When Analyst Benchmarks Miss The Mark: Why NVIDIA Doesn't Fit Forrester's Data Center Matrix
Network World, Friday, September 4th, 2026
Zeus Kerravala argues Forrester's data center networking Wave scores AI fabrics against the wrong criteria.
Analyst Zeus Kerravala criticizes Forrester's latest Data Center Networking Wave for placing NVIDIA in the Contenders band, arguing the scoring framework applies legacy enterprise benchmarks to purpose-built AI infrastructure.
AI infrastructure support carried only a 2 percent weighting while traditional enterprise features NVIDIA never set out to deliver dominated the score.
He notes NVIDIA received a 1.0 in enterprise management types, a result driven by criteria designed for conventional data centers rather than high-performance AI fabrics.
His conclusion is that buyers need separate evaluation frameworks for traditional enterprise IT versus AI-optimized infrastructure.