2015 State of the Cloud Report

Kim Weins

Enterprises are increasingly implementing a hybrid cloud strategy that encompasses public and private clouds as well as existing virtualized environments, according to the 2015 State of the Cloud Survey conducted by RightScale.

Although more enterprise workloads are currently deployed in private clouds, public clouds are used more broadly and are expected to attract new workloads at a faster rate.

Highlights of the RightScale 2015 State of the Cloud Report include:

■ Cloud is ubiquitous, hybrid cloud is the preferred strategy: 93 percent of organizations surveyed are running applications or experimenting with infrastructure-as-a-service; 82 percent of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy (up from 74 percent in 2014).

■ Public clouds are used by more organizations while private cloud runs more workloads: 88 percent of organizations use public cloud compared with 63 percent that use private cloud; 13 percent of enterprises run more than 1,000 VMs in public cloud, while 22 percent of organizations run more than 1,000 VMs in private cloud.

■ Significant headroom for more enterprise workloads to move to the cloud: 68 percent of enterprises run less than a fifth of their application portfolio in the cloud; 55 percent of enterprises report that a significant portion of their existing application portfolio is not in cloud, but is built with cloud-friendly architectures.

■ Enterprise central IT teams take the reins to broker cloud services: 62 percent of enterprises report that central IT makes the majority of cloud spending decisions; 43 percent of IT teams are offering a self-service portal for access to cloud services, with an additional 41 percent planning or developing a portal.

■ DevOps rises; Docker soars: Overall DevOps adoption has risen to 66 percent, with enterprises reaching 71 percent; Chef and Puppet are used by 28 and 24 percent of organizations respectively; Docker, in its first year, is already used by 13 percent of organizations with a whopping 35 percent of organizations planning to use.

■ Amazon Web Services (AWS) continues to dominate in public cloud, but Azure makes inroads among enterprises: AWS adoption is 57 percent, while Azure IaaS is second at 12 percent vs.6 percent in 2014; Among enterprise respondents, Azure IaaS narrows the gap with 19 percent adoption as compared to AWS with 50 percent; Google’s IaaS offering shows the faster growth among enterprises, increasing from 4 percent in 2014 to 9 percent in 2015.

■ Private cloud stalls in 2015 with only small changes in adoption: Respondents reported minimal changes in adoption of private cloud technologies from 2014. VMware vSphere continues to lead with 53 percent of enterprise respondents reporting that they use it as a private cloud. Enterprises using OpenStack shows the largest increase for 2015, growing by 3 percent. The new Azure Pack offering shows strong use in its first year, used by 11 percent of enterprises.

“The tide of enterprise cloud adoption has shifted from shadow IT to strategic adoption led by central IT teams,” said Michael Crandell, CEO of RightScale. "As enterprise IT has become more open to public cloud and more comfortable with cloud security, it is now in a strong position to broker cloud services to internal customers and drive cloud adoption forward. In the next year organizations expect to shift more workloads to cloud, with public cloud workloads growing faster than private cloud."

Survey Methodology: RightScale conducted its annual State of the Cloud Survey in January 2015. The survey questioned technical professionals across a broad cross-section of organizations about their adoption of cloud computing. The 930 respondents range from technical executives to managers and practitioners and represent organizations of varying sizes across many industries. Respondents represent companies across the cloud spectrum, including both users (24 percent) and non-users (76 percent) of RightScale solutions. Their answers provide a comprehensive perspective on the state of the cloud today. The margin of error is 3.2 percent.

Kim Weins is VP of Marketing at RightScale.

Related Links

Hot Topics

The Latest

Payment Outages Threaten $44.4 Billion in US Retail and Hospitality Sales Annually

Payment system failures are putting $44.4 billion in US retail and hospitality sales at risk each year, underscoring how quickly disruption can derail day-to-day trading, according to research conducted by Dynatrace ... The findings show that payment failures are no longer isolated incidents, but part of a recurring operational challenge that disrupts service, damages customer trust, and negatively impacts revenue ...

From Automation to Intelligence: How AI Will Redefine DevOps in 2026

For years, the success of DevOps has been measured by how much manual work teams can automate ... I believe that in 2026, the definition of DevOps success is going to expand significantly. The era of automation is giving way to the era of intelligent delivery, in which AI doesn't just accelerate pipelines, it understands them. With open observability connecting signals end-to-end across those tools, teams can build closed-loop systems that don't just move faster, but learn, adapt, and take action autonomously with confidence ...

