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IDC Survey Spotlight: In Which Areas Do Managed SPs Need to Invest to Retain Customers and Convince Organizations to Switch Providers?

David Tapper — Mon, 25 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight highlights the results from the following question posed to 1,503 respondents and firms with over 1,000 employees across multiple countries and industries, as part of IDC's 2025 Worldwide Managed Cloud View Survey: "Primary reason for switching vendors. Please select two reasons that your company/organization is considering or would consider switching to a new vendor(s) for managed cloud services within the next 12–24 months." This IDC Survey Spotlight then assesses the impact of primary organizational reasons for switching managed SPs for managed cloud services and highlights how managed SPs need to invest in building an AI operating model, creating a hybrid cloud operating model to support the move from CAPEX to OPEX, and utilizing an integrated digital services supply chain with agentic AI and inventory management capabilities.

IDC Survey Spotlight: Is Talent Still the Bottleneck When Agentic AI Is Reshaping the Workforce?

Bill Latshaw — Mon, 25 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The IDC Survey Spotlight is based on IDC's Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey (FERS Survey) Wave 2, 2026 (n = 1,009). Talent and skills shortages remain a critical strategic concern for technology leaders even as agentic AI reshapes the workforce, ranking fourth among top tech-related risks at 44.8%, nearly tied with AI budget pressure. Although external risks, such as geopolitical instability, tariffs, and supply chain disruptions, rank higher, talent is uniquely within leaders' control and therefore represents the highest-leverage focus area.

Agentic AI often eliminates entry-level tasks such as data analysis, coding, drafting, and research that traditionally served as on ramps for junior professionals, threatening organizations' ability to develop future senior talent unless apprenticeship paths are intentionally redesigned. Simultaneously, demand for emerging roles, such as AI orchestrators, agent supervisors, and model risk and governance leads, is outpacing supply.

This study's key takeaway is that skilled teams are also the best mitigation for every other risk on the list, making talent investment the most reliable competitive hedge available to CIOs in an uncertain macro environment.

IDC Survey Spotlight: What Are the Critical Service Measurements That Managed SPs Must Support in Provisioning Managed Cloud Services?

David Tapper — Mon, 25 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight highlights results from the following question posed to 180 respondents and firms with over 500 employees across multiple countries and industries, as part of IDC's 2025 Worldwide Services Path Survey: Service Measurements. Respondents were asked to select which categories their company/organization views as the primary set of service metrics that they utilize or would utilize for measuring success when using managed cloud services.

This document then assesses the impact of the service measurements organizations expect managed SPs to support on the types of service-level agreements (SLAs) and service-level objectives (SLOs) required as agentic AI is increasingly embedded as part of managed services. It also examines how managed SPs will need to redefine and expand the types of SLAs and SLOs to meet client requirements.

Rackspace: Delivering Outcome as a Service for AI-Led Full-Stack Capabilities

Mon, 25 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note provides details of Rackspace's Analyst and Advisor Day held in Boston on April 9, 2026. Rackspace positioned itself as an "operator of the full stack from agents to infrastructure with an outcome-as-a-service model," which utilizes a three-engine framework and FDEs (forward deployed engineers) to help move enterprise AI from isolated experiments into core systems at scale, with a focus on regulated industries. Rackspace also highlighted strategic partnerships that included Palantir, Rubrik, VMware, Uniphore, and Dell Technologies — each partner plays a critical role in supporting Rackspace's ability to deliver on its promise of scaling AI and delivering outcome as a service. Finally, clients from industries such as financial services and healthcare provided perspectives on their experiences working with Rackspace.

Freshworks Refresh 2026: Freddy AI Agent Studio and the Unified ServiceOps Foundation

Shannon Kalvar — Fri, 22 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At its annual Refresh conference on May 14 in New York City, Freshworks (Nasdaq: FRSH) launched Freddy AI Agent Studio in Freshservice, a no-code environment for building and deploying domain-specific AI agents across IT, HR, and business service workflows. The announcement extends Freshservice's positioning as a unified service operations platform by adding an agentic layer, a Model Context Protocol (MCP) Gateway for third-party context integration, and experience-level agreements (xLAs) for outcome measurement. Freshworks also used the event to reposition itself as an employee experience(EX)–first company, raising its 2028 ARR target to $1.3+ billion and projecting Freshservice alone at roughly $1 billion ARR by 2028.

