Virtualization upheaval to redefine modern infrastructure in 2026, reveals Pure Storage

“Virtualization will no longer be a product; it will be a capability, embedded natively into cloud, container, and edge platforms,” says Matthew Oostveen, VP & CTO, Asia Pacific & Japan, Pure Storage.

Earlier this month, Pure Storage announced another strong quarter as global customers increasingly choose the vendor to solve their toughest data management challenges. With revenue up 16% year-over-year, the opportunities remain strong for the vendor, with the Asia Pacific region expected to be a key market for 2026.

According to Nathan Hall, General Manager and VP of Asia Pacific and Japan at Pure Storage (pictured above), success in region in 2026 will belong to businesses that can move as fast as the technology they depend on.

“The themes of the year – AI agility, data sovereignty, subscription-first models, and energy efficiency – all point toward a single truth: adaptability is the new edge. Those who design for flexibility, think beyond compliance, and act with speed will not just weather uncertainty – they’ll define the next era of growth,” said Hall.

Echoing Hall’s remarks is Matthew Oostveen, VP & CTO, Asia Pacific & Japan, Pure Storage. Oostveen believes that as AI models extract the last drops of signal from the open internet, the next wave of AI progress will depend as much on discovering untapped data as on refining algorithms.

This is where he feels companies will look more towards managing datasets instead of just data to have an advantage. Specifically, he feels the focus will shift from collecting and cleaning data to governing datasets such as curated, versioned, and contextual sources of truth that can be trusted across the business.

At the same time, Oostveen also predicts that the decade-long dominance of proprietary hypervisors will finally fracture in 2026 as enterprises across Asia-Pacific, tired of rising license fees and shrinking flexibility, will begin rewriting their infrastructure playbooks.

“Virtualization will no longer be a product; it will be a capability, embedded natively into cloud, container, and edge platforms. Lightweight hypervisors, open-source technologies, and cloud-native orchestration will replace heavyweight virtual machine sprawl. The winners will be those who see this not as an exodus, but as an evolution: moving from managing virtual machines to virtualizing the entire stack - compute, storage, networks, and even AI workloads. By 2026, the infrastructure stack will become modular, programmable, and open. Vendor lock-in will give way to “infrastructure as code,” where the hypervisor quietly fades into the background,” he explained.

Ooostveen also predicts Isolated Recovery Environments (IREs) will move from a niche security measure to a boardroom mandate across Asia-Pacific. He believes that organizations will recognize that traditional backups are no longer enough and the focus will shift from simply recovering data to assuring recovery itself, and secure isolation will become the new benchmark for cyber resilience.

“Across APJ, IRE adoption will accelerate first in financial services, critical infrastructure, and manufacturing; sectors where downtime equals revenue loss or public risk. But the real shift will be cultural: IREs will redefine how organizations think about resilience, transforming backup from an operational afterthought into a core element of business continuity strategy,” he said.

Impact on the channel

As a purely channel driven vendor, ensuring its partners are ready to support them and customers is imperative. Given the predictions and opportunities for Pure Storage in the region, Andrew Fisher, Area Vice President for Partners at Pure Storage shares five areas partners will need to focus on in 2026 for continued success.

First, Fisher predicts data sovereignty to become channel’s next growth engine. Specifically, he believes that in 2026, data sovereignty will evolve from a compliance requirement into a critical business risk and a major growth opportunity for the channel. As regulatory frameworks tighten and geopolitical uncertainty rises, customers are rethinking where and how their data is governed.

“Partners who embed sovereignty-by-design into their architectures ensuring data residency, key control, and audit-ready governance will lead the market. Compliance expertise will translate into recurring revenue through sovereignty and compliance-as-a-service models, giving customers both assurance and agility. As sovereignty becomes key to trust and resilience, partners who combine technical expertise with regulatory insight will lead,” said Fisher.

