By Nick Stapleton, founder and managing director at ETB Technologies
The demand for AI, rapid expansion of data centres and strengthened security posture will set the agenda for the technology sector over the next 12 months.
With AI still sitting firmly at the centre of every major market shift, its reshaping global hardware demand, supply chains, pricing structures and data centre strategy. Far from slowing, this acceleration is exposing growing opportunity – and pressure points – that organisations must navigate carefully in 2026.
As we look to the year ahead, I expect it to be defined less by headline-grabbing innovation and more by pragmatic decision-making, as organisations reassess how they build, protect and scale their technology estates.
With that in mind, here’s where I believe the biggest shifts in data and technology strategy will emerge over the next 12 months.
Legacy memory constraints will push organisations towards refurbished hardware
AI adoption continues to accelerate and, with it comes relentless demand for high-performance computing. The supply of GPUs, CPUs and memory components is under unprecedented strain as manufacturers struggles to keep pace with global demand.
Earlier this year, several major manufacturers announced end-of-life plans for DDR4 memory production. Resources were then redirected towards newer technologies like DDR6 to support large-scale AI workloads for hyperscalers and vendors like Nvidia. While I can’t deny it makes sense from a manufacturing point of view, for organisations still running legacy systems, it presents a growing challenge.
DDR4 demand hasn’t disappeared, far from it. Many businesses remain reliant on it, and the result has been a tightening supply and sky-high prices. As AI workloads place further pressure on existing infrastructure, the situation will only intensify.
In 2026, organisations will increasingly be faced with the choice to either pay a premium for scarce legacy components or turn to refurbished equipment to maintain performance, avoid disruption and keep budgets under control. I expect many will take the latter route, not just as a cost-saving exercise, but as a strategic response to an increasingly imbalanced market.
Data centre growth will force a shift from expansion to optimisation
The boom in data centre development has been impossible to ignore, particularly in the UK. Driven by AI demand, the need for AI-ready infrastructure has pushed operators towards higher-density servers, greater GPU deployment and significantly increased power consumption.
But while demand continues to surge, reality is starting to bite. Power availability, energy costs and planning restrictions are becoming very real barriers to continued expansion.
As we move into 2026, I expect investment priorities to shift away from sheer expansion and more towards optimisation to extract more value from what businesses already have. This is where modular approaches, and technologies like the Open Compute Platform (OCP), will become increasingly important. Open, modular hardware allows operators to scale more flexibly, reduce power waste and adapt infrastructure within existing physical and regulatory boundaries.
As a result, I anticipate OCP adoption – and eventually refurbished OCP hardware availability – to increase as data centres attempt to navigate these constraints without compromising capacity or performance.
Security spending will split between new and refurbished technology
If there’s one lesson the industry has learned over the past year, it’s that cyber security cannot be compromised. Threats are growing more sophisticated, attacks more disruptive and the cost of failure more severe.
At the same time, budgets remain tight and organisations will be forced to rethink how they protect themselves.
Refurbished technology continues to offer enormous value across many areas of IT, but cyber resilience increasingly depends on access to the latest firmware, updates and security features. Plus, many manufacturers are restricting critical firmware and security updates unless organisations purchase brand-new equipment directly, which risks rendering refurbished firewalls and switches unsuitable for frontline security roles.
As a result, I expect organisations to adopt a more nuanced, split approach. Investment will be prioritised towards new, next-generation firewalls, zero-trust architectures, endpoint protection and advanced monitoring tools. Meanwhile, refurbished servers and storage will play a vital supporting role, underpinning core workloads and freeing up budget to spend where it matters most. That way, businesses can be strategic with limited resources and ensure security investment delivers genuine protection.
Pragmatism will define technology strategy in 2026
Taken together, these trends point to a more mature phase for the technology sector, when it comes to new and emerging technologies. AI will continue to push infrastructure to its limits, but success in 2026 will depend less on rapid expansion and more on intelligent optimisation.
Organisations that thrive will be those that take a balanced view – embracing innovation where it delivers real value, while using refurbished and modular technologies to manage cost, availability and sustainability.
Enterprise refurbished IT has an important role to play in this future. It enables businesses to support demanding workloads, extend the life of existing infrastructure and remain agile in a market where certainty is in short supply. As the pressures facing the sector continue to converge, that pragmatism may prove to be the most valuable asset of all.
