Forrester

We just released The Forrester Wave™: Secure Access Service Edge Solutions, Q3 2025, and the results mark a dramatic shift from the 2023 Wave on Zero Trust edge solutions. In just two years, the secure access service edge (SASE) market has undergone a significant transformation. Back in 2023, the landscape was dominated by vendor partnerships — typically a security-focused company teaming up with a networking vendor. At the time, we only evaluated vendors that offered all three core components: software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), security service edge (SSE), and Zero Trust network access (ZTNA). The top performers were those beginning to unify these services into a single, user-friendly console. Fast-forward to today, and the market has evolved. Over 20 vendors now offer all-in-one SASE platforms, converging networking and security capabilities — like SD-WAN and firewall — into cloud-delivered services. Only a few, such as Arista Networks and Extreme Networks, continue to rely on partnerships. What Vendors Did We Evaluate? Forrester’s report, The Secure Access Service Edge Landscape, Q4 2024, revealed a split among all-in-one vendors. Some, like Cisco, still separate their management interfaces — using Meraki for networking and Secure Access for security. Others have built unified platforms with a single, consistent interface for all services. In this evaluative report, we filtered down our inclusion list to only evaluate SASE innovators that had fully integrated SD-WAN, SSE, and ZTNA into cohesive platforms. Admittedly, this is a high bar to set, with only top product teams in this marketplace making the cut for inclusion. Only eight could clear the bar: Cato Networks, Cloudflare, Fortinet, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks, SonicWall, Versa Networks, and Zscaler. Any one of them is able to bring a world-class solution to the table, especially this early in the market. This is an extremely important context when considering our scoring scales of below par, on par, and above par, as these are each in a class above the rest. Market And Customer Evolution: What Changed Since 2023? Changes between the last Wave and this one (besides the name) include: Platforms are winning. Customers increasingly prefer unified platforms from a single vendor. Interviewed users expressed a desire to reduce integration complexity, consolidate services, and lower both capital and operational costs. This is one of the major inclusion criterion for the Wave. The solution must have, at a minimum, a single location for administrators to log in and manage the SSE stack and networking services from a single console. SSE vendors became SASE vendors. Netskope and Zscaler, previously focused on SSE, now offer full SASE platforms. The standalone SSE market has largely disappeared, with most vendors now offering SD-WAN and SSE either natively or through partnerships. The current set of vendors will be more than happy to sell SD-WAN or SSE services separately, and some have partnerships with companies that don’t offer them. Differentiation is shifting. While core features such as cloud access security broker services, secure web gateway, SD-WAN, and ZTNA remain essential, differentiation is now driven by AI, data loss prevention, and digital experience management. These capabilities enhance and augment SASE services. The degree that AI helped in each criterion was a major aspect in setting vendors apart. SASE is moving closer to the edge. Whether vendors are trying to differentiate and increase their revenue streams or they believe that SASE is more than managing traffic coming in and out of remote locations and devices, the vendors have started to recognize the need to extend Zero Trust principles further inside remote locations. IoT, network access control (NAC), and unmanaged devices need connectivity and security policies, too. Some vendors have pushed security services down to the SD-WAN appliances within remote locations, while others have added LAN hardware as part of the portfolio. There are various stages of NAC integration. Networking vendors fell behind. Traditional networking vendors like Cisco were not included in this year’s Wave for multiple reasons, such as a lack of a single interface and console to manage all SASE services and functions. Overall, networking vendors have struggled to keep pace with innovation while security-first and pure-play SASE vendors are driving the market forward. Real Value Is Starting To Emerge In our 2023 blog, we focused on hardware changes at remote sites. Now, with SASE more widely adopted, the 2025 Wave has surfaced meaningful insights for current and future adopters. While deeper quantitative analysis is coming in future research, here are some early takeaways: Operational shifts. Most customers reported that their networking teams are now managing the SASE solution. Since these teams were already responsible for VPNs, it was a natural — though significant — transition to take on ZTNA, which often led to managing broader SSE functions. Security teams are still involved, but the operational center of gravity has shifted. Cost savings. Organizations cited significant capital and subscription cost reductions by consolidating SD-WAN, SSE, ZTNA, and monitoring tools under a single SASE provider. The move to a unified platform is proving financially beneficial. Improved observability. The most frequently mentioned benefit was enhanced visibility into traffic, users, devices, and remote locations. Even organizations that previously had monitoring tools said SASE platforms provided richer, more consistent data. Both security and networking teams are now working from the same datasets, leading to faster issue resolution. Deployment best practices. Nearly all interviewees recommended using the vendor’s professional services to accelerate deployment. Many reported that this cut implementation time by half or more. For Forrester clients interested in a deeper dive into any of these areas — whether it’s SSE, ZTNA, or the latest SASE Wave — you can schedule an inquiry or guidance session with me. Dive Even Deeper Into SASE I’ll be hosting a SASE roundtable at Forrester’s Security & Risk Summit in Austin, Texas, on November 6. We will dive into best practices for deploying and managing SASE as well as the expected and unexpected benefits of deploying it. Register, come, and see. source

