IT infrastructure leaders can be overwhelmed with the often-competing demands placed upon them by modern organizations. For example, the optimism around the potential for AI to deliver transformative value to the organization is tangible, but high entry costs, complexity, and risks associated with AI implementations can make it difficult for IT to know where and how to start. Those cost pressures are evident elsewhere as well, particularly in the cloud and virtualization environment, where supplier consolidation is resulting in higher licensing costs for many. And then there’s the ever-present and ongoing security challenge, which is placing ever-increasing demands for cyber resilience on the entire IT environment, including the digital infrastructure.

These challenges are apparent in research conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group. In a survey of over 1,300 IT decision-makers, almost 60% noted that cybersecurity initiatives had become significantly more important to their organization over the past two years. This was followed by initiatives around AI—selected by almost one half of respondents—with both cloud (including compute, storage, applications) and data management initiatives also selected by over a third (see figure 1).¹

The effects of managing this growing set of demands is also evident. The same study found that six in ten have experienced growing complexity in their overall IT environment over the last two years; one in five said this complexity increase has been substantial. These core areas of growth are also where IT skills gaps are at their most extreme. At the same time, organizations are more cost-conscious than ever, with many looking at IT investments that can help reduce overall costs.

Many of these challenges stem from the realities of operating today’s IT infrastructure. The storage environment is a particular case in point. Here, an Enterprise Strategy Group study found that organizations are wrestling with a whole host of issues, including performance limitations, excessive overhead around storage provisioning and management, and the challenge of managing data across a fragmented range of disparate storage silos.²

As mainstream enterprises prepare their initial forays into the AI space, the pressures this will place on the existing infrastructure environment are set to increase even further. Accordingly, this might be an opportune time for many to assess whether their infrastructure is ready for the AI era. If not, this could be an ideal moment to consider modernization.

Figure 1. Key Technology Initiatives

Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, now part of Omdia

^1. Source: Enterprise Strategy Group Research Report, 2025 Technology Spending Intentions Survey, December 2024.

^2. Source: Enterprise Strategy Group Research Report, Navigating the Cloud and AI Revolution: The State of Enterprise Storage and HCI, March 2024.