The Linux Foundation on October 2, 2026 published research on global data infrastructure, reporting that artificial intelligence workloads are now near-universal in surveyed organizations and that production adoption of the OpenSearch project nearly doubled between 2024 and 2026. The report, titled The 2026 Data Infrastructure Report: AI, Governance, and OpenSearch Adoption Trends, was released to coincide with OpenSearchCon in San Jose, California.
What the report covers
In a blog post, Linux Foundation researcher Hilary Carter said she and co-authors Csilla Zsigri and Adrienn Lawson set out to map the state of global data infrastructure on the fifth anniversary of OpenSearch, aiming to capture more than market statistics.
Carter said the research team worked with Bianca Lewis and the OpenSearch Software Foundation leadership team so that the empirical approach addressed the community's most critical strategic questions. The work combined quantitative survey findings with qualitative fieldwork involving technical leaders, enterprise architects and practitioners.
AI workloads and platform consolidation
According to the report, running or planning to run AI workloads is standard practice for at least 83% of organizations across every region, rising to over 90% among large enterprises.
Generative AI and LLM-powered applications are described as the leading data infrastructure use case at 82%, drawing on log and operational data (64%), transactional data (59%) and internal knowledge repositories (55%).
The Linux Foundation said 84% of organizations report that single-platform access to their enterprise data is critical for AI execution, a requirement the authors argue sharpens the market's preference for consolidated platforms covering unified retrieval, observability and vector storage within secure enterprise boundaries.
OpenSearch awareness and deployment depth
Awareness of OpenSearch rose from 68% in 2024 to 89% in 2026, the report said, with the increase most pronounced among technology decision-makers and mid-to-large enterprises.
Production adoption moved from 19% to 36% over the same period, with a further 36% of organizations actively testing or planning adoption — meaning, the authors wrote, that the evaluation pipeline is as large as the established production footprint.
Deployment depth is less advanced: the report said 60% of active setups remain experimental or production-but-replaceable, compared with 36% that are deeply embedded or mission-critical. Carter wrote that qualitative conversations with engineering leaders indicated non-adopters face barriers centered on operational expertise and education rather than fundamental architectural objections.
Governance and architecture themes
Practitioners described OpenSearch primarily as a unified search and retrieval platform (43 mentions), followed by analytics and observability capabilities (36 mentions), with open source identity, vendor independence and community governance also prominent (31 mentions).
Technical decision-makers in the qualitative interviews emphasized that open governance and neutral project stewardship act as catalysts for enterprise confidence, according to the post. Practitioners also described a continuing balance between platform standardization and specialized point tools for high-scale or complex query workloads.
Carter concluded that the primary challenge facing OpenSearch is no longer initial discovery but deepening deployment, and that the OpenSearch Software Foundation is positioned to help convert experimental trials into mission-critical infrastructure.
Key facts and where they come from
- At least 83% of organizations in every region run or plan AI workloads, and over 90% of large enterprises do.
Running or planning to run AI workloads is standard practice for at least 83% of organizations across every region, reaching over 90% among large enterprises.
- Generative AI and LLM-powered applications are the leading data infrastructure use case at 82%.
Generative AI and LLM-powered applications are the leading data infrastructure use case (82%)
- 84% of organizations say single-platform access to enterprise data is critical for AI execution.
84% of organizations report that single-platform access to their enterprise data is critical for AI execution
- OpenSearch awareness rose from 68% in 2024 to 89% in 2026.
Awareness of OpenSearch jumped from 68% in 2024 to 89% in 2026.
- OpenSearch production adoption moved from 19% to 36%, with another 36% testing or planning adoption.
moving from 19% to 36%, with another 36% of organizations actively testing or planning adoption
- 60% of active OpenSearch deployments are experimental or production-but-replaceable; 36% are deeply embedded or mission-critical.
60% of active setups remain experimental or production-but-replaceable, compared to 36% that are deeply embedded or mission-critical
- The report was published to coincide with OpenSearchCon in San Jose, California.
has now been published, coinciding with OpenSearchCon in San Jose, CA