Nutanix has unveiled the findings of its seventh annual Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey and research report. The report offers a detailed analysis of global enterprise progress in cloud adoption, with a focus on the emerging trends in Generative AI (GenAI), investment priorities, and the challenges organisations face during implementation. 86% of Indian enterprises have already developed a GenAI strategy, underscoring the country’s strong commitment to fostering AI-driven innovation. This highlights India’s proactive stance in embracing advanced technologies, positioning it as a key player in the global AI landscape, and reflecting its ambition to stay ahead of, or even lead, global AI adoption trends.
With businesses in India rapidly embracing GenAI for productivity, automation, and innovation, the ECI report highlights how Indian enterprises are outpacing global and regional trends in adoption. 90% of Indian respondents anticipate rising IT costs due to GenAI implementation, yet 75% expect a positive return on investment within 1-3 years.
“Many organisations have reached an inflection point with GenAI implementation and deployment,” said Lee Caswell, SVP, Product and Solutions Marketing at Nutanix. “This year’s ECI revealed key trends that we’re hearing from customers as well, including challenges with scaling GenAI workloads from development to production, new requirements GenAI creates for data governance, privacy, and visibility, and integration with existing IT infrastructure. To successfully unlock ROI with GenAI projects, organisations need to take a holistic approach to modernising applications and infrastructure and embrace containerisation.”
“India’s rapid embrace of Generative AI signals a transformative leap in innovation. While containerisation and Kubernetes are key to scaling AI-driven solutions, efforts to modernise infrastructure, fortify data security and upskill talent are also crucial. Organisations that act now to invest strategically in these key areas will not only unlock GenAI’s full potential but also gain a decisive competitive edge in the AI-powered future,” said Prasanna Ranade, Senior Director, Enterprise & Government Sales, Nutanix India.
Enterprise IT in India: Balancing innovation with security
The findings highlight India’s reliance on cloud-native applications and containerisation to support GenAI and other modern workloads. 81% of organisations are deploying GenAI applications, excluding both global (70%) and APJ (78%) averages. Nearly 99% of Indian enterprises are in the process of containerising applications, making it the new infrastructure standard for modern workloads.
85% of Indian respondents recognise the need for significant improvements in their IT infrastructure to effectively support cloud-native applications. Furthermore, 95% acknowledge that GenAI is reshaping organisational priorities, with security and privacy at the forefront. While over 90% of organisations prioritise data privacy, 95% still believe more must be done to enhance the security of their GenAI models and applications.
Scaling GenAI: IT infrastructure modernisation is critical
Running cloud-native applications at enterprise scale requires an infrastructure that supports security, data integrity, and resilience. 98% of Indian organisations face challenges scaling GenAI workloads from development to production, with integration into existing IT infrastructure identified as the #1 challenge. As a result, IT infrastructure modernisation is the top investment priority for Indian enterprises to support GenAI at scale.
GenAI adoption requires workforce upskilling
Beyond technology, organisations recognise the need for skilled talent. 52% of Indian enterprises plan to invest in IT training, while 48% aim to hire new talent to support GenAI initiatives. Encouragingly, 53% of respondents see advancements in GenAI as an opportunity to upskill and become AI experts.
Key findings for India:
- 99% of Indian enterprises are in the process of containerising applications, in line with global trends.
- 86% have a GenAI strategy in place, with an impressive 66% actively implementing it, surpassing both global (55%) and APJ (60%) averages.
- 80% leverage GenAI for cybersecurity, fraud detection, and loss prevention, while 76% use it for customer support and experience enhancements.
- 95% agree GenAI is shifting organisational priorities, with security and privacy emerging as key concerns.
- 96% of organisations face challenges in scaling GenAI workloads, with integration into existing IT infrastructure as the primary hurdle.
- 71% believe investments in cybersecurity are crucial for GenAI success, while 61% see IT infrastructure modernisation as an urgent need.
- 90% expect IT costs to rise due to GenAI, but 75% anticipate a positive return on investment within 1-3 years.
- 52% of enterprises plan to invest in IT training, and 48% are looking to hire new talent to support GenAI.
For the seventh consecutive year, Nutanix commissioned a global research study to assess the state of enterprise cloud deployments, application containerisation trends, and GenAI application adoption. In Fall 2024, U.K. researcher Vanson Bourne surveyed 1,500 IT and DevOps/Platform Engineering decision-makers worldwide. The respondent base spanned multiple industries, business sizes, and geographies, including North and South America; Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); and the Asia-Pacific-Japan (APJ) region.
