The Paradoxes of Progress
in Enterprises
Find out how IT decision-makers in enterprise-size organisations across the UK are balancing the competing pressures of innovation, regulation, resilience, and ESG.
The pressures behind modern enterprise infrastructure
The pace of digital change continues to rise. In a few short years, IT teams have moved from pilots to production deployments of AI, while expectations around data use, sustainability, and operational resilience have tightened.
To explore how IT leaders are responding, Telehouse surveyed 500 UK IT decision-makers at enterprise-size organisations. Our new report, The Paradoxes of Progress, sets out three tensions shaping today’s infrastructure decisions, and what organisations need to turn plans into measurable outcomes.
This report answers questions such as:
- How are enterprise IT teams balancing AI innovation with the need to evidence ESG performance?
- Which regulatory pressures most commonly delay enterprise technology deployment?
- How resilient are enterprise AI infrastructures to regional or geopolitical disruption?
What's inside the report?
The report examines three competing paradoxes shaping enterprise infrastructure strategy today.
- AI ambition vs. ESG evidence: How enterprises are pursuing sustainability goals through AI – and the challenges of evidencing impact.
- Regulatory confidence vs. innovation delivery: How regulatory frameworks influence enterprise transformation timelines and execution.
- Geopolitical risk vs. resilience readiness: How geopolitical uncertainty is reshaping infrastructure strategy and recovery planning.
Download the Report
AI ambition vs. ESG evidence
Enterprises are increasingly relying on AI to support sustainability goals, yet many still lack clear evidence of the environmental impact of AI workloads.
Key findings:
89%
89% of IT decision-makers agree AI is accelerating their organisation’s ability to hit net-zero and wider ESG targets
56%
56% say their organisation struggles to measure the emissions of AI workloads accurately
Regulatory confidence vs. innovation delivery
Regulation can build trust and create a platform for innovation, yet uncertainty and approval processes continue to slow delivery.
Key findings:
99%
99% feel at least some confidence they can stay compliant while pursuing digital transformation
95%
95% say regulatory approvals sometimes delay planned technology rollouts
Geopolitical risk vs. resilience readiness
Geopolitical uncertainty is reshaping infrastructure strategy, but recovery speeds and tested procedures do not always match intent.
Key findings:
93%
say geopolitical risks are influencing their organisation’s infrastructure decisions
59%
say it would take more than an hour to switch inference workloads to an alternative site if a regional incident took their primary UK AI data centre offline