Red Hat Survey: Ireland’s IT Managers Prepare for Increased AI and Cloud Investment in 2025, Adopt New Tech to Support Cost Optimisation, DevOps, Security

• 93% of IT managers in Ireland surveyed plan to increase cloud investment next year, while 95% aim to boost AI investment
• 96% report siloed teams as a challenge to cloud adoption
• 100% see advantages in adopting enterprise open solutions for AI

Red Hat, Inc., the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced new survey results highlighting key drivers for cloud and AI strategies among IT managers in Ireland over the next 18 months. The research surveyed 300 IT managers from large businesses (500+ employees) across Ireland. It explores the priorities and challenges they face as they navigate cloud complexity and execute AI strategies.

93% of IT managers surveyed say their organisation plans to increase investment in cloud technology by 2025¹, with a majority of these (43%) planning growth by 5-20% and 38% planning growth by 21-50%, while 10% plan an increase of 51% or more².

The top priority for cloud strategy for the next 18 months is cost optimization, cited by 71% of respondents³. This is followed closely by cloud-native application development and DevOps (67%)³; security, compliance and sovereignty regulatory requirements (67%)³; and moving to hybrid / multi cloud, reducing dependence on a single provider (67%)³.

Investment in AI is set to increase over the next year for 95% of organisations¹, according to respondents, with a majority (42%) planning an increase in the range of 5-20% and 33% planning a 21-50% increase, while 19% plan an increase of 51% or more².

All IT managers surveyed see benefits in adopting enterprise open source solutions for AI, including predictive and generative. Enhanced agility in hybrid cloud environments is seen as the top advantage (31%), with improved ecosystem collaboration and integration coming in second place (30%).

Cloud innovation is a focus, yet siloed teams slow adoption

IT managers surveyed describe their organisation’s planned approach to investing in cloud technology by 2025:

• Over a third (37%) plan for a strong focus on innovation and new technologies
• 31% will take a balanced approach, focusing equally on new technologies and enhancements to existing systems
• 18% are focused on essential services only

However, 96% of respondents said siloed teams pose challenges when adopting cloud technologies⁴, with 51% encountering this issue frequently⁵. Among those experiencing silos, the most common impacts on cloud strategy are:

• Increased costs (32%)
• Limited control and visibility over cloud resources (32%)
• Operational inefficiencies, for example, duplicating efforts across teams (30%)
• Difficulty in leveraging new technologies and innovations (26%)

Readiness for AI

When asked about their ability to take advantage of the growing AI opportunity, 42% of IT managers surveyed state that their organisation has scalable, flexible and accessible IT platforms to support AI use and feel well positioned to benefit from them. This compares to 23% that have the necessary platforms but lack the right skills sets to fully harness AI’s potential and 34% that need new platforms⁶.

As enterprises increasingly explore generative AI to solve existing problems or seize new opportunities, the survey looked to identify factors that determine trust in an enterprise model for generative AI. Multiple factors were shown to be important⁷, in the 80-85% range, with the following coming top among respondents:

• Transparent, modifiable models with explainable sources (cited by 85%)
• Cost-effectiveness (85%)
• Domain-specific models (as opposed to generic LLMs) (84%)
• Compliance with data privacy and security standards (83%)

The survey asked for the main obstacles preventing CTOs or equivalent decision makers from advancing generative AI initiatives. The top listed were:

• Integration challenges with existing systems (30%)
• Concerns about data privacy and security (27%)
• High costs of implementation and maintenance (23%)
• Energy consumption / sustainability concerns (23%)

Ireland’s tech talent pipeline

When asked to identify where there are skills gaps, respondents highlighted areas like AI and cloud. However, there was less strength of agreement compared to what we saw from respondents in other countries in another recent Red Hat survey, which could suggest that respondents in Ireland see greater progress in filling the tech talent pipeline.

The top named skills gap from respondents in Ireland was not in technology itself, but in strategic thinking and ability to tackle business-level issues, cited by 44%⁸. This compares to the top skills gap in the UK which was AI, cited by a majority of 88% respondents in the aforementioned survey. The next three top listed skills gap among respondents in Ireland are as follows⁸: 

• Cybersecurity (42%)
• AI (41%)
• Cloud computing (39%)

Supporting Quotes

Robbie Byrne, Country manager, Ireland, Red Hat

“The survey results reflect the challenging dynamics we are seeing with our customers: a keen focus on innovation as they look to drive their digital transformation to the next level, while also needing to optimise costs. Contemporary technologies such as automation, AI and cloud-native applications can bring efficiencies, but there are also headwinds such as internal silos, skills gaps and in some cases a lack of access to the right IT platforms. We believe that having greater choice, flexibility and independence at a platform level is going to be crucial for businesses looking to harness AI’s potential and navigate unknown disruption ahead. We also see enterprise open source playing a more important role than ever as organisations seek agility in a hybrid world.”

¹ Reverse of ‘we do not plan to increase’ and ‘unsure’ answers combined

²  ‘51-75%’ and ‘above 75%’ answers combined

³  ‘Strongly agree’ and ‘somewhat agree’ answers combined

⁴  ‘Always’, ‘frequently’, ‘occasionally’, and ‘rarely’ answers combined

⁵  ‘Always’ and ‘frequently’ answers combined

⁶ ‘We need new platforms and are on a path to acquire these’, ‘We need new platforms but cannot acquire them within our current cost optimisation strategy’ and ‘We need new platforms but we lack the buy-in from stakeholders, so have no plan to acquire these’ answers combined 

⁷  ‘Very important’ and ‘somewhat important’ answers combined

⁸  ‘Strongly agree’ and ‘somewhat agree’ answers combined

Methodology

The research referenced in this press release was conducted by international market research consultancy Censuswide, among a sample of 300 IT Managers aged 18+ in Large Businesses (500+ Employees). The survey ran in Ireland and the data was collected between 30th of October to 07th of November 2024. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS code of conduct which is based on the ESOMAR principles.

For this press release, percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.

Definitions used in the survey:

Cloud management: the control and orchestration of products and services that operate in a cloud environment (public cloud, private cloud, hybrid and multicloud), including processes, strategies, policies and technology

Cloud strategy: the use of cloud infrastructure to run applications, including private cloud, public cloud, and the use of cloud-native technology such as containers to develop software.

IT platform: An operating system, infrastructure or application platform for developing and scaling applications, including AI apps, consistently across datacentre, cloud and multiple public clouds 

Enterprise open source software: open source software that is supported by a vendor, usually via a subscription fee. For example, the vendor stabilises and quality-assures the software, certifies it works with an ecosystem of hardware and software, secures it and provides technical support.

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Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to deliver reliable and high-performing Linux, hybrid cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies. Red Hat helps customers integrate new and existing IT applications, develop cloud-native applications, standardize on our industry-leading operating system, and automate, secure, and manage complex environments. Award-winning support, training, and consulting services make Red Hat a trusted adviser to the Fortune 500. As a strategic partner to cloud providers, system integrators, application vendors, customers, and open source communities, Red Hat can help organizations prepare for the digital future.
 
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