Retailers continue to be challenged in an environment of low consumer confidence, tariffs, and monetary policies. Fortunately, technology solutions that tackle retailers’ operational and strategic challenges can help reduce costs, drive efficiency, and create better customer experiences. Forrester’s new report, The 2025 NRF Europe Innovators: Retail-Focused Tech Companies To Watch, produced in partnership with the National Retail Federation (NRF) Innovation Advisory Committee (IAC), highlights 27 companies that are tackling problems and creating opportunities for retailers. This research is the third in the 2025 series of reports about the NRF Innovators Showcase retail technology overviews that we published for the NRF Big Show in January and for NRF APAC in June. What Is The NRF Europe Innovators Showcase? The 2025 NRF Europe Innovators Showcase features over two dozen technology vendors from around the world chosen by the NRF IAC, a group of over 20 industry leaders, venture capitalists, and technology accelerators (Forrester is a member). The IAC evaluates companies based on four key criteria: Problem relevance. Does the technology solve a critical issue for retailers? Significance. How widespread and impactful is the challenge that is being addressed? Product-to-market fit. Has the solution proven its value through partnerships and pilots? Scalability. Is the company ready to deliver at scale across the industry? This report showcases two key areas of retail that the technologies address: The supply chain and operations revolution. Retailers now have the ability to use AI in many of their back-office and omnichannel operations. Among others, technology solutions featured include offerings that replace manual pricing strategies with machine learning or that employ computer vision to capture more data on shopper behavior or to eliminate checkout scans. Customer experience innovation. Personalization continues to be an area of retail investment. Some of the solutions featured include signals to capture insights on anonymous shoppers (who are usually difficult to personalize for) or solutions to improve sizing recommendations so that fashion merchants can reduce returns. Check out the report! NRF site visitors and Forrester clients can download the report from these respective websites to learn more about these companies. source

Digital analytics is no longer just about tracking clicks and page views — it’s about unlocking the full story behind customer behaviors. The new evaluation, The Forrester Wave™: Digital Analytics Solutions, Q3 2025, highlights the evolution of the digital analytics solutions (DASes) market. It has expanded beyond its origins in web analytics to address broader use cases, such as digital product adoption, user-experience friction analysis, and voice of the customer. Over the past five months, we’ve analyzed the top players to help organizations navigate this fast-changing landscape and find the right fit for their digital business goals. This Forrester Wave dives into 10 top vendors: Acoustic, Adobe, Amplitude, Contentsquare, Fullstory, Glassbox, Google, Mixpanel, Pendo, and Quantum Metric. It evaluates them based on questionnaires, strategy briefings, demos, and customer interviews. With 30 criteria for current offering and seven for strategy, it’s a comprehensive look at who’s leading the pack. Curious about the full breakdown? You can read the full report here. So what exactly are digital analytics solutions? They’re tools that help businesses collect, analyze, and visualize data from digital channels such as websites and mobile apps. The goal? To uncover insights that improve product usage, design, marketing effectiveness, and overall digital performance. A Turning Point In Digital Analytics Solutions As organizations increasingly seek holistic views of customer behaviors across the customer lifecycle, DAS vendors are evolving their offerings to interaction data across digital channels and other enterprise systems. This shift has led to the following key market trends that we outlined in this Forrester Wave: Holistic Insights Require Multiple ToolsWhile DAS platforms are becoming more comprehensive, no single vendor fully addresses all use cases. Adobe and Google dominate the market due to their historical presence and large user base, but organizations seeking deeper behavioral insights need additional solutions that provide qualitative data, such as session replays and customer feedback. The best approach often involves adopting multiple DAS tools. Generative AI Is Here — But Depth MattersGenerative AI is rapidly becoming a staple in digital analytics, with vendors in this evaluation offering branded AI tools, but the breadth and depth of those capabilities vary significantly. Leading vendors provide tailored insights for specific roles — such as product managers or marketers — along with actionable recommendations, while others offer basic features such as AI assistants. Choosing a solution with robust AI capabilities is crucial for optimizing analytics workflows. Data Integration Is Key To Actionable InsightsDigital interaction data alone is no longer sufficient for organizations seeking deeper insights into customer behaviors. Vendors are responding by integrating DAS capabilities with enterprise systems, enabling cross-channel analysis, data enrichment, and bidirectional connections to data warehouses. This trend empowers organizations to unify diverse data sources, manipulate data flexibly, and derive actionable insights that align with strategic goals. For a deeper look into the market, Forrester clients can read the full evaluation: The Forrester Wave™: Digital Analytics Solutions, Q3 2025. Check out the results for all 10 vendors, including the specific criteria that differentiated them and why. If you have any questions about the changes happening in the digital analytics solutions market, book an inquiry or guidance session with me. source