The second prediction is that partner success will be measured in customer impact, not deal size. In 2026, Fisher expected partner success to be no longer be defined by deal size or quarterly targets, but by the measurable value delivered to customers over time. As such, he believes the most successful partners will be those who link profitability directly to customer outcomes – from new technology adoption and cyber resilience to efficiency and sustainability gains.

“Performance scorecards are evolving to capture these metrics, rewarding partners who reduce churn, expand renewals, and deliver tangible impact. Marketing Development Funds and incentive programs will increasingly support initiatives that drive long-term value, such as resilience testing, sustainability assessments, and optimisation workshops. The next phase of channel growth will be built on accountability and shared success. AI-driven automation and streamlined renewal models will remove friction, allowing partners to scale recurring revenue while focusing on what matters most – helping customers achieve measurable, lasting business outcomes,” explained Fisher.

The third prediction will see Terabytes per Watt redefining AI-era competitiveness. As AI and digital infrastructure strain national grids, energy availability has become the new growth constraint. Governments are tying new data centre capacity to efficiency thresholds, and enterprises are rethinking procurement through the lens of energy performance and circular design.

“In 2026, energy will define competitiveness, and partners who can help customers do more with less will lead the market. Flash-first architectures already deliver more performance per watt, but the next evolution is measuring outcomes in terabytes-per-watt (TB/W) – a new standard for quantifying data storage efficiency. Partners who translate this into clear business language, showing how a higher TB/W ratio means more AI throughput, lower cost, and reduced carbon footprint, will become strategic advisors in every AI infrastructure deal” said Fisher.

Fisher expects energy-performance dashboards, PUE- and TB/W-based SLAs, and sustainability-linked contracts become standard procurement terms. For the channel, this is more than a technical metric. For Fisher, this is an opportunity to align storage innovation with national energy goals, prove tangible ROI, and demonstrate that smarter data infrastructure is the foundation of AI competitiveness across the region.

The next trend will most likely see subscription models rise or fall on the strength of their promises. For Fisher, the shift from Capex to Opex has already reshaped how technology is bought and sold, but in 2026, flexibility alone won’t cut it. Customers have grown weary of “as-a-service” models that deliver little more than recurring bills. The focus has shifted decisively from payment terms to performance outcomes.

“Enterprises now demand transparency, accountability, and service-level guarantees they can actually measure. Predictability, uptime, and ROI are the new expectations – not the exceptions. Vendors offering vague commitments or complex renewals will quickly lose trust. For the channel, this marks a defining shift: success will come from co-delivering measurable outcomes, not just provisioning technology. Partners who can back their services with clear SLAs, proactive optimisation, and verifiable results will stand apart in a crowded market. In 2026, credibility will hinge on one thing-whether the promises behind every subscription truly deliver,” he said.

Lastly, Fisher foresees virtualization upheaval to redefine modern infrastructure in 2026. He pointed out that the virtualization landscape is undergoing a seismic shift. With rising costs, evolving licensing models, and the rapid growth of container-native environments, enterprises are reassessing how and where their applications run.

“Across industries, this rethink is driving a move toward more open, flexible, and scalable platforms that align better with modern workloads and budgets. In 2026, Kubernetes will move from being the domain of developers to the foundation of enterprise infrastructure. The ability to run both virtual machines (VMs) and containers on a single, unified platform is reshaping how organisations build, deploy, and scale applications,” said Fisher.

With analysts estimating that more than 80% of enterprises plan to migrate or modernize their VMs on Kubernetes within the next two years, Fisher stated that a shift that represents both disruption and opportunity.

“For the channel, this marks a defining moment. Customers need trusted partners to help them navigate hybrid architectures, integrate data management across VMs and containers, and maintain performance and resiliency at scale. Those who can design Kubernetes-ready, flash-optimized architectures and deliver migration-as-a-service models will lead this transformation. In 2026, success in virtualization will be defined not by what partners sell, but by how they empower customers to modernize on their own terms – simplifying complexity, accelerating innovation, and ensuring continuity through change,” he concluded.