In this episode of the Skyward Data Podcast, Jeanne Glass, CEO at VirtualZ Computing, explores how enterprise storage strategies are changing in 2026—and what customers actually need now.

As cost pressure, AI initiatives, and hybrid environments reshape IT priorities, organizations are moving away from pre-provisioned storage and long migration projects. Instead, they’re adopting on-demand, elastic storage models that deliver instant access, lower costs, and flexibility—without disrupting mission-critical systems.

This episode covers the key storage trends defining 2026, including on-demand storage consumption, decoupling storage from access, hybrid cloud architectures, incremental modernization, support for AI and analytics workloads, and the shift from physical tape to cloud-based archival—without application changes.

If you’re a CIO, infrastructure leader, storage architect, or modernization team navigating enterprise storage decisions, this episode offers a practical, real-world view of how organizations are modernizing storage on their terms—faster, safer, and with zero disruption.