AI is fundamentally changing the way that organizations interact with information. At Forrester, we’ve been at the center of this transformation since we launched our generative AI tool Izola nearly two years ago. When we launched Izola, our mission was clear: Help clients accelerate progress on their initiatives with trusted answers from our research. That mission hasn’t changed, but today, we’re taking it further. I’m excited to announce Forrester AI Access, an AI-powered self-service offering for Forrester clients that equips you and your organization with trusted Forrester insights, data, and advice. The service grew out of many client conversations, where leaders told us that they needed broader access to our research so that their teams could move forward together, faster. AI Access delivers just that: the flexibility to equip your whole organization with Forrester resources through the Izola interface. An Agile Research Service For The AI Era AI Access serves Forrester Decisions and Market Insights clients across three key areas: technology professionals and markets, B2B professionals and markets, and consumer and digital professionals and markets. Each service includes essentials such as our trusted research, peer benchmark metrics, tools, Forrester Wave™ evaluations, and more. (You can find a full list along with how it compares to other Forrester service levels here.) As AI changes how we find, consume, and apply information, Forrester AI Access responds to that shift. When users log in, they see the Izola interface, where they can ask questions and immediately access strategic advice, supporting data, vendor insights, and much more. They can then go deeper into the reports, data, and tools included within their service and, from there, use Izola to get instant summaries and “converse” with specific reports. AI Access responds to clients’ need for a streamlined self-service offering that keeps them from being the “bottleneck that slows things down,” as one client put it. The service is ideal for expanding access and creating a shared, reliable foundation for decision-making. It’s also ideal if you don’t need every feature of Forrester Decisions or Market Insights but want fast access to trusted answers. Early reactions to the service have been not only validating but thrilling. “[AI Access] is excellent and exactly the type of service I would expect from every type of research company,” the office of the CTO at a European bank told us. And from the field marketing director at a technology and information services company: “I’m always looking for ways to help expose my team to more information about what’s happening in the market, and this hits that right in the head. It’s really, really, really what they need.” Building On Two Years Of Innovation AI Access marks another exciting milestone in Forrester’s AI journey. Like our clients, we’ve been building, testing, and learning from AI, using the lessons to improve how we work and how we guide our clients. Over the next few years, AI will reshape virtually every industry — and for information-heavy industries, its impact will be particularly profound. Our launch of Izola was a pivotal moment — not just for Forrester but for the research industry more broadly. Izola showed the immense power of applying genAI to trusted research, and many of our clients tell us that it has transformed the way they work and that they can’t imagine working without it. We’ve continually refined the tool based on client feedback to be more accurate, relevant, and capable. Forrester AI Access reflects all of those improvements. As AI continues to gain pace, everyone in the organization — from senior executives to early-career professionals — will need to be AI-equipped. With AI Access, we’re thrilled to be advancing that critical aim. Learn more about Forrester AI Access. source

Unternehmen sehen sich im Jahr 2025 weltweit verschiedenen schwierigen Umständen gegenüber, wie z. B. unvorhersehbare makroökonomische Faktoren, angespannte geopolitische Situationen und ein sich wandelndes Verbraucherverhalten. In solchen Zeiten wird jede Zukunftsplanung zu einer großen Herausforderung. Wo sollten Tech-Verantwortliche 2026 den Schwerpunkt für ihre Technologie- und IT-Budgets setzen? Unsere Leitfäden zur Budgetplanung 2026 beantworten diese Frage, basierend auf den Ergebnissen der aktuellen Budgetplanungsumfrage von Forrester.  Für Technologie-Führungskräfte im Jahr 2026 variieren die Ausgabenprioritäten je nach Region. Weltweit herrscht jedoch Einigkeit, dass die Einstellung weiterer Mitarbeiter aufgrund der Effizienzsteigerungen durch KI eine geringe Priorität hat. In allen Regionen und den meisten Branchen war Personalbesetzung der Bereich, in dem der geringste Prozentsatz der Befragten eine Erhöhung der Ausgaben erwartete. Aber lassen Sie uns jede Region einzeln betrachten, um zu erfahren, wofür Tech-Führungskräfte ihre Budgets ausgeben.  