How the Global Memory Shortage Is Impacting the Used and Refurbished Datacenter Server and Storage Markets and Related Services

Lara Greden, Rob Brothers — Fri, 22 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study discusses how the global memory shortage, fueled by AI infrastructure competing for the same DRAM, NAND, and storage capacity as enterprise servers, storage systems, and networking equipment, is reshaping the datacenter market in ways that will reverberate well into 2027. For OEMs, IT asset disposition (ITAD) providers, and enterprise technology buyers alike, the shortage is not a temporary disruption to wait out. It is a structural shift that demands new strategies around supply chain resilience, asset recovery, and infrastructure life-cycle management.

IDC Survey Spotlight: How Do Current Print Contract Arrangements Among European Enterprises Compare with Their Preferred Engagement Models?

Jacqui Hendriks — Fri, 22 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight analyzes results from IDC's European B2B Print Opportunity Survey, conducted in April 2026 among organizations across Europe.

Print contract preferences among European enterprises are evolving, with subscription-based models attracting significantly greater demand than current adoption levels suggest. Managed print services record the sharpest decline between current and preferred engagement, as enterprises move away from standalone managed models in favor of supplies replenishment and full-stack arrangements that consolidate hardware, supplies, and maintenance into a single recurring engagement. At the same time, a measurable share of European enterprises currently operating without a print contract express a preference for structured engagement, quantifying latent demand that the market has yet to fully address.

This IDC Survey Spotlight examines how current print contract types across European enterprises diverge from their stated preferences, which contract models are gaining and losing ground across markets, and what the structural gap between current and preferred engagement represents as an addressable opportunity for suppliers and channel partners.

IDC Survey Spotlight: How Important Is It for European Print Services Providers to Offer Non-Print Hardware, Software, and Services?

Jacqui Hendriks — Fri, 22 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight highlights an extract from IDC's European Imaging, Printing, and Document Solutions (IPDS) Survey, conducted in April 2026 among 2,057 respondents. This document highlights the importance that European print decision-makers place on the availability of non-print hardware, software, solutions, and services when selecting a print services provider.

This survey also covers topics such as print security, Windows Protected Print, sustainability, the paper-to-digital transition, print contract dynamics, adoption and planned adoption of IT security services, laptops, PC monitors, IT services, IT infrastructure services, collaboration software and hardware solutions, IT consultancy, and business consultancy.

AI's Impact on Pricing Models for Business Consulting Services Buyers — Detailed Perspective Version

Bill Latshaw — Thu, 21 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective examines the commercial dynamics shaping how buyers of business consulting services evaluate, price, and contract for AI-enabled engagements. Drawing on IDC's November 2025 AI-Powered Services Pricing Model Survey (n = 178, North American buyers), it finds that buyers are willing to pay a meaningful premium for AI-enabled consulting when AI can be shown to improve analysis, strengthen recommendations, and support better business decisions. Discount pressure rises when AI is perceived primarily as a delivery efficiency tool. The document explores premium and discount dynamics, packaging preferences, value measurement practices, and the role of trust and governance in AI adoption decisions, with practical guidance for technology buyers on how to structure commercial relationships that deliver measurable AI value over time.

"The pricing data from this survey tells a story providers need to hear: buyers are not asking whether AI belongs in consulting but asking whether providers understand what they are actually buying when they invest in AI-enabled advice. The answer to that question is what separates the firms that will define the next generation of consulting from those that will simply describe it." — Bill Latshaw, research director, Business Consulting Services

IDC Market Glance: Value-Based Health Services Market, 2Q26

Jennifer Eaton — Thu, 21 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Glance provides the segments and subsegments of the value-based health services market. Vendors continue to expand their service scope beyond installation to support clients in strategy, operations, workflow design, and implementation.

“Looking back across 2025 and into 2026, one truth has held firm: technology sets the stage for healthcare evolution, but it is human insight, collaboration, and a willingness to change that bring real transformation to life. As the policy environment has matured, with new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) models demanding measurable outcomes, interoperable data, and long-term accountability, the role of the services vendor has evolved alongside it. The organizations successfully scaling their value-based strategies are those that have found partners capable of building more than just platforms. They built the organizational infrastructure, governance models, and enterprise frameworks that allowed technology to actually perform,” says Jennifer Eaton, research director, Value-Based Healthcare Digital Strategies, IDC.