EDUCAUSE 2026: Connection, Trust, and the Role of Storage in Higher Ed IT

At this year’s EDUCAUSE conference, one theme stood out above all others: connection between data and decisions, technology and trust, and people and purpose. Each year a panel of experts and members vote on the annual Top 10, a round-up of technology-related issues facing higher education institutions.

The 2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10, unveiled in Nashville last month, asked colleges and universities to rethink their approach to technology. The nonprofit’s president and CEO, John O’Brien, emphasized that human connection is the glue behind digital connectivity and innovation, unifying teams across departments and communities with a shared purpose to make technology work better for people.

That’s no small challenge. Institutions are navigating shrinking budgets, growing public skepticism, and the rapidly advancing wave of artificial intelligence, which is straining existing IT infrastructure.

Building a connected institution means breaking down silos. When campuses connect their resources, data, and expertise, they create a shared understanding of what really matters. Without that alignment, decisions get harder and sometimes impossible to make. Fragmented systems and competing priorities make it difficult for institutions to move forward together.

The work to de-silo data and share governance starts with storage. It’s the layer that connects every function on campus, from research and operations to cybersecurity and student engagement. Let’s look at how stronger storage foundations can help universities prepare for AI adoption, bring transparency to cloud economics, unify data across departments, and empower collaboration without sacrificing security.

Data accessibility: the foundation of AI readiness

AI offers limitless options for both faculty and students when designing and participating in courses. Outside the classroom, IT teams can use AI to enhance operations with more sophisticated business analytics. But these advancements don’t happen in isolation. Each depends on how effectively data is connected across departments and disciplines.

Strategy, governance, technology, workforce, and classroom environments must come together when preparing to integrate AI safely into a university’s environment. Institutions require clear governance policies, secure infrastructure, and simplified access to datasets that power experimentation and research.

Massive amounts of data fuel every AI project, and storage is where that readiness begins. When data is easy to store, prepare, and access, teams can focus on innovation instead of infrastructure. The right storage solution scales as research grows, stays flexible as needs change, and delivers predictable pricing that universities can rely on for years.

Transparent cloud economics build alignment

Colleges and universities are grappling with significant financial instability due to declining enrollment, cuts in federal funding, and the broader economic impact of policy changes under the current administration.

In the past, universities responded to decreased funding by raising tuition. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, however, colleges and universities experienced a 15% decline in enrollment between 2010 and 2021. Costs have reached breaking points that universities can no longer rely on tuition increases to make up the difference.

Every dollar spent has to prove its value, which includes data management in the cloud. Our 2025 Cloud Storage Index, an independent study of 1,500 IT decision makers on their usage and planned usage of cloud object storage, found that 76% of educational institutions exceeded their public cloud budget, with 50% of that amount going directly to fees. 

Leadership stops greenlighting digital projects when basic data access or retrieval carries significant financial penalties. However, when storage costs remain consistent, projects can be planned confidently across departments. Finance can accurately forecast. Procurement can move faster. IT can invite research, academic, and administrative teams to share data accessibility without hidden financial risks.

Connecting the data through centralized storage environments

Connecting data isn’t just an IT goal; it’s the starting point for institutional trust. Research, facilities, security, and administration often run on separate systems. Fragmented data management weakens an institution’s ability to modernize its infrastructure to adapt to growing and new technology adoption. Each college department collects valuable information but lacks a unified view of the whole institution.

Centralized multi-tenant cloud architecture helps bridge the gap. Tools like Wasabi Account Control Manager (WACM) help IT teams oversee storage across the entire institution from a single platform, while still allowing departments to manage their own data environments. Varied teams across campus and roles can store and access data more effectively.

This kind of architecture doesn’t just improve visibility; it turns shared data into a resource that multiple teams can use at once. We’re seeing it play out in areas like campus surveillance, where video data is becoming an optimization engine. IT teams can replicate a video bucket for operations teams seeking to enhance parking flow, waste management, and other areas.

Collaboration extends beyond campus walls

Connection doesn’t end within the campus network. It also depends on how universities and their technology partners work together to solve challenges that no single provider can tackle alone. Data management, security, analytics, and accessibility all intersect, and each relies on open collaboration to succeed.

With seamless S3 compatibility, Wasabi integrates with hundreds of education-ready platforms from backup and recovery tools, surveillance and video management systems, to research and active archiving platforms that power digital libraries and AI workloads.

When these technologies connect through a common storage layer, institutions get end-to-end visibility and reliability without vendor lock-in. By combining purpose-built tools through trusted partnerships, universities can solve multiple challenges simultaneously.

Empowering research through active archiving

Connection in higher education isn’t just about systems talking to each other; it’s also about preserving and sharing the knowledge that defines an institution. Digital archiving revolutionized the way resources are accessed and shared, enabling scholars, researchers, and students to access a vast array of primary and secondary sources from anywhere in the world at their fingertips.

But traditional archives were designed for long-term preservation, not daily use. Many universities still rely on intelligent tiering from hyperscalers, storing vast amounts of research in cold tiers that are costly and slow to retrieve. In our eBook, “Cloud Econ 101: Deciphering the Cloud Storage Fees That Plague Higher Ed Budgets,” we highlight that 91% of educational institutions access data from cold tiers such as Glacier at least monthly, proving that “rarely accessed” data is anything but.

Research now requires an active approach to archiving, starting at the storage layer. Centralized storage environments that build multi-tenant cloud architectures allow IT teams to oversee storage across the entire university from a single platform, while still giving departments autonomy over their own data.

Universities like Cornell University utilize WACM to centralize visibility across multiple departments, thereby unifying data management without compromising local control. The platform makes it easy to spin up storage for professors who might have a petabyte of valuable research sitting in their OneDrive, eliminating one of the many ways shadow IT (unsanctioned personal storage) has crept into campus infrastructure.

Levelling up MFA through role-based identification

Security topped this year’s EDUCAUSE Top 10, underscoring that digital trust is now a shared campus responsibility.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) remains an essential defense, but as environments become more integrated and accessible, it needs to be the first line of defense, not the only one. One compromised credential can lead to accidental deletion, corrupted research data, or valuable student records held hostage by a cyber attack and ransom demands.

Role-based identification empowers the individual while bringing in the community for your cyber security strategy in data management. Multi-user authentication (MUA) requires two or more authorized users to approve sensitive actions like deleting backups, changing retention policies, or disabling immutable options like object lock.

When paired with immutable storage and predictable pricing, MUA gives universities the technical and operational resilience they need to protect their data, and the confidence to keep building connections safely across every corner of campus.

Storing the future of connection

EDUCAUSE’s 2026 Top 10 reminded universities that technology alone doesn’t drive transformation. Human connection is what holds every digital initiative together, linking data, systems, and communities with a shared sense of trust and purpose.

Storage may sit quietly behind the scenes, but it’s the foundation that makes those connections possible. When storage is predictable, accessible, and secure, colleges and universities can move more efficiently. Researchers can focus on discovery and securing grants. IT can innovate while accurately forecasting budgets. Leadership can invest in knowing accessible data is within reach.

The next era of innovation in higher education will come from connection between systems, departments, and the people who use them. When data moves freely and predictably across campus, universities can spend less time fixing problems and more time advancing learning, discovery, and community impact.