Financial Services IT: Infrastructure Transformation in Motion 

As we progress through 2025, new Nutanix customer survey data reveals a financial services industry in pragmatic transformation—modernizing where it matters most. Banks, capital markets, insurers, and payment processors are reshaping operations to balance innovation with security, modernization with compliance, and agility with stability, all amid unprecedented market pressures.

IT leaders are tasked with maintaining business-critical applications, deploying containerized workloads, while also navigating the uncertainty stemming from Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, particularly around price increases, support models, and licensing changes, all while balancing risk, innovation, and resilience. The 2025 Nutanix Customer Survey highlights both the momentum and complexity of these modernization efforts.

This analysis builds on insights from the 7th Annual Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) report, alongside other publicly available industry research, which collectively show how financial services firms are rapidly adopting containerization and generative AI (GenAI) amidst evolving infrastructure and security challenges. Together, these reports provide a comprehensive view of the sector’s IT transformation journey in 2025.

Modernization in Motion: HCI for Mission-Critical Applications

A defining trend is the rapid shift toward hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) for mission-critical workloads. Payments (61%) and Lending (55%) are now primarily on-premises HCI, reflecting a preference for modern, agile, yet controlled infrastructure. This aligns with broader market trends as financial institutions seek operational simplicity, scalability, and cost savings.

Yet, modernization is incremental: 39% of core banking workloads still rely on traditional three-tier/SAN infrastructure, underscoring the challenge of phasing out entrenched technology. This duality—modernizing for agility while maintaining legacy stability—defines today’s IT landscape.

Why it matters: Regulation and sovereignty pressures continue to shape placement decisions. In Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) sets a high bar for personal data processing, and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) for financial entities entered into application in January 2025. At the same time, cloud and notably hybrid multicloud is emerging as the preferred operating model, combining the control of on-premises with the scalability of public cloud. It’s not about either/or—it’s about matching the right architecture to each workload. The U.S. Treasury notes that most financial institutions are pursuing hybrid architectures that blend public cloud with on-premises or private environments, while Forrester’s State of Cloud in Financial Services reports that 90% of firms in the sector already rely on hybrid cloud strategies

The VMware Shakeup: Seeking Flexibility and Cost Control

While 55% of respondents still operate standalone vSphere environments, nearly half (48%) are planning a move to Nutanix, and 18% are considering a shift to a public cloud. 

This reflects broader market movements noted by industry analysts (see Research Cites Nutanix in Market Shift Away from VMware.) as Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has injected sector-wide uncertainty. Concerns around VMware’s roadmap and licensing model are driving organizations to seek flexibility and cost predictability.

Why it matters: Vendor concentration risk, support, and pricing transparency are now as important as technical features.

Cloud Adoption Is Strategic: Balancing Agility and Compliance

Cloud adoption is progressing, with Lending (27%) and Payments (21%) showing growing public cloud usage, while sensitive domains like Capital Markets and Risk Management remain largely on-premises. According to PwC, regulatory compliance impacts, notably from and data privacy and cybersecurity are among the top challenges for shaping how and where workloads are deployed. Ongoing regulatory concerns, data privacy, and the need for low-latency, high-security environments influence these decisions. 

Cloud models, spanning IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, have become a core strategic priority in financial services. High-profile global partnerships (e.g., CME Group with Google, Deutsche Bank with Google, US Bank with Azure, Nasdaq or Goldman Sachs with AWS) illustrate how cloud adoption is central to transformation strategies. However, public cloud isn't the sole focus; hybrid environments are emerging as the de facto model, increasingly integrating on-premises infrastructure with public and private clouds, as highlighted in Capgemini’s World Cloud Report - Financial Services.. 

Why it matters: Cloud and notably hybrid multicloud is emerging as the preferred operating model, combining the control of on-premises with the scalability of public cloud. It’s not about either/or—it’s about matching the right architecture to each workload. The U.S. Treasury notes that most financial institutions are pursuing hybrid architectures that blend public cloud with on-premises or private environments, while Forrester’s State of Cloud in Financial Services reports that 90% of firms in the sector already rely on hybrid cloud strategies

Containerization and Cloud-Native: Laying the Groundwork for AI, Not Retrofitting the Past

Another major theme is the acceleration of container adoption. Container adoption is gaining serious traction in financial services, but it's happening with intent. 67%of respondents plan to run containers on-premises and 55% in the cloud. Most organizations are containerizing new workloads, particularly those involving AI and machine learning, rather than retrofitting legacy applications. This reflects a broader industry shift toward cloud-native architectures that enable agility and scalability.

Operationally, firms are experimenting with different models: running containers inside virtual machines is the dominant approach (54%), but bare metal and VM-in-container deployments are also emerging. Organizationally, there’s a gradual move toward unified management of containers and VMs, though many still maintain separate teams.

GenAI Enthusiasm Meets Enterprise Reality

AI and Generative AI: Universal Interest, Real-World Barriers

Survey results show interest in generative AI is nearly universal. Every organization indicated interest in AI and plans to explore or adopt tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or Google Gemini. The leading drivers are evident: investment in GenAI is being leveraged to enable greater operational efficiency, enhance customer experiences across marketing, sales, and service, and strengthen risk management in cybersecurity and fraud.

