As we approach 2026, emerging technologies are continuing to reshape how organisations generate, manage, secure and store data. Data is multiplying faster than ever, and the infrastructure needed to support it must evolve just as quickly.
Here are our top technology predictions for 2026 and how we believe they will impact the future of data.
AI at scale
The next year will see artificial intelligence embedded across nearly all business processes, from real-time customer personalisation to autonomous decision-making in logistics and supply chain management. However, AI models need enormous volumes of information for training, fine-tuning, and inference, and will generate more data than ever. Organisations will need to double up on data storage that is durable, scalable, and offers cost-efficient performance, as they’ll not only need to store raw data but also datasets created by AI.
This will lead to a surge in high-volume data, which will need AI-optimized storage architectures to manage it, and storage systems will need to support parallel processing at scale.
According to IBM, over one-third (38 %) of employees acknowledge sharing sensitive work information with AI tools without their employers’ permission. In response, new platforms are emerging to support businesses with GenAI adoption and protect them from disclosing information they shouldn’t, otherwise known as shadow data. Platforms that help organisations monitor and secure GenAI consumption across the business, providing total visibility and control, will be in high demand.
Getting edgy
As IoT devices, industrial sensors, autonomous vehicles, and real-time analytics grow more common, organisations will increasingly move processing closer to where data is created. It is an approach that reduces bandwidth costs and speeds up decision-making and suits industries such as manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, and retail.
In practice, it means that micro-data centres at the edge will require compact data storage solutions. Instead of sending all data to the cloud, organisations will also classify what must be stored centrally, what stays at the edge, and what is archived.
Redrawing digital borders
This is an area we’ve written on in a previous blog, Navigating the new frontier of data sovereignty, where we talked about how countries are expanding or tightening data-sovereignty rules. In 2026, we can expect the landscape to look even more like the GDPR-inspired regulatory model and to comply organisations will need to know exactly where their data lives and be able to prove it at any moment.
This means we’ll need more geo-aware infrastructure, capable of pinning data to specific regions and enterprise-wide data mapping tools.
Greener Data
Sustainability has matured to be a specific and measurable operational KPI. Energy efficiency is becoming a competitive differentiator for cloud and data-centre providers and this trend will continue into next year.
To meet green targets, organisations will be looking for more energy-efficient SSDs, storage systems that automatically archive cold data, better tiering between performance and archive data and working with partners that can offer low-carbon data centre capabilities.
Under ransom
Very public cyberattacks on major brands are becoming increasingly commonplace. As ransomware continues to grow more sophisticated, organisations are rethinking data resilience strategies to tackle it. Certain practices will become more standardised, such as continuous data protection (CDP) and encrypted storage. All helping to ensure businesses recover from attacks in minutes rather than days. And speed is of the essence to get systems fit for purpose. In response, IT vendors are launching solutions that aren’t reliant on legacy systems or infrastructure. Solutions that can recover and rebuild endpoints after a ransomware attack will continue to rise in demand because they are ideal for those with 1000s of people in the field.
A Quantum era?
While full-scale quantum computing may still be years away, in 2026 it will start to impact how organisations think about data security. This shift will mean that storage hardware will need to support new cryptographic standards. Backup archives will need quantum-resistant protection and organisations will be rethinking long-term data retention policies. Those who start preparing now will avoid costly, large-scale migration projects further down the line.
The Modular Cloud
Cloud providers will continue refining storage offerings, moving toward more modular, consumption-based pricing, to support reduced costs, boost performance and help meet regulatory requirements.
Multi-cloud storage orchestration platforms will also become more common, making it easier to shift datasets across providers without vendor lock-in.
Data as a product
And finally, there’s a trend emerging for more companies to be treating data like a managed product with its own roadmap, governance and security. It leads to clearer data ownership and more controlled data ecosystems.
By 2026, the world will generate more data than at any point in history. The companies that thrive will be those that view storage not as a cost centre, but as a strategic enabler for the future of data-driven business.
photo credit: istock amgun
