307 | Breaking Analysis | theCUBE Research 2026 Predictions: The year of enterprise ROI
Observers commonly refer to AI as still in the early innings. The reality is AI is much further along than most marketers acknowledge. In 2012, AlexNet was a watershed deep learning moment when massive and freely available Internet datasets met Nvidia GPUs. This is what truly kicked off the modern AI era, leading to further breakthroughs like generative adversarial networks. In 2017, Google researchers introduced the transformer architecture to the world followed by the scaling laws. Then of course, the mass adoption began with ChatGPT setting off the current AI arms race.
Fourteen years into the modern AI era, our research indicates AI is maturing rapidly. The data suggests we are entering the Enterprise Productivity phase; where we move beyond the novelty of RAG-based chatbots and agentic experimentation. Where 2026 will be remembered as the year that kicked off decades of enterprise AI value creation. We can’t promise that it won’t be messy. White collar job pressures, AI safety, new security and governance threats all loom. But the AI train isn’t stopping and enterprises that don’t get on board risk obsolescence.
2026 Enterprise AI Predictions
It’s time for theCUBE Research’s 2026 Enterprise AI predictions. Join Scott Hebner and Christophe Bertrand as they give their 2026 Enterprise AI predictions and pressure-test what changed in 2025. The enterprise AI market is now operating on innovation cycles measured in quarters, not years, and the competitive gap is compounding: organizations that learn, instrument, and govern faster will […]
Ericsson Unveils Cradlepoint R2400: A Modular, AI-Ready 5G Platform for Mission-Critical Mobility
Ericsson has introduced the Cradlepoint R2400, a ruggedized in-vehicle 5G router designed for public safety, mass transit, and fleet operations. The platform combines an industry-first Dual SIM/Dual Standby (DSDS) architecture on a single modem, support for up to five simultaneous 5G Standalone connections plus low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite links, centimeter-level positioning via RTK and dead reckoning, […]
Open Source at Scale Requires Stewardship, Not Assumptions
Ingress NGINX EOL exposes the need for open source lifecycle stewardship, governance, and compliance planning at scale.
306 | Breaking Analysis | Cloud earnings bring capex clarity, concern and confusion
This winter’s 2026 hyperscale earnings prints from Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon made it quite clear that CapEx is accelerating. Combined these four firms will spend more than $615B in CapEX this year, an increase of approximately 70% over what was already considered an inflated 2025. Despite strong fundamental AI and general purpose computing demand, this news caused significant concern for market watchers because the aggressive spending has murky payoffs. Coupled with the Anthropic-infused SaaS attack, investors took stocks down for most of the week, including Nvidia. Confusingly, much of the CapEx spend is going to Nvidia – perhaps as much as 60% of the AI portion of the CapEX will go to that company – a point investors seemed to overlook. Notably, the market is bouncing back today (Friday) after this week’s earlier rout.
Extreme Networks at NRF 2026: Elevating the Network from Infrastructure to Strategic Retail Platform
At NRF 2026, Extreme Networks outlined how retail organizations increasingly view the network not as basic infrastructure but as a strategic platform for operational efficiency, customer experience innovation, and data-driven decision-making. In a discussion with John Brams, SVP of Americas Sales, Extreme Networks, the focus centered on how modern wireless, fabric-based architectures, and AI-driven analytics […]
Trust, Infrastructure, and the Real Work of Scaling Agentic AI
Cisco AI Summit highlights why trust, infrastructure readiness, and governance now define the path from AI pilots to ROI.
Cisco AI Summit 2026: From AI Possibility to AI Reality
I had the good fortune to attend the Cisco AI Summit 2026 in San Francisco this week. The event brought together policymakers, technologists, investors, and enterprise leaders to examine how artificial intelligence is moving from experimentation to large-scale operational impact. Unlike many AI-focused events centered on model performance or speculative futures, this summit emphasized execution, […]
Feature Management Becomes a Control Plane for Modern Software Delivery
Feature flags are evolving into a delivery control plane as observability connects release decisions to production behavior and business outcomes.