Nordamerika  In Nordamerika konzentrieren sich Entscheidungsträger im Technologiebereich vor allem auf Investitionen in Cloud, Rechenzentren und Sicherheit. Über 75 % der Befragten gaben an, bis 2026 steigende Ausgaben in allen drei Bereichen zu erwarten. Die explosionsartige Zunahme der KI-Nutzung treibt das Wachstum der Ausgaben für Cloud und Rechenzentren voran, während schwere Sicherheitsverletzungen und neue Sicherheitsbedrohungen wie Post-Quanten-Kryptografie und Bring Your Own AI (BYOAI) die Führungskräfte in Nordamerika dazu zwingen, in puncto Sicherheit keine Kosten zu scheuen.  Europa  Auch in Europa liegt der Fokus auf Cloud und Sicherheit, da Datenhoheit und Sicherheit ganz oben auf der Liste der Bereiche stehen, in denen Technologie-Entscheidungsträger wachsende Budgets erwarten. Im Bereich Cloud treibt das starke Augenmerk auf Datenhoheit Investitionen in private Clouds und branchenspezifische bzw. staatliche Public-Cloud-Angebote voran. Das Wachstum der Ausgaben für Rechenzentren dürfte in Europa jedoch aufgrund des weniger ausgereiften europäischen Marktes etwas geringer ausfallen als in Nordamerika und im APAC-Raum, auch wenn Europa daran arbeitet, eine eigene Rechenzentrumsinfrastruktur aufzubauen.  APAC  Für die APAC-Region wird 2026 die höchste Steigerung der IT-Ausgaben prognostiziert. Gemäß unserer Umfrage erwarten 88 % der Entscheidungsträger steigende IT-Ausgaben für 2026, im Vergleich zu 82 % in Nordamerika sowie Europa. Die Prioritäten werden jeweils etwas unterschiedlich gewichtet: Die Tech-Entscheidungsträger in der APAC-Region legen den Schwerpunkt eher auf Software und Digitalstrategie als ihre Kollegen in Nordamerika und Europa. Dies macht eine grundlegende Veränderung deutlich: Die Region wandelt sich von einem Fast Adopter zu einem mutigen Innovator, der globale Trends in Bereichen wie mehrsprachige generative KI und humanoide Roboter setzt. Nach der Sicherheit (25 % der Befragten) sehen Tech-Verantwortliche im APAC-Raum als größte Herausforderung bei der Umsetzung ihrer Softwarestrategie die mangelnde Abstimmung zwischen IT und operativem Geschäft (20 % der Befragten). Diese Abstimmung ist entscheidend, da sie sicherstellt, dass Technologie-Investitionen zu greifbaren Verbesserungen des Geschäfts- und Kundennutzens führen.  Erfolg 2026 und darüber hinaus  Was müssen Führungskräfte und Verantwortliche im Bereich Technologie tun, um 2026 erfolgreich zu sein? In unserem neuen Budget Planning Guide 2026: Technology Executives empfehlen wir, den Fokus auf Investitionen in Clouds und Rechenzentren zu legen. Dank der Auswirkungen von KI auf künftige Cloud-Anforderungen und -Kapazitäten und angesichts der Tatsache, dass die Unternehmen beim Management von Cloud-Kosten immer besser werden, gibt es viele Stellschrauben, die Tech-Verantwortliche beim Einsatz von Cloud-Lösungen optimieren können.  Behalten Sie auch unbedingt im Blick, welche Vorteile Sie aus Ihrem KI-Programm ziehen können. Mithilfe von KI müssten Sie in der Lage sein, 10 % oder mehr Ihrer Mitarbeiter neue Aufgaben zuzuweisen. Achten Sie dabei jedoch auf eine strategische Vorgehensweise bei der Konzeption Ihres Betriebsmodells für das neue Normal. Unsere neuesten Forschungsergebnisse zur erfolgreichen Transformation von Betriebsmodellen können Ihnen dabei helfen. Bleiben Sie dran, denn bald erfahren Sie mehr über die KI-gesteuerte Neugestaltung von Betriebsmodellen.  Schließlich sollten Sie auch nicht vergessen, einen Blick über das Jahr 2026 hinaus zu werfen und weitere Technologien auszuprobieren, von denen Ihr Unternehmen in Zukunft profitieren könnte. In unserem Leitfaden zur Budgetplanung zeigen wir mehrere Bereiche auf, in denen Sie weiterhin experimentieren sollten. Haben Sie beispielsweise schon darüber nachgedacht, wie die betrieblichen Abläufe in Ihrem Unternehmens von autonomer Mobilität profitieren könnten? Die meisten Menschen stellen sich darunter nur selbstfahrende Autos vor, aber es gibt auch immer mehr Anwendungsfälle für autonome Mobilität in Unternehmen, die erhebliche Auswirkungen nicht nur für Anwender, sondern auch für nachgelagerte Lieferanten und Dienstleister nach sich ziehen. Eine weitere Emerging Technology, die man im Auge behalten sollte, ist die vertikal-spezifische Edge Intelligenz. Tech-Verantwortliche sollten sich jetzt auf die Auswirkungen vorbereiten, die Fortschritte bei Chipsatzfunktionen, 5G-Netzwerken und On-Device-/On-Chip-ML-Modellen in den nächsten Jahren auf die Daten aus dem Edge-Bereich für ihre eigene Branche haben werden.  Nächste Schritte  Sind Sie daran interessiert, mehr über die Forrester-Umfrage zur Budgetplanung 2025 zu erfahren und weitere Empfehlungen von unseren Experten zu erhalten, in welchen Bereichen sich 2026 Investitionen, Kostensenkungen und Experimente lohnen werden? Laden Sie unser kostenloses Exemplar des 2026 Budget Planning Guide: Techenology Executives und das zugehörige Worksheet herunter. So können Sie die Empfehlungen des Reports in die Tat umsetzen. Schauen Sie sich dann unser Webinar an, in dem unsere Analysten darüber sprechen werden, wie CIOs und CISOs ihre Budgets und Prioritäten ausrichten können, um 2026 erfolgreich zu sein. source

