Digital Lifescapes

The worldwide external enterprise storage systems market reached a key point in the first quarter of 2026, and the implications for organizations running Applied-AI initiatives are impossible to ignore. IDC's latest market study reveals that systems grew 22.7 percent year-over-year to $9.2 billion, a dramatic acceleration from the 3.9 percent full-year 2025 growth rate. For enterprise leaders who have spent the past two years prioritizing GPU clusters and server infrastructure while treating storage as a secondary consideration, this data should serve as actionable guidance. The storage bottleneck in AI deployment is no longer theoretical, and the market dynamics now unfolding will directly shape the cost, timeline, and architectural viability of AI programs through at least 2027. Storage Systems Market Development The first quarter of 2026 produced several milestones that demand the attention of any organization with active or planned AI infrastructure investments. All Flash Array...

For most of the last decade, the optical layer connecting data centers was an IT plumbing decision, delegated to network engineers and reviewed by executives only when something broke. That era is ending. As AI training workloads outgrow the power available at any single site, hyperscalers are splitting mega-clusters across multiple campuses, cities, and regions, and stitching them back together with high-capacity optical links so they behave as one logical data center. The connectivity choices being made right now, largely invisible to the CFO and the board, will determine which companies can scale AI infrastructure economically over the next decade and which will find themselves locked into constrained, expensive architectures. Optical Networking Market Development ABI Research forecasts that Open Line System, or OLS, scale-across revenue in the United States will climb from under $1 billion in 2026 to approximately $5 billion by 2035, a trajectory that reflects how quickly distribut...

The worldwide server market has entered a new phase defined almost entirely by artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure economics rather than traditional enterprise refresh cycles.   The latest market data shows robust growth and a structural shift in where value is created, who captures it, and which architectures are setting the pace for the next decade. IDC reports that worldwide server revenue reached a record $112.4 billion in the third quarter of 2025, representing a striking 61 percent year-over-year increase compared to the same quarter in 2024. For context, this means the market is adding tens of billions of dollars in incremental quarterly spend, driven overwhelmingly by AI and accelerated computing requirements.  IT Server Market Development Over the first three quarters of 2025, server revenue has already reached $314.2 billion, meaning the market has nearly doubled in size compared to 2024, underscoring how AI buildouts have compressed several years of exp...

The global semiconductor industry is experiencing a historic acceleration driven by surging investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and computing power. According to the latest IDC worldwide market study, 2025 marks a defining year in which AI's pervasive impact reconfigures industry economics and propels record growth across the compute segment of the semiconductor market. Semiconductor Market Development IDC’s latest data reveals an insightful projection: The compute segment of the semiconductor market is on track to grow 36 percent in 2025, reaching $349 billion. This segment, which encompasses logic chips powering CPUs, GPUs, and AI accelerators, will sustain a robust 12 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2030. These numbers underscore not only current momentum but a structural shift driven by large-scale adoption of AI workloads spanning cloud, edge, and on-premises deployment models. The scale of investment is unprecedented. As organizations ...

As we move deeper into 2025, the global technology sector is at a crossroads of innovation acceleration and market recalibration. The latest Gartner forecast projects worldwide IT spending to reach $5.43 trillion this year, marking a 7.9 percent increase over 2024. Despite the global economic uncertainty and lingering market caution, organizations are forging ahead with Cloud Computing adoption, and especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven transformation. Let's explore where new investment is flowing, what’s guiding decision-makers, and how key technology trends will define the global IT trajectory through the rest of the decade. Enterprise IT Market Development Data Center Systems experience 42.4 percent growth, a historic surge linked directly to global investments in AI-ready infrastructure. Software and IT Services remain pillars of growth, showing significant expansion as organizations persist in their digital transformation journey. Device spending, including PCs and mo...

The global IT server market is undergoing a transformation, fueled by the insatiable demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. As organizations across industries race to harness the power of advanced AI models, the underlying hardware ecosystem is experiencing unprecedented growth and innovation. The latest worldwide IDC market study offers a compelling view, revealing record-breaking numbers and the strategic technology shifts shaping the future of enterprise computing. Cloud Server Market Development The most striking statistic from IDC’s 2025 analysis is the sheer scale and velocity of market expansion. The worldwide server market is projected to reach $366 billion in 2025, representing a 44.6 percent increase over 2024. This surge is not a one-off anomaly; it is the culmination of several quarters of explosive growth, with the first quarter of 2025 alone recording $95.2 billion in server sales --that's up 134.1 percent year-over-year (YoY). Key...