However, significant barriers remain. Data privacy (61%) and the cost and availability of GPUs (18%) are the leading concerns. There’s also a shortage of container and data science expertise—a challenge echoed across the industry as financial firms compete for scarce AI talent. 

Despite these concerns, interest in ecosystem partners is strong. OpenAI leads (39%), with NVIDIA (33%) and RunAI (21%) close behind. Notably, 27% selected “none of the above,” indicating some firms are still evaluating their path forward.

Implication: AI strategy in financial services isn’t just about deploying models. It’s about data governance, infrastructure readiness, and selecting trusted partners, especially where regulated workflows like lending or fraud detection are in play.

Data, Backup, and Resilience

Maturing Strategies for a Risky World

Database modernization is gaining urgency as legacy systems struggle to support AI and real-time demands. Institutions are slowly migrating toward flexible, scalable platforms that can be deployed across hybrid environments without vendor lock-in.

Relational databases remain foundational: Microsoft SQL Server (76%), Oracle (48%), and PostgreSQL (39%) lead deployments. PostgreSQL’s open-source appeal and cost efficiency are driving adoption for core workloads. NoSQL and next-gen databases like MongoDB (27%), MySQL (24%), and Redis (15%) are gaining popularity for analytics and fraud detection, though SQL remains key for transactional integrity and compliance.

Meanwhile, whether workloads reside on-premises or in the cloud, recoverability and resilience are now top priorities. With ransomware attacks widespread, data protection and disaster recovery are paramount. The survey shows growing adoption of Nutanix’s native data services, as well as mature integration with third-party backup providers like Veeam (45%) and Commvault (30%). Improving disaster recovery is standard practice and needed to meet regulatory expectations as part of the IT resilience toolkit. We are seeing resilience investment with customers as they mature backup, DR, and data services with Snapshots (27%), Disaster recovery (24%) and Kubernetes data services (6%). This is not just about business continuity—it’s about maintaining customer trust and meeting stringent regulatory expectations for data protection and operational resilience.

In this environment, modern data platforms aren’t just IT upgrades—they’re strategic assets. Firms that modernize their data infrastructure will be best positioned to unlock AI, meet compliance demands, and maintain customer trust.

Workforce Transformation

Upskilling for the Digital Age

Modernization isn’t just about technology; it’s also about people. The survey highlights a strong focus on upskilling teams in AI. This is critical, as the sector grapples with a shortage of data science talent. Strategies include hiring from competitors, building direct pipelines from education, and even acquiring firms to access new expertise.

Final Word

Charting a Path Forward

The financial services sector in 2025 is a study in contrasts: bold modernization alongside lingering legacy systems, universal AI ambitions tempered by real-world constraints, and a relentless focus on security and compliance. The journey is far from straightforward, but the direction appears clear.

Strategic Takeaways: Infrastructure Transformation Patterns

1. Strategic Infrastructure Modernization with On-Premises Preference

a. The data shows financial services organizations are modernizing their infrastructure while maintaining control. HCI on-premises deployments lead across critical applications: Payments (60.61%), Lending (54.55%), and Core Banking (48.48%). This suggests organizations are seeking modern infrastructure capabilities while addressing regulatory and security requirements that favor on-premises deployment.

2. Selective and Cautious Public Cloud Adoption

a. Public cloud usage remains limited across business-critical applications, with Lending showing the highest adoption at just 27.27%. The survey indicates that more sensitive domains like Capital Markets and Risk Management show slower cloud usage, reflecting a risk-conscious approach to cloud migration in highly regulated environments.

3. Legacy System Persistence in Core Functions

a. Traditional three-tier/SAN architectures maintain significant presence, particularly in Core Banking (39.39%) and Lending (30.30%). This indicates that while modernization is occurring, legacy systems remain integral to foundational financial services, suggesting gradual rather than wholesale infrastructure transformation.

4. Growing Container Adoption with On-Premises Focus

a. 67% of respondents plan to run containers on-premises. The data shows organizations are primarily focusing on containerizing new workloads, particularly AI/ML applications, rather than retrofitting existing legacy systems.

5. Universal GenAI Interest Coupled with Privacy Concerns

a. Every respondent indicated plans to use GenAI tools, yet 61% cite data privacy as the top challenge. This trend suggests strong business interest in AI capabilities balanced against significant regulatory and security considerations typical in financial services.

6. VMware Migration Momentum

a. 48% of organizations plan to move cores away from VMware, largely attributed to uncertainty following the Broadcom acquisition. This represents a significant shift in virtualization strategy, with many organizations considering Nutanix as an alternative platform.

These trends collectively point to a financial services sector balancing modernization objectives with regulatory requirements, security concerns, and operational continuity needs.

Ready to see how your financial services peers are modernizing with Nutanix? Discover how our hybrid cloud platform accelerates mission critical workloads, streamlines containerized application deployments, and drives AI transformation.

The 2025 Nutanix Financial Services Customer Survey underscores that transformation doesn’t require wholesale reinvention. Instead, it’s about being strategic, incremental, and resilient, modernizing where it counts, adopting cloud deliberately, and experimenting boldly when the rewards are clear. As the pace of change accelerates, those who combine strategic clarity with operational discipline will shape the future of financial services.

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