B2B buyers no longer rely solely on traditional search engines for information. Instead, they use generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity to ask questions, gather insights, and make decisions. These tools deliver instant, synthesized answers, often without directing users to click through to websites. Your content may influence a buyer’s decision without ever appearing in your analytics. This shift has redefined the buyer’s journey. Buyers now use AI tools to accelerate learning, compare solutions, and build internal consensus. They gather information from multiple sources — including vendor websites, social media, review platforms, and industry associations — but they do so through AI-powered interfaces that summarize and filter content. The traditional search-to-click path has collapsed, and marketers must respond. Yet many marketing teams still rely on outdated strategies. They chase keyword rankings, optimize for page views, and measure success through legacy metrics. These habits no longer reflect how buyers engage with content. When marketers fail to adapt, they lose visibility and credibility. Even high-quality content can disappear from the conversation if it isn’t structured for AI interpretation. To stay relevant, marketers must create content that AI can understand and buyers can trust. They must move beyond surface-level messaging and deliver structured, authoritative content that supports decision-making. Shallow or generic content gets flattened into undifferentiated summaries, erasing the marketer’s unique perspective. Buyers want content that helps them understand complex problems, evaluate options, and make confident choices. Marketers must also rethink how they measure success. Traditional metrics such as traffic and clicks no longer capture the full impact of content in an AI-driven environment. Instead, marketers should focus on signals of relevance, authority, and engagement across multiple channels. Learn How To Adapt Your Content Strategy Join me at Forrester’s B2B Summit APAC, taking place on November 6 in Singapore and online, where I will explore these challenges in more depth. I’ll unpack the implications of AI-powered search and guide you through the steps needed to evolve your content strategy. You will learn how to build content that earns trust, supports complex buying decisions, and remains visible in a zero-click world. If you want your content to matter — not just be published — then this is the conversation you need to join. B2B Summit brings together B2B marketing leaders to address the most pressing shifts in buyer behavior and marketing strategy. Register now to prepare to lead your organization into the future of B2B marketing. I also invite you to join me for a webinar on Tuesday, September 23, on using AI to enhance customer relationships and build trust. Learn more here. source

IoT devices are a normal part of business and personal life. In enterprises, it is estimated that there are between six and 10 IoT devices for each employee, ranging from long-standing devices, such as printers and cameras, and industry-specific devices like warehouse scanners and medical infusion pumps to modern air quality monitors and soil moisture sensors. Because these devices often have limited resources and localized security functions, protecting these devices has been a low priority, and these devices were deployed throughout the enterprise infrastructure. The Mirai botnet in 2016 was the first broad-scale cyberattack that compromised IoT devices and leveraged the compromised devices to launch a massive distributed-denial-of-service attack. Since then, organizations have made protecting these IoT devices a higher priority, and vendor solutions have emerged to address these needs. We just completed our inaugural Forrester Wave™ on IoT security solutions for the enterprise. This Wave included customer reference interviews, executive briefings, and IoT security solution vendor demos, identifying these three trends: Asset discovery is only one of the core functions of an effective solution. Few security leaders can say with certainty that they have a complete picture of all the devices within their organization. One Wave customer reference told us they had discovered over 2 million devices and were certain that there were still more unaccounted devices. Discovering IoT devices across your organization, properly identifying them, defining the communication flows, categorizing the devices effectively, and uncovering the device’s security is simply one step in addressing IoT security effectively. Security leaders need a complete security platform that starts with discovery but also provides the tools to establish security processes that protect them from compromise. Addressing vulnerabilities and risks is hand-in-hand work. Every device, no matter the age, no matter the size, no matter the OS or firmware, will have vulnerabilities within them. For IoT devices, remediating vulnerabilities is more difficult, as no two device models handle addressing vulnerabilities the same, nevermind different device classes. And for certain devices, you can’t even deploy updates or patches because the devices have passed their end-of-support date. These vulnerabilities create risks for your overall infrastructure configurations, your IoT infrastructure, and your business. Effective IoT security solutions provide analysts with the tools to understand the vulnerabilities within their deployed IoT devices, expose the risks facing the enterprise within the IoT environment, and deliver resolutions and mitigations to address the vulnerabilities, thereby improving the overall security posture of the infrastructure. Protecting IoT devices from threats is no longer relegated to your edge equipment. Asset discovery, device vulnerability and risk management, and network segmentation are all key components of IoT security solutions, but the effectiveness of those functions improves if the solution also understands the threats that are targeting your IoT infrastructure and current malicious activity. Modern IoT security solutions are monitoring threat data, generally on the network, but are expanding to do this locally on devices and providing options for security analysts to make access adjustments (manually or automated) as the risk posture of the devices change. As we discussed in The Future Of IoT Security report, AI is starting to be utilized in these threat management functions based on known good behavioral analytics collected through the solution. I encourage Forrester customers to read The Forrester Wave™: IoT Security Solutions, Q3 2025. If you are interested in learning more about IoT security solution providers, the people and processes supporting them, or IoT security in general, please schedule an inquiry or guidance session with me. source

