Research from Nutanix shows that AI, security and sustainability are the key drivers of IT modernization, with the use of hybrid multi-cloud models expected to double in the next one to three years.

Nutanix’s sixth annual Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) shows increasing adoption of hybrid multi-cloud strategies. It’s obvious that this would be the result Nutanix would prefer nothing, but at the same time the study highlights the need for IT leaders to manage the complexities of managing applications and data spread across different cloud environments. The main drivers of this change are the need for improved security, the integration of AI technologies and the pursuit of more sustainable IT operations.

Security and innovation appear to be the main reasons for migrating applications to other environments, with an increasing focus on investments in AI and IT modernization. According to the report, enterprises consider implementing hybrid multi-cloud infrastructures essential to support both traditional and modern applications and to flexibly move data and applications between different clouds and on-premises environments.

Challenges and priorities

The Nutanix report highlights several challenges and priorities for companies:

• Hybrid multicloud as standard: 90 percent of respondents prefer a “cloud smart” approach, where hybrid multi-cloud environments emerge as the standard infrastructure.
• Ransomware: Ransomware protection is a top priority: 78 percent of companies plan to increase their investments in ransomware protection.
• Application and data complexity: Migrating applications and data between environments remains complex. 95 percent of those surveyed said they had carried out migrations in the past year.
• Sustainability: 88 percent of respondents consider sustainability a priority, with many organizations actively implementing sustainability initiatives, starting with IT modernization.

Future-oriented IT infrastructure

Companies are recognizing the need to modernize their IT infrastructure to meet the demands of AI, security and sustainability. The report highlights the importance of flexibility and insight when adapting infrastructure decisions to the ever-changing IT landscape. With a focus on IT modernization and implementing edge infrastructure, companies are striving to enable faster processing and access to data, which is critical to supporting tomorrow’s technologies.

The study, conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Nutanix, involved 1,500 IT and DevOps/Platform Engineering decision makers worldwide from all industries and regions.