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IT Leaders Report High ROI on Cloud Despite Avoidable Deployment Costs

Grant Duxbury
Aptum

An Aptum survey of 400 senior IT decision-makers across the UK, US and Canada to gauge the impact of cloud adoption reflects a disparity between the expected and actual costs of implementation for organizations. The third installment of Aptum's four-part Cloud Impact Study, A Bright Forecast on Cloud, presents data showing the benefits organizations gain from cloud computing, as well as mistakes to avoid during migration.

As organizations migrate workloads to different cloud platforms, they often run into unexpected challenges due to a lack of proactive planning. Here are a few key findings from Part 3 of the Cloud Impact Study:

80% of respondents unlock greater business profitability through cloud services

Cloud computing yields quantifiable gains for organizations, primarily through increased scalability and application integration, the report states. Delivering services through the cloud can make organizations more agile — increasing revenue by accelerating new product deployment while shrinking time to market.

Organizations also see profits through greater efficiencies, with 78% of respondents attributing this increase to cloud adoption. Cloud computing payment structures eliminate the expense of unnecessary hardware, and cloud-based automation frees up time for staff.

80% of respondents believe cloud computing is essential for the financial security of their organization

Organizations operating on the cloud utilize expenditure models and scalable infrastructure on demand, so they only pay for what they need, when they need it. They aren't populating their balance sheets with financial liabilities, altogether eliminating that security risk.

57% of organizations encounter unexpected costs from cloud deployment

Moving to the cloud isn't as simple as moving data from one data center to another. It's no longer about discrete steps, but rather a journey. There are some common mistakes seen throughout this journey that lead to the unexpected costs organizations report, such as a lack of understanding around the need for hybrid models to accommodate data not suited to the cloud. Another is not leveraging a consumption-based model approach that breaks down applications and services as needed.

As IT environments become more complex, it becomes harder to keep abreast of cloud spending and total overrun. Without clear oversight, cloud sprawl is unavoidable. A lack of visibility and governance can contribute significantly to the challenges of excessive cloud spend.

35% of respondents also report wasting IT spend due to inefficient use of cloud platforms. With the average business spending over a third (36%) of its technology budget on cloud computing, intelligent planning and knowledge of best practices are critical to avoid unexpected costs and delays in implementation.

Rather than taking a "cloud-first" approach, companies should move forward with a strategy-first philosophy. Start migrations by thinking about how the cloud will impact operations and how to best integrate it with other technologies to leverage its power. If businesses take this approach, they should come out with a cloud roadmap that is aligned with their desired objectives.

Unlocking the True Value of the Cloud

Inappropriate workload migration due to poor planning and lack of visibility is prevalent, costly and can impede the entire deployment process. Applications in unsuitable environments can also lead to unplanned hybrid cloud implementations that create additional complexities around visibility and security.

For businesses to understand the true total cost of ownership and deliver maximum value from their cloud investments, it's essential to consider all components of cloud architectures. Businesses must ensure cloud cost management is a company-wide initiative, with compliance, finance and other key stakeholders aware of cloud distributions. They also need to ensure IT teams have access to the expertise and tools to control it effectively. Successful cloud migration requires buy in not just from IT or departments — but from senior leadership.

However, as the report reveals, most organizations need help unlocking the true value of the cloud. By working with a managed service provider with a strong heritage of traditional infrastructure management, cloud consulting and IT transformational expertise, organizations can build robust, high-performance hybrid cloud strategies that maximize business outcomes to drive business transformation and success.

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

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IT Leaders Report High ROI on Cloud Despite Avoidable Deployment Costs

Grant Duxbury
Aptum

An Aptum survey of 400 senior IT decision-makers across the UK, US and Canada to gauge the impact of cloud adoption reflects a disparity between the expected and actual costs of implementation for organizations. The third installment of Aptum's four-part Cloud Impact Study, A Bright Forecast on Cloud, presents data showing the benefits organizations gain from cloud computing, as well as mistakes to avoid during migration.

As organizations migrate workloads to different cloud platforms, they often run into unexpected challenges due to a lack of proactive planning. Here are a few key findings from Part 3 of the Cloud Impact Study:

80% of respondents unlock greater business profitability through cloud services

Cloud computing yields quantifiable gains for organizations, primarily through increased scalability and application integration, the report states. Delivering services through the cloud can make organizations more agile — increasing revenue by accelerating new product deployment while shrinking time to market.

Organizations also see profits through greater efficiencies, with 78% of respondents attributing this increase to cloud adoption. Cloud computing payment structures eliminate the expense of unnecessary hardware, and cloud-based automation frees up time for staff.

