CTERA unveiled insights from its 2025 State of Data and Cloud Strategy Survey Report. The findings highlight that a promising 57% of IT and cybersecurity leaders are prioritizing AI for 2025, reflecting growing enthusiasm for leveraging AI alongside essential areas like cybersecurity (80%) and cost optimization (61%) in their strategic plans.
CTERA’s report also underscored how widespread and damaging ransomware has become. Every organization surveyed reported experiencing a ransomware attack within the past two years. Permanent data loss was widespread, with 17% of organizations reporting at least partial data loss across the organization, 10% paid the ransom, while 14% of those surveyed did not know how their attack was resolved; a stark reminder that even with growing awareness too many organizations remain unprepared to fully recover and restore their critical data.
Other key findings include:
- AI adoption is in its early stages: While AI ranks third on the 2025 priority list, 70% of IT and security leaders report partial deployment of AI-based assistants, with another 27% in pilot phases, signaling that most organizations are preparing for wider AI integration, even if it is not their immediate focus.
- AI ambitions outpace readiness: Many organizations are being pushed by investors to implement AI to improve customer experience – 64%, enhance predictive intelligence – 64%, and boost query accuracy – 53%. Only 10% are focused on closing skills gaps, highlighting a disconnect that could hinder their ability to achieve these goals.
- Compliance and security are a challenge for AI deployment: As organizations deploy AI tools, 67% cite compliance and regulatory concerns as the biggest hurdle, followed by security risks such as data exposure or misuse – 57%, data silos limiting AI access – 45%, and cost of implementation and maintenance – 44%.
- Cloud-first strategies for leadership: 61% of IT and security leaders prioritize cloud technologies over private data centers. 26% of C-level executives strongly prioritize cloud, compared to just 11% of VPs and 9% of Directors. This indicates strategic agreement at the top, but more caution across the organization.
“Enterprises are navigating an evolving landscape of IT priorities, trying to balance immediate cybersecurity needs with forward-thinking AI strategies,” said Cheryle Cushion, SVP Marketing, CTERA. “We understand these challenges very well. CTERA’s Intelligent Data Platform offers a path to robust ransomware resilience, streamlined cloud storage deployment, and seamless cloud migration aligning with both strategic leadership priorities and operational execution.”
