Enterprise IT Builds AI Infrastructure on a Budget, Komprise Survey Finds

The fourth-annual survey on unstructured data management finds the need to balance cost optimization with AI innovation and a focus on data governance and security across all areas


CAMPBELL, Calif., Aug. 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Komprise, the leader in analytics-driven unstructured data management and mobility, announces the results of the Komprise 2024 State of Unstructured Data Management survey. The fourth annual survey finds that most (70%) of enterprises are still experimenting with AI and “preparing for AI” remained a top data storage and data management priority for IT leaders. Yet leaders said that cost optimization is an even higher priority this year and they are trying to fit AI into existing IT budgets. Only 30% say they will increase their IT budgets to support AI projects. 

Other highlights from the survey include a priority on building out the proper infrastructure and technology stack for AI by upgrading data storage and data management technologies and creating AI-ready infrastructure. Addressing security and governance gaps across unstructured data management, GenAI and the IT workforce and moving data without disruption are other top trends of 2024. 

As the startup community and established technology vendors alike rush to launch new products and capabilities for AI, enterprise IT is still laying the infrastructure foundation and determining the necessary economics to get started.

The survey, conducted by a third party, gathered inputs from 300 global enterprise storage IT and business decision makers at companies with more than 1,000 employees in the United States. Download it here.

Highlights of the Survey:

  • Nearly 50% of enterprises are storing more than 5PB of unstructured data and nearly 30% have more than 10PB.
  • The top priorities for data storage in the next year include cost optimization (54%), preparing for AI (51%) and investing in data management and data mobility (41%).
  • As in 2023, moving data without disruption to users/apps is the top technical unstructured data management challenge (54%), followed by using AI to classify and segment data (48%). 
  • Prepping for AI is the top business challenge for unstructured data management (57%). 
  • Only 13% restrict what corporate data can be used in AI, while 31% have no restrictions for users, apps or data in AI. 
  • Nearly half (44%) are creating AI-ready infrastructure and 32% are building their own learning models. 
  • Only 30% are increasing the IT budget to support AI projects. 
  • The leading challenge in prepping data for AI is managing governance/security​ concerns (45%), followed by data classification and tagging​ (41%). 
  • The leading tactic to address AI data concerns is to upgrade data storage/data management technologies (53%). 
  • AI data governance/security is the top future capability (47%) for unstructured data management, up from 28% in 2023.
  • Nearly 60% need more staff with skills related to security, compliance and sensitive data. 

“Our latest survey reveals a pivotal moment in enterprise IT as organizations grapple with the transformative potential of AI while balancing fiscal responsibility,” says Kumar Goswami, CEO and co-founder of Komprise. “IT leaders will also need to factor in critical data governance and security capabilities. Managing unstructured data strategically to optimize costs and use data workflows to enrich metadata is a great place to start an AI initiative.”

Download the full report here.

About Komprise
Komprise is a provider of unstructured data management and mobility software that frees enterprises to easily analyze, mobilize, and monetize the right file and object data across clouds without shackling data to any vendor. With Komprise Intelligent Data Management, you can cut 70% of enterprise storage, backup and cloud costs while making data easily available to cloud-based data lakes, analytics and AI tools. www.komprise.com.

Media Contact:
Kevin Wolf, TGPR
kevin@tgprllc.com