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and hyperscale cloud computing is fundamentally reshaping data center infrastructure, and liquid cooling is emerging as an indispensable solution. As traditional air-cooled systems reach their physical limits, the IT industry is under pressure to adopt more efficient thermal management strategies to meet growing demands, while complying with stringent environmental regulations. Liquid Cooling Market Development The latest ABI Research analysis reveals momentum in liquid cooling adoption. Installations are forecast to quadruple between 2023 and 2030. The market will reach $3.7 billion in value by the decade's end, with a CAGR of 22 percent. The urgency behind these numbers becomes clear when examining energy metrics: liquid cooling systems demonstrate 40 percent greater energy efficiency when compared to conventional air-cooling architectures, while simultaneously enabling ~300-500 percent increases in computational density per rac...

We're in a new era of digital transformation. The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the IT data center. However, this progress comes with a significant challenge: the escalating energy demands. The cooling requirements for these digital powerhouses are skyrocketing, presenting a critical conundrum for the IT industry and global environmental sustainability efforts alike. As the AI computing power intensifies, these facilities generate more heat. This heat isn't just a byproduct; it's a threat to the performance, stability, and longevity of AI platforms. AI Data Center Market Development According to a recent study by ABI Research, the global data center market is set for explosive growth. The number of data centers worldwide is expected to more than double from 10,978 in 2023 to over 22,000 by 2030. In 2023, data center operators consumed 300 TWh of energy solely for cooling purposes. Even more alarming is the projection that this figure will tr...

The global digital business arena's relentless expansion drives an unprecedented surge in IT data center demand. This comes with a significant challenge: rising energy consumption costs.  Based on the latest research, I've observed how this trend is reshaping the cloud computing industry and creating both obstacles and opportunities for leaders across the tech spectrum. Data centers are experiencing an infrastructure transformation, primarily fueled by the explosive growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads. Data Center Energy Market Development According to a recent IDC worldwide market study, AI data center capacity is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.5 percent through 2027. This AI-driven demand is reshaping the data center sector and redefining the economics of IT infrastructure. "There are any number of options to increase data center efficiency, ranging from technological solutions like improved chip efficiency and liquid cooling...

Savvy CEOs have high expectations that their Information Technology (IT) organization will be a strategic enabler of Digital Transformation. However, there is often a mismatch with the IT talent demand, and their internal IT team's digital business skills. The roles and activities performed by IT professionals must evolve dramatically due to the demand for convergence of modern software development technologies, cloud computing platforms, and the creation of Everything-as-a-Service offerings. Many IT professionals will find themselves in hybrid roles that combine traditional development activities with activities that formerly were associated with operations professionals who historically had few or no development-oriented responsibilities. Enterprise IT Role Market Development A new International Data Corporation (IDC) market study provides an extended census and forecast with detail for both traditional IT operations roles, and these new hybrid roles. The data shows that a dramat...

Cloud computing adoption continues to gain momentum across the globe. The public cloud services (PCS) market in Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) will reach $165.2 billion in 2026, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). IDC expects the Asia-Pacific market to grow at a higher year-over-year (YoY) rate in 2022 at 31.4 percent, in comparison to 30 percent in 2021, as cloud migration continues to accelerate. However, IDC expects the YoY growth rates to slow down beginning from 2023 with a YoY growth of 28.3 percent to 22.4 percent in 2026. Asia-Pacific Cloud Services Market Development "Majority of organizations have pivoted rapidly toward a digital-centric modus operandi to adapt to new ways of operating, working, and selling products and services amid various disruptions," said Estelle Quek, senior research manager at IDC . These organizations demand better business outcomes from their adoption of digital technologies to increase efficiency, ...

Public cloud computing solutions are moving closer to the edge of networks where CIOs and CTOs are hosting new apps. The edge journey is well underway for forward-looking organizations as they seek to connect with customers, improve operational efficiency, and adopt digital business technologies to drive innovation. The latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC) found that three-quarters of organizations plan to increase their edge computing spending over the next two years with an average increase of 37 percent. A combination of factors is driving this increased spending at the edge. Cloud Edge Computing Market Development The performance requirements of expanding workloads and new use cases that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) demand greater compute capacity at the edge. In addition, the amount of data being stored in edge locations are rapidly expanding, and organizations plan to keep this data longer. As a result, the numbe...

