2026 Predictions Part 1: Active Archives Are No Longer Optional in the Age of AI
As organizations race to deploy artificial intelligence at scale, a fundamental truth is becoming clear: AI is only as powerful as the data infrastructure beneath it. In 2026, active archives are no longer a “nice-to-have” storage tier. They are emerging as the backbone that enables AI, analytics, and innovation across the enterprise.
Members of the Active Archive Alliance agree that the role of the archive is undergoing a transformation from passive data repository to intelligent, always-available foundation for modern workloads. Here’s what they had to say:
Active archives will play a central role in ensuring high-value datasets remain instantly accessible. Organizations will increasingly adopt a combination of active archives, intelligent tiering, and hybrid cloud architectures to optimize storage utilization at scale. Tiering is necessary to group large datasets and assign them levels of importance and priority. An active archive serves this purpose well, as it allows data to be relegated to a lower tier while still being available rapidly should it be needed by the AI engine. Organizations that fail to modernize their storage strategies will risk higher costs, slower AI deployment, and diminished competitiveness in an increasingly data-driven world. – Eric Polet, Director of Product Marketing, Arcitecta
Active archives will require sophisticated data analytics.
The industry hit the storage wall as we predicted last year – rising lead times, media, and stock prices tell the story. Active archives require sophisticated data analytics, as archives evolve from data dumps to data sources. Data storage must be accessible, sustainable, and affordable to unleash the full potential of AI. – Martin Kunze, CMO and Co-Founder, Cerabyte
AI as the “archivist’s assistant” for value extraction.
The role of the active archive will fundamentally change from a secure ‘holding tank’ to a ‘Data Intelligence Sandbox.’ AI will move beyond just classification and indexing to provide more robust and useful search, automatically identifying and connecting data – such as linking a decades-old research document to a currently active patent – transforming long-tail archived data into a persistent, accessible “corporate memory” that drives net-new R&D and revenue either for that organization or by monetizing the data to offer other organizations. – Paul Luppino, Director, Global Digital Solutions, Iron Mountain
The evolution of cold storage.
Cold storage solutions will evolve to provide near-instant access (within seconds) to archived data, making it truly “active” rather than dormant. – Pete Paisley, Owner, MagStor
Cloud-based, active archives will no longer be thought of as secondary storage; they become an extension of primary storage. We expect demands for instant access to archived content to only increase – perhaps double or triple over the next few years – as adoption of AI, analytics, threat hunting, media workflows, and compliance accelerate. Data has gravity, and cloud-based archives are a way to balance storage costs with demand for accessibility. We expect demand for more active “always available” storage to grow unabated. – George Hamilton, Director of Product Marketing, Wasabi
AI infrastructure will demand smarter access to all data.
As AI workloads grow in complexity and scale, the way data centers manage and access storage is undergoing a fundamental shift. Traditional architectures are struggling to keep up with the demands of real-time analytics, model training, and inference. What’s emerging is a need for infrastructure that’s not only high-performance, but also flexible enough to span edge, core, and cloud environments. To support the full AI lifecycle, systems must deliver consistent performance while also enabling intelligent access to archival data, ensuring that even historical information can be leveraged efficiently and meaningfully. – Scott Hamilton, Senior Director, Product Management, Marketing & CX, Western Digital
In 2026, active archives are no longer defined by where data lives, but by how effectively it can be accessed, analyzed, and reused. Organizations that treat their archives as a strategic infrastructure will be best positioned to scale AI, accelerate innovation, and compete in a data-first world.