Two years into Broadcom ownership, VMware is settling into its new normal — with the VMware Explore event bringing forth the first reported results on executing on a seemingly harsh but clearly stated strategy. If you are a Global 2000 company, VMware wants your business — from the rest, not so much. On the tech front, in 2024, VMware announced that its future was private cloud and that it would be focused on improving the VMWare Cloud Foundation (VCF) package value through inter-product integrations. VMware has positioned VCF 9.0 highly, and VMware Explore 2025 is the first major conference to present those developments. VMware came powered with numbers of “committed” customers and comments about $30 billion VCF total contract value across a three-year period, with 80 million cores of VCF entitlements. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan rightly acknowledged that the next challenge is implementing what was sold fast enough. VMware demonstrated the following: VCF 9.0 is here, now with Kubernetes and Data Services capabilities baked in. Broadcom announced VCF 9.0 last year at Explore, and the platform update went live in June of 2025. VMware detailed its functionality at VMware Explore 2025, which unifies the experience across compute, storage, networking, and security. vSphere Kubernetes Service, earlier part of Tanzu’s business, is now a part of the VCF package, as well as the ability to build data services using enterprise-vetted versions of common database software. Kubernetes adoption and data services enablement may be confusing at first (especially the Supervisor controller), but for the most part, VCF 9 represents a more abstracted infrastructure stack designed to operate much like the public cloud for developers and business units that consume the underlying services. VMware is looking to fast-track AI workloads through the Canonical partnership. Broadcom expanded its partnership with Canonical, offering Ubuntu Pro with enterprise support as well as Chiseled Ubuntu to address both enterprise Linux and container needs in VCF. Part of the deal is expedited support and security patch management. VMware will also benefit from prepackaged drivers for vGPUs, allowing for faster AI infrastructure adoption, and a well-established ecosystem of AI workload support due to Canonical’s tight relationship with NVIDIA. The goal is to optimize VCF for modern container and AI workloads, capitalizing on Ubuntu’s success and addressing common challenges for developers and IT teams. The side benefit is a shot across the bow for Red Hat, which changed its enterprise licensing and OS packaging model in 2023, causing many vendors to compete for the role of the de facto enterprise Linux distributor. Private AI capabilities are being added on to VCF. This is a significant announcement. VMware plans to embed Private AI as a standard no-additional-cost component of VCF subscription. This will support next-generation GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD. It is aimed at improving GPU utilization and simplifying management. Adoption incentives are a lure for future value. Broadcom has clearly stated that its future success depends on how well customers adopt the VCF package. As a result, the execs are tasked with driving programs for higher adoption. One notable incentive for customers is complimentary pro services worth 10% of a VCF license. Broadcom will seed that money into its partner network as its commitment to both partner success and customer success. Pricing And Packaging Changes Loom Over The Announcements VMware has a clear and simple message: “Meet with your rep and go through your situation.” VMware’s new pricing and packaging strategy has major implications for its clients. VMware’s strategy pushes them to either go all in or look elsewhere — for clients and partners alike. Interestingly, during the mainstage presentation, VMware spotlighted a smaller company, Grinnell Mutual. The team spoke candidly about Grinnell Mutual’s pricing journey, which worked out in its favor when it chose to fully commit to VMware. The VMware team runs pricing models to help clients understand the financial impact and explore scenarios. It even suggests ways to replace competitors to justify the price increases and provide exportable materials for C-level execs. VMware clients report delayed responses, however, even when proactively seeking clarity, noting that responses are only timely when they’re close to a renewal date. Is this due to limited resources at a newly slimmed organization? Or is it a sales tactic to give clients no other option but to renew with short timelines? Answers To Your (And Our) Big Questions What about its partner program? VMware significantly shrunk its reseller and implementation partner network, limiting the availability of certified partners for clients to engage with. Now it is mandating that these partners develop deep technical knowledge and presale and implementation capabilities. It has raised the bar on commitment and training to be a partner while incentivizing those partners to deepen usage of the full VCF package to make for easier renewals. Customers still find it challenging to find the right partner to engage with. What remains