NetApp’s 2024 Cloud Complexity Study highlights the divide between AI leaders and AI laggards illustrating the value of unified data approach.
NetApp’s 2nd Annual Cloud Complexity Report looks at the experiences of global technology decision makers deploying AI at scale and shows a stark contrast between AI leaders and AI laggards. This year’s report provides global insights into progress, readiness, challenges, and momentum since last year’s report, what we can learn from both the AI leaders and AI laggards, and the critical role of a unified data infrastructure in achieving AI success.
In March 2024, Savanta fielded a quantitative study, on behalf of NetApp, of 1,300 IT executives from key markets across the world including US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Australia/New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, and India. This report found a clear divide between AI leaders and AI laggards across several areas and shared that 60% of AI-leading countries (India, Singapore, UK, USA) have AI projects up and running or in pilot, in stark contrast to 36% in AI-lagging countries (Spain, Australia/New Zealand, Germany, Japan).
“Year over year, “increased cybersecurity risk” jumped 16% as a top concern from 45% to 61%, while all other concerns decreased. To manage AI project costs, 31% of companies globally are reallocating funds from other business areas, with India (48%), UK (40%), and US (35%) leading this trend.”
Pravjit Tiwana, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Cloud Storage, NetApp
“AI is only as good as the data that fuels it. Both the AI leaders and AI laggards show us that in the prevailing hybrid IT environment, the more unified and reliable your data, the more likely your AI initiatives are to be successful,” said Pravjit Tiwana, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Cloud Storage, NetApp.
Report also finds that technology leads have 70% of AI projects up and running or in pilot, while Banking & Financial Services and Manufacturing follow with 55% and 50%, respectively. However, Healthcare (38%) and Media & Entertainment (25%) are trailing. Larger companies (with more than 250 employees) are more likely to have AI projects in motion, with 62% reporting projects up and running or in pilot, versus 36% of smaller companies (with fewer than 250 employees).
“The rise of AI is ushering in a new disrupt-or-die era. Data-ready enterprises that connect and unify broad structured and unstructured data sets into an intelligent data infrastructure are best positioned to win in the age of AI,” said Gabie Boko, Chief Marketing Officer, NetApp.
A significant number of companies in AI-lagging countries (42%) have optimized their IT environments for AI, including Germany (67%) and Spain (59%). Companies in some AI-lagging countries already report they see the benefits of a unified data infrastructure in place, such as Easier data sharing and Increased visibility.
