For the third time in 2026, Gartner has cited OneLayer following the Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Private Networks for Industry, 2026, published earlier this year, and now again in the Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Data, Analytics and AI for Enterprise Communication Services, 2026, and in a related Gartner Reference Architecture Brief on Private 5G for AI Outcomes.
Gartner, Inc. has named OneLayer in two recent research publications examining how enterprises secure private 5G networks supporting AI-driven operations: the Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Data, Analytics and AI for Enterprise Communication Services, 2026, and a Gartner Reference Architecture Brief on Private 5G for AI Outcomes.
Enterprises across manufacturing, utilities, transportation, and other industrial sectors are pairing private 5G networks with AI workloads to process data closer to the point it is generated. Cameras, sensors, robotics, and other AI-enabled equipment are connecting directly to these networks, often outside the reach of the IT security tools that govern the rest of the enterprise. As AI adoption accelerates, the number and diversity of cellular-connected devices on private networks is growing faster than the visibility and control needed to manage them securely. Security and network teams are left trying to apply policies designed for laptops and servers to a fast-growing population of purpose-built industrial devices that those tools were never built to see.
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In the Reference Architecture Brief, Private 5G for AI Outcomes, Gartner states, “Private 5G networks offer a connectivity foundation for AI and MLOps including physical AI, distributed inferencing, information technology/operational technology integration and operational efficiency. Infrastructure architects can use this reference architecture for a structured enterprise view of a private 5G mobile network.”
“AI is pushing more devices and more data to the edge of enterprise networks, and private 5G is becoming the infrastructure that carries it,” said Dave Mor, CEO, OneLayer. “In our view, Gartner research supports what we hear directly from customers: securing that layer requires visibility and control built specifically for cellular, not a security tool adapted from IT or OT.”
The Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Data, Analytics and AI for Enterprise Communication Services, 2026 states, “AI-powered security in enterprise communication services (ECS) leverages advanced AI, machine learning (ML), generative AI and agentic AI to automate real-time threat detection, investigation and response across diverse security data sources.” We think OneLayer’s inclusion under the AI Security in ECS category points to the same trend: enterprise communication service providers and their customers need dedicated visibility and control over the cellular-connected devices supporting AI workloads.
OneLayer provides security and network teams real-time visibility into every device connecting over a private or carrier APN network, using device fingerprinting and behavioral profiling to build a continuous, authoritative inventory of cellular-connected assets. That inventory lets enterprises apply Zero Trust policies at the device and device-group level, enforced at the SIM and network layer rather than layered on top of the applications those devices run.
As enterprises expand private 5G deployments to support AI-driven use cases, we feel OneLayer continues to work with customers across utilities, manufacturing, oil and gas, airports, and other industrial sectors to close the visibility gap between cellular-connected devices and the security programs meant to protect them. That gap becomes more consequential as AI workloads increase the volume and sensitivity of data moving across private cellular networks, raising the stakes for enterprises that lack a clear inventory of what is connected and what it is doing.
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