11:11 Systems' Research Finds 93% of ANZ IT Leaders Report Rising Infrastructure Costs, Cyberattacks Are Top Data Centre Concern

New study reveals rising costs, cyber risk and complexity reshaping IT resilience strategies for 2027

SYDNEY, Nov. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- 11:11 Systems, a leading managed infrastructure solutions provider, today announced results from its 2027 State of IT Infrastructure Resilience study. The global survey of more than 700 IT leaders finds that rising costs, expanding complexity and growing cyber risk are forcing organisations to rethink how they build, protect and recover critical infrastructure.

The survey shows that Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) IT leaders are making infrastructure and budget decisions with two big worries in mind: infrastructure costs keep climbing and cyber threats aren't going away. Identity platforms and production environments top the list of leading data centre concerns in the region, while hybrid complexity and inconsistent data protection make it difficult to maintain a reliable recovery plan.

AI adds another layer of urgency. Nearly all ANZ respondents are either investing in or evaluating AI-enhanced IT and security tools, but fewer than one in five report that AI-enhanced backup or disaster recovery is operational today. There's a clear gap between AI ambition and recovery readiness, and it tells us something important: focus investment on capabilities that make resilience easier to see, test and put into action.

ANZ Key findings include:

• Infrastructure costs are rising significantly. 93% of respondents saw an increase in total data centre infrastructure costs over the past 12 months, with an average increase of 14% year-over-year.
• Cyber risk and infrastructure costs are converging. 48% of respondents name cyberattacks as the top concern in their data centres, and nearly three-quarters of respondents (74%) expect data protection, backup and recovery budgets to increase in 2027.
• Cyberattacks remain common and costly. 76% of IT leaders experienced one or more attacks in the last 12 months, with 25% of respondents experiencing three or more. 43% also report the average cost of one hour of downtime from a cyberattack was more than $250,000.
• Complexity is the number one barrier to resilience. 56% identified the complexity of planning for cyber incident recovery as their greatest challenge, followed by lack of in-house expertise and insufficient budgets.
• AI investment is outpacing readiness. 63% are investing in AI-enhanced IT or security toolsets, but only 18% have operational AI-enhanced backup or disaster recovery capabilities.

"This research quantifies what IT leaders are already feeling; the challenges are stacking up faster than the budgets," said Jason Buffington, principal analyst and founder of Data Protection Matters, which conducted the research. "Cyberattacks remain an ever-present threat, and now organisations have to govern their own AI while defending against the attackers' AI, all while rising hardware costs squeeze budgets that were already tight. For many organisations, the way through that storm is leaning on expertise as-a-service to reduce complexity, while modernising how they protect and recover their data."

Marc Beder, Executive General Manager, EMEA and APAC at 11:11 Systems, said, "Resilience requires more than investing in new technology. Organisations need to understand which systems are most critical to their operations, how quickly they need to recover and whether their recovery plans will work under pressure. With many businesses relying on virtualised environments such as VMware to run critical applications and workloads, protecting the underlying infrastructure and ensuring these systems can be recovered quickly is essential. As IT environments become more complex, regular testing and a clear understanding of recovery capabilities can help organisations identify gaps and ensure their infrastructure is ready to support business operations when disruption occurs."

The study was commissioned by 11:11 Systems and conducted by Data Protection Matters (DPM), an independent analyst firm specialising in data protection, backup, cyber resilience, business continuity, disaster recovery and BaaS/DRaaS. The survey included more than 700 IT leaders at organisations across EMEA, the Americas and APAC. Respondents included both decision-makers and implementers responsible for IT infrastructure, cybersecurity or backup and disaster recovery.

The full 2027 State of IT Infrastructure Resilience (APAC) report is available here.

About 11:11 Systems

11:11 Systems is a managed infrastructure solutions provider that empowers customers to modernise, protect, and manage mission-critical applications and data through 11:11's resilient cloud platform. Learn more at 11:11 Systems and follow 11:11 on LinkedIn.

SOURCE 11:11 Systems