The fourth annual 2026 Wasabi Global Cloud Storage Index explores how organizations are managing infrastructure and budget to support AI and cloud storage, along with on-going data security challenges and solutions. The Wasabi Cloud Storage Index, developed in collaboration with Vanson Bourne, is a leading source of industry trends and IT decision-maker insights on cloud infrastructure and storage services. Based on global survey data from 1,700 business and IT respondents, including 171 respondents within the healthcare sector, the study has uncovered key findings over the past 3 years on buying behavior, user satisfaction, and the impact of hyperscaler fee structures on storage costs. 

AI ambitions are outpacing infrastructure readiness 

• Healthcare organizations are increasing investment in AI infrastructure: Nearly two-thirds (64%) of healthcare IT professionals expect their organization’s AI infrastructure budget to increase over the next year. As a result of the growing importance of data-intensive workloads, 67% of AI spending is allocated to data and compute infrastructure, underscoring the foundational role storage and infrastructure play in enabling AI initiatives
• AI cost challenges are impacting business outcomes: Despite growing investment, many organizations are struggling to control the costs associated with AI-related storage and infrastructure. Nearly half (43%) of healthcare respondents cite high or unpredictable costs as a top challenge in managing AI-related cloud storage, while 27% report that their AI projects are currently operating at a loss. These findings suggest that cost management remains a significant barrier to unlocking AI’s full value

Cloud fees are becoming difficult to manage, leading many to adopt multicloud strategies 

• Cloud storage fees consume a significant share of corporate spending: Nearly half (49%) of healthcare organizations’ cloud storage spending goes toward storage and networking fees rather than actual storage capacity. As data volumes grow and organizations access data more frequently for analytics and AI workloads, fee-related charges continue to represent a significant portion of overall cloud storage costs
• Multi-cloud adoption reflects growing cost concerns: 73% of healthcare respondents use more than one public cloud storage provider and 65% are pursuing hybrid storage deployments, indicating that organizations are seeking greater flexibility, cost optimization, and control over where their data is stored
• Large volumes of data remain underutilized: Most healthcare organizations estimate up to 49% of their stored capacity consists of unanalyzed or underutilized “dark data.” This suggests significant untapped opportunities to derive additional value from existing data assets while also reducing unnecessary storage costs

“Healthcare organizations increasingly recognize the true cost of cloud storage extends beyond the baseline storage capacity utilized,” said Andrew Smith, director, strategy and market intelligence, Wasabi Technologies. “As AI, analytics, and other data-intensive workloads drive more frequent needs for data to be accessed, the fees associated with moving and using that data become increasingly diffucult to predict and manage.  At the same time, the prevalence of dark data highlights an opportunity for healthcare organizations to unlock more value from the information they already have and position themselves to support innovation while keeping storage spending under control.” 

Data resilience is improving, but confidence gaps persist 

• Healthcare organizations lack confidence in post-attack recovery: Despite growing investments in cyber resilience, only 51% of healthcare IT professionals say they are confident they can keep data operational and unaltered following a cyberattack
• Organizations are strengthening data protection strategies: Healthcare organizations are increasingly adopting technologies and architectures designed to improve resilience. About two-thirds (70%) now leverage immutability to protect data from alteration or deletion. This, coupled with a growing adoption of hybrid cloud storage strategies, points to a growing industry focus on strengthening cyber resilience amid an evolving threat landscape

Download the report to learn more about the 2026 Wasabi Global Cloud Storage Index education industry findings. 

Methodology   
Wasabi commissioned independent market research agency Vanson Bourne to conduct research into cloud storage. The study surveyed 1,700 IT decision makers who had at least some involvement in or responsibility for public cloud storage purchases in their organization. The research took place in November and December 2025 and included organizations with more than 100 employees across all public and private sectors. All interviews were conducted using a rigorous multi-level screening process to ensure that only suitable candidates were given the opportunity to participate.