Enterprise AI Infrastructure Brand Leaders
Dell leads 10 of 28 product categories, but no vendor owns the stack. IT professionals voted Market Leaders and Innovation Leaders across every layer of enterprise AI infrastructure: servers, storage, memory, networking, CXL, and operations.
Enterprise AI Infra Brand Leaderboard
Product Category
Market LeaderMarket
Innovation LeaderInnovation
Servers 6 categories
| 1 | Enterprise AI Factory | Dell | Dell |
| 2 | Enterprise AI Training Servers | Dell | Dell |
| 3 | Enterprise AI Inference Servers | Dell | Dell |
| 4 | Enterprise Dense GPU Servers | Supermicro | Supermicro |
| 5 | Enterprise Liquid-Cooled AI Servers | HPE | HPE |
| 6 | Enterprise Edge AI Servers | Dell | Dell |
Storage 11 categories
| 7 | Primary Flash Storage for AI | Dell | Pure Storage |
| 8 | Primary Disk Storage for AI | Dell | Dell |
| 9 | Scale-Out File Storage for AI | NetApp | Pure Storage |
| 10 | Object Storage for AI | Dell | Dell |
| 11 | Hyperconverged Appliances for AI | Nutanix | Nutanix |
| 12 | AI Data Lakehouse Platforms | Databricks | Databricks |
| 13 | Global AI Storage Fabric Platforms | IBM | IBM |
| 14 | Edge AI Storage Platforms | Dell | Dell |
| 15 | Enterprise DRAM DIMMs | Samsung | Samsung |
| 16 | Enterprise AI SSDs | Samsung | Samsung |
| 17 | Computational Storage | ScaleFlux | ScaleFlux |
Networking 3 categories
| 18 | Core Switches | NVIDIA | NVIDIA |
| 19 | Edge Switches | NVIDIA | NVIDIA |
| 20 | AI Accelerator Fabric Switches | Broadcom | Astera Labs |
AI Infrastructure Operations 3 categories
| 21 | AI Infrastructure Management | Dell | Dell |
| 22 | Datacenter Power & Cooling Management Platforms | Vertiv | Vertiv |
| 23 | AI Observability Platforms | Datadog | Dynatrace |
CXL Products 5 categories
| 24 | CXL Memory Expansion Modules (CMM) | Samsung | Samsung |
| 25 | CXL Memory Add-In Cards (AICs) | Penguin Solutions | Penguin Solutions |
| 26 | CXL Pooling Systems | LIQID | LIQID |
| 27 | CXL Memory Controllers | Marvell | Marvell |
| 28 | CXL Switches | Marvell | Marvell |
Survey Highlights
Leadership is forming by layer
The 2026 survey shows enterprise AI infrastructure consolidating around trusted platform brands, while innovation leadership emerges in specialized layers. Voted by IT professionals, not algorithms.
Enterprise Systems
The most broadly recognized enterprise AI infrastructure brand, leading in ten categories from AI Factory to storage and infrastructure management.
Liquid-Cooled AI Servers
Viewed as a premium enterprise AI infrastructure provider where HPC heritage and advanced cooling matter most.
Dense GPU Servers
Strongly perceived as the specialist in GPU-dense AI compute, one of the clearest category-specific wins in the survey.
AI Networking
Leads both AI Core Switches and AI Edge Switches, reflecting its association with AI cluster fabrics at accelerator scale.
Power & Cooling
Viewed as a premium enterprise AI infrastructure provider where HPC heritage and advanced cooling matter most.
AI Observability
Leads AI Observability Platforms as buyers expand from systems management to full-stack AI visibility.
AI Data Platforms
Voted the leader in AI Data Lakehouse Platforms, unifying structured and unstructured AI data management.
Memory & SSDs
Leads enterprise memory and SSD voting, plus CXL Memory Expansion Modules in the emerging CXL ecosystem.
CXL Switching
Leads CXL Switches in a developing ecosystem that spans modules, add-in cards, controllers, and pooled memory systems.
