Companies around the world are continuing their digital transformation efforts, with 29% considered “players,” ranking among leaders in areas such as infrastructure, application delivery, security, data and automation.
According to a report from F5, this is a huge improvement from last year’s report, where only 4% were considered “doers.”
F5 analyzed 713 responses selected from its Digital Enterprise Maturity Index report. Respondents represent a global sample, with just about a third from each major region: North America; Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.
The report categorizes organizations into three distinct groups based on their progress in digital transformation: “doers,” who are making significant progress and leading the way in modernization; “amateurs”, who are in the early stages of their digital journey; and “loafers,” who show little or no progress in improving their digital capabilities.
F5 said this classification helps highlight different levels of digital maturity and readiness for AI integration.
The results show that generative AI is fundamentally changing digital operations, significantly improving automation and data management. Organizations that integrate AI technologies demonstrate higher levels of digital maturity across several categories.
Additionally, 82% of “doers” operate hybrid applications, indicating advanced digital readiness and effective AI integration.
Additionally, 97% of digitally mature organizations have adopted or plan to adopt site reliability engineering (SRE) practices, critical to scaling AI-enabled operations and maintaining performance.
Meanwhile, with the growing reliance on AI, 92% of mature organizations have adopted zero trust principles, reflecting a higher level of trust in their security frameworks.
Additionally, advanced organizations manage an average of 468 APIs, presenting a sophisticated digital infrastructure prepared for AI integration.
Organizations with “automated” automation maturity saw the greatest benefits: 53% experienced greater consistency, 71% saw cost savings, and 80% reported greater operational efficiency.
Beyond the impact of generative AI, the report cites several key areas crucial for digital transformation.
The first is infrastructure modernization. The report highlights the importance of a flexible and adaptable enterprise architecture to keep pace with rapid technological advancements.
Organizations need infrastructure that can seamlessly integrate new technologies as they emerge.
Second, application delivery and security. The ability to distribute and secure applications across different environments (core, cloud, and edge) is essential.
The report highlights that 40% of organizations have automated application and API security features, but only 23% have automated application delivery, indicating a significant area for improvement.
Additionally, data governance and comprehensive observability are essential to digital maturity. The report notes that 58% of “doers” face challenges related to data silos, highlighting the need for robust data strategies to enable full observability and drive automation.
Finally, the report examines the operational barriers organizations face, such as budget constraints, tool complexity, and skills shortages.
For example, 49% of doers cite a lack of interoperability and too many tools and APIs as significant barriers to automation.