80% of respondents believe cloud computing is essential for the financial security of their organization

Organizations operating on the cloud utilize expenditure models and scalable infrastructure on demand, so they only pay for what they need, when they need it. They aren't populating their balance sheets with financial liabilities, altogether eliminating that security risk.

57% of organizations encounter unexpected costs from cloud deployment

Moving to the cloud isn't as simple as moving data from one data center to another. It's no longer about discrete steps, but rather a journey. There are some common mistakes seen throughout this journey that lead to the unexpected costs organizations report, such as a lack of understanding around the need for hybrid models to accommodate data not suited to the cloud. Another is not leveraging a consumption-based model approach that breaks down applications and services as needed.

As IT environments become more complex, it becomes harder to keep abreast of cloud spending and total overrun. Without clear oversight, cloud sprawl is unavoidable. A lack of visibility and governance can contribute significantly to the challenges of excessive cloud spend.

35% of respondents also report wasting IT spend due to inefficient use of cloud platforms. With the average business spending over a third (36%) of its technology budget on cloud computing, intelligent planning and knowledge of best practices are critical to avoid unexpected costs and delays in implementation.

Rather than taking a "cloud-first" approach, companies should move forward with a strategy-first philosophy. Start migrations by thinking about how the cloud will impact operations and how to best integrate it with other technologies to leverage its power. If businesses take this approach, they should come out with a cloud roadmap that is aligned with their desired objectives.

Unlocking the True Value of the Cloud

Inappropriate workload migration due to poor planning and lack of visibility is prevalent, costly and can impede the entire deployment process. Applications in unsuitable environments can also lead to unplanned hybrid cloud implementations that create additional complexities around visibility and security.

For businesses to understand the true total cost of ownership and deliver maximum value from their cloud investments, it's essential to consider all components of cloud architectures. Businesses must ensure cloud cost management is a company-wide initiative, with compliance, finance and other key stakeholders aware of cloud distributions. They also need to ensure IT teams have access to the expertise and tools to control it effectively. Successful cloud migration requires buy in not just from IT or departments — but from senior leadership.

However, as the report reveals, most organizations need help unlocking the true value of the cloud. By working with a managed service provider with a strong heritage of traditional infrastructure management, cloud consulting and IT transformational expertise, organizations can build robust, high-performance hybrid cloud strategies that maximize business outcomes to drive business transformation and success.

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

Hot Topics

The Latest

Misaligned architecture can lead to business consequences, with 93% of respondents reporting negative outcomes such as service disruptions, high operational costs and security challenges ...

A Gartner analyst recently suggested that GenAI tools could create 25% time savings for network operational teams. Where might these time savings come from? How are GenAI tools helping NetOps teams today, and what other tasks might they take on in the future as models continue improving? In general, these savings come from automating or streamlining manual NetOps tasks ...

IT and line-of-business teams are increasingly aligned in their efforts to close the data gap and drive greater collaboration to alleviate IT bottlenecks and offload growing demands on IT teams, according to The 2025 Automation Benchmark Report: Insights from IT Leaders on Enterprise Automation & the Future of AI-Driven Businesses from Jitterbit ...

A large majority (86%) of data management and AI decision makers cite protecting data privacy as a top concern, with 76% of respondents citing ROI on data privacy and AI initiatives across their organization, according to a new Harris Poll from Collibra ...

According to Gartner, Inc. the following six trends will shape the future of cloud over the next four years, ultimately resulting in new ways of working that are digital in nature and transformative in impact ...

2020 was the equivalent of a wedding with a top-shelf open bar. As businesses scrambled to adjust to remote work, digital transformation accelerated at breakneck speed. New software categories emerged overnight. Tech stacks ballooned with all sorts of SaaS apps solving ALL the problems — often with little oversight or long-term integration planning, and yes frequently a lot of duplicated functionality ... But now the music's faded. The lights are on. Everyone from the CIO to the CFO is checking the bill. Welcome to the Great SaaS Hangover ...

Regardless of OpenShift being a scalable and flexible software, it can be a pain to monitor since complete visibility into the underlying operations is not guaranteed ... To effectively monitor an OpenShift environment, IT administrators should focus on these five key elements and their associated metrics ...

An overwhelming majority of IT leaders (95%) believe the upcoming wave of AI-powered digital transformation is set to be the most impactful and intensive seen thus far, according to The Science of Productivity: AI, Adoption, And Employee Experience, a new report from Nexthink ...

Overall outage frequency and the general level of reported severity continue to decline, according to the Outage Analysis 2025 from Uptime Institute. However, cyber security incidents are on the rise and often have severe, lasting impacts ...

In March, New Relic published the State of Observability for Media and Entertainment Report to share insights, data, and analysis into the adoption and business value of observability across the media and entertainment industry. Here are six key takeaways from the report ...