform strategies are strongly associated with higher growth and greater revenue outcomes, whereas many mid-maturity providers plateau due to execution complexity and integration gaps. As platforms mature, they enable more advanced capabilities, such as AI orchestration, underscoring the need for continued investment in platform scalability, governance, and ecosystem development to sustain SaaS expansion.

IDC Survey Spotlight: Where will the Most Significant Datacenter Expansion Occur in the Next Two Years?

Luis Fernandes, Mikhail Jaura — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight highlights the regions that are expected to become the biggest investment hubs for datacenters in the next several cycles. It takes a heat map approach to datacenter development investments on the world stage.

This IDC Survey Spotlight is based on IDC's Datacenter Facilities and Operations Survey, conducted in January 2026, that surveyed 320 respondents globally.

IDC Survey: Cloud Adoption in Asia/Pacific Financial Services — Results from the 2025 Industry AI and Cloud Path Survey

Michael Sek Pheng Yeo — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study uses key data extracted from IDC's 2025 Industry AI and Cloud Path Survey, which provides comprehensive data on AI and cloud adoption across over 30 industries, tracking 360 AI use cases and 370 cloud applications. This study focuses on the financial services industry (FSI) in the Asia/Pacific region, using extensive data from IDC's Industry AI and Cloud Path Survey to deliver key insights on FSIs and their cloud usage. This IDC study looks into key trends regarding current levels of implementation of cloud, the factors that influence purchasing decisions, and the outlook for cloud usage in the FSI in Asia/Pacific.

IDC Survey: Global Datacenter Facilities Owner and Operator's Investment Drivers and Plans

Olga Yashkova, Mikhail Jaura — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey analyzes results from IDC's December 2025 Datacenter Facilities and Operations Survey based on responses from 320 datacenter facilities owners and operators worldwide. This survey provides actionable insights into how organizations that own, lease, and operate datacenters are planning for 2026–2027 — covering capacity expansion, modernization, rack density evolution, power and cooling strategies, AI readiness, and investment and delivery models — enabling operators and technology partners to benchmark their facility and operations priorities against industry peers.

IDC TechBrief: NaaS Gaining Momentum

Ghassan Abdo, Jitesh Bhayani — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC TechBrief discusses network as a service (NaaS) as an emerging networking model that delivers connectivity, security, and network management capabilities through a cloud-based, subscription-based, or consumption-based service. Instead of deploying and maintaining hardware-centric infrastructure, organizations can access networking resources on demand through software-defined platforms that enable rapid provisioning, dynamic scaling, and centralized management. NaaS builds on technologies such as software-defined networking (SDN), automation, and cloud architectures to provide greater agility, operational efficiency, and cost flexibility compared with traditional network deployments. As enterprises adopt hybrid work models, multicloud environments, and data-intensive applications, NaaS is increasingly viewed as a strategic approach to modernizing network infrastructure while supporting digital transformation and evolving business requirements.

"NaaS provides service providers a unique opportunity to offer a comprehensive set of networking services under unified commercial and operational models. This will help enterprises accelerate their journey toward networking transformation. Critical to its success is adopting an industry-wide definition of NaaS and complying with emerging interoperability standards espoused by standardization bodies such as Mplify," says Ghassan Abdo, research VP, Worldwide Telecom, IDC.

Japan Installed Datacenter Capacity Forecast, 2026-2030: Power and Footprint

Mimei Ito — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC presentation forecasts the number of datacenter (DC) sites, total floor footprint, and power capacity (IT load) of the installed base of DCs in Japan by DC size, location, and year of building completion.

Analyzing the situation, Mimei Ito, research manager for Software, Services, and IT Spending at IDC Japan, says, "As demand grows for the deployment of power-hungry AI infrastructure, ensuring power supply has become the top priority in datacenter installations."

This is the English translation of the Japanese document (IDC #JPJ53499426).

Physical AI and the Future of Lights-Out Manufacturing

Sarah Lee, Carlos Gonzalez — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective explores how advances in AI and robotics are making lights-out manufacturing increasingly feasible, yet full autonomy remains rare. This document highlights the shift toward physical AI, where intelligence is embedded in machines, and emphasizes the importance of hybrid data ecosystems, workforce augmentation, and robust governance. Rather than eliminating human roles, AI is redefining them, enabling resilient, adaptive operations while positioning humans as supervisors and stewards of intelligent automation.

"As factories evolve, the future isn’t lights out — it’s lights transformed, where AI and humans collaborate to redefine autonomy, resilience, and the very nature of work." — Sarah Lee, research director, Manufacturing IT Strategies

"Physical AI is not about replacing people, but empowering them to supervise, govern, and continuously improve intelligent systems for sustainable manufacturing." — Carlos M. González, research manager of Industrial Internet of Things and Intelligence Strategies

The State of Data and Digital Infrastructure in Worldwide Oil and Gas

Gaurav Verma — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study provides an assessment of data and digital infrastructure transformation in the oil and gas industry. Using findings from IDC primary research (IDC Industry Insights Survey, 2025 [n = 440; worldwide oil and gas companies]), it examines the factors driving investment, the main technology initiatives being pursued, the priority areas for IT operations and infrastructure modernization, and the current maturity distribution across organizations.