IT Leaders Struggle to Demonstrate Cloud ROI

While the FinOps discipline is robust and proven, executives appear to be overconfident, according to Performance vs. Perception: The FinOps Execution Gap, a new report from CloudBolt Software

Many label their FinOps practices as mature and automated, which stands in stark contrast with the reality:

  • 78% of respondents admit difficulty in consistently demonstrating cloud ROI, which they defined primarily as revenue growth (43%), followed by operational efficiency/productivity (36%), and then cost savings (35%).
  • 98% agree that Kubernetes is becoming a major driver of cloud spend, but 91% remain unable to effectively optimize their Kubernetes clusters, signaling a critical blind spot as container adoption grows.
  • 66% report mostly to fully automated environments for cloud waste management and cloud spend optimization. Yet 58% of respondents say it takes weeks or months to detect and fully remediate cloud-cost waste opportunities. This calls into question the assertion of a truly automated approach for the majority of respondents.

"FinOps as a discipline is more sound than ever and continues to evolve effectively," says Kyle Campos, CTPO at CloudBolt. "But a good percentage of organizations may be taking a victory lap before even navigating the first turn. Through this research, it's evident that while a majority indicate they believe they've achieved FinOps maturity, the data shows they are still in the early stages of operationalizing and optimizing FinOps practices. Confidence in lieu of measurable progress obscures reality and hinders the improvement necessary for significant business impact."

The report details key barriers to stronger ROI on cloud investments, with:

  • 55% of respondents citing difficulty linking cloud spend directly to business outcomes.
  • 48% blaming organizational misalignment and operational silos.
  • 44% noting inefficient resource management, including poor tagging and inconsistent accountability.

Further, the report identifies private cloud/data centers as playing a key role in the ROI equation:

  • Hybrid multi-cloud management was identified as the top priority by 42% of respondents.
  • 39% say hybrid cloud management will be a "funded priority" for their organization over the next 6-12 months, only topped by AI/ML cloud-cost optimization (FinOps for AI) at 40%.

"Leaders believe they have visibility into their cloud spend. Yet without necessary governance, enforcement, and effective remediation, they are doing little to reduce the insight-to-action gap — the time it takes to go from 'we have a problem' to 'problem fixed and cost optimized.' This leads to persistent inefficiencies and inflated costs," Campos adds. "Kubernetes and AI-driven workloads especially highlight this disconnect — rapid adoption without proper operational control and automated actions (both retrospective and proactive) is dramatically affecting return on investment. If FinOps practices are not focusing on continuous optimization and employing the capabilities to execute on that, organizations will continue to struggle to effectively show cloud ROI."

Methodology: Conducted in collaboration with Wakefield Research, the study surveyed 350 senior IT leaders in the US across a wide range of industries to assess the current state of FinOps practices.

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IT Leaders Struggle to Demonstrate Cloud ROI

While the FinOps discipline is robust and proven, executives appear to be overconfident, according to Performance vs. Perception: The FinOps Execution Gap, a new report from CloudBolt Software

Many label their FinOps practices as mature and automated, which stands in stark contrast with the reality:

  • 78% of respondents admit difficulty in consistently demonstrating cloud ROI, which they defined primarily as revenue growth (43%), followed by operational efficiency/productivity (36%), and then cost savings (35%).
  • 98% agree that Kubernetes is becoming a major driver of cloud spend, but 91% remain unable to effectively optimize their Kubernetes clusters, signaling a critical blind spot as container adoption grows.
  • 66% report mostly to fully automated environments for cloud waste management and cloud spend optimization. Yet 58% of respondents say it takes weeks or months to detect and fully remediate cloud-cost waste opportunities. This calls into question the assertion of a truly automated approach for the majority of respondents.

"FinOps as a discipline is more sound than ever and continues to evolve effectively," says Kyle Campos, CTPO at CloudBolt. "But a good percentage of organizations may be taking a victory lap before even navigating the first turn. Through this research, it's evident that while a majority indicate they believe they've achieved FinOps maturity, the data shows they are still in the early stages of operationalizing and optimizing FinOps practices. Confidence in lieu of measurable progress obscures reality and hinders the improvement necessary for significant business impact."

The report details key barriers to stronger ROI on cloud investments, with:

  • 55% of respondents citing difficulty linking cloud spend directly to business outcomes.
  • 48% blaming organizational misalignment and operational silos.
  • 44% noting inefficient resource management, including poor tagging and inconsistent accountability.

Further, the report identifies private cloud/data centers as playing a key role in the ROI equation:

  • Hybrid multi-cloud management was identified as the top priority by 42% of respondents.
  • 39% say hybrid cloud management will be a "funded priority" for their organization over the next 6-12 months, only topped by AI/ML cloud-cost optimization (FinOps for AI) at 40%.

"Leaders believe they have visibility into their cloud spend. Yet without necessary governance, enforcement, and effective remediation, they are doing little to reduce the insight-to-action gap — the time it takes to go from 'we have a problem' to 'problem fixed and cost optimized.' This leads to persistent inefficiencies and inflated costs," Campos adds. "Kubernetes and AI-driven workloads especially highlight this disconnect — rapid adoption without proper operational control and automated actions (both retrospective and proactive) is dramatically affecting return on investment. If FinOps practices are not focusing on continuous optimization and employing the capabilities to execute on that, organizations will continue to struggle to effectively show cloud ROI."

Methodology: Conducted in collaboration with Wakefield Research, the study surveyed 350 senior IT leaders in the US across a wide range of industries to assess the current state of FinOps practices.

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As an analyst who researches how IT organizations design, build, and operate their networks, I find that network data is a constant source of pain. Network teams struggle with data quality, fragmentation, authority, access, and trust. And these issues undermine everything they try to do. Here are the numbers: Only 45% of network teams are completely confident in the accuracy of their network source of truth, which documents the intent of their network ...

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Enterprises operate different combinations of workloads across cloud, hybrid and multicloud environments. For business-critical workloads, teams need to consider monitoring and observability early so they can detect health issues, investigate failures, and understand operational impact. Organizations place workloads on cloud platforms based on a combination of technical requirements, economics, existing dependencies, organizational standards, and business priorities. Their monitoring priorities therefore depend on what they operate and where those systems run. Those priorities will not look the same for every organization ...

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