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Improved Cloud Operations Key to Overcoming Challenges and Achieving Long-Term Success

Grant Duxbury
Aptum

Cloud adoption continues to skyrocket, with 60% of corporate data reportedly stored in the cloud in 2022, up from 30% in 2015. As organizations become more familiar and confident in the cloud, they invest in sophisticated technologies to further innovation and reap significant benefits.

Despite the overwhelming enthusiasm around hybrid cloud infrastructures, hurdles remain around cloud optimization, according to the 2023 Cloud Impact Study, commissioned by Aptum. The study also reveals the untapped potential IT leaders should implement. A few notable highlights include:

Hybrid and Multi-cloud Environments

Hybrid environments that combine legacy infrastructure with one or more cloud providers are quickly becoming the standard. Companies prefer hybrid and multi-cloud environments to better accommodate legacy solutions, with 59% of survey respondents using a combination of public and private cloud services. The use of both cloud services is high, with 82% of IT leaders using private cloud infrastructure and 77% using public cloud services.

The popularity of these options is no surprise, with both offering substantial benefits. How do you choose?

The 34% of respondents that reported security and governance as important factors when choosing a cloud environment most likely lean toward the private cloud, as it gives them more control over how sensitive and valuable data is stored. Private cloud also tends to offer a lower total cost of ownership (TCO), given the familiarity and customization of the infrastructure to meet the company's unique needs.

Public cloud offers quick-to-market turnaround and lower capital costs for businesses. A third (33%) of respondents preferred public cloud data backup facilities.

Maximizing Cloud Investments

Cloud investments are a significant portion of IT budgets and continue rising despite growing economic uncertainty. According to Google, 41% of business and tech leaders plan to increase spending on cloud services in 2023 in response to the current economic climate. Half (51%) of respondents to the Aptum survey say the cloud is a crucial part of their strategy to weather the economic downturn by helping cut costs, with a third (33%) reporting that the cloud is vital to creating predictability and avoiding unexpected costs. Many (51%) stated they have already seen a cost reduction from cloud investments.

In addition to cost savings, the cloud is also helping organizations optimize spending (48%), drive innovation and develop new services (49%), and deliver a better customer experience (35%).

When evaluating cloud investments, priority was placed on increased efficiency (per 53% of respondents) and improved agility (48% of respondents) over cost savings, which was important to 32% of public cloud users and 33% of private cloud users.

Harnessing FinOps to Control Cloud Costs

To establish long-term, cost-effective cloud consumption, IT leaders should implement effective FinOps practices that bring control and predictability to costs. FinOps blends finance and operations, giving businesses greater visibility of cloud costs to optimize expenditures and maximize ROI. It's most effective when implemented before deploying cloud, but never too late to execute. The longer a company waits to implement FinOps, the greater the cost and effort it takes to move away from a data center mindset and toward a cost-effective cloud.

According to McKinsey, adopting FinOps in a complex cloud environment can reduce cloud costs by as much as 30%. To fully benefit from a sustainable FinOps approach, companies must go beyond merely committing to a spending level for cost reduction. Organizations can achieve more effective use of electricity, cooling, and financial resources by engineering solutions that focus on efficient resource management — utilizing automation, auto-scaling, and contemporary architectural patterns.

Addressing Challenges for Long-Term Success

Despite the vast majority of respondents (98%) in the survey sharing that they are satisfied with their organization's cloud transformation, only 41% reported they are completely satisfied. The results reveal that a few challenges in cloud management remain, including:

■ Integration (42%)

■ Delivering cost predictability (36%)

■ Lack of skills combined (33%)

■ Changes in technology (33%)

Many businesses accelerated cloud migration during the global pandemic without a comprehensive strategy, hindering their results and costs today. Navigating both cloud environments with legacy systems requires mature practices, expertise and effective tooling across technologies. Thirty-five percent of respondents reported they struggle to move their applications or data into the cloud, and a further 34% say they are held back from advancing their cloud maturity because of the complexity of their legacy systems and a lack of in-house knowledge (31%).

Creating a Cloud Strategy to Achieve Business Outcomes

Hybrid cloud environments continue to prove their worth, allowing companies to build technology structures that meet their unique needs. Organizations can overcome challenges by optimizing their cloud architecture, following three key action points:

■ Conduct a comprehensive cloud assessment. Evaluate existing infrastructure, services and applications to identify inefficiencies, redundancy or misalignment with business objectives.

■ Implement cloud governance and cost management policies including a FinOps program for cloud resource usage, including budget allocations, cost monitoring and reporting.

■ Leverage automation, monitoring tools and development team practices to help identify and remediate inefficiencies, reducing the risk of human error and streamlining cloud management.

Combining these three efforts and incorporating DevOps and FinOps principles with a trusted Managed Service provider, IT leaders can effectively address the cloud complexity challenges and maintain control over cost while still achieving business goals.

