New research from Nutanix and Wakefield Research
Key Takeaways from the 2026 Public Sector Enterprise Cloud Index Report about AI Adoption Trends, Governance Gaps, and Infrastructure Realities
The Public Sector IT Balancing Act
Government and education IT leaders are carrying two things at once: the legacy infrastructure that keeps critical services running today, and the cloud-native platforms that will power tomorrow's missions.
The 2026 Public Sector Enterprise Cloud Index Report reveals how that balancing act is playing out—and where AI is accelerating the pressure to modernize. Based on a survey of 1,600 IT executives worldwide, including federal, state and local government, K–12, and higher education leaders, this report surfaces the infrastructure realities, governance gaps, and strategic decisions defining public sector IT right now.
The report captures these shifts—and the numbers are striking
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Containers package application code and dependencies into portable, secure environments, making it easier to modernize legacy systems, scale services, and maintain compliance. Adoption is accelerating: 87% of public sector IT leaders expect containerization to increase, and 83% are already building new applications in containers.
AI is a primary driver of modernization. 86% of IT leaders say AI is accelerating container adoption, yet 73% report their infrastructure is not fully ready for on-premises AI workloads. Closing this readiness gap is essential to meeting leadership mandates for AI at scale.
Shadow AI refers to AI tools and agents deployed by employees outside of IT oversight. It is nearly universal — 96% of public sector IT leaders encounter it — and 91% believe it creates business and mission risk. Stronger governance and cross-department coordination are needed to manage it.
Very important. 88% of public sector IT leaders rank data sovereignty as a high priority or requirement in infrastructure decisions, and 55% feel the need to run infrastructure domestically to meet compliance, security, and data protection obligations.
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