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Komprise State of Unstructured Data Management Report 2026

Data Growth, Risks and Costs Escalate in the AI Era

2026surveyreportpr_resource_thumbnail_800x533-300x200Forty percent of IT and storage leaders in the 5th annual Komprise State of Unstructured Data Management survey say they’re storing at least 10 petabytes of unstructured data, the equivalent of two trillion songs or 10 trillion books.

This report summarizes the responses of 300 global enterprise storage IT directors, VPs and C-level executives at companies with more than 1,000 employees in the United States and shares insights and strategies for unstructured data analysis, management and movement in 2026.

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What’s Inside?

  • How enterprise IT leaders are navigating explosive data growth as 74% now manage more than 5PB of unstructured data.
  • The top data storage and AI preparedness priorities shaping 2026 (and where leaders plan to increase investment).
  • Why unstructured data classification is becoming critical for reducing risk and preparing for AI.

As seen in Forbes: Komprise Unstructured Data Survey Shows AI Driving Data Management

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What does the Komprise 2026 State of Unstructured Data Management Report reveal about enterprise data volumes and storage costs?

The 5th annual Komprise State of Unstructured Data Management survey, which summarizes responses from 300 global enterprise storage IT directors, VPs and C-level executives at companies with more than 1,000 employees in the United States, found that 40% of IT and storage leaders are storing at least 10 petabytes of unstructured data — the equivalent of two trillion songs or 10 trillion books. The report reveals a data management crisis that is accelerating on every dimension:

  • Data volumes hit a new peak — 74% of organizations are storing more than 5PB of unstructured data, a 57% increase over 2024, with no sign of growth slowing
  • Budgets are breaking — more than half (55%) of organizations are spending more than 30% of their IT budget on data storage, leaving little room for AI investment
  • Spending is rising regardless — a whopping 85% of IT and data storage leaders are projecting an increase in data storage spend in 2026, versus 59% in the 2024 survey
  • The theme is more of everything — more data, more investment, more pains, and more AI security and risk concerns
  • New methods are urgently needed — data, risks and costs are growing so fast that clearly new methods of data management are needed in the AI era to address these challenges while discovering new value from unstructured data

What are the biggest challenges enterprises face when preparing unstructured data for AI, according to the 2026 report?

The 2026 report identifies data classification and governance as the defining challenges of AI readiness for enterprise unstructured data. Organizations know AI requires their unstructured data but are struggling to make it usable, safe, and accessible at the scale required. Key findings:

  • Classification is the top challenge — classifying and tagging unstructured data is the top challenge in prepping unstructured data for AI, cited by 56% of respondents, compared with 41% in 2024 — a significant year-over-year increase
  • Governance and security are close behind — the second leading challenge in prepping data for AI is data governance and security concerns, cited by 46% of respondents
  • Classification is also the top strategy — enterprise IT infrastructure teams are looking to implement unstructured data classification as the top strategy to understand data for storage optimization, data governance, ransomware defense, security and AI curation needs
  • Future requirements confirm the priority — future requirements for unstructured data management include data classification and tagging (61%), analytics and reporting (60%) and sensitive data detection (57%)
  • Skills gaps are widening — the top skills gap is AI data management, cited by 62% of respondents versus 43% in 2024, showing how quickly the demands of the AI era are outpacing existing capabilities

How are rising storage and memory prices affecting enterprise IT budgets in 2026, and what strategies are IT leaders using to respond?

