Flexential survey of enterprise IT leaders reveals AI creates new cybersecurity and resilience challenges
The 2024 State of AI Infrastructure Report finds that nearly half of IT teams don’t know how to protect AI applications and workloads.
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Flexentiala leading provider of secure and flexible data center solutions, has unveiled new insights from its State of AI Infrastructure Report 2024revealing growing concern among IT leaders about cybersecurity risks associated with investments in AI.
The findings are based on a survey of 350 IT leaders at organizations with annual revenues greater than $100 million, including 100 respondents from organizations with annual revenues greater than $2 billion. The survey suggests that organizations face many cybersecurity and data protection challenges to achieve their AI goals, indicating the increased need for proactive disaster recovery planningresilient infrastructure design and testing and a focus on reliable availability to ensure secure, scalable and high-performing AI deployments.
Flexential’s survey found that nearly all IT leaders (95%) believe their company’s increased investment in AI has made them more vulnerable to cyber threats. Surprisingly, 40% of respondents said their cybersecurity teams don’t know how to protect AI applications and workloads.
Additionally, 42% of enterprises have strategically moved their AI applications and workloads from the public cloud to colocation environments. This shift, driven by heightened concerns over data privacy and security, indicates a cautious approach by enterprises. By opting for colocation, they are ensuring tighter control over sensitive data within their environments. on-premises or third-party data centers and private clouds.
“As AI becomes increasingly integrated into business processes, it’s clear that organizations need help protecting their critical data, as well as training and upskilling their entire workforce,” said Jason Carolan, chief innovation officer at Flexential. “Our report’s findings reinforce the importance of resilient and secure IT infrastructure solutions that can reduce vulnerability while supporting the high-performance demands of AI workloads. Organizations need the right internal and external partners and experts to help them address these risks and ease the pressure on their already overworked IT teams.”
Other notable findings from Flexential’s report include:
- More than half (54%) of respondents said the complexity of AI applications creates a larger and inherently more vulnerable attack surface for their organizations.
- Due to investments in AI, 39% of IT leaders say they are storing and processing more sensitive data than before.
- Nearly half of respondents (51%) said their investments in AI have led them to move where they store sensitive data, such as closer to the network edge, increasing their organization’s cybersecurity vulnerability.
“The use of AI is growing across all industries and functions of the business, and the risks that can jeopardize business operations if not properly addressed are also increasing,” said Will Bass, vice president of cybersecurity services at Flexential. “In response, organizations must have robust disaster recovery strategies that go beyond basic safeguards. This includes building resilience into every layer of IT infrastructure, rigorously testing disaster recovery plans, and ensuring availability while improving detection and response capabilities. By integrating these practices into infrastructure solutions that manage AI deployments from the start, organizations can avoid disruption and keep their AI projects on track.”
Visit flexential.com to access the full State of AI Infrastructure Report 2024.
Flexential will be on site at DRJ Fall 2024! Visit booth 304 to learn more about the report’s findings and how your organization can improve disaster recovery planning to ensure business resilience in the age of AI. Will Bass, VP of Cybersecurity Services, and Mark Leyda, Cloud and Data Protection Specialist, Flexential, will also be presenting at DRJ Fall on how to partner with your IT organization to ensure business continuity success.
For more information about Flexential, visit: www.flexential.com.
About Flexential:
Flexential optimizes the IT journey for the most complex businesses by delivering customizable IT solutions designed for today’s demanding, high-density computing needs. With colocation, cloud, connectivity, data protection and professional services, the FlexAnywhere® platform anchors our services in 42 data centers across 19 highly connected markets on a 100 Gbps private network. Flexential solutions are strategically designed to meet the most stringent security, compliance and resiliency challenges. Discover the power of IT flexibility and how we enable digital transformation at www.flexential.com.
Company contact:
Alison Brooker
Senior Director, Corporate Marketing
610-745-2697
alison.brooker@flexential.com
SOURCE Flexential
