Enterprise Storage in 2026: Elastic, On-Demand, Hybrid

How are enterprise storage strategies changing in 2026, and what do customers actually need now? In this episode of Skyward Data, the podcast from VirtualZ Computing, CEO Jeanne Glass explains how cost pressure, AI initiatives, and hybrid environments are pushing organizations away from pre-provisioned storage and long migration projects toward on-demand, elastic storage that delivers instant access and lower cost without disrupting mission-critical systems. Jeanne Glass breaks down the storage trends defining 2026: 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 — all without application changes. The throughline is modernizing storage on the organization's own terms: faster, safer, and with zero disruption. In this episode of Skyward Data, the podcast from VirtualZ Computing: - Why enterprises are moving from pre-provisioned storage to on-demand, elastic models - Decoupling storage from access, and what that unlocks - Hybrid cloud storage architectures and incremental modernization - Supporting AI and analytics workloads without re-platforming - The shift from physical tape to cloud-based archival with no application changes This is what VirtualZ Computing's no-code portfolio is built for: FlowZ (cloud storage for backup and archive) and Zaac (cloud and SAN as native z/OS storage) modernize mainframe storage without application changes, alongside PropelZ (moving and replicating IBM Z data to the cloud, proven at 56,000 records per second) and Lozen (live in-place data access) — all with no code and no homegrown pipelines. Topics: enterprise storage, elastic storage, tape to cloud, cloud archival, hybrid cloud, storage modernization, IBM Z, z/OS, AI workloads, no-code data integration. Listen to more Skyward Data episodes: https://virtualzcomputing.com/podcasts/