AI First? Why CIOs Are Putting the Cart Before the Horse

The conversation around AI in the enterprise has officially shifted from "if" to "how fast." But according to the State of Network Operations 2026 report from Broadcom, most organizations are unknowingly building their AI strategies on sand. The data is clear: CIOs and network teams are putting the cart before the horse. AI cannot improve what the network cannot see, predict issues without historical context, automate processes that aren't standardized, or recommend fixes when the underlying telemetry is incomplete. If AI is the brain, then network observability is the nervous system that makes intelligent action possible ...

Mitigating Complexity for Today's Database Administrator

SolarWinds data shows that one in three DBAs are contemplating leaving their positions — a striking indicator of workforce pressure in this role. This is likely due to the technical and interpersonal frustrations plaguing today's DBAs. Hybrid IT environments provide widespread organizational benefits but also present growing complexity. Simultaneously, AI presents a paradox of benefits and pain points ...

How Enterprises Are Re-Architecting Around AI

Over the last year, we've seen enterprises stop treating AI as “special projects.” It is no longer confined to pilots or side experiments. AI is now embedded in production, shaping decisions, powering new business models, and changing how employees and customers experience work every day. So, the debate of "should we adopt AI" is settled. The real question is how quickly and how deeply it can be applied ...

MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Podcast - Episode 20: 2026 NetOps Predictions

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 20, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA presents his 2026 NetOps predictions ... 

EMA at 30: The Value of Consistency

Today, technology buyers don't suffer from a lack of information but an abundance of it. They need a trusted partner to help them navigate this information environment ...

Making Sense of Logical Data Management

My latest title for O'Reilly, The Rise of Logical Data Management, was an eye-opener for me. I'd never heard of "logical data management," even though it's been around for several years, but it makes some extraordinary promises, like the ability to manage data without having to first move it into a consolidated repository, which changes everything. Now, with the demands of AI and other modern use cases, logical data management is on the rise, so it's "new" to many. Here, I'd like to introduce you to it and explain how it works ...

2026 Data Center Predictions

APMdigest's Predictions Series continues with 2026 Data Center Predictions — industry experts offer predictions on how data centers will evolve and impact business in 2026 ...

2026 DataOps Predictions - Part 2

APMdigest's Predictions Series continues with 2026 DataOps Predictions — industry experts offer predictions on how DataOps and related technologies will evolve and impact business in 2026. Part 2 covers data and data platforms ...

2015 State of the Cloud Report

Kim Weins

Enterprises are increasingly implementing a hybrid cloud strategy that encompasses public and private clouds as well as existing virtualized environments, according to the 2015 State of the Cloud Survey conducted by RightScale.

Although more enterprise workloads are currently deployed in private clouds, public clouds are used more broadly and are expected to attract new workloads at a faster rate.

Highlights of the RightScale 2015 State of the Cloud Report include:

■ Cloud is ubiquitous, hybrid cloud is the preferred strategy: 93 percent of organizations surveyed are running applications or experimenting with infrastructure-as-a-service; 82 percent of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy (up from 74 percent in 2014).

■ Public clouds are used by more organizations while private cloud runs more workloads: 88 percent of organizations use public cloud compared with 63 percent that use private cloud; 13 percent of enterprises run more than 1,000 VMs in public cloud, while 22 percent of organizations run more than 1,000 VMs in private cloud.

■ Significant headroom for more enterprise workloads to move to the cloud: 68 percent of enterprises run less than a fifth of their application portfolio in the cloud; 55 percent of enterprises report that a significant portion of their existing application portfolio is not in cloud, but is built with cloud-friendly architectures.

■ Enterprise central IT teams take the reins to broker cloud services: 62 percent of enterprises report that central IT makes the majority of cloud spending decisions; 43 percent of IT teams are offering a self-service portal for access to cloud services, with an additional 41 percent planning or developing a portal.

■ DevOps rises; Docker soars: Overall DevOps adoption has risen to 66 percent, with enterprises reaching 71 percent; Chef and Puppet are used by 28 and 24 percent of organizations respectively; Docker, in its first year, is already used by 13 percent of organizations with a whopping 35 percent of organizations planning to use.

■ Amazon Web Services (AWS) continues to dominate in public cloud, but Azure makes inroads among enterprises: AWS adoption is 57 percent, while Azure IaaS is second at 12 percent vs.6 percent in 2014; Among enterprise respondents, Azure IaaS narrows the gap with 19 percent adoption as compared to AWS with 50 percent; Google’s IaaS offering shows the faster growth among enterprises, increasing from 4 percent in 2014 to 9 percent in 2015.

