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IDC Survey Spotlight: How Will AI Workloads Reshape Enterprise Network Demands in the Next Two Years?

Brandon Butler — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight profiles a question from IDC's Enterprise Infrastructure Pulse Survey (EI Pulse Survey) on how significantly AI workloads are reshaping enterprise network demands. The survey data shows organizations reporting major or severe network impact from AI workloads more than tripling over a two-year period, reflecting a shift from AI as traffic the network simply absorbs to a workload the network must be architected around.

"AI has fundamentally changed what enterprises need from their network. It's no longer just about handling more traffic — it's about supporting continuous, unpredictable interactions between users, agents, models, and tools that legacy networks weren't originally designed for. The fact that major or severe AI-related network impact has more than tripled in just two years suggests network modernization is becoming a more urgent consideration for many organizations. Suppliers that can speak to AI workload readiness, simplified management, and the governance and observability capabilities enterprises are increasingly prioritizing are well positioned to influence modernization decisions going forward." — Brandon Butler, senior research manager, Network Infrastructure and Services, IDC

IDC Survey Spotlight: What Are the Top Network Improvements, Gains, or Outcomes Enterprises Achieved with Third-Party Services?

Leslie Rosenberg — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight, based on IDC's August 2026 Enterprise Infrastructure Pulse — Networking Survey explores what customers are thinking, planning, and doing with their network infrastructure, including investments, technology adoption, operations, and organizational impact. This Survey Spotlight examines specific improvements, gains, and outcomes an organization achieves when working with a third-party SP.

IDC Survey Spotlight: Where Does Network Egress Sit in the List of Rising AI-Related Costs, and How Are LOBs Involved?

James Eibisch — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight shows how many companies are experiencing rising network egress costs as a result of AI-enabled applications and agents and how that may be linked to the involvement of LOBs in AI spending decisions. This document is based on IDC's Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey (FERS Survey) Wave 4, conducted among 1,448 enterprises worldwide in July 2026.

Market Analysis Perspective: Worldwide Flexible Consumption and Leasing/Financing Strategies for IT Infrastructure, 2026

Lara Greden — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Analysis Perspective provides insight into the current and future state of the flexible consumption and IT leasing and financing markets. It includes an overview of the current market landscape, a technology buyer perspective, a market outlook, and IDC's advice for technology suppliers and services suppliers in the market.

Worldwide Mobile Phone, Tablet, and PC Processor Market Shares, 2Q26

Phil Solis — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Pivot Table data allows for comparison of the performance of the mobile phone application processor, media tablet application processor, and PC microprocessor markets and a view of processor vendors across all primary client devices.

The following data are provided quarterly starting from 1Q16.

Market size in units
Vendor shares in units
Market size in revenue
Vendor shares in revenue

Segments include:

Discrete application processor — mobile phone
Integrated baseband processor — mobile phone
Tablet application processor — media tablets (non-PC)
PC microprocessor — desktop PC
PC microprocessor — mobile PC

Apple Turns a Selective Foldable Segment into a Premium Value Engine

Francisco Jeronimo, Nabila Popal, Tom Mainelli — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At its Surprise and Shine event on September 9, 2026, the first under new Chief Executive Officer John Ternus, Apple unveiled its first foldable, the iPhone Duo, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, the Apple Watch Series 12, the Apple Watch Ultra 4, and the AirPods 5, but the defining decision was a two-directional pricing move that widened access to the ecosystem at the entry level while opening a new super-premium tier at the top, with the foldable starting at $1,999. IDC sees the iPhone Duo less as a volume play than as a premium value engine, forecasting worldwide foldable revenue to reach 10% of the smartphone market by 2030 and expecting Apple to drive roughly 81% of the category's net value growth from 2026 to 2030, taking a disproportionate share of category revenue by setting the premium reference price rather than by leading on units.

Dreamforce 2026: "Unlocking Trapped Enterprise Value" with a Slack Glow-Up

Wayne Kurtzman — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

U.S. Wholesale Fixed Voice Market: Traditional Model Sunset Accelerated by Irreversible Structural Shifts

Jitesh Bhayani, Denise Lund, Daniela Rao — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Perspective examines the structural drivers behind the ongoing decline of the U.S. wholesale fixed voice market and provides strategic guidance for service providers to migrate customers and traffic from legacy switched networks to intelligent, IP-based platforms.

“The U.S. wholesale voice market decline is accelerated by a structural change. Wholesalers need to move traffic and customers off legacy switched infrastructure and onto intelligent, IP-based platforms,” says Jitesh Bhayani, vice president, Worldwide Telecom Research, IDC.

Dreamforce 2026: Salesforce's Agentic Platform for Financial Services

Sam Abadir, Inci Kaya — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Dreamforce 2026 didn't sell financial services (FS) a new AI capability. It sold the industry a reason to stop treating adoption as optional while surfacing a marketwide shift that has nothing to do with which vendor a buyer ultimately picks. Salesforce's own number set the tone: Half of Americans now use AI for financial advice, up from 1 in 10 a year ago. Whether or not the figure holds up to scrutiny, the direction is real, and institutions outside that conversation are being written out of it. The event's more durable signal sits underneath the product road map: trust and governance are becoming infrastructure rather than features, pricing is shifting from seats to consumption, the interface layer is consolidating around surfaces enterprises don't own, and the hardest questions — jobs, accountability, and disintermediation — remain unanswered by every vendor in this category, not just this one. This piece separates what's shipped from what's still positioning, and what's specific to Salesforce from what applies to the market regardless of platform.

Market Share: Worldwide Datacenter Colocation Services Shares, 2025 — Committed Power Became Billed Capacity

Olga Yashkova — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study examines the 2025 market shares of the leading vendors in the datacenter colocation services market.

The market reached $61.0 billion in 2025, growing 8.2% year over year. Growth in 2025 followed available capacity rather than established position: providers that brought power online ahead of demand captured an outsized share, opening the field to broader, more organic gains across the market. Where providers had contracted power ahead of demand, revenue followed.

"The colocation market has moved past a simple growth story. Providers are racing to secure power and land for AI-dense workloads, while edge deployments proliferate to meet latency requirements, making energy strategy, not just square footage, the new competitive battleground," said Olga Yashkova, research manager, Worldwide Digital and Datacenter Infrastructure at IDC.