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).
The season is already underway, as Google held its Cloud Next show in April, unveiling an AI agent platform and new TPUs.
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 could help improve your enterprise.
IBM Think, May 4-7, Boston
IBM Think touts a major focus on agentic AI, which refers to systems that can take autonomous action and make decisions. Speakers at the show include Arvind Krishna, president and CEO of IBM, and tennis legend Andre Agassi.
Red Hat Summit, May 11-14, Atlanta
Red Hat Summit tackles a range of subjects, including AI, virtualization and cloud architecture, and features attendees who “prove that the open source way unlocks the future for everyone,” according to the show’s website. Last year’s Red Hat Summit revealed deeper integrations with IBM properties.
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 showcase AI, the modern data center and the modern workplace. Featured speakers include CEO Michael Dell and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Cisco Live, May 31-June 4, Las Vegas
IT infrastructure and networking giant Cisco will feature AI, data center, networking, observability and security among session tracks at its annual conference. Last year’s Cisco Live spotlighted AI-ready data centers, digital resilience and product launches.
HPE Discover, June 15-18, Las Vegas
Discover, HPE’s annual event, presents programs in networking, cloud and AI. Digging deeper, specific topics include modernizing the data center, protecting and recovering data, and preparing data for AI. The 2025 edition of HPE Discover similarly focused on networking, AI and hybrid cloud.
Pure Accelerate, June 16-18, Las Vegas
This year’s Accelerate will be 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 include unifying data across cloud and on-premises platforms, optimizing storage, reducing cloud costs and quickening AI use, according to the conference website.
VMware Explore, Aug. 31-Sept. 3, Las Vegas
After a slowdown over July and August, 'tis the season for IT infrastructure conferences again, beginning with VMware Explore. With VMware firmly under the Broadcom umbrella now, learning tracks cover cloud infrastructure, app modernization, security and innovation.
Splunk .conf, Sept. 14-17, Denver
An early look at Splunk’s conference plan shows session tracks in security, observability, platform and developer. With Splunk a part of Cisco now, at last year’s conference, the insights and resilience provider disclosed a pricing overhaul and unveiled a data fabric architecture.
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 presents subjects of data management, cloud integration and AI-driven analytics. In 2025, NetApp previewed its AI Data Engine and expanded its partnership with Nvidia.
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 editorial director of Informa TechTarget's Infrastructure sites, which include SearchStorage, SearchDataCenter and SearchITOperations. Since starting at then-TechTarget in 2015, he has also served as editor on the SearchStorage, SearchDataBackup and SearchDisasterRecovery sites.