■ Private cloud stalls in 2015 with only small changes in adoption: Respondents reported minimal changes in adoption of private cloud technologies from 2014. VMware vSphere continues to lead with 53 percent of enterprise respondents reporting that they use it as a private cloud. Enterprises using OpenStack shows the largest increase for 2015, growing by 3 percent. The new Azure Pack offering shows strong use in its first year, used by 11 percent of enterprises.

“The tide of enterprise cloud adoption has shifted from shadow IT to strategic adoption led by central IT teams,” said Michael Crandell, CEO of RightScale. "As enterprise IT has become more open to public cloud and more comfortable with cloud security, it is now in a strong position to broker cloud services to internal customers and drive cloud adoption forward. In the next year organizations expect to shift more workloads to cloud, with public cloud workloads growing faster than private cloud."

Survey Methodology: RightScale conducted its annual State of the Cloud Survey in January 2015. The survey questioned technical professionals across a broad cross-section of organizations about their adoption of cloud computing. The 930 respondents range from technical executives to managers and practitioners and represent organizations of varying sizes across many industries. Respondents represent companies across the cloud spectrum, including both users (24 percent) and non-users (76 percent) of RightScale solutions. Their answers provide a comprehensive perspective on the state of the cloud today. The margin of error is 3.2 percent.

Kim Weins is VP of Marketing at RightScale.

Related Links

Hot Topics

The Latest

Payment Outages Threaten $44.4 Billion in US Retail and Hospitality Sales Annually

Payment system failures are putting $44.4 billion in US retail and hospitality sales at risk each year, underscoring how quickly disruption can derail day-to-day trading, according to research conducted by Dynatrace ... The findings show that payment failures are no longer isolated incidents, but part of a recurring operational challenge that disrupts service, damages customer trust, and negatively impacts revenue ...

From Automation to Intelligence: How AI Will Redefine DevOps in 2026

For years, the success of DevOps has been measured by how much manual work teams can automate ... I believe that in 2026, the definition of DevOps success is going to expand significantly. The era of automation is giving way to the era of intelligent delivery, in which AI doesn't just accelerate pipelines, it understands them. With open observability connecting signals end-to-end across those tools, teams can build closed-loop systems that don't just move faster, but learn, adapt, and take action autonomously with confidence ...

AI First? Why CIOs Are Putting the Cart Before the Horse

The conversation around AI in the enterprise has officially shifted from "if" to "how fast." But according to the State of Network Operations 2026 report from Broadcom, most organizations are unknowingly building their AI strategies on sand. The data is clear: CIOs and network teams are putting the cart before the horse. AI cannot improve what the network cannot see, predict issues without historical context, automate processes that aren't standardized, or recommend fixes when the underlying telemetry is incomplete. If AI is the brain, then network observability is the nervous system that makes intelligent action possible ...

Mitigating Complexity for Today's Database Administrator

SolarWinds data shows that one in three DBAs are contemplating leaving their positions — a striking indicator of workforce pressure in this role. This is likely due to the technical and interpersonal frustrations plaguing today's DBAs. Hybrid IT environments provide widespread organizational benefits but also present growing complexity. Simultaneously, AI presents a paradox of benefits and pain points ...

How Enterprises Are Re-Architecting Around AI

Over the last year, we've seen enterprises stop treating AI as “special projects.” It is no longer confined to pilots or side experiments. AI is now embedded in production, shaping decisions, powering new business models, and changing how employees and customers experience work every day. So, the debate of "should we adopt AI" is settled. The real question is how quickly and how deeply it can be applied ...

MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Podcast - Episode 20: 2026 NetOps Predictions

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 20, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA presents his 2026 NetOps predictions ... 

EMA at 30: The Value of Consistency

Today, technology buyers don't suffer from a lack of information but an abundance of it. They need a trusted partner to help them navigate this information environment ...

Making Sense of Logical Data Management

My latest title for O'Reilly, The Rise of Logical Data Management, was an eye-opener for me. I'd never heard of "logical data management," even though it's been around for several years, but it makes some extraordinary promises, like the ability to manage data without having to first move it into a consolidated repository, which changes everything. Now, with the demands of AI and other modern use cases, logical data management is on the rise, so it's "new" to many. Here, I'd like to introduce you to it and explain how it works ...

2026 Data Center Predictions

APMdigest's Predictions Series continues with 2026 Data Center Predictions — industry experts offer predictions on how data centers will evolve and impact business in 2026 ...

2026 DataOps Predictions - Part 2

APMdigest's Predictions Series continues with 2026 DataOps Predictions — industry experts offer predictions on how DataOps and related technologies will evolve and impact business in 2026. Part 2 covers data and data platforms ...