Get the Full 2026 Brand Leader Report
Product Category Definitions
| Category | Definition |
|---|---|
Compute & Servers | |
| Enterprise AI Factory | End-to-end, GPU-agnostic enterprise AI infra stack including some or all of the following: AI compute, networking, software, security, storage, orchestration, services, and operational models |
| Enterprise AI Training Servers | GPU-agnostic, large-scale model training systems optimized for distributed AI training, foundation models, and HPC AI workloads |
| Enterprise AI Inference Servers | GPU-agnostic, production model serving systems focused on latency, throughput, and enterprise AI deployment efficiency |
| Enterprise Dense GPU Servers | GPU-agnostic, high accelerator-density platforms maximizing GPUs per chassis or rack for LLMs and accelerated computing |
| Enterprise Liquid-Cooled AI Servers | GPU-agnostic, direct liquid-cooled (DLC) AI compute systems designed for high rack power and thermal density |
| Enterprise Edge AI Servers | GPU-agnostic, distributed low-latency AI systems for industrial, telecom, retail, healthcare, and branch deployments |
Management & Software | |
| AI Infrastructure Management | Unified management platforms spanning servers, storage, networking, GPU infrastructure, lifecycle management, monitoring, and automation across AI environments |
| Datacenter Power & Cooling Management Platforms | Platforms managing rack power, thermal telemetry, liquid cooling systems, capacity planning, and datacenter infrastructure efficiency |
| AI Observability Platforms | Platforms providing visibility into AI models, agents, infrastructure, pipelines, quality, performance, and operational behavior |
Storage & Data Platforms | |
| Primary Flash Storage for AI | High-performance flash storage optimized for AI training, inference, and GPU acceleration workloads |
| Primary Disk Storage for AI | Hybrid and HDD-based primary storage systems optimized for large AI datasets, capacity-oriented AI workloads, archive-adjacent active data, and lower-cost AI storage tiers |
| Scale-Out File Storage for AI | Distributed parallel file systems optimized for GPU clusters and AI training pipelines |
| Object Storage for AI | Massively scalable object storage for AI datasets, multimodal content, and AI data lakes |
| Hyperconverged Appliances for AI | Integrated AI infrastructure appliances combining compute, storage, orchestration, and AI software |
| AI Data Lakehouse Platforms | Unified AI data platforms combining structured and unstructured AI data management |
| Global AI Storage Fabric Platforms | Create a unified, global data layer abstracting underlying storage systems into a single intelligent data fabric |
| Edge AI Storage Platforms | Distributed storage platforms optimized for edge AI inference, remote deployments, and synchronized AI data operations |
Memory & Storage Media | |
| Enterprise DRAM DIMMs | Server-grade Enterprise DRAM DIMMs include technologies such as DDR5 RDIMMs, LRDIMMs, and MRDIMMs designed for high-performance datacenter environments. |
| Enterprise AI SSDs | Designed for enterprise servers, storage systems, and AI infrastructure with optimized reliability, endurance, low latency, and massive throughput. |
| Computational Storage | Storage devices performing data processing, transformation, filtering, indexing, compression, or AI-related computations directly within or adjacent to storage systems. |
Networking & Fabric | |
| AI Core Switches | AI Core Switches form the high-speed backbone of AI data center networks, connecting Top-of-Rack and leaf switches across AI clusters. They provide scalable, low-latency fabric connectivity required for large-scale AI training, inference, and AI factory operations. |
| AI Edge Switches | AI Edge Switches (Top-of-Rack) connect AI servers, storage systems, accelerators, and appliances within individual racks to the broader AI fabric. They provide high-bandwidth, low-latency networking that enables scalable AI training, inference, and AI factory deployments. |
| AI Accelerator Fabric Switches | AI Accelerator Fabric Switches interconnect GPUs, AI accelerators, CPUs, memory, and storage within high-performance AI systems. They enable low-latency, high-bandwidth communication, resource sharing, and scalable scale-up architectures for AI training, inference, and next-generation AI factories. |
CXL Memory Fabric | |
| CXL Memory Expansion Modules (CMM) | CXL Memory Expansion Modules (CMMs) are memory modules that use Compute Express Link (CXL) to extend server memory capacity beyond traditional DRAM limits. They enable larger memory footprints, improved utilization, and scalable memory expansion for AI and data-intensive workloads. |
| CXL Memory Add-In Cards (AICs) | CXL Memory Add-in Cards (AICs) are PCIe expansion cards that add CXL-attached memory capacity to servers. They enable memory expansion, larger AI datasets, improved memory utilization, and cost-effective scaling beyond the limits of traditional DRAM configurations. |
| CXL Pooling Systems | Integrated hardware and software platforms that pool, share, and dynamically allocate memory resources across multiple servers using CXL fabrics. These systems typically include memory chassis, CXL switching infrastructure, management software, and composable resource orchestration. |
| CXL Memory Controllers | CXL Memory Controllers manage communication between processors, memory expansion modules, and pooled memory resources over Compute Express Link (CXL). They enable memory sharing, expansion, coherency, and composable memory architectures that improve utilization and scalability in AI and enterprise systems. |
| CXL Switches | CXL Switches enable high-speed interconnection and sharing of memory, accelerators, storage, and processors across AI and data center infrastructure. They form the fabric layer for memory pooling, resource composability, and next-generation scale-up AI architectures. |