Growing AI workloads are causing hybrid cloud headaches

IT leaders are becoming increasingly concerned about mounting strain on hybrid cloud infrastructure as a result of growing AI workloads, new research shows.

In a survey of more than 1,000 global security and IT leaders across Australia, France, Germany, Singapore, the UK and the US, Gigamon found that nearly half saw managing AI-related threats as their top security priority.

AI workloads have more than doubled network data volumes over the past two years, and almost half of respondents said they were seeing a rise in attacks targeting organization’s large language model (LLM) deployments.

As a result, nine-in-ten security and IT leaders said they’re having to make compromises when it comes to securing and managing hybrid cloud infrastructure.

Nearly half said they're missing comprehensive visibility across their environments, including lateral movement in 'East-West' traffic flowing between servers within a data center or between different parts of their network.

Notably, concerns are rising on the public cloud front. While once considered an acceptable risk in the rush to scale post-Covid operations, seven-in-ten respondents said public cloud now poses a greater risk than any other environment.

Key concerns highlighted by IT leaders included governance, data integrity, and intellectual property.

For example, more than half said they are reluctant to use AI in public cloud environments, citing fears around intellectual property protection.

Seven-in-ten said their organization was actively exploring the prospect of repatriating data from public to private cloud due to security concerns.

CISOs aren’t being supported

However, more than a third of CISOs said they didn't have enough influence over AI and security-related business decisions, complaining that they were held accountable without authority, visibility, or resources.

"They know what needs to change. They see where the vulnerabilities lie. But without control over security investments or executive backing, even the most well-informed Security and IT leaders are left in an untenable position: referees expected to enforce the rules without a whistle, while the game plays on around them," researchers said.

"Accountability without authority does not just limit their impact — it introduces risk the organization can’t afford to ignore."

Visibility was a prime concern, with more than half saying they lack confidence in their current tools’ ability to detect breaches, and citing limited visibility as the core issue.

Subsequently, nearly two-thirds said their number one focus for the next 12 months was achieving real-time threat monitoring with complete visibility into all data in motion.

"Security teams are struggling to keep pace with the speed of AI adoption and the growing complexity and vulnerability of public cloud environments," said Mark Jow, technical evangelist, EMEA, at Gigamon.

"With 88% of security and IT leaders agreeing it is critical to securing AI deployments, deep observability is fast becoming a strategic imperative."

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