The 2026 report was released at a moment of acute hardware price pressure that compounds the already unsustainable cost trajectory of enterprise unstructured data. While memory and storage are becoming more expensive and harder to obtain, enterprise data volumes are not slowing down. In the Komprise 2026 State of Unstructured Data Management Report, 74% have more than 5PB of data and 40% are storing more than 10PB. Without insight into what unstructured data is necessary, actively used, duplicates or low value, these files consume expensive storage tiers, pushing organizations toward costly capacity expansions. What the report reveals about the response:

  • Budgets will flex for AI — the majority (40%) will increase their IT budget to pay for AI, compared with 30% in 2024, meaning AI investment is coming out of the same budget envelope as storage
  • Infrastructure investment is accelerating — to meet security and AI requirements, IT leaders will invest in upgrading data storage and data management platforms (64%), versus 53% in 2024
  • Reactive buying is no longer viable — reacting by simply buying more storage not only incurs costs and lead times but fails to address the root cause: uncontrolled data growth and bloat
  • Intelligent tiering delivers proven relief — on a 4PB NAS environment with 30% year-over-year growth, enterprises could save over $2.6 million or more annually with the right cold data tiering and archiving strategy alone
  • Komprise Flash Stretch addresses the immediate crisis — by identifying cold data on expensive primary storage and tiering it transparently to lower-cost destinations, enterprises reclaim 70%+ of primary storage capacity without a hardware purchase

What does the 2026 report reveal about enterprise AI security concerns and the risks of unmanaged unstructured data?

The 2026 report identifies AI security and sensitive data governance as the most urgent business-level concern in unstructured data management — surpassing even cost optimization as the top business challenge for the first time. Key findings:

  • AI data risk is the top business challenge — the top business challenge for unstructured data management is reducing data risk from AI, cited by 62% of respondents
  • Security is the primary generative AI concern — the greatest data concern for generative AI is security, such as corporate data leakage, cited by 46% of respondents
  • Budget visibility is also a major worry — nearly half (47%) worry about departments lacking visibility into storage spend and data use
  • AI adoption is outpacing governance — only 14% of organizations are restricting AI in their workforce, yet most have not fully classified or governed the unstructured data those AI tools are accessing
  • Task forces are forming — two-thirds (58%) are creating an internal task force of IT, security, legal and others to develop an AI strategy, signaling that the governance challenge is being escalated to cross-functional leadership
  • Komprise Sensitive Data Management addresses this directly — by detecting PII, PHI, and IP across the full unstructured data estate and applying automated remediation before data reaches AI tools, Komprise helps organizations close the governance gap that the report identifies as the most pressing business risk

What are the top priorities for enterprise IT storage and infrastructure teams in 2026, and what capabilities does Komprise provide to address them?

The top five takeaways from the 2026 survey are: data growth has hit a new peak and IT leaders cannot afford to ignore it; data classification is an essential strategy for bringing structure to unstructured data; generative AI data security concerns persist yet only 14% of organizations are restricting AI in their workforce; and IT budgets will flex for AI in 2026. The report’s data points to five concrete priorities for IT storage and infrastructure teams:

  • Cost optimization is the top storage priority — the top data storage priorities for the next year are cost optimization (64%), data preparation and classification for AI (61%) and cloud migration (54%); Komprise addresses all three simultaneously through intelligent tiering, Smart Data Workflows, and Elastic Data Migration
  • Classification and tagging are essential — top technical challenges for unstructured data management include classifying data for AI (58%) followed by moving data without disruption (53%); the Komprise Global Metadatabase and Deep Analytics engine address both, providing cross-silo metadata indexing and policy-driven data movement without disrupting users or applications
  • AI skills investment is accelerating — just as critical are skills in evaluating data quality, enforcing governance and preparing data for AI ingestion, with the fastest path being hands-on experience with data management platforms focused on unstructured data management, governance, and modern storage architectures
  • Staffing is expanding — nearly half will be adding staff, with a focus on hiring IT infrastructure leaders focused on developing the AI foundation (53%), along with hiring engineers and developers with AI expertise (49%)
  • The Komprise platform directly addresses the 2026 priorities — Komprise Intelligent Data Management delivers unified visibility across silos to optimize storage, backup, ransomware, and cloud costs; Komprise Smart Data Workflows, the Global Metadatabase, and KAPPA Data Services unlock unstructured data classification, enrichment, and governed ingestion for AI — exactly the capabilities the 2026 report identifies as most urgently needed

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