The global mobile communication sector is in the midst of a significant network infrastructure upgrade to support the introduction of new high-bandwidth and low-latency broadband service offerings.  Telecom service provider data centers have an important role in fifth-generation (5G) network deployments. Providers undergoing their transition to Stand-Alone (SA) 5G must understand the technical demands of telco data centers and the key enablers of those offerings. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, the major prerequisites of 5G and the emerging transport solutions would help operators position themselves to successfully capitalize on the new revenue opportunities from delivering differentiated 5G connectivity services. 5G Transport Network Market Development "The rise of the telco data center has a high degree of confluence with the requirements of SA 5G architectures. SA 5G and its increasing reliance on telco data centers can be attributed to the incr...

The global enterprise IT modernization and migration to SaaS cloud computing platforms has been accelerated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as more CIOs and CTOs adapt to the increased demand for flexible online working models that enable their knowledge worker employees to work from virtually anywhere. Clearly, IT infrastructure vendors directly benefited from this phenomenon. Vendor revenue from sales of IT infrastructure products for cloud environments -- including public and private cloud -- increased 9.4 percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2020 (3Q20). However, investments in traditional, non-cloud, IT infrastructure declined -8.3 percent year-over-year, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ). These growth rates demonstrate the market response to major adjustments in business, educational, and societal activities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the role IT infrastructure plays in these adjustments. Across the globe...

As more CEOs of forward-looking organizations accelerate their digital business growth agenda, the adoption of cloud computing continues to gain momentum as savvy CIOs and CTOs seek the most effective ways to support the demand for just-in-time IT computing and storage resources.  Vendor revenue from sales of IT infrastructure products for cloud environments -- including public and private cloud -- increased 34.4 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2020 (2Q20). Meanwhile, investments in traditional, non-cloud, IT infrastructure declined by 8.7 percent year-over-year in 2Q20, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ). These growth rates show the market response to major adjustments in business, educational, and societal activities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the role IT infrastructure plays in these ongoing adjustments. Cloud IT Infrastructure Market Development Across the globe, there were massive shifts reported to...

Enterprise IT security leaders need to protect endpoint devices from cyber attacks. Moreover, they want to offer effective and secure remote access for employees who are now working from home. Besides, this demand will continue to grow as more organizations embrace flexible working models.  According to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner, two trends will have a transformational impact on global businesses within the next 10 years. Bring Your Own PC (BYOPC) security will reach mainstream adoption in the next two to five years, while it will take five to 10 years for mainstream adoption of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). "Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was little interest in BYOPC," said Rob Smith, senior research director at Gartner . "At the start of the pandemic, organizations simply had no other alternative." Endpoint Security App Market Development The urgent need to enable employees to work from home and a lack of available hardware b...

Open IT solutions are gaining momentum. Most savvy CIOs and CTOs already have plans to increase their applications for open-source software projects. While that software is an established component of on-premises enterprise data centers, the untapped opportunity is open IT hardware infrastructure. Worldwide revenue from the Open Compute Project (OCP) infrastructure market will reach $33.8 billion in 2024, according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). While year-over-year growth will slow slightly in 2020 due to capital preservation strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic, the market for OCP compute and storage infrastructure is forecast to see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.6 percent over the 2020-2024 forecast period. Open IT Hardware Market Development The IDC forecast assumes a rapid improvement for this market in 2021-22, fueled by a robust economic recovery worldwide. However, a prolonged crisis and economic uncertainty co...

Hyperscale cloud providers are experiencing some market saturation. Vendor revenue from IT infrastructure products (server, enterprise storage, and Ethernet switch) for cloud environments, including public and private cloud, declined in the third quarter of 2019 (3Q19) as the overall IT infrastructure market continues to experience weakening sales following strong growth in 2018. The decline of 1.8 percent year-over-year was much softer than in 2Q19 as the overall spend on IT infrastructure for cloud environments reached $16.8 billion, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ). As a result, IDC chose to slightly increase its forecast for total spending on cloud IT infrastructure in 2019 to $65.4 billion -- that represents a flat performance compared to 2018. Cloud IT Infrastructure Market Development  The decline in cloud IT infrastructure spending was driven by the public cloud segment, which was down 3.7 percent year over year, reachin...