By By David Ramel08/27/2026
Publication Date: 2026-08-27 00:00:00
Gartner: Hypervisor Replatforming Is Reshaping Enterprise Storage
Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Storage Platforms contains the expected vendor positioning, but its broader market analysis points to a more consequential shift: storage is becoming entangled with the upheaval taking place across enterprise virtualization infrastructure.
The Aug. 19 2026 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Storage Platforms says widespread licensing restructuring and pricing changes are prompting organizations to reconsider hypervisor strategies, creating what Gartner calls a “major displacement window.”
That transition is changing storage buying decisions along with virtualization decisions. Gartner says IT leaders increasingly need to evaluate virtualization and storage platforms as a combined entity, with buyers prioritizing multihypervisor flexibility, container interoperability and automated VM-conversion tools that can reduce the friction of moving workloads.
Storage Joins the Hypervisor Replatforming Fight
Gartner specifically advises infrastructure and operations leaders to avoid storage platforms that tightly bind data to a single hypervisor. Instead, it…
