Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index Finds AI Is Driving Rapid Container Adoption while Shadow IT and Organizational Silos Create AI Risks
Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX) released its eighth annual Enterprise Cloud Index, reporting rapid AI-driven container adoption and rising operational risks from silos and shadow IT.
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Rhea-AI Summary
Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX) released its eighth annual Enterprise Cloud Index, reporting rapid AI-driven container adoption and rising operational risks from silos and shadow IT. Key survey results: 85% say AI accelerates container use, 87% expect container growth over three years, and 82% view infrastructure as not fully ready for on‑prem AI workloads.
The study surveyed 1,600 cloud, IT, and engineering executives in November 2025 across 14 countries and highlights data sovereignty, agent-driven opportunities, and a need for enterprise-grade security and portability.
Positive
- 85% report AI is accelerating container adoption
- 87% expect container use to increase in three years
- 83% are already building new applications in containers
- 61% expect AI agents to enhance customer or employee experiences
Negative
- 82% say organizational silos hinder technology initiative execution
- 87% believe unauthorized AI use introduces risk to data and IP
- 82% view current infrastructure as not fully ready for on‑prem AI
- 79% encounter AI applications implemented outside IT (shadow IT)
Details
News Market Reaction – NTNX
On Mar 3, the day this news came out, NTNX closed 1.02% above the previous close.
Data tracked by StockTitan Argus for the Mar 3 session.
Key Figures
- AI-driven container adoption
- 85%
- Respondents saying AI accelerates container adoption
- Org silos challenge
- 82%
- Respondents who say silos hinder tech execution
- Shadow IT AI use
- 79%
- Respondents seeing AI apps/agents from non-IT employees
- Unauthorized AI risk
- 87%
- Respondents believing unauthorized AI introduces risk
- AI agents improve experience
- 61%
- IT executives expecting agents to enhance experiences
- Data sovereignty priority
- 80%
- Respondents rating data sovereignty as high priority
- New apps in containers
- 83%
- Respondents already building new apps in containers
- Survey sample size
- 1,600
- Cloud, IT, and engineering executives surveyed globally
Previous AI Reports
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Public sector GenAI survey showing high adoption and infrastructure needs.
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General availability of Nutanix Enterprise AI with NVIDIA integrations.
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Announcement of .NEXT 2025 event focused on AI and hybrid multicloud.
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Extension of Nutanix Enterprise AI platform to public cloud environments.
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Financial services cloud index highlighting security and AI-driven multicloud.
24h Move is the share-price change in the day after each event; other market factors may also have contributed.
Key Terms
data sovereignty regulatory
hybrid multicloud technical
GenAI technical
AI-generated analysis. How Rhea-AI works. Not financial advice.
- 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
“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 with57% 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 Filipowski pr@nutanix.com
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