Nutanix Study Finds Public Sector IT Investment Focused on AI, Ransomware Protection, and Operational Efficiency

Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX), a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, announced the findings of its sixth annual global Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey and research report, which measures enterprise progress with cloud adoption. This year’s ECI report revealed the use of hybrid multicloud models in Singapore is forecasted to triple over the next one to three years as IT decision makers are facing new pressures to modernise IT infrastructures because of drivers like AI, security, and sustainability.

As organisations continue to grapple with the complexities of moving applications and data across environments, the ECI report highlighted the growing importance of hybrid multicloud infrastructure. The report found that security and innovation were the top drivers for moving applications from one environment to another over the past year. As AI takes centre stage for businesses, Singapore respondents identified increasing investments to support AI strategy as their #1 priority. This is aligned with the top priority of global ECI respondents, as well as the Singapore government’s efforts to turn the nation into a global AI hub.

“Organisations around the world are facing ever-increasing pressure to modernise their IT infrastructure quickly, and Singapore is no exception. Data management remains a challenge across the nation, particularly as enterprises seek to leverage AI, improve cybersecurity, and achieve sustainability goals,” said Ho Chye Soon, Singapore country manager, Nutanix. “This year’s ECI underscores the pivotal role of hybrid multicloud in addressing the diverse needs of modern Singapore organisations, and we expect more enterprises to transition towards this infrastructure model for greater flexibility and improved performance.”

Key findings for Singapore from this year’s global report include:

• Hybrid multicloud infrastructure deployments will become an infrastructure standard. 99% of Singapore organisations are taking a “cloud smart” approach to their infrastructure strategy — leveraging the best environment (e.g., data centre, public cloud, edge) for each of their applications. This is higher than an already significant global average of 90%. Given the pervasiveness of this approach, it is no wonder that hybrid and multicloud environments have become the de facto infrastructure standard. Furthermore, 83% of Singapore respondents believe their organisation benefits most from a hybrid environment encompassing both public and private clouds. As a result, this is now becoming an executive priority, with nearly half of respondents noting that implementing hybrid IT is a top priority for their CIO.

• AI a key driver of infrastructure modernisation, as Singapore organisations look to manage modern applications and data growth. A significantly higher number of Singapore organisations (60%) cited implementing AI strategies as a top priority for their CIO, compared to APJ (48%) or global respondents (45%). 89% of Singapore organisations plan to increase investment in this area. However, important challenges remain to be addressed — more than two-fifths of Singapore respondents believe that running AI applications (40%) as well as managing applications and data (43%) on their current IT infrastructure will be a significant challenge. To mitigate and overcome this challenge, organisations are prioritising IT modernisation and edge infrastructure deployments, which can facilitate faster processing and access to data. This, in turn, can help improve their ability to link data from multiple environments to give better visibility into where data resides across their sprawling ecosystems.

• Ransomware protection is top of mind for both CXOs and practitioners but most Singapore organisations continue to struggle in the wake of attacks. Ransomware and malware attacks will remain existential threats to modern enterprises globally, with the cat-and-mouse game between malicious actors and enterprise security professionals set to continue throughout 2024. Yet, data protection and recovery remain a challenge, with 63% of Singapore organisations who experienced a ransomware attack reporting taking days or even weeks to restore full operations. Nearly all Singapore organisations (97%) recognise that they could improve their ransomware protection stance, with 33% planning to significantly increase investment in this area throughout this year.

• As Singapore organisations seek equilibrium driven by security and innovation, application and data movement remains a complex challenge. Enterprise workloads — including their applications and data — often find their way into the IT environment which best suits their needs, whether that environment is an on-premises data centre, the public cloud, a smaller edge location, or a mix of all three. This diversity of application placement is part of the reason why 99% of Singapore respondents say they moved applications from one environment to another over the past year. Security and innovation are the top drivers for this movement in Singapore, similar to APJ and globally. Enterprises should expect application and data movement to remain constant, and plan infrastructure choices accordingly — emphasising flexibility and visibility. Today, organisations face significant roadblocks when it comes to executing complex application migrations, with 41% of Singapore organisations saying workload and application migration is a significant challenge given their current IT infrastructure — higher than the global average of 35%.

• Local IT teams aren’t just planning their sustainability programs, they are actively implementing them. 92% of Singapore organisations agree that sustainability is a priority for their organisation, much higher than the global average of 88%. However, unlike in the previous report where action was limited, many organisations indicate they are already taking active steps to implement sustainability initiatives. Notably, modernising IT infrastructure is among the top three sustainability initiatives Singapore organisations focused on over the past year, with 45% engaging in this practice. Moving forward, 76% of Singapore respondents plan to increase investments in sustainability efforts and technologies this year.

For the sixth consecutive year, Vanson Bourne conducted research on behalf of Nutanix, surveying 1,500 IT and DevOps/Platform Engineering decision-makers around the world in December 2023. The respondent base spanned multiple industries, business sizes, and geographies, including North and South America; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and Asia-Pacific-Japan (APJ) region.

To learn more about the report and findings, please download the full sixth Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index, here.