INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cloud
Data security , ransomware , implementing AI , minimising cost , driving IT decisions in financial services
Nutanix , a provider in hybrid multicloud computing , announced the findings of its sixth annual global Financial Services Enterprise Cloud Index , ECI survey and research report , which measures enterprise progress with cloud adoption in the financial services and insurance industry . While current adoption of hybrid multicloud deployments remains consistent year-over-year in the financial services sector , respondents expect a significant 3x increase in adoption in the next three years , making it the IT model in the sector .
Lee Caswell , SVP Product and Solutions Marketing , Nutanix
The Financial Services ECI report revealed that data security and ransomware protection , implementing AI strategies , and minimising cost are driving IT decision makers infrastructure priorities . 99 % of ECI financial services respondents shared that they had experienced a ransomware attack at some point in the past three years .
89 % agreed that their organisations had room for improvement when it came to their ability to protect against such attacks . AI was noted as a key driver of IT infrastructure priorities as well , as IT leaders are increasingly tasked to leverage AI solutions to improve decisionmaking and enhance customer experiences .
“ Nearly all the financial services respondents in this year ’ s ECI Survey have experienced a ransomware attack ,” said Lee Caswell , SVP Product and Solutions Marketing at Nutanix .
“ It is a sign of the times that hybrid multicloud adoption is set to triple as financial services users gear up for heightened cybersecurity risks as new regulatory requirements , such as the EU ’ s 2025 Digital
Operational Resilience Act , DORA , go into effect , making data protection and disaster recovery a hybrid multicloud imperative .”
Financial services decision-makers share that cybersecurity remains paramount , yet emphasis on AI Investment and managing overall costs sit closely behind . Half of the respondents , 50 % reported that their organisations required a few days or a few weeks to fully restore operations following a cybersecurity incident .
Another 12 % said that while operations were mostly restored within a few days or weeks , the impact of the attack on the enterprise lasted beyond the restoration of daily operations .
Sustainability and flexibility top the list of key factors for decision making . For financial service companies selecting cloud services , private , hybrid , or public , flexibility , security , and data capabilities have consistently been key criteria this year and last .
When respondents were asked to identify the single most important factor influencing their IT infrastructure purchasing decisions , sustainability was the top selection , 15 %, closely followed by the flexibility to manage workloads across various on-premises and cloud infrastructures , 14 %, and cost considerations , 14 %. This varied compared to other sectors where sustainability and cost were generally ranked as less important .
As hybrid multicloud environments grow , so are infrastructure and workloads . Cloud , 78 %, data and AI , 77 %, and ransomware protection , 77 % are seeing significant growth . Despite frequently citing sustainability as critical to purchasing decisions , few institutions plan to significantly increase investments in this area next year .
The largest projected increases in IT budgets are for AI , 39 %, followed by ransomware prevention , 34 % and IT modernisation , 30 %. Overall , 78 % of respondents intend to boost spending on cloud computing , with 77 % planning increases for AI and ransomware protection . p
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