The IT Nerd

I have three 2026 Predictions from Richard Copeland who is the CEO of Leaseweb USA. They are as follows:

Prediction 1: Trusted Execution Environment Technology Will Reshape Distributed Compute and Multi-Cloud Architecture

“In 2026, Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technologies will finally move from ‘interesting concept’ to real-world game changer. We’re going to see organizations secure memory and hardware in a way that simply wasn’t practical before, which opens the door for decentralized compute in a very big way. Companies will be able to safely split compute across multiple clouds, regional providers, and even on-prem environments, instead of keeping all their workloads under one hyperscaler’s roof. This will bring a level of flexibility and resilience that hasn’t been possible until now.

What is interesting to note here is that the shift isn’t driven by budgets or hype, but by behavior. When you can secure workloads at the hardware level, you’re suddenly free to architect systems around business needs instead of who owns the data center. It unlocks more creative architectures for blockchain, AI, and high-performance computing, and gives organizations confidence that they can spread their risk without compromising security.”

Prediction 2: AI Becomes Truly Agentic – Replacing Tasks, Not People – and Drives a New Phase of Cloud Repatriation

“AI is no longer just a tool for optimization. In 2026, agentic AI starts replacing full workflows, and that shift will separate companies that understand how to use AI from those that fight it. The real impact isn’t that AI replaces jobs, but that it replaces the tasks people shouldn’t be doing in the first place – the repetitive, time-sucking operations that drain teams. Organizations that lean into agentic AI will run faster, make decisions earlier, and redirect people into work that actually moves the business. 

As AI becomes more embedded in day-to-day operations, more companies will realize that complexity and cost are pushing them away from the hyperscalers. They’re seeing outages, noisy-neighbor issues, unpredictable billing, and environments so complex that one failure cascades through the whole stack. AI workloads, especially GPU-heavy ones, run better, and more cost-effectively, when the infrastructure is simpler, more transparent, and built for their exact workloads. That’s why 2026 will be a major year for cloud repatriation back to regional providers and bare-metal platforms built for performance.”

Prediction 3: GPU Optimization and AI-Driven Attacks Will Push Companies Toward Regional Cloud Providers for Security and Stability

“GPU optimization becomes a headline topic in 2026. Today, most companies only use about 60 percent of the GPU power for which they are paying. Next-gen optimization software is going to flip that on its head, giving organizations the ability to squeeze full value out of their infrastructure. That matters not just for cost control, but for AI reliability. When your model performance becomes a competitive advantage, you can’t afford wasted compute, unpredictable throttling, or hardware carved into fractional units you can’t see. This is where optimized IaaS and regional GPU clouds start to shine. 

At the same time, attackers are getting smarter, and they’re starting to use AI too. The largest, most complex cloud environments become the biggest targets – when bad actors can spin up their own LLMs. Hyperscalers have hundreds of thousands of tenants, which means hundreds of thousands of potential attack surfaces (and pockets to pick). Regional providers have tighter vetting, cleaner environments, and fewer noisy neighbors. In 2026, security-conscious organizations will realize that the safest place to run AI and high-value workloads often isn’t the biggest cloud, it’s the one that actually keeps out the wrong people.”