By By David Ramel09/04/26
Publication Date: 2026-09-04 12:00:00
Gartner: Hypervisor Replatforming Is Reshaping Storage and Virtualization Decisions
Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Storage Platforms points to a fundamental infrastructure shift: storage is becoming entangled with the upheaval taking place across enterprise virtualization.
The 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 recommends platforms that support hypervisor-agnostic deployment and…
