What You Should Know:
– Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, today announced the findings of its seventh annual global Healthcare Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey and research report.
– The report reveals that an astonishing 99% of healthcare organizations surveyed are currently leveraging Generative AI (GenAI) applications or workloads, surpassing adoption rates in every other industry. However, this rapid embrace comes with significant challenges, as 96% of these organizations admit their current data security and governance measures are insufficient to fully support GenAI at scale.
Rapid GenAI Adoption Meets Data Security Concerns
The 2025 report highlights a paradoxical landscape in healthcare: while adoption of GenAI is at record rates, profound concerns remain. The most significant issue flagged by healthcare leaders is the ability to integrate GenAI with existing IT infrastructure (79%). This is closely followed by persistent healthcare data silos (65%) and development challenges with cloud-native applications and containers (59%).
GenAI applications currently being leveraged span a mix from AI-powered chatbots to code co-pilots and clinical development automation. However, the overwhelming majority (96%) of organizations share that their current data security and governance measures are insufficient to fully support GenAI at scale. Privacy and security concerns related to using Large Language Models (LLMs) with sensitive company data are the number one challenge for leveraging or expanding GenAI utilization.
The Imperative for Infrastructure Modernization
The report strongly recommends prioritizing infrastructure modernization to support GenAI at scale. Running modern applications at enterprise scale demands infrastructure solutions capable of handling complex data security, integrity, and resilience requirements. Unfortunately, 99% of healthcare respondents admit facing challenges when scaling GenAI workloads from development to production, with integration with existing IT infrastructure being the top issue. This underscores the critical need for healthcare IT decision-makers to invest in infrastructure modernization as a key enabler for GenAI initiatives.
The Rise of Containerization and Kubernetes
Application containerization and Kubernetes® deployments are expanding rapidly across the healthcare industry. This trend is driven by the potential for container-based infrastructure and application development to provide seamless, secure access to patient and business data across hybrid and multicloud environments. A remarkable 99% of healthcare respondents are at least in the process of containerizing applications , and 92% agree their organization benefits from adopting cloud-native applications/containers. This suggests that containerization will play a significant role in expansion strategies for new and existing workloads.
Most healthcare organizations utilize multiple Kubernetes environments, with 84% using more than one, primarily two or three environments. Despite these benefits, challenges remain, including the need for IT infrastructure improvement (79%), difficulties with cloud-native application development (59%), and persistent data silos (65%).
Strategic Recommendations for Healthcare IT Leaders
The Nutanix report offers key recommendations for healthcare IT decision-makers:
- Capitalize on Long-Term GenAI ROI: Healthcare respondents are optimistic about GenAI ROI over a 1-3 year period (79% expect to break even or make a gain). Organizations should plan projects and budgets with this long-term outlook to allow for iteration and prevent project abandonment.
- Ensure Consistent ROI Measurement: Design GenAI ROI programs and metrics for consistent tracking across multiple years to preempt measurement difficulties over time.
- Invest in IT Infrastructure Modernization: Continuously invest in IT infrastructure to reduce regulatory and compliance challenges associated with legacy systems and secure GenAI models and applications. A significant 96% of healthcare respondents believe their organization could be doing more in this area.
- Address Supply Chain Security: Recognize that not all elements of the GenAI data ecosystem will be under direct control. Organizations must have contingency plans for data breaches and disasters, as 83% are concerned about GenAI’s impact on data security in the broader IT vendor supply chain.
- Mind Skill Gaps: Prioritize hiring new talent and upskilling existing talent to support emerging AI and cloud workloads. The report indicates that IT training and talent hiring is the third top area needing investment for GenAI support , with 67% of healthcare respondents currently hiring for GenAI skills and 66% for cloud-native/container skills.
“In healthcare, every decision we make has a direct impact on patient outcomes – including how we evolve our technology stack,” said Jon Edwards, Director IS Infrastructure Engineering at Legacy Health. “We took a close look at how to integrate GenAI responsibly, and that meant investing in infrastructure that supports long-term innovation without compromising on data privacy or security. We’re committed to modernizing our systems to deliver better care, drive efficiency, and uphold the trust that patients place in us.”
