4 ways a Red Hat TAM maximizes IT investments, according to Forrester TEI study. Global TAM Practice Lead Modern IT environments are complex. Development and operations teams must constantly balance resolving current infrastructure challenges with planning for scalable, future growth. This requires deep product expertise and technical skills from internal teams that are already resource-constrained. To bridge this gap, enterprises use Red Hat Technical Account Managers (TAMs) as an extension of their teams. A TAM is a single technical point of contact specializing in a specific product family, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat OpenShift, or Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. They work alongside your team to prevent downtime, patch system vulnerabilities, and connect you directly to Red Hat engineering experts. How does this partnership actually work in practice, and what does it mean for your business? Red Hat commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a 2026 Total Economic Impact(TM)(TEI) study. Forrester interviewed enterprise decision-makers with years of hands-on TAM experience and designed a composite organization ($5 billion global company with 20,000 employees and 20 in-house Red Hat developers) to evaluate the data. What Red Hat, Inc. found was exciting: Investing in a Red Hat TAM delivered a 386% return on investment over 3 years, with a payback period of less than 6 months. The core benefits. The study revealed significant, risk-adjusted financial benefits across 4 major pillars of enterprise operations: * Enhanced time to market ($3.0M accelerated profit): Proactive TAM guidance shortened development cycles. As one Software Solution Architect in the IT industry noted during the interviews, "There's no way we would be at the same level of proficiency with the product [without the TAM]." By helping the team build deep expertise directly on the job, the TAM helped launch new applications a full month faster. * Reduced system outage costs ($1.8M saved): Downtime introduces substantial revenue risk. A Platform Engineering Manager in financial services emphasized the critical role a TAM plays here: "In large-scale environments, the TAM is very important. Critical environments need a fast resolution, and the TAM is the way to achieve this goal." The study quantified this, showing that TAMs reduced the duration of major unplanned outages impact time for the composite organization by 70% by Year 3 while providing log analysis and health checks to avoid minor outages entirely. * Improved developer and IT productivity ($745k labor savings): A TAM deeply understands your unique environment, eliminating back-and-forth ticket friction. With direct TAM guidance, developers saved 40% of their time on Red Hat projects by Year 3, while annual hours spent resolving IT tickets decreased by 75%. * Strengthened security and compliance ($196k reduced risk exposure): TAMs collaborate with internal teams on patching cadences, certificate lifecycles, and vulnerability tracking. This proactive stance directly reduced risk exposure to costly security breaches. The strategic value. Beyond strict financial metrics, enterprise leaders highlighted long-term strategic advantages: * Team upskilling: TAMs deliver hands-on, interactive guidance tailored to your architecture. This allows sysadmins, developers, and platform teams to build new skills directly on their own production architectures. * Advanced product roadmap visibility: Regular meetings provide early insight into upcoming product features. This visibility helps organizations align future technology strategies and share feedback to influence Red Hat engineering. Optimize your investments. Whether you need to justify premium support to executive stakeholders or maximize your existing Red Hat footprint, a Red Hat TAM provides the dedicated expertise required to succeed. Product trial Red Hat Learning Subscription | Product trial. Fill skills gaps and address business challenges by exploring the benefits of Red Hat Learning Subscription trial

Marketing Vanguard at Cannes: AI is becoming the daily job ft. Mark Kirkham of PepsiCo. Why learning out loud wins when navigating five-month AI cycles. 47 mins ago The future of brands gets decided here. Join the industry's top marketers at Brandweek for the ideas, insights, and connections shaping what's next. Get your ticket. Its Marketing Vanguard series live from Cannes Lions continues as host Jenny Rooney sits down with Mark Kirkham, CMO at PepsiCo Beverages U.S., to break down why Cannes only works when CMOs show up with clear intention. Mark explains how AI has moved from tech hype to operational reality, why disruption cycles collapsed from five years to five months, and why honest peer debate is the only way marketing leaders stay ahead. What you'll learn: * Why AI is shifting from hype cycle to everyday marketing work * How CMOs should evaluate AI through growth, efficiency, insight, and discoverability * Why disruption now happens in months, not years * How peer learning and open debate help the entire industry move forward * Why Cannes works best when CMOs prioritize quality over quantity * How teams can learn from challenger brands and organic social-first thinking * Why the industry has a role to play in making Cannes more curated and creatively valuable This episode is part of a special vidcast series recorded live during Cannes Lions 2026 and presented in partnership with Edelman. About its guest: Mark Kirkham is Chief Marketing Officer of PepsiCo Beverages US, where he leads brand, category, and marketing programs across Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Starry, Bubly, and Mug. A 15-year PepsiCo veteran, Mark has held global and regional marketing leadership roles including Chief Marketing Officer, International Beverages, VP of Global Sports, Juice and Energy, and Head of Marketing & Innovation for Western Europe. His work has included Pepsi's UEFA Champions League partnership, the global Pepsi Taste Challenge, expansion of Gatorade and Mountain Dew across international markets, and award-winning brand and innovation programs. Before PepsiCo, Mark held roles at P&G, Nielsen, and Forrester Research. Episode Highlights: [01:58] Why Quality Over Quantity Is Better for the Industry - Mark sees the compression at Cannes as a good thing if it leads to better curation. Fewer people, fewer submissions and more intentional participation can improve the quality of work, conversation and networking. For CMOs, the takeaway is clear: showing up everywhere and submitting everything is not the strategy. The stronger move is knowing what deserves attention and making those moments count. [05:21] The Five-to-Ten-Month Disruption Cycle - Mark makes a sharp point about the speed of change. Marketing used to move through five-to-ten-year disruption cycles. Now it feels more like five-to-ten months. That changes what leaders need from the industry. Annual check-ins are not enough. CMOs need constant conversation with peers, partners, and agencies so they can stay close to what is evolving across both brands and the broader ecosystem. [07:36] Why Learning Alone Is Not Enough - For Mark, the job is not only to keep learning individually. It is also to share collectively. Cannes and communities like Marketing Vanguard matter because they create rare spaces for honest conversation, disagreement, and healthy tension. His line cuts through: the day he stops learning is the day he stops being a marketer, but the day marketers stop sharing with each other is the day the industry stops learning. [08:47] Why Different Business Models Make Teams Smarter - Mark points to Poppi as an example of why traditional marketing teams need different perspectives in the room. Bringing in talent from a brand built through organic social forces a large organization to see brand building differently. It is not about one model being better than another. It is about exposing teams to different instincts, different speeds and different ways of earning attention. Jenny Rooney is Chief Brand and Community Officer, leading strategy for the overall ADWEEK brand as well as the ways in which TMKG Consulting Limited serve and support its audiences with high-value content, products, partnerships and experiences, notably through its community programs such as Marketing Vanguard. Recommended videos