Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index Finds AI Is Driving Rapid Container Adoption while Shadow IT and Organizational Silos Create AI Risks
MWN-AI** Summary
The recent Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey highlights significant trends in AI-driven container adoption within organizations, revealing both opportunities and challenges. Conducted in late 2025, the ECI measured cloud adoption and revealed that 85% of enterprise executives believe AI is rapidly accelerating their adoption of containers—a crucial element of modern application strategies. As companies increasingly harness AI for operational efficiencies, they face pressing infrastructure modernization needs to effectively deploy these technologies.
However, the findings also illuminate the challenges posed by organizational silos and shadow IT. A staggering 82% of respondents identified internal divisions between business units and IT as detrimental to efficiently executing technology initiatives, leading to delayed deployment and increased complexity. Furthermore, 79% noted the prevalence of unauthorized AI applications being utilized outside official IT channels, raising concerns around data security and compliance. These risks underscore the necessity for improved collaboration between IT departments and business stakeholders to ensure secure, compliant AI initiatives.
Despite these challenges, executives are optimistic about the potential of AI agents, with 61% believing they will enhance customer and employee experiences, and 58% anticipating gains in productivity. Furthermore, as businesses increasingly integrate AI capabilities, 87% foresee a rise in the use of containerized applications over the next three years.
Data sovereignty also emerged as a critical consideration, with 80% prioritizing it in infrastructure decisions, emphasizing the need for frameworks that support compliance while enabling AI innovation. Overall, while the momentum for AI and containerization presents enormous opportunities, organizations must address the associated risks derived from silos and shadow IT to harness their full potential effectively.
MWN-AI** Analysis
The Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index findings indicate a significant shift in enterprise computing, primarily driven by the accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and container technology. Given the report’s insights, here are key market considerations for organizations navigating this landscape.
Firstly, the surge in AI integration is compelling companies to modernize their infrastructures, particularly towards containerization. With 85% of executives indicating AI is propelling container adoption, businesses must prioritize investing in robust container orchestration systems. These systems can enhance application speed, reliability, and scalability, positioning firms to better adapt to rapidly evolving market demands.
However, the report also highlights the risks associated with organizational silos and Shadow IT. The fact that 82% of respondents cite silos as barriers to effective technology implementation underscores the importance of fostering cross-departmental collaboration. Companies should evaluate their operational frameworks, encouraging alignment between IT and business units. This is crucial to ensure that AI deployments remain secure and compliant, ultimately mitigating risks associated with unauthorized applications and data exposure.
Moreover, the priority for data sovereignty—emphasized by 80% of the survey participants—necessitates careful consideration of where data is stored and processed. Firms must develop strategies that balance regulatory compliance with operational efficiency, potentially leading to localized data management solutions.
From a strategic perspective, companies should harness AI agents not just to improve operational efficiency, but also to innovate in product development and customer engagement, as noted by 61% of executives expecting AI agents to enhance experiences.
In conclusion, enterprises should proactively adapt their infrastructure strategies for containerization while breaking down silos to leverage AI effectively. Forward-looking organizations that anticipate these trends will be better equipped to capitalize on the evolving digital landscape.
**MWN-AI Summary and Analysis is based on asking OpenAI to summarize and analyze this news release.
- Organizational silos create new AI risks
- Shadow IT is creating AI challenges
- Agents unlock enormous potential in organizations
- Containers are the foundation of modern applications, with AI as key driver
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX), a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, today announced 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 modernization in the enterprise.
The rapid rise of AI adoption in the enterprise over the last year is forcing a wave of infrastructure modernization, 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.
“The findings indicate organizations need enterprise-grade security, resilience, and portability as AI workloads can run anywhere,” said Lee Caswell, SVP, Product and Solutions Marketing at Nutanix. “Organizations 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:
- Organizational 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 unauthorized 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 organizational goals.
- Agents unlock enormous potential for organizations: 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 utilize containers. In fact, compliance obligations often drive organizations 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: Organizations 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 containerized 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 organization will have more than five AI-enabled applications in the next three years. Yet if their organization needed to deploy AI workloads on-premises, 82% view their current infrastructure as not fully ready to support this.
For the eighth consecutive year, Nutanix commissioned a global research study to assess the state of cloud adoption, containerization, 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 organizations 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.
To learn more about the report and findings, please download the full eighth annual ECI report here. Watch Dan Ciruli, VP Cloud Native at Nutanix, comment about the report here.
About Nutanix
Nutanix is a hybrid multicloud computing leader, offering organizations a unified software platform for running applications and AI and managing data anywhere. With Nutanix, organizations can simplify operations for traditional and modern applications, freeing them to focus on business goals. Trusted by more than 30,000 customers worldwide, Nutanix helps empower organizations to transform digitally and power hybrid multicloud environments consistently, simply, and cost-effectively. Learn more at www.nutanix.com or follow us on social media.
©2026 Nutanix, Inc. All rights reserved. Nutanix, the Nutanix logo, and all Nutanix product and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or unregistered trademarks of Nutanix, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Other brand names and marks mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder(s). This press release contains links to external websites that are not part of Nutanix.com. Nutanix does not control these sites and disclaims all responsibility for the content or accuracy of any external site. Our decision to link to an external site should not be considered an endorsement of any content on such a site. This release contains express and implied forward-looking statements, which are not historical facts and are instead based on Nutanix’s current expectations, estimates and beliefs. The accuracy of such statements involves risks and uncertainties and depends upon future events, including those that may be beyond Nutanix’s control, and actual results may differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied by such statements. Any forward-looking statements included herein speak only as of the date hereof and, except as required by law, Nutanix assumes no obligation to update or otherwise revise any of such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
Certain information contained in the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index report content may link or refer to, or be based on, studies, publications, surveys, and other data obtained from third?party sources and Nutanix’s own internal estimates and research. While Nutanix believes such third?party studies, publications, surveys, and other data are reliable as of the date of publication, they have not been independently verified unless specifically stated, and Nutanix makes no representation or warranty as to the adequacy, fairness, accuracy, or completeness of any information obtained from third?party sources. Our decision to publish, link to, or reference any third?party content should not be considered an endorsement of that content. This material is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or professional advice or a warranty or other binding commitment by Nutanix.
Media Contact:Marty Filipowskipr@nutanix.com
FAQ**
How is Nutanix Inc. (NTNX) addressing the challenge of organizational silos that create new AI risks, particularly given that 82% of survey respondents highlighted this issue?
With 79% of IT executives noting Shadow IT as a challenge, what strategies does Nutanix Inc. (NTNX) recommend to mitigate the risks of unauthorized AI applications?
Given that 61% of executives foresee AI agents enhancing productivity, what role does Nutanix Inc. (NTNX) play in facilitating the integration of these agents in enterprise environments?
Considering 82% of respondents feel their infrastructure isn't ready for AI workloads, how is Nutanix Inc. (NTNX) planning to develop infrastructure solutions to support future AI application deployments?
**MWN-AI FAQ is based on asking OpenAI questions about Nutanix Inc. (NASDAQ: NTNX).
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