Swiss IT decision-makers want to remain secure and confident
A recent survey conducted by Cisco Switzerland among 200 IT decision-makers in Swiss companies with more than 250 employees shows: The biggest challenges lie in IT security, limited IT budgets and migration to the cloud. At the same time, the topic of digital sovereignty is becoming increasingly important.
In a recent survey conducted by Cisco in Switzerland, 38% of respondents named maintaining IT security as the biggest general IT challenge, followed by limited budgets (33 %) and cloud migration (32 %). Companies are also increasingly concerned about the lack of qualified IT specialists (30 %) and securing digital sovereignty (29 %). The study surveyed 200 IT decision-makers in Swiss companies with more than 250 employees.
Digital sovereignty is becoming more important
It is particularly important to IT decision-makers that Switzerland has maximum freedom of action in the digital space. 96% of IT decision-makers believe it is important for Switzerland to retain control over its digital infrastructure and data. At company level, just as many share this view (96 %). In particular, a national strategy (46%), investment in local IT training (38%) and the development of local IT hardware and software (37%) are desired.
«The results clearly show that Swiss companies not only want to work securely and efficiently, but also want to remain sovereign. These are important drivers for strengthening the innovative power, economic strength and resilience of the Swiss economy,» says Chris Tighe, Managing Director of Cisco Switzerland.
Important factors when selecting IT products
For IT decision-makers, two established factors remain the focus: costs and return on investment (ROI) (39 %), and product quality (38 %) occupy priorities 1 and 3. In second place, «AI compatibility» (39 %) is moving into focus as an important parameter.
«Every IT decision has to be economically viable, that's quite clear. The focus on AI compatibility is particularly important for the future viability of our IT infrastructure. It also lays the foundations for Swiss prosperity,» adds Matthias Wick, CTO Cisco Switzerland.
AI in everyday business
The survey also shows that artificial intelligence has developed from a visionary technology of the future into a key driver of economic and social transformation. Nine out of ten of the Swiss companies surveyed already use AI in their day-to-day business. These include applications such as automatic customer communication (42%), image recognition and quality control (40%) and process automation, for example by robots (37%). The Cisco «AI Readiness» Index has also shown that German companies are ambitious: Over 80 percent are specifically planning to develop or are already using so-called AI agents. 37% of companies assume that AI agents will be working with employees within the next year.
Meanwhile, the already tense cyber security situation is worsening. Whether phishing, ransomware or AI-based attacks on company networks, the threat situation is increasing. This makes securing the company all the more important. Among the Swiss IT decision-makers surveyed, the following cyber security solutions are the most important for their company: network security (40 %), cloud protection (37 %) and data encryption (34 %).
Source: Cisco
