Adopting the Cloud is no longer enough, as it has become a digitalization standard. For Italian companies, the real challenge now lies in governing it effectively—ensuring data security, modernizing critical applications, and integrating artificial intelligence into business processes.

This is the main finding of the survey “Models, Priorities, and Strategies for Cloud Adoption in Italian Enterprises”, carried out at the initiative of Engineering and Oracle and conducted by NetConsulting Cube.

The qualitative study, based on a sample of 60 medium-to-large Italian companies—public and private—representing key sectors of the national economy (financial and insurance services, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications, energy, and Public Administration), analyzed Cloud adoption strategies, modernization paths for business-critical IT applications, and the maturity level of AI adoption. At the same time, it highlighted the most pressing challenges in terms of security, data management, and compliance. Thanks to its diverse composition, the sample provides a clear picture of where IT investments of medium and large Italian companies will be focused over the next 2–3 years, based on the main business challenges they all face.

According to data presented by NetConsulting Cube, in 2024 the Cloud market nearly reached €7.3 billion, but managing this technology brings new complexities. The top issue is data protection: 68% of companies consider data security and integrity the most urgent matter. This is followed by the difficulty of governing multicloud environments (60%), where different platforms must be integrated while ensuring regulatory compliance and operational continuity. Managing sensitive data also remains a challenge for 57% of companies, showing how much trust in digital infrastructure depends on the ability to ensure protection and transparency.

Beyond security, another priority is the modernization of core applications—legacy systems that manage vital business processes. Almost half of the companies surveyed have already launched structured initiatives in this direction. The main goal is process automation (52%), which increases efficiency and speed of operations. The two most adopted strategies are: re-purchasing (49%), meaning the replacement of existing solutions with cloud-native applications, and re-platforming (36%), which involves adapting traditional systems to new digital architectures.

On the AI front, 50% of the surveyed companies have already defined an advanced strategy. These are no longer isolated experiments but structured initiatives that increasingly integrate AI into business models. Companies are focusing on infrastructures that support open-source frameworks—libraries and development tools that allow for project customization—and on pre-trained AI platforms, i.e. models already trained and ready to use, enabling faster application deployment while reducing time and costs.

Looking at investment priorities, a strong focus on advanced data management clearly emerges. Almost half of the companies (47%) plan to allocate resources to Analytics and Business Intelligence solutions, to extract value from business data and support faster, more informed decisions. Another 38% are concentrating on Cloud Data Management, aiming for higher data quality, consistency, and accessibility. Finally, 32% are investing in AI and Machine Learning integration into databases, reflecting the intent to make core systems smarter and capable of generating real-time insights.

Massimo Del Vecchio, Eng Modernize Executive Director at Engineering, stated:
“The importance of Cloud adoption is no longer in question. The future depends on the ability to integrate it coherently into business strategy, with a focus on data management, security, innovation (including AI), and governance. Engineering supports Italian companies in this journey so that the Cloud is not just infrastructure, but a real driver of growth, efficiency, and trust in the market.”

Lanfranco Brasca, Senior Director of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Customer Solution Design in Oracle Italy, added:
“Thanks to its AI-focused design, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) enables companies to integrate artificial intelligence into their processes securely and strategically. The infrastructure, leveraging next-generation NVIDIA GPUs integrated into high-performance clusters, provides training, fine-tuning, and inference services for generative AI models, while allowing customers to maintain full control of their data—for example through Oracle Autonomous Database23ai—without the need to move it. With OCI, companies can not only reduce costs and complexity but also foster responsible AI adoption, transforming their business to become more adaptive and competitive.”