New Delhi, April 15 (IANS): Data security and ransomware protection (55 per cent) are the number one priority for organisations in India, a new report revealed on Monday.

According to the cloud computing company Nutanix's Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) report, as artificial intelligence (AI) further takes centre stage for businesses, 90 per cent of organisations plan to increase investment in AI strategy support.

“Our latest ECI report found that a staggering 99 per cent of Indian IT professionals surveyed are focused on this approach,” said Faiz Shakir, MD at Nutanix India.

"This cloud-smart strategy, which involves using the optimal IT environment for each application, is critical for driving security and innovation, which our study also highlights as among the top priorities for Indian decision-makers," he added.

About 99 per cent of IT professionals in India said they are focused on taking a “cloud-smart” approach to their infrastructure strategy.

Cloud-smart deployments involve leveraging the optimum IT environment for each application or workload.

Apart from data security and ransomware protection, the other top areas slotted for increased investment by Indian firms during 2024 include -- implementing AI strategies (48 per cent), optimising operations (43 per cent), implementing the right hybrid IT operations (42 per cent), and minimising cost/ sustainability (39 per cent), the report mentioned.

According to the report, data privacy was ranked as a major data management challenge by 61 per cent of Indian firms.