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Colt’s 2024 Digital Infrastructure Report
The CIO’s path to a better future
impact
infrastructure
With climate change firmly in the spotlight in 2024, CIOs are putting environmental impact and governance in the strategic driving seat for digital infrastructure.
They’re turning to features like network-as-a-service (NaaS); on-demand, virtualised network functions and tools that allow them to adapt to user demand to enable their strategic goals. We define these technologies, in a digital infrastructure context, as intelligent.
Our survey
Our survey of more than 1,500 global senior IT decision-makers across ten countries shows there’s steady growth in the adoption of intelligent infrastructure and an appetite for greater commitment and support from industry players.
Environmental impact and governance are steering CIO decision-making
say environmental impact and governance drive all strategic digital infrastructure decisions.
say environmental impact and governance influence all strategic digital infrastructure decisions.
have a multi-year environmental strategy in place.
are about to embark on a multi-year environmental strategy.
Digital infrastructure spend is holding steady
of the participants expect spend to grow in the next 12 months
two-thirds say spending will increase by more than 10% in the next 12 months
The technologies CIOs are adopting to build intelligence into their infrastructure
On-demand, virtualised network functions
Flexible bandwidth consumption/NaaS
Traditional AI
Generative AI
*Those who ‘have truly intelligent digital infrastructure, end to end and across the user journey’, ‘have intelligence across some parts of our digital infrastructure but not end to end’ and those who ‘have intelligence across some parts of our digital infrastructure but not across the user journey’
Industry analyst Frost & Sullivan says that to build the foundations of a successful NaaS offering, providers need:
Expert teams to handle the complexity of full end-to-end NaaS.
To cooperate and standardise with other network providers across the industry, much like the history of ethernet adoption
A holistic network of partners to make the transition to NaaS as smooth as possible.
Frost & Sullivan, Network-as-a-Service is Transforming Network Operators into API-focused Integrators, Stephen Thomas, December 2023
CIOs are involved and confident in environmental issues
71% of CIOs have direct roles in shaping sustainability strategies or own them entirely.
95% are confident in their teams’ abilities to comply with relevant governance and regulations
Intelligent infrastructure and AI help mitigate environmental impact
Progress on environmental strategies varies by region and sector
We discovered a marked strategy-ready difference between regions and industries:
% of organisations that have a multi-year environmental strategy in place (by country)
CIOs have mixed views of their suppliers’ environmental commitment
say their carrier/telco is reactive about carbon reduction
These IT decision-makers demand more from their suppliers and are not afraid to proactively push for more support and guidance if needed.
say their carrier/telco is proactive about carbon reduction
These stats merely scratch the surface of what we discovered.
Download the full report to find out more.