of Tanzu? Cloud Foundry app/dev services remain in the Tanzu business unit — positioned as Cloud Run/PaaS for private cloud (with multicloud support if requested) — and are now branded as Tanzu Platform, layered atop VCF. Tanzu also launched Tanzu Data Intelligence, combining Snowflake-like and data lakehouse capabilities for private cloud. Both are sold separately and target existing VCF customers. A key demo showed integration via MCP with IDEs to ingest code for modernization opportunities — first announced in June. Tanzu Spring now includes Spring AI, a vendor-neutral LLM interface (akin to Amazon Bedrock but BYOAI), and introduces AI governance via quotas and webhooks. A new AI starter kit aims to simplify AI-infused app development for Tanzu Platform users. Spring One was folded into Explore this year. Despite Spring’s strong enterprise Java following, it was largely overshadowed by VCF in the keynotes. What about CloudHealth? CloudHealth is the last module the Tanzu business unit delivers (exclusively sold through Arrow Electronics). Much of its product development focused on updates to modernize the UI, NLP capabilities, and delivering some MSP-focused features for when the solution is white-labeled. This remains the odd duck

The Forrester Wave™: Translation Management Systems, Q3 2025, our inaugural evaluation of this market, is live! Localization in 2025 is about delivering personalized, context-aware experiences at every touchpoint. It’s more outcome-oriented than ever, aimed at helping businesses thrive in multilingual, multicultural global markets. As localization becomes a standard buyer expectation and more applications offer translation as a feature, organizations face complex choices. How can they balance automation with quality, scale with consistency, and innovation with governance? Translation management systems (TMSes) enable organizations to meet the challenge. Forrester defines TMSes as enterprise platforms that help organizations design, orchestrate, govern, and scale localization across all functions and business systems. Our evaluation covered 12 vendors: Bureau Works, Centific, LILT, Lionbridge, Lokalise, memoQ, Phrase, RWS, Smartling, TransPerfect, Unbabel, and XTM. TransPerfect’s acquisition of Unbabel just before publication underscores the dynamic nature of this market, but we evaluated the two vendors separately. We assessed each vendor on three inputs: a detailed questionnaire, executive strategy briefings and demos, and interviews of up to three reference customers. With 19 criteria for current offering and seven for strategy, this report illuminates the capabilities and differentiators that matter most. Key Takeaways For Decision-Makers TMSes integrate localization into enterprise workflows and business applications, along with quality tools, data security, automation, AI agents, vendor and cost management, and reporting. In addition, they provide access to a range of machine translation (MT) engines, large language models (LLMs), and human translation (HT) options. We see the TMS market at an inflection point, and organizations must modernize their infrastructure to navigate this transition. Remember that: AI reshapes localization workflows, not just translations. Translations rely on a mix of MT, LLMs, and HT, often a different blend for each touchpoint and language pair. But the real uplift comes from workflow automation and agents, and TMS providers are not at all standardized in this respect. They offer a wide array of AI tools and agents to automate tasks and source content optimization, as well as provide vendor and tool selection, content adaptation, post-editing, file management, and more. Integration — the backbone of modern TMS platforms — creates stickiness. TMS platforms get their power by connecting dozens of internal tools, such as content management systems, digital asset management systems, privileged identity management solutions, and development environments, with external AI providers, MT engines, integration platforms as a service, and marketplaces. They provide or integrate with specialized capabilities like audiovisual localization, transcreation, and adaptation. This level of integration requires robust IT support and a sophisticated approach to solution architecture. While many reference customers were delighted with their TMSes, a substantial fraction wanted to change providers but were held back by their investment in integration and customization. Governance and decentralization must work in tandem — and require human oversight. A “one size fits all” approach doesn’t work for needs as different as software, legal, marketing, finance, and employee communication. Effective TMSes remove bottlenecks from decentralized execution — but setting standards, optimizing workflows, and monitoring performance all requires human oversight. Complex organizations need a skilled localization leader to guide strategy and operations. The Evolution Of The TMS Market The TMS market has come a long way since its origins as homegrown localization service provider tools. Early platforms focused on workflow management and computer-aided translation. Now, modern TMSes are thriving as vendor-neutral orchestration layers that unify fragmented technologies and functions into a cohesive ecosystem. Vendors and market intelligence firms are introducing new terms to reflect the expanded remit, from “language technology platforms” to “localization automation platforms.” The core need for robust, scalable technology and services to help enterprises remains the same, however. What Comes Next? For a deeper look into the market, Forrester clients can read the full report. They can also read the preceding landscape report for an overview of market trends, use cases, and functionality. We encourage readers not to dismiss any vendor without first examining the detailed descriptions of strategy, capabilities, and client feedback in our Wave evaluation. Clients can generate custom shortlists and scores for vendor fit, calculated based on the criteria they select as important, or download the accompanying Excel file for a full breakdown of the questions, scoring, and criteria grading. If you have questions about the changes happening in the TMS market, schedule an inquiry or guidance session with me. source

