11:11 Systems survey finds rising UK infrastructure costs

11:11 Systems, a managed infrastructure solutions provider, released UK findings from its 2027 State of IT Infrastructure Resilience study. The research indicates that rising costs, expanding complexity and growing cyber risk are prompting UK organisations to reconsider how they build, protect and recover critical infrastructure.

Infrastructure costs now rank among the year's central challenges, elevating cost management to a strategic priority. Nearly nine in ten UK respondents (89%) reported higher data centre infrastructure costs over the past 12 months, averaging a 14% increase. Cyber risk falls within the same decisions, as 41% identified cyberattacks on production platforms as a leading data centre strategy concern.

Platform change, AI, cybersecurity and recovery demands now converge with rising costs in pressures known as “The Great Infrastructure Reset,” which requires UK IT leaders to make integrated, cross-functional decisions across the entire infrastructure landscape. Among organisations operating across multiple hypervisors or hybrid-cloud environments, 49% cited operational complexity, 49% cited cost unpredictability and 48% identified skills shortages.

73% of UK organisations reported at least one cyberattack or breach in the previous 12 months, and 21% reported three or more. Sixty per cent of respondents said their backup systems were unaffected during an attack, but 40% reported that at least some backup repositories were affected. Although 91% are investing in or evaluating AI for IT and security operations, only 20% report AI-enhanced backup or disaster-recovery capabilities as operational.

The study was commissioned by 11:11 Systems and conducted by Data Protection Matters, an independent analyst firm. The global survey included more than 700 IT leaders across seven countries, including 163 UK respondents directly involved in infrastructure, cybersecurity, backup or disaster recovery decision-making. The report examines multi-hypervisor environments, evolving backup and disaster recovery requirements, AI adoption strategies, infrastructure cost management and the operational realities of modern cyber resilience.

Justin Giardina, chief technology officer at 11:11 Systems, said, “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.” Looking ahead to 2027, 83% of respondents would definitely or probably consider new cyber-resilience, backup or disaster-recovery solutions.