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

Related Links

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Keys to Building a Partner Ecosystem That Scales

I've spent a lot of time in the channel, and one thing I keep coming back to is this: a partner program is only as good as what it looks like in the field. Many programs look great on paper, but when a partner is in front of a customer navigating a complex hybrid environment or trying to make the case for AI-powered observability, the gap between what a vendor promises and what it actually delivers becomes very clear, very fast ...

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Enterprises today operate in a real-time environment where uninterrupted access to trusted data has become a baseline expectation for users, applications and automated systems. Traditional DataOps models, built on manual effort and human triage, cannot keep pace with this always active demand. AI agents are emerging as the operational backbone, ensuring consistent data availability, reinforcing trustworthiness and enabling a level of scale that manual processes cannot achieve ...

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Cloud migration was supposed to be a one-way door. For most enterprises, it turns out it isn't. Cloud data repatriation is a real and growing trend. A new survey ... finds that 89% of organizations plan to expand their on-premises infrastructure footprint over the next two years — and 75% have already moved at least some workloads back from public cloud in the past 24 months. The findings point to a broad rethinking of where data belongs ...

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Let me start with something I've seen play out more times than I can count. A team hits a wall with the cloud. Costs creep up, then spike. Performance starts to feel inconsistent. Someone in finance asks a simple question like "why did this double?" and nobody has a clean answer ... Maybe this isn't the right place for everything. That realization feels like a breakthrough, like you've identified the problem. In reality, you've just identified the starting line ...

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