Financial industry embraces hybrid multicloud, prioritizes data security

Nutanix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTNX), a hybrid multicloud computing company, has released its fifth annual Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey results for the financial services industry. The survey highlights that the financial sector is a frontrunner in adopting hybrid multicloud deployments, with 64% of financial companies using mixed IT environments, outpacing the global average. Data security concerns drive their infrastructure investments and application mobility decisions.

The high adoption rate in the financial services industry is a testament to its commitment to enhancing customer experiences through digitalization, advanced data capabilities, and application modernization using hybrid multicloud setups.

Ian Haynes, EMEA Field CTO at Nutanix, explains that the increasing diversity of infrastructure and the focus on data storage, management, security, and cloud-native services are motivating IT professionals to embrace hybrid operations. Regulatory measures like the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) have also contributed to the adoption of the hybrid model.

Key findings from the survey include:

1. Hybrid multicloud adoption is on the rise in financial services. 64% of the surveyed financial companies use multiple IT environments, combining private and public clouds, multiple public clouds, or on-premises and hosted private infrastructure.

2. Cybersecurity is the top priority. Both the financial sector and global respondents prioritize cybersecurity due to the rising sophistication of cyberattacks and the crucial role IT plays in financial organizations.

3. Challenges in managing mixed environments. Most respondents agree that having a single platform to manage diverse private and public infrastructures would be ideal, with 96% of financial firms agreeing. However, only 42% reported having such visibility, indicating a need for integrated tools to improve hybrid IT operations.

4. Application movement driven by data access speeds. All financial sector respondents (100%) indicated moving applications between IT infrastructures in the past year, with nearly half (49%) doing so to accelerate data access. Other reasons included improving security posture, meeting regulatory requirements, and integrating with cloud-native services like AI and machine learning.

5. Cost control remains a challenge. While IT cost has fallen in priority among global respondents and financial companies, controlling costs remains a significant challenge, with 87% of financial services respondents describing cloud cost control as challenging.

The research was conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Nutanix, surveying 1,450 IT decision-makers globally in December 2022 and January 2023. The report provides valuable insights into the cloud deployment journey of financial services organizations and offers comparisons with global responses and other industries.