NetApp Named a Leader in 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Storage Platforms

NetApp has been recognized as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Storage Platforms, continuing its position as a Leader from the report's inaugural edition in 2025.

The evaluation assessed vendors based on their Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute, providing enterprises with a framework for evaluating providers in the enterprise storage platform market.

The recognition comes as organisations increasingly look to modernise storage infrastructure to support hybrid multicloud environments, growing data volumes, cybersecurity requirements, and AI workloads.

Strong Position in Hybrid Cloud Storage

NetApp also ranked first in the Hybrid Cloud Storage use case and second in the Hybrid Platform Services use case in the 2026 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Enterprise Storage Platforms report.

The results highlight areas where NetApp's platform is positioned to support organisations managing data across multiple cloud and on-premises environments.

NetApp attributes the results to its integrations across major cloud providers and its unified approach to managing data and storage across hybrid environments.

Building Intelligent Data Infrastructure

The recognition comes as NetApp continues positioning its platform around the concept of Intelligent Data Infrastructure, designed to connect, protect, and activate enterprise data across clouds, workloads, and environments.

The company says its platform provides zero-copy access to organisational data, allowing customers to connect data directly with AI and analytics ecosystems without repeatedly extracting, transforming, and consolidating information.

This approach is increasingly relevant as enterprises seek to make data more readily available for AI while maintaining governance, security, and operational control.

Connecting Storage With AI Readiness

AI adoption is placing new demands on enterprise data infrastructure.

Organisations need reliable access to large volumes of structured and unstructured data while maintaining appropriate security and governance controls.

NetApp's platform is designed to support these requirements by providing access to data across hybrid multicloud environments while helping organisations prepare their data for AI workloads.

The company's broader platform strategy incorporates NetApp ONTAP, the company's data management software and operating system, alongside capabilities including the AI Data Engine and AFX.

Focus on Hybrid Multicloud Environments

Hybrid multicloud infrastructure remains a central requirement for many enterprises as organisations balance cloud adoption with existing data centre investments and workload-specific requirements.

NetApp says its platform provides a unified control plane across environments, helping customers manage data with greater visibility and consistency.

Its positioning in the Gartner Critical Capabilities report also reinforces the company's focus on hybrid cloud storage and platform services as organisations modernise their infrastructure.

NetApp's Continued Gartner Recognition

The 2026 recognition extends NetApp's presence as a Leader in the enterprise storage platforms market following the publication's first edition in 2025.

César Cernuda, President at NetApp, said the continued recognition reflects what the company views as consistency in innovation and execution, while highlighting its efforts to anticipate changing customer requirements.

The recognition comes at a time when enterprise storage is increasingly connected to broader priorities around AI, resilience, security, cloud modernisation, and data governance.

Supporting the Next Generation of Enterprise Data Infrastructure

For enterprise technology leaders, storage infrastructure is increasingly becoming part of a broader data strategy rather than an isolated infrastructure layer.

The combination of cloud adoption, AI workloads, cybersecurity requirements, and increasingly distributed data environments is driving demand for platforms that can provide consistent management and access across infrastructure.

NetApp's continued positioning in Gartner's enterprise storage research reflects its focus on addressing these requirements through a unified data platform.

As enterprises move toward more AI-intensive and hybrid environments, the ability to keep data accessible, protected, governed, and ready for new workloads is becoming an increasingly important part of infrastructure strategy.

About NetApp

NetApp is an Intelligent Data Infrastructure company helping organisations connect, protect, and activate data across cloud, workload, and infrastructure environments.

Its data platform is built on NetApp ONTAP and includes capabilities designed to support data management, automation, observability, resilience, and AI workloads. NetApp serves enterprise customers across industries and global markets.