Macro Views Commentary

Snapshot of 2025’s Leading Enterprise Tech Trends

ETR recently released a report summarizing key trends, advancements, and challenges expected to impact enterprise technology by 2025. Based on direct, written commentary from 1,835 experts, the report provides real-world perspectives on market directions across five main areas: Cloud Computing, Information Security, Data and Analytics, AI/ML, and Broader IT Concerns. By featuring quotes, case studies, and best practices, the report aims to: 

1. Capture the “On-the-Ground” Reality: Rather than a purely theoretical analysis of technology, these commentaries reflect real-world implementation challenges, budgets, and successes directly from those in the field.
2. Identify Emerging Trends: The aggregated insights often predict future spending directions—whether in tools, workloads, or security strategies—thus helping both investors and technologists to navigate and plan effectively.
3. Inform Strategic and Investment Decisions: By highlighting which vendors, platforms, and innovations are gaining or losing traction, the commentary equips organizations to make timely moves, adjust internal roadmaps, and refine their tech investment portfolios. 
   
   

Key Findings 

• Ongoing Migration and Multi-Cloud: A large cohort continues to shift workloads from on-premises to cloud environments, citing scalability and cost management. However, multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud strategies are increasingly favored to mitigate vendor lock-in and flexibly align workloads with optimal platforms.  
• Cost Pressures & Repatriation: Many respondents stress cost optimization and “repatriation” of stable workloads if public cloud costs grow too high. While large-scale movement to the cloud persists, certain specialized or steady-state workloads are returning on-premises to reduce operational expenses.  
• Edge & AI Integration: The proliferation of edge computing is a major theme, enabling low-latency operations and real-time analytics—particularly beneficial in IoT-heavy sectors. Meanwhile, the cloud is also becoming the core delivery method for AI/ML services, fueling a virtuous cycle in which AI expands cloud usage and vice versa. 
  

• AI-Powered Security and Zero Trust: Many respondents view AI-driven threat detection as a decisive advancement. Coupled with zero-trust architecture—in which no device, user, or system is inherently trusted—security teams are recalibrating risk controls in response to increasingly sophisticated attacks.  
• Spending and Consolidation: Organizations plan to raise security budgets in 2025, owing to factors like ransomware, compliance mandates, and the need to shore up remote-work vulnerabilities. At the same time, there is a tool consolidation trend—reducing point solutions in favor of integrated security suites.  
• Regulatory Complexity: Security teams face growing compliance demands, heightening the focus on governance, privacy, and data protection, forcing more rigorous tracking of who touches data, how, and for what purpose. This also increases the need for logging, monitoring, and observability across all aspects of information security. 
  

• Real-Time Insights and AI Integration: Real-time analytics is on the rise, driven by the need for immediate insights in domains like fraud detection, operational monitoring, and hyper-personalized services. AI integration—often labeled “augmented analytics”—is advancing the speed and depth of insights.  
• Data Governance and Democratization: As the volume and complexity of data skyrocket, governance and quality controls become paramount. Many organizations are rolling out self-service analytics platforms and natural language–powered interfaces to put insights in the hands of non-technical users.  
• ROI and Cost Optimization: Echoing the broader spending concerns, data leaders must show tangible ROI for big-data projects. Consolidating analytics tools onto single platforms or reducing vendor complexity emerges as a popular approach to driving cost-effectiveness.  

• Accelerating Adoption and Embedded Features: Respondents see AI as ubiquitous. Tools like AI-assisted coding, chatbots, predictive analytics, and personalization engines are now standard in many product offerings. Still, there’s a palpable tension between rapid adoption and verifying whether AI truly offers ROI. 
• Governance, Ethics, and Security: With AI’s growing footprint come concerns over data privacy, model bias, and responsible use. Many mention the need for formal AI governance frameworks and caution that AI can also be used maliciously by attackers, creating new vulnerabilities to defend against.  
• Workforce and Hype vs. Reality: There’s an undercurrent of workforce transformation—some see AI eliminating certain roles while others see it augmenting talent by offloading routine tasks. At the same time, multiple voices urge caution against AI “over-hype,” calling for practical use cases that deliver a clear ROI. 

• Cost Optimization and  Vendor Pressures: Whether in cloud, security, or data, the overarching budget constraints and cost management imperatives drive nearly every initiative. These constraints spur vendor consolidation efforts and reevaluations of expensive services.  
• Talent Management and Hybrid Work: The right skill sets—especially in cybersecurity and advanced data—remain difficult to source and retain. Organizations report forging new strategies around upskilling, flexible work arrangements, and external partnerships to fill gaps.  
• Emerging Tech and  Digital Transformation: Beyond AI, many respondents mention interest in quantum computing, XR (extended reality), and advanced automation solutions. Core digital transformation continues, with an emphasis on connecting older processes to modern, cloud-based, and AI-driven tech.  

Conclusion 

ETR’s January 2025 Macro Views commentary crystallizes the outlook for enterprise technology, blending top-level trends with ground-level realities. From the steady march of cloud computing (spurred by multi-cloud and AI) to ever-increasing security concerns (like ransomware and zero-trust mandates) and the leap to next-generation analytics and AI frameworks, the tech expert commentary underscores that while digital transformation efforts abound, success hinges on precise cost management, robust governance, and a clear assessment of ROI (especially around AI). For both the investing and technology community and technology teams, these findings provide crucial signals for navigating the road ahead and aligning their strategies with the identified trends.  
 
For institutional equity investors, these grassroots insights are crucial for spotting early indicators of market shifts—such as surging AI investments, intensifying competition among cloud providers, or new security vendors gaining share. By gauging actual spend priorities and pain points, investors can align their strategies with forward-looking priorities.  

For technology practitioners and vendors, the commentary offers an unvarnished look at how end-users and peer organizations are budgeting, implementing, and evaluating new technology and tools. This helps CIOs and IT teams benchmark decisions—whether shifting from best-of-breed security apps to integrated platforms, deciding on multi-cloud approaches, or planning AI pilot programs with the highest ROI potential.