Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2026. Read them in this 18th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
By Sterling Wilson, Field CTO, Object First
In 2026 we will continue to see the evolution of an AI arms race. As organizations race to integrate AI into their operations, many overlook a foundational truth: AI is only as reliable as the data that powers it. The integrity, protection, and recoverability of that data have never been more critical. At the same time, cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated, insurance requirements are more demanding, and expectations for verifiable resilience far higher. In 2026 and beyond, businesses, IT teams, and MSPs will be pushed to rethink what true cyber resilience means: from securing AI training data to deploying immutable backups and modernizing storage infrastructure.
AI is only as strong as the integrity of data
As we continue to adapt to the AI boom, it’s critical not to underestimate the infrastructure needed to sustain AI growth. There is currently a gap in how companies consider and implement data security and integrity in the era of AI. Too often, organizations pour resources into compute and model development and don’t address the protection of AI data and trust. Afterall, AI models and tools are only as strong as the integrity of the data it is being fed and trained on. IT teams need to treat training data, model outputs, and supporting datasets with the same rigor they apply to production workloads, meaning data needs to be backed up, immutable, and isolated from threats. Without resilient, secure storage, even the most sophisticated AI models can be compromised and rendered useless in an instant.
Cyber resilience will finally become a continuous investment
There has been a widening gap between the cyber resilience an organization thinks it has and how capable its cyber defenses actually are. Many organizations believe resilience exists because they have backups, but few have truly tested recovery at scale. It is not enough to invest in cybersecurity tools; IT teams must continually test their disaster recovery capabilities and update protocols because threat actors are constantly expanding their attack methods and reach. Many times, resilience planning stops at detection, instead of focusing on data integrity and recoverability through immutable and segmented data backups – the most underutilized and effective disaster recovery tool. In the future, we will see the gap between perceived cyber resilience and actual capabilities decrease, with more organizations prioritizing immutable backups.
Channel/MSPs have to offer verifiable business continuity
At the end of the day, Channel and MSPs that lead with resilience will win. With the evolving and increasingly sophisticated threat landscape, insurance companies are putting more pressure on, now demanding proof of recoverability as opposed to promises of protection and security. Immutable backups are the only way to ensure full recovery after a ransomware attack. Therefore, MSPs who offer immutable, ransomware-proof backup-as-a-service will gain a major competitive advantage, creating credibility around their security claims, while also generating recurring revenue that is vital to business objectives. To take it one step further, MSPs who can deliver secure solutions that are easy to deploy, scale, and manage will stand out. 2026 and beyond will be about end users moving to providers of resilience. Services that just protect data won’t cut it anymore.
The 2026 security stack is getting a data storage upgrade
Secure data storage has become a frontline component of cybersecurity, and customers will see it as a part of their active defense and resilience strategy. 2026 will demand solutions that deliver strong security controls while remaining easy to deploy and manage across environments. Therefore, Immutability and zero-trust architectures will be wildly acknowledged as core requirements for companies and the entities that insure them. These principles leverage security-by-design, prevent errors from manual configurations, and ensure backup data can’t be altered, encrypted, or deleted by ransomware or malicious actors. Organizations will choose solutions that prioritize data storage integrity to keep data impenetrable, and a security stack that will offer the ability to leverage backups for threat detection and forensics to analyze backup data.
As AI adoption accelerates and cyberthreats grow more advanced, the organizations that thrive will be those that treat data integrity and resilience as non-negotiable pillars of their security strategy. The industry is moving past outdated assumptions that backups alone equal preparedness; instead, the focus is shifting toward verifiable recoverability, immutable storage, and Zero Trust architectures that ensure data remains trustworthy and untouchable. In this new era, secure, immutable, and intelligent data storage will anchor the modern security stack, enabling businesses to safeguard their AI systems, maintain continuity, and operate with confidence in an increasingly unpredictable digital world.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sterling is a technology strategist with a unique perspective gained as an infrastructure engineer in public and private sectors. Leveraging experience in technical and leadership roles at data security / management and storage companies, he brings an end-to-end perspective to protecting and maximizing the value of data. Engaging with the greater IT community, Sterling works to elevate data resilience adoption through secure-by-design architecture, thought leadership, and practical education across the industry.