News has been trickling out since August 20 about a security issue in Salesloft’s Drift product, a marketing and sales chatbot that integrates with CRM systems to capture and track sales opportunities. The issue started in March, when threat actors accessed Salesloft’s GitHub account and did reconnaissance, which helped them access Drift’s AWS environment and obtain OAuth tokens. From there, they accessed Drift customers’ Salesforce instances from August 8–18. Salesforce has suffered repeated attacks this year where advanced persistent threats (APTs) compromised customer databases by targeting individual companies. This attack is much broader in terms of both scope and number of companies affected, as Drift is a popular tool used by over 700 companies. Its customers include several notable cybersecurity vendors such as Black Duck, Cloudflare, Okta, OneTrust, Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint, and Zscaler. What Data Was Compromised? By design, Drift is meant to improve sales engagement with prospects and customers. Its integration with CRM systems lets Drift track leads, update CRM records, and trigger follow-up actions. Because of the Salesforce integration, the threat actors were able to access: Sensitive information about client environments such as IP addresses, account information, and access tokens. These are stored in clear text within support case notes to make supporting that customer easier when a case is passed to multiple analysts, but for a hacker, this gives them critical access details to the client’s infrastructure. Standard information about accounts such as client contact data, sales pipeline, support history, and business strategy. This information seems generic, but for social engineering campaigns, these are the details that threat actors need to make their engagement more believable. Actions To Take Now To Reduce The Threat To Your Business While Salesloft has reset the authentication tokens and temporarily disabled Drift, impacted businesses need to take further steps to protect themselves and their employees. After working with their third-party risk management program to define the scope of the breach, companies should take the following actions: Revoke and rotate all API keys, credentials, and authentication tokens associated with the integration. Additionally, if your investigation of your Salesforce data uncovers any hardcoded secrets or exposed API keys/credentials, they must be rotated immediately. Establish a regular rotation schedule for all API keys and other secrets used in third-party integrations to reduce the window of exposure. Tune tech and train teams for the social engineering onslaught. Various human-element breach types and tactics will spring up in the coming weeks and months based on the data that was extracted, requiring specific tech and process controls. Your email, messaging, and collaboration security solution and your employees should be tuned to spot the traditional signs of social engineering: authority, novelty, and urgency. Employees should be encouraged — and publicly praised — to pause in the face of these signs and seek additional verification before providing information or completing transactions. Institute least privileged access controls on your data used by third parties. The guidance we’ve provided on SaaS security applies equally to app developers and customers to limit access to data to only what is needed for that function to execute. In this campaign, companies that restricted inbound access from approved IP addresses did not have their Salesforce data extracted, even though they were targeted. Utilize SaaS security posture management solutions to uncover the risks in your SaaS deployments and improve threat monitoring of your configurations within these apps to limit your exposure based on identified risks. Secure your software supply chain. Start with an inventory of all software used in the development and delivery process; this includes open-source software tools and components. Ensure that dev environments, pipelines, and source-code management systems utilize Zero Trust principles, have phishing-resistant multifactor authentication enforced, enable branch protection, monitor for security misconfigurations, automate application security testing, and utilize a secrets management solution to avoid any credentials, tokens, or environment variables being passed in plaintext. Define your incident escalation matrix. Delineate severity levels and assess materiality in the context of the regulatory requirements to which your organization is beholden. Socialize this matrix with all internal and external stakeholders, and work with outside counsel and your incident response service provider to develop executive and board tabletop exercises involving complex, cascading nth-party breach and breach notification scenarios. Stay Tuned Details continue to emerge from Salesloft as well as businesses directly impacted by the breach. Because we still don’t know how many companies were victims of data theft or the exact attack details, the total impact remains unclear. The security and risk team at Forrester will provide updates to help clients as new details come to light. source