Nutanix has released its latest findings from the eighth annual Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey, offering insights into global enterprise cloud adoption trends. This year's report delves into the challenges faced by IT executives amid the swift rise of AI and the consequent need for application and infrastructure updates within enterprises.
The surge in AI adoption over the past year is pushing many companies toward modernising their infrastructure, with a strong focus on developing and running applications more efficiently. According to the survey, 85% of respondents indicated that AI is driving the adoption of containers to enhance speed, reliability, and scalability.
AI application challenges and opportunities
Lee Caswell, SVP, Product and Solutions Marketing at Nutanix, highlighted the report's findings, stating, "The findings indicate organisations need enterprise-grade security, resilience, and portability as AI workloads can run anywhere." Caswell added that "Organisations would also benefit from a common operating environment for virtual machines and containers that enables their IT leaders to scale AI confidently across hybrid environments."
Key takeaways from the report reveal that organisational silos are introducing new risks with AI. A significant 82% of respondents noted that divisions between business units and IT complicate technology initiatives, delaying deployment and increasing complexity. Additionally, shadow IT practices present challenges, with 79% observing AI applications or agents being rolled out by non-IT staff, and 87% expressing concerns about the risks of unauthorised AI use.
Impact of AI agents and data sovereignty
Data sovereignty remains critical for 80% of respondents when making infrastructure decisions
The report also underscores the potential of AI agents, as 61% of IT executives foresee enhancements in customer or employee experiences. Furthermore, 58% anticipate improved productivity and efficiency due to AI, with a noteworthy 57% predicting these agents could pave the way for new products, services, or revenue streams.
Data sovereignty remains critical for 80% of respondents when making infrastructure decisions, including container usage. Many organisations (57%) feel compelled to run their infrastructure within a single country, influenced by security and data protection considerations.
Containerisation as a pillar for modern applications
With AI driving the adoption of containers, more enterprises are incorporating them to support AI workloads and modern application development. A projected 87% of respondents expect the application of containers to rise over the next three years, while 83% are already deploying new applications in this format. This trend indicates a growing need for firms to refine their strategies to manage containerised workloads effectively.
The mandate for deploying AI applications often comes from upper management, yet the infrastructure may not be fully prepared. While 59% of respondents anticipate having over five AI-enabled applications within three years, a majority (82%) believe their current on-premises infrastructure is not ready to support AI tasks.
Global survey on cloud and AI trends
In November 2025, Nutanix conducted a comprehensive global study, in collaboration with Wakefield Research, to evaluate the landscape of cloud adoption, containerisation, and the deployment of GenAI applications.
The survey included responses from 1,600 executives in cloud, IT, and engineering roles, all holding at least a managerial position. Participants represented organisations with at least 500 employees from various countries, such as Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, and the United States, among others.
Nutanix, a pioneer in hybrid multicloud computing, announces the findings of its eighth annual Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey and research report, which measures global enterprise progress with cloud adoption. This year’s report looked closely at the challenges IT executives face as they navigate the rapid increase of AI use and need for application and infrastructure modernisation in the enterprise.
The rapid rise of AI adoption in the enterprise over the last year is forcing a wave of infrastructure modernisation, as companies race to build and run applications more efficiently. In fact, containers have become a core component of the enterprise application strategy with the survey showing that 85% of respondents report that AI is accelerating their adoption of containers to improve speed, reliability, and scalability.
Encounter AI applications
“The findings indicate organisations need enterprise-grade security, resilience, and portability as AI workloads can run anywhere,” said Lee Caswell, SVP, Product and Solutions Marketing at Nutanix. “Organisations would also benefit from a common operating environment for virtual machines and containers that enables their IT leaders to scale AI confidently across hybrid environments.”
Key findings from this year’s report, based on survey responses, include:
- Organisational silos create new AI risks: While AI adoption is driving innovation, it is also introducing operational challenges. Eighty-two percent of respondents believe silos between business units and IT make it difficult to effectively execute technology initiatives, slowing deployment timelines and increasing complexity.
- Shadow IT is creating AI challenges: Seventy-nine percent of respondents encounter AI applications or agents being implemented by employees in non-IT functions. Eighty-seven percent believe unauthorised AI use introduces risk, including exposure of sensitive data and intellectual property. This highlights the need for closer collaboration between IT teams and business stakeholders to ensure AI deployments remain secure, compliant, and aligned with organisational goals.
- Agents unlock enormous potential for organisations: A majority of IT executives (61%) expect AI agents to enhance customer or employee experiences. Fifty-eight percent also anticipate that AI agents will improve productivity and efficiency. Additionally, some believe that AI agents can play a deeper role with 57% seeing potential for AI agents to create new products, services, or revenue streams.
- Data sovereignty is non-negotiable: For 80% of respondents, data sovereignty is a high priority when making infrastructure decisions including where to utilise containers. In fact, compliance obligations often drive organisations to keep data physically within the country where it was collected. More than half (57%) feel the need to run their infrastructure within a single country, whether on-premises or through a local cloud region, largely due to security or data protection concerns.
- Containers are the foundation of modern applications, with AI as the key driver: Organisations are turning to containers to support AI-enabled workloads and modern application development. Eighty-seven percent of respondents expect the use of containers for applications to increase over the next three years, while 83% say they are already building new applications in containers. Further, 85% of respondents believe AI is accelerating container adoption which highlights why enterprises need to evolve their infrastructure strategies to handle containerised workloads.
- The directive to deploy AI applications comes from the top, but infrastructure is not ready to fully support it: Fifty-nine percent of respondents anticipate that their organisation will have more than five AI-enabled applications in the next three years. Yet if their organisation needed to deploy AI workloads on-premises, 82% view their current infrastructure as not fully ready to support this.
GenAI application deployment
For the eighth consecutive year, Nutanix commissioned a global research study to assess the state of cloud adoption, containerisation, and GenAI application deployment. Conducted in November 2025 by Wakefield Research, the survey gathered responses from 1,600 cloud, IT, and engineering executives with at least a manager-level title.
Respondents represent organisations with 500 or more employees across Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
