Five Bold Predictions for Enterprise IT in 2025
Nicholas Holian, Worldwide Field Chief Technology Officer, Sales - SE, Nutanix
As 2025 kicks off, it’s time to look ahead and anticipate the trends and challenges that will define Enterprises and their IT this year. The pace of technological innovation is relentless, with AI, multicloud strategies, data management, legacy modernization, and database growth poised to play pivotal roles in shaping the year ahead. While the future is unpredictable, these five predictions offer a glimpse into how enterprises can prepare for what’s next.
From refining AI investments to addressing multicloud complexities, tackling tech debt, and meeting the explosive demand for modern database management, 2025 promises to be a year of transformation and opportunity. Here’s what I foresee as the defining trends of 2025:
Prediction 1: Enterprise AI Gets Back to Basics
In 2025, enterprises are likely to shift their focus from the initial hype of AI to ensuring measurable value from their AI initiatives. The initial gold rush of adopting generative AI and large language models (LLMs) has led to numerous fragmented experiments, siloed sandboxes, and, ultimately, unmet expectations. According to NAND research, some estimates show that more than 80% of AI projects fail. Additionally, concerns around data privacy, security risks and the potential misuse of AI-generated content are becoming increasingly important for businesses to address.
The coming year will be about focusing on business value and building better guardrails. Companies are expected to invest in governance frameworks to ensure AI aligns with organizational goals while protecting customer trust. Simplified AI sandboxes will enable teams to design, test, and prove AI's value more safely. Enterprises will also grapple with the "buy versus build" debate for AI models, exploring solutions like Nutanix Enterprise AI for multicloud environments, workload management, and seamless operations.
In 2025, successful enterprises will take a deliberate approach: deploying monitoring and ROI models, streamlining multicloud AI operations, and answering the all-important question, “Are we truly getting value from AI?”
Prediction 2: Multicloud Will Evolve Beyond "Multiple Clouds"
The multicloud narrative is shifting. While many companies believe they operate in a multicloud environment, the reality is often a patchwork of disconnected cloud services. In 2025, boards and executives will demand clarity: Is your multicloud strategy cohesive, scalable, and cost-effective?
A key catalyst for this shift is Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware. With Broadcom reportedly discontinuing a number of VMware products and solutions as stand-alone SKUs, and with customers requesting more clarity on their portfolio, enterprises relying on VMware across on-premises, colocation and public cloud must rethink their infrastructure. Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) provides a unified stack that runs seamlessly across environments, enabling businesses to truly realize the promise of multicloud.
In 2025, enterprises will prioritize simplicity, reliability, and flexibility in their multicloud strategies to ensure they can meet future business demands, security and regulatory requirements—whether in the datacenter, at the edge, or anywhere in between.
Prediction 3: Data Management Moves from Hoarding to Monetization
Data has always been the lifeblood of enterprises, but 2025 will mark a turning point in how companies manage and monetize it. Historically, data hoarding was common, with organizations collecting vast amounts of information that they couldn’t fully utilize due to limited tools or processing power.
Advances in unified data management, like Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) and Nutanix Data Lens, are breaking down barriers to data access and analysis, supported by the enhanced capabilities of hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) like NCP. Enterprises will turn to AI and automation to clean, tag, and prepare data for deeper insights, making data-driven decision-making faster and more actionable.
2025 will be about unlocking the true value of data—not just protecting it but actively using it to drive business outcomes and growth.
Prediction 4: Legacy Tech Debt Can’t Be Ignored
For many executives, “tech debt” is a dreaded term, but in 2025, it will demand immediate action. Aging hardware, outdated operating systems, and diminishing pools of qualified staff make maintaining legacy environments increasingly untenable. Some enterprises even rely on eBay for spare parts - a risky, unsustainable practice. Think I’m kidding? Check out this article about a guy convicted of selling counterfeit Cisco gear on eBay and Amazon!
In 2025, the pressure to modernize will intensify. Enterprises will increasingly move legacy workloads onto modern, resilient hardware running HCI software like Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), using emulators to maintain legacy systems while building modern applications in parallel. Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) offers the flexibility to migrate workloads between on-premises and public clouds without the need for costly redesigns, paving the way for future-ready infrastructure.
Prediction 5: The Explosion of Databases Will Demand Better Management
The growth of applications, IoT and AI-driven workloads will drive a 25% increase in databases by 2025. With this explosion comes complexity: the rise of NoSQL, in-memory databases, graph databases, and multi-model systems reflect the diverse needs of modern businesses. It’s not uncommon for some enterprises to have thousands – even tens of thousands of databases. Imagine trying to manually patch 10,000 databases - no thanks!
Managing this growth will require robust solutions like Nutanix Database Service (NDB) to streamline database operations, ensure compliance, and improve scalability. In 2025, enterprises will prioritize database management systems that can handle diverse data types while meeting rigorous compliance requirements.
The challenge will be balancing innovation with control—allowing rapid growth without sacrificing governance.
Conclusion:
As enterprises head into 2025, the stakes are higher than ever. Navigating the complexities of AI, multicloud, data management, tech debt, and database growth will require thoughtful strategies and the right tools. Nutanix is committed to helping organizations simplify their IT landscapes, accelerate innovation, and future-proof their operations.
What are your predictions for 2025? Let us know how you see the year shaping up for enterprise IT!
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