What Tech Trends Will Impact Data Centres in 2026?

Welcome to 2026 from Data Centre Magazine! 

For our very first article of the year, we speak to three leading executives from Lenovo about the key tech trends for 2026 that will provide a crucial backdrop for data centre operators looking to thrive in the new year.

Here’s what they had to say...

Governance as the great differentiator

Linda Yao, Vice President & General Manager, Hybrid Cloud and AI Solutions at Lenovo predicts that secure, responsible and explainable AI at scale will rise to the fore in 2026.

“Governance is emerging as the defining advantage of the AI era,” says Linda. “As enterprises scale AI across hybrid and multicloud environments, the differentiator won’t be model accuracy but trust, transparency and control. 

“The most competitive organisations are treating governance as a design principle – embedding it into architecture, data flows, and human oversight from the start. 

“IDC notes that forward-looking CIOs are now leading enterprise strategies around AI governance, ethics and accountability.”

She adds that “AI governance maturity will be a board-level KPI tied directly to reputation and business value”.

Data sovereignty will be a core competitive advantage 

According to Robert Daigle, Global AI lead at Lenovo, data sovereignty strategy is the hot topic in 2026.

“Data sovereignty (knowing where data resides, how it’s governed, and who controls its use) will become a top enterprise priority, regardless of whether organisations are deploying small language models (SLMs) or large language models (LLMs) in their generative or agentic AI workflows,” says Robert.

“As foundation models become increasingly commoditised, the real differentiator will be data quality, uniqueness and governance. 

“Enterprises that fail to maintain ownership and integrity of their data risk eroding the very asset that fuels their AI advantage. Protecting and preserving data value will be essential for compliance and to maintain a competitive edge.”

Power becomes the first design principle 

Simone Larsson, EMEA Head of Enterprise AI at Lenovo ISG, believes that moving into 2026, power will be a crucial consideration and data centre operators will adjust facility design accordingly.

“In 2026, energy will overtake compute as the primary design constraint for AI infrastructure across EMEA,” says Simone. “Europe’s grid systems remain under significant strain, with the International Energy Agency projecting continued electricity demand growth and persistent price volatility through 2026. 

“At the same time, organisations are approaching ambitious sustainability commitments set pre-pandemic, forcing CIOs to treat energy not as an operational cost, but as a strategic limitation. Every watt now matters.  

“This shift will fundamentally redirect infrastructure strategy. Data centre planning will begin with energy availability, efficiency and location, not server density. Power-aware design encompassing low-footprint systems, advanced cooling and intelligent workload placement will become essential, particularly in secondary markets and edge locations with limited grid capacity.

“In 2026, EMEA’s AI leaders will be those who design for energy adaptability from the start, gaining speed, resilience and regulatory confidence in an increasingly power-constrained world."