11:11 Systems’ Research Finds 90% of IT Leaders Report Rising Infrastructure Costs, Cyberattacks Are Top Data Center Concern

New study reveals rising costs, cyber risk and complexity reshaping IT resilience strategies for 2027

FAIRFIELD, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--11:11 Systems, a leading managed infrastructure solutions provider, today announced results from its 2027 State of IT Infrastructure Resilience study. The global survey of more than 700 IT leaders finds that rising costs, expanding complexity and growing cyber risk are forcing organizations to rethink how they build, protect and recover critical infrastructure.

The survey findings point to a defining challenge for the year ahead: Infrastructure costs are now at the forefront, elevating cost management to a strategic priority. Increasing costs joins platform change, AI, cybersecurity and recovery demands in a convergence of pressures known as “The Great Infrastructure Reset,” and requires IT leaders to make integrated, cross-functional decisions to address complexity across the entire infrastructure landscape.

Key findings include:

• Infrastructure costs are rising significantly. 90% of respondents saw an increase in total data center infrastructure costs over the past 12 months, with an average increase of 13% year-over-year.
• Cyber risk and infrastructure costs are converging. 43% of respondents name cyberattacks as the top concern in their data centers, and nearly three-quarters of respondents (73%) expect data protection, backup and recovery budgets to increase in 2027.
• Cyberattacks remain common and costly. 69% of IT leaders experienced one or more attacks in the last 12 months, with 24% of respondents experiencing three or more. 62% also report the average cost of one hour of downtime was more than $250,000.
• Complexity is the number one barrier to resilience. 56% identified the complexity of planning for cyber incident recovery as their greatest challenge, followed by lack of in-house expertise and insufficient budgets.
• AI investment is outpacing readiness. 57% are investing in AI-enhanced IT or security toolsets, but only 19% have operational AI-enhanced backup or disaster recovery capabilities. Meanwhile, 78% are concerned that AI-accelerated malware or ransomware will make attacks more sophisticated or frequent.

Data center expenses are not the only cost pressures directly impacting infrastructure strategies. The survey uncovers that over three-quarters of respondents agree that cyber insurance premiums, hypervisor licensing costs, and staffing and skills costs all play a strong role in decision-making alongside cloud hosting, server and hardware costs.

"This research quantifies what IT leaders are already feeling; the challenges are stacking up faster than the budgets," said Jason Buffington, principal analyst and founder of Data Protection Matters, which conducted the research. "Cyberattacks remain an ever-present threat, and now organizations have to govern their own AI while defending against the attackers' AI, all while rising hardware costs squeeze budgets that were already tight. For many organizations, the way through that storm is leaning on expertise as-a-service to reduce complexity, while modernizing how they protect and recover their data."

“Many IT leaders are reassessing their virtualization strategy as VMware licensing and commercial terms evolve, but the economics aren’t one-size-fits-all. For some environments, VMware may remain the right choice once the full cost and complexity of switching are considered,” said Justin Giardina, chief technology officer, 11:11 Systems. “The decision is about more than license price: teams also need to weigh migration effort, operational complexity, security and recovery requirements. The goal isn’t to stay or switch by default, but to choose an infrastructure path that balances cost with security, recoverability and resilience as workloads evolve.”

The study was commissioned by 11:11 Systems and conducted by Data Protection Matters (DPM), an independent analyst firm specializing in data protection, backup, cyber resilience, business continuity, disaster recovery and BaaS/DRaaS. The survey included more than 700 IT leaders at organizations across EMEA, the Americas and APAC. Respondents included both decision-makers and implementers responsible for IT infrastructure, cybersecurity or backup and disaster recovery.

The full 2027 State of IT Infrastructure Resilience report is available here.

About 11:11 Systems

11:11 Systems is a managed infrastructure solutions provider that empowers customers to modernize, protect, and manage mission-critical applications and data through 11:11’s resilient cloud platform. Learn more at 11:11 Systems and follow 11:11 on LinkedIn.