Eighty-three percent of businesses that suffered a ransomware infection in the last two years recovered, with only 17 percent suffering permanent data loss, according to the 2025 State of Data and Cloud Strategy Survey Report by cloud file services company CTERA.
CTERA surveyed 300 senior IT and security leaders from the US, EMEA, and APAC working in companies with more than 2,500 employees, across a range of industries. All of the surveyed businesses reported a ransomware attack in the past two years, and the majority – 83 percent – recovered.
Cheryle Cushion, CTERA’s SVP for Marketing, writes: “Our research found that 80 percent of leaders noted security was their top focus for 2025. And they are right to be concerned. Every survey respondent indicated their company had experienced a ransomware attack in the past two years. The damage is significant.”
Only 10 percent paid a ransom, far lower than the general perception. The survey “found that senior leaders appear more confident in data restoration as an outcome, and that no one in the C-suite reported paying a ransom.”
The survey looked at the importance of four business goals to IT bosses. Eighty percent said cybersecurity was a high priority, 61 percent cited cost optimization, 57 percent focused on strategic AI, and 54 percent said data growth management was a high priority:
Despite AI being third on the list, 98 percent of respondents were rolling out LLM and AI-based tools. Asked why, 64 percent said it was to improve the customer experience and an equal proportion cited enhancing predictive intelligence, with 53 percent aiming to boost query accuracy. Ten percent cited a wish to close a skills gap. Most are using AI to improve the effectiveness of their existing employees, not to train up junior staff.
Seventy percent of respondents said there was partial deployment of AI assistants, with 27 percent in a pilot/testing phase. Sixty-seven percent of those implementing AI saw compliance and regulation as a big concern, with 57 percent attentive to security risks, 45 percent thinking that siloed data limited their data access, and 44 percent worried about the cost of implementation and maintenance.
Any flight from the public cloud was not strongly apparent, with 61 percent reporting a cloud-first strategy rather than private datacenters. CTERA found 26 percent of C-level executives strongly prioritize cloud, compared to just 11 percent of VPs and 9 percent of directors. Perhaps the more operationally focused execs were more aware of cloud costs.
The report states: “Organizations are seeing clear value from their shift to cloud file storage. Every respondent reported at least one benefit, with no one indicating otherwise. The most commonly cited advantages include improved collaboration (57 percent), increased availability and uptime (48 percent), and broader integration with other platforms (37 percent).”
CTERA’s concern is that its cloud file services software is secure and gets used in its customers’ AI activities. Cushion said: “Enterprises are navigating an evolving landscape of IT priorities, trying to balance immediate cybersecurity needs with forward-thinking AI strategies. CTERA’s Intelligent Data Platform offers a path to robust ransomware resilience, streamlined cloud storage deployment, and seamless cloud migration aligning with both strategic leadership priorities and operational execution.” Download the report here.
