Hitachi Vantara warns poor data foundations are stalling AI projects

Hitachi Vantara data infrastructure research shows that failings in data management, governance, and security are stalling AI projects.

The company’s 2025 State of Data Infrastructure Global Report, titled “From Fragile to Optimized,” says enterprises are drowning in petabytes of data while investing in AI projects that rely on it, but are being held back by a lack of supporting data infrastructure. It declares: “Those who invest in infrastructure, governance, and trusted partnerships win big. The rest will be left counting losses, while competitors turn insight into dollars.”

Lee Nolan, General Manager UK&I, Hitachi Vantara, commented: “AI is acting as a stress test for UK organizations, and many are failing it. As adoption accelerates, long-standing weaknesses in data governance and resilience are being laid bare, increasing exposure to cyber risk and operational disruption.”

“Organizations need to become far more deliberate about where their data lives, recognizing that control over sensitive information is fundamental to resilience, accountability, and confidence as AI becomes embedded across the business.”

The research, carried out by Pew Research Center, surveyed 1,244 C-level executives and IT leaders across 15 countries (including 409 in Europe and 103 in the UK) and outlines a data foundation maturity model, with three states: Emerging, Defined and Optimized. It categorizes organizations based on their data infrastructure capabilities across six key dimensions: Scalability, Reliability, Security, Governance, Sovereignty, and Sustainability.

Emerging firms, 24 percent of organizations, are risk-averse, skill-starved, and clinging to manual processes that leave them unable to scale. Optimized organizations (41 percent) have resilient infrastructure with clean data powering AI-driven operations and measurable returns. Defined organizations (35 percent) exist between the two, risking irrelevance with marginal progress, but lack the talent and strategy to execute.

The report finds that 89 percent of Optimized organizations use high availability design, regular resilience testing, and AI-driven operations. This compares to just 20 percent of Emerging organizations. On automation, 48 percent of Optimized organizations use predictive, automated scaling versus just 4 percent of Emerging ones.

Hitachi Vantara says organizations with weak data foundation maturity face the highest risk exposure, as fragmented systems, manual processes, and lack of skilled teams leave them unable to scale or secure AI initiatives. Market and geopolitical volatility add to risk. Its report declares: “Weak data practices waste enormous resources. Robust infrastructure, governance, and talent specifically lead to success. Laggards struggle with fragmented systems and unskilled teams.”

Data complexity and risk affects the emerging organizations the most and the optimized firms the least.

How do organizations locate themselves in this Emerging, Defined, Optimized model? The report doesn’t say. It does provide action item checklists for organizations in each level to improve matters. Adopting a “sophisticated infrastructure” is recommended, and a link on that phrase in the report leads to information about the economic value of the company’s Virtual Storage Platform One (VSP One) product.

Register here to download the report. Check out Hitachi Vantara’s data foundation infrastructure microsite to find out more.