Grant Duxbury is Global Director, Advisory & Consulting Services, at Aptum

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Improved Cloud Operations Key to Overcoming Challenges and Achieving Long-Term Success

Grant Duxbury
Aptum

Cloud adoption continues to skyrocket, with 60% of corporate data reportedly stored in the cloud in 2022, up from 30% in 2015. As organizations become more familiar and confident in the cloud, they invest in sophisticated technologies to further innovation and reap significant benefits.

Despite the overwhelming enthusiasm around hybrid cloud infrastructures, hurdles remain around cloud optimization, according to the 2023 Cloud Impact Study, commissioned by Aptum. The study also reveals the untapped potential IT leaders should implement. A few notable highlights include:

Hybrid and Multi-cloud Environments

Hybrid environments that combine legacy infrastructure with one or more cloud providers are quickly becoming the standard. Companies prefer hybrid and multi-cloud environments to better accommodate legacy solutions, with 59% of survey respondents using a combination of public and private cloud services. The use of both cloud services is high, with 82% of IT leaders using private cloud infrastructure and 77% using public cloud services.

The popularity of these options is no surprise, with both offering substantial benefits. How do you choose?

The 34% of respondents that reported security and governance as important factors when choosing a cloud environment most likely lean toward the private cloud, as it gives them more control over how sensitive and valuable data is stored. Private cloud also tends to offer a lower total cost of ownership (TCO), given the familiarity and customization of the infrastructure to meet the company's unique needs.

Public cloud offers quick-to-market turnaround and lower capital costs for businesses. A third (33%) of respondents preferred public cloud data backup facilities.

Maximizing Cloud Investments

Cloud investments are a significant portion of IT budgets and continue rising despite growing economic uncertainty. According to Google, 41% of business and tech leaders plan to increase spending on cloud services in 2023 in response to the current economic climate. Half (51%) of respondents to the Aptum survey say the cloud is a crucial part of their strategy to weather the economic downturn by helping cut costs, with a third (33%) reporting that the cloud is vital to creating predictability and avoiding unexpected costs. Many (51%) stated they have already seen a cost reduction from cloud investments.

In addition to cost savings, the cloud is also helping organizations optimize spending (48%), drive innovation and develop new services (49%), and deliver a better customer experience (35%).

When evaluating cloud investments, priority was placed on increased efficiency (per 53% of respondents) and improved agility (48% of respondents) over cost savings, which was important to 32% of public cloud users and 33% of private cloud users.

Harnessing FinOps to Control Cloud Costs

To establish long-term, cost-effective cloud consumption, IT leaders should implement effective FinOps practices that bring control and predictability to costs. FinOps blends finance and operations, giving businesses greater visibility of cloud costs to optimize expenditures and maximize ROI. It's most effective when implemented before deploying cloud, but never too late to execute. The longer a company waits to implement FinOps, the greater the cost and effort it takes to move away from a data center mindset and toward a cost-effective cloud.

According to McKinsey, adopting FinOps in a complex cloud environment can reduce cloud costs by as much as 30%. To fully benefit from a sustainable FinOps approach, companies must go beyond merely committing to a spending level for cost reduction. Organizations can achieve more effective use of electricity, cooling, and financial resources by engineering solutions that focus on efficient resource management — utilizing automation, auto-scaling, and contemporary architectural patterns.

Addressing Challenges for Long-Term Success

Despite the vast majority of respondents (98%) in the survey sharing that they are satisfied with their organization's cloud transformation, only 41% reported they are completely satisfied. The results reveal that a few challenges in cloud management remain, including:

■ Integration (42%)

■ Delivering cost predictability (36%)

■ Lack of skills combined (33%)

■ Changes in technology (33%)

Many businesses accelerated cloud migration during the global pandemic without a comprehensive strategy, hindering their results and costs today. Navigating both cloud environments with legacy systems requires mature practices, expertise and effective tooling across technologies. Thirty-five percent of respondents reported they struggle to move their applications or data into the cloud, and a further 34% say they are held back from advancing their cloud maturity because of the complexity of their legacy systems and a lack of in-house knowledge (31%).

Creating a Cloud Strategy to Achieve Business Outcomes

Hybrid cloud environments continue to prove their worth, allowing companies to build technology structures that meet their unique needs. Organizations can overcome challenges by optimizing their cloud architecture, following three key action points:

■ Conduct a comprehensive cloud assessment. Evaluate existing infrastructure, services and applications to identify inefficiencies, redundancy or misalignment with business objectives.

■ Implement cloud governance and cost management policies including a FinOps program for cloud resource usage, including budget allocations, cost monitoring and reporting.

■ Leverage automation, monitoring tools and development team practices to help identify and remediate inefficiencies, reducing the risk of human error and streamlining cloud management.

Combining these three efforts and incorporating DevOps and FinOps principles with a trusted Managed Service provider, IT leaders can effectively address the cloud complexity challenges and maintain control over cost while still achieving business goals.

Grant Duxbury is Global Director, Advisory & Consulting Services, at Aptum

Hot Topics

The Latest

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

Today, organizations are generating and processing more data than ever before. From training AI models to running complex analytics, massive datasets have become the backbone of innovation. However, as businesses embrace the cloud for its scalability and flexibility, a new challenge arises: managing the soaring costs of storing and processing this data ...