Key considerations for 2026 planning: Insights from IDC

Key considerations for 2026 planning: Insights from IDC Your key considerations for 2026 planning The adaptable enterprise: Why AI readiness is disruption readiness About the author Ashesh Badani More like this Sovereignty emerges as the defining cloud challenge for EMEA enterprises Enhance workload security with confidential containers on Azure Red Hat OpenShift Crack the Cloud_Open | Command Line Heroes Edge computing covered and diced | Technically Speaking Keep exploring Browse by channel Automation Artificial intelligence Open hybrid cloud Security Edge computing Infrastructure Applications Virtualization Share As IT leaders and business executives, we're looking beyond the current year to make strategic plans and prepare our organizations for what's next. While AI is, without a doubt, the focus for everyone going into 2026, it's equally important to ensure the underlying technology platforms support your AI adoption strategy and your investment decisions for the future. The choices we make now regarding our technology platforms will directly impact our agility, efficiency, and ability to innovate in the years to come. We're thrilled to see a recent IDC analyst study not only validate but also offer a comprehensive look into the value of an integrated platform approach, providing a great starting point for any organization's future-facing strategy. The IDC paper, The Business Value of Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Solutions , validates that a unified hybrid cloud platform—consisting of a scalable operating system (OS), cloud application development platform, and enterprise-grade automation platform—delivers significant, measurable results and prepares your organization to support your AI adoption strategy. These findings come directly from in-depth interviews with Red Hat customers that have standardized much of their IT operations on our hybrid cloud solutions. Customers achieved: 74% faster business change execution. 38% higher development team productivity, translating to a $54.45 million average annual gain per organization. 60% faster new application development lifecycle. These metrics underscore the importance of choosing a foundational platform that eliminates organizational and technological barriers and boosts efficiency. As one customer noted: “ Instead of managing four vendors for different parts of the stack, we work with one. ” Another emphasized that Red Hat solutions should be a critical consideration for any innovative, AI-ready strategy.