IT infrastructure has entered its conference era.
Yes, it’s that time of year when seemingly every week there’s another IT infrastructure conference (or two, or three).
This year has featured a number of major shows — such as Dell Technologies World, Cisco Live and HPE Discover — which TechTarget Infrastructure has covered with news articles, analyst insights, trend features and podcasts.
IT infrastructure conferences through the rest of the year will continue with the theme of AI agents. Other key topics include data center, AI infrastructure, networking and AI use. Oh and did we mention AI?
Explore this updating guide to 2026 IT infrastructure conferences to discover which shows and technologies could help improve your enterprise.
IBM Think, May 4-7, Boston
IBM Think 2026 featured a major focus on agentic AI and quantum. Explore news and analysis from the conference, including the latest on the IBM Bob AI coding agent and quantum computing advancements. Plus, hear from customers who are including people in their AI transformation strategy.
Red Hat Summit, May 11-14, Atlanta
Red Hat Summit tackled a range of subjects, including AI, virtualization and cloud architecture. Our Red Hat Summit guide includes coverage on the “Agentic Paradox,” Red Hat’s AI updates and users migrating off of VMware by Broadcom.
Dell Technologies World, May 18-21, Las Vegas
Dell Technologies World is one of several mainstays on the IT infrastructure conference calendar. Topics and tracks this year showcased AI, the modern data center and the modern workplace. Featured speakers included CEO Michael Dell and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Cisco Live, May 31-June 4, Las Vegas
IT infrastructure and networking giant Cisco featured AI, data center, networking, observability and security among session tracks at its annual conference. Our Cisco Live guide featured analysis of Cisco’s AI infrastructure services push, plus coverage of tech updates and overcoming the “AI trust deficit.”
HPE Discover, June 15-18, Las Vegas
Discover, HPE’s annual event, presented programming in networking, cloud and AI. Digging deeper, specific topics included modernizing the data center, protecting and recovering data, and preparing data for AI. Our comprehensive guide to Discover includes stories on HPE’s self-driving network, interviews with executives and more on VMware customers seeking other options.
Pure Accelerate, June 16-18, Las Vegas
This year’s Accelerate was the first one since Pure Storage rebranded and will forevermore be known as Everpure. With a bigger focus for the vendor on data intelligence as a backdrop, the show’s key themes included unifying data across cloud and on-premises platforms, as well as quickening AI use, according to the conference website. Our Accelerate guide focused on analysis of the key moments from the show plus Everpure’s push in data management.
VMware Explore, Aug. 31-Sept. 3, Las Vegas
After a slowdown over July and August, ’tis the season for IT infrastructure conferences again, from September through November, beginning with VMware Explore. With VMware firmly under the Broadcom umbrella now, learning tracks covered cloud infrastructure, app modernization, security and innovation. Explore why this was “the most important VMware Explore for Broadcom so far,” plus how the vendor and enterprises are tackling private AI and security.
Splunk .conf, Sept. 14-17, Denver
Splunk’s conference plan showed session tracks in security, observability, platform and developer. Check out news and analysis from .conf, where key topics included a major pricing change, agentic AI and security.
NetApp Insight, Sept. 28-Oct 1, Las Vegas
NetApp Insight has developed into a regular in the IT infrastructure conference lineup. This year’s show presented subjects of data management, cloud integration and AI-driven analytics. Analysis from NetApp Insight showcases what matters for IT decision makers.
Oracle AI World, Oct. 25-28, Las Vegas
AI-driven cloud infrastructure will be a focus here — not surprising, given that AI is in the title of Oracle’s show now. Oracle has made a lot of news in the last year with its push in AI and data centers, and a challenge to the Big 3 IaaS providers with its cloud infrastructure offering.
KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, Nov. 9-12, Salt Lake City
KubeCon is so big now that it has multiple conferences throughout the year. The North American version brings attendees from leading open source and cloud-native communities, according to the show’s site. Key discussion points last year included the new Kubernetes AI Conformance Program and support for AI on Kubernetes platforms.
Microsoft Ignite, Nov. 17-20, San Francisco
It’s safe to assume that AI will be a major focus of this year’s Microsoft Ignite. AI agents were a key element of the 2025 edition of Ignite and the year in general. For example, Microsoft added context to Foundry, and tightened governance for developers working on AI agents in its Agent 365 control plane.
AWS re:Invent, Nov. 30-Dec. 4, Las Vegas
AWS re:Invent is back in its usual slot right after Thanksgiving. Like Ignite, the 2025 re:Invent shined a light on AI agents. The hyperscaler also rolled out a series of updates to its CloudOps, aimed at making multi-cloud and multi-environment infrastructure easier to manage in the age of AI.
Paul Crocetti is lead editor of TechTarget Infrastructure, which includes the IT operations, storage, cloud, networking and data center topics. Since starting at then-TechTarget in 2015, he has also served as editor on the SearchStorage, SearchDataBackup and SearchDisasterRecovery sites. You can reach him at [email protected] and on LinkedIn.
