Major League Baseball opened the 2026 season with a technological first: the Automated Ball-Strike or ABS Challenge System, powered by T-Mobile’s private 5G network, is now deployed across all 29 U.S. ballparks. While headlines focus on umpire challenges and strike zones, the real story for information technology professionals lies beneath the surface — in the network infrastructure that enables split-second decisions in environments where failure simply isn’t an option.
Cisco Systems Inc.’s new Universal Quantum Switch introduced last week is a strong proof point regarding the network’s importance in scaling quantum. For information technology leaders, the key takeaway is that quantum is shifting from isolated computing hardware to an interconnected fabric, and Cisco has been positioning itself as the core quantum interconnect for whatever qubit technologies ultimately prevail.
The DP World Tour will become the first professional sports organization to use Amazon Leo as its official satellite connectivity partner, deploying low Earth orbit or LEO terminals at tournament venues starting in 2026. The network uses more than 3,000 LEO satellites to deliver high-speed internet to locations underserved — or completely unserved — by terrestrial infrastructure.
For years, the “wall” between storage and networking administrators has been a fixture of the enterprise data center. I spent the early part of my career as a network engineer and the arena of storage was a bit of a black box, and for most companies, that’s still the case. This is because these networks operated differently.
The initial phase of the artificial intelligence gold rush was defined by “The Build.” Hyperscalers and model builders raced to secure every available Nvidia Corp. H100 GPU, constructing massive, centralized cathedrals of compute. But as the industry descends from the peak of inflated expectations toward real-world utility, the conversation is shifting. AI is moving from the lab to the factory floor, the retail aisle and the telco edge.