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Stretching Cloud Investments for Optimal Results

Grant Duxbury
Aptum

Cloud computing continues to soar, with little signs of slowing down. Gartner predicts a 5.5% global increase in digital technology spending in 2023, with a significant percentage of it going to cloud initiatives. But, as with any new program, companies are seeing substantial benefits in the cloud but are also navigating budgetary challenges.

With an estimated 94% of companies using cloud services today, priorities for IT teams have shifted from purely adoption-based to deploying new strategies. As they explore new territories, it can be a struggle to exploit the full value of their spend and the cloud's transformative capabilities.

Realizing the Benefits of the Cloud

The significant benefits experienced by cloud adoption make the costly investment worthwhile over time. Some of the most notable advantages include increased efficiencies, reliability and scalability. Part two of Aptum's Cloud Impact Study, titled Maximizing Value: Controlling Costs and Optimizing Cloud Spend surveyed 400 senior IT professionals in the US, UK and Canada. The study revealed that 95% of respondents stated the cloud is an important way to deliver better business continuity, 93% said it helps their organization improve security and better manage data, and 94% agreed that cloud has delivered expected efficiency gains in 2023.

For many organizations, the return on their cloud transformation results from the flexibility it offers compared to costly legacy systems. Companies can scale up or down based on their unique needs at any time, eliminating unnecessary spending on excess capacity.

Controlling Costs

Cloud investments are a substantial part of a company's budget, with 71% of IT professionals reporting that cloud-related costs account for 30% or more of their total IT spend, and 34% said it accounts for the majority of their tech budgets.

While the cloud provides many operational benefits to organizations, there is still work to be done economically — 73% of survey respondents said their cloud investments have led to higher-than-expected IT costs in the past 12 months, a 28% increase from 2021. Additionally, 52% of IT professionals stated their organizations have wasted significantly on inefficiencies with their cloud platforms and services.

Understandably, many organizations jumped head-first into the cloud during the pandemic and are now realizing the implications of the lack of a Cloud Adoption Framework. While many factors can play into increased costs, the most common are the lack of strategic plan and skills readiness to manage cloud usage effectively and efficiently. These shortcomings are exacerbated for organizations using a hybrid or multi-cloud approach with a mix of on-prem and public cloud services for different data needs and workloads.

Today, most IT professionals believe their organization lacks the right skills and expertise to plan complex and multi-cloud implementations, with 62% agreeing that a lack of internal expertise has prevented them from accelerating cloud implementations. This is imperative for controlling runaway costs and inefficiencies. Companies must have resources with the necessary skills and knowledge to make more informed decisions.

The Power of FinOps

In addition to investing in the right talent and more informed strategies, companies can address cloud costs by adopting FinOps. A collaborative culture approach between diverse teams, FinOps helps organizations gain real visibility into their cloud costs to make more informed decisions. FinOps brings together teams such as engineers, finance and product to create a central, cross-functioning "Center of Excellence" that is dedicated to offering best practices to stakeholders by aiding them in optimizing the company's cloud expenditures.

According to McKinsey, adopting FinOps in a complex cloud environment can reduce costs by as much as 30%. Controlling costs was the top challenge reported in the study, with 37% of IT professionals stating that a key driver of their cloud strategy and investment is gaining more flexibility and scalability in the amount of capacity available.

FinOps is a viable way to address IT professionals' challenges by bringing control and flexibility to achieve more cost-effective cloud consumption.

As the study found, the benefits of cloud computing are irrefutable given its potential for scalability, agility and cost savings. However, in order to reap its true benefits, companies must have a clear strategy in place, including the use of FinOps to ensure it is operating efficiently. Without this level of structure and planning, businesses will continue to experience unexpected costs, security breaches and operational inefficiencies.

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

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Stretching Cloud Investments for Optimal Results

Grant Duxbury
Aptum

Cloud computing continues to soar, with little signs of slowing down. Gartner predicts a 5.5% global increase in digital technology spending in 2023, with a significant percentage of it going to cloud initiatives. But, as with any new program, companies are seeing substantial benefits in the cloud but are also navigating budgetary challenges.

With an estimated 94% of companies using cloud services today, priorities for IT teams have shifted from purely adoption-based to deploying new strategies. As they explore new territories, it can be a struggle to exploit the full value of their spend and the cloud's transformative capabilities.

Realizing the Benefits of the Cloud

The significant benefits experienced by cloud adoption make the costly investment worthwhile over time. Some of the most notable advantages include increased efficiencies, reliability and scalability. Part two of Aptum's Cloud Impact Study, titled Maximizing Value: Controlling Costs and Optimizing Cloud Spend surveyed 400 senior IT professionals in the US, UK and Canada. The study revealed that 95% of respondents stated the cloud is an important way to deliver better business continuity, 93% said it helps their organization improve security and better manage data, and 94% agreed that cloud has delivered expected efficiency gains in 2023.

For many organizations, the return on their cloud transformation results from the flexibility it offers compared to costly legacy systems. Companies can scale up or down based on their unique needs at any time, eliminating unnecessary spending on excess capacity.

Controlling Costs

Cloud investments are a substantial part of a company's budget, with 71% of IT professionals reporting that cloud-related costs account for 30% or more of their total IT spend, and 34% said it accounts for the majority of their tech budgets.

While the cloud provides many operational benefits to organizations, there is still work to be done economically — 73% of survey respondents said their cloud investments have led to higher-than-expected IT costs in the past 12 months, a 28% increase from 2021. Additionally, 52% of IT professionals stated their organizations have wasted significantly on inefficiencies with their cloud platforms and services.

Understandably, many organizations jumped head-first into the cloud during the pandemic and are now realizing the implications of the lack of a Cloud Adoption Framework. While many factors can play into increased costs, the most common are the lack of strategic plan and skills readiness to manage cloud usage effectively and efficiently. These shortcomings are exacerbated for organizations using a hybrid or multi-cloud approach with a mix of on-prem and public cloud services for different data needs and workloads.

Today, most IT professionals believe their organization lacks the right skills and expertise to plan complex and multi-cloud implementations, with 62% agreeing that a lack of internal expertise has prevented them from accelerating cloud implementations. This is imperative for controlling runaway costs and inefficiencies. Companies must have resources with the necessary skills and knowledge to make more informed decisions.

The Power of FinOps

In addition to investing in the right talent and more informed strategies, companies can address cloud costs by adopting FinOps. A collaborative culture approach between diverse teams, FinOps helps organizations gain real visibility into their cloud costs to make more informed decisions. FinOps brings together teams such as engineers, finance and product to create a central, cross-functioning "Center of Excellence" that is dedicated to offering best practices to stakeholders by aiding them in optimizing the company's cloud expenditures.

According to McKinsey, adopting FinOps in a complex cloud environment can reduce costs by as much as 30%. Controlling costs was the top challenge reported in the study, with 37% of IT professionals stating that a key driver of their cloud strategy and investment is gaining more flexibility and scalability in the amount of capacity available.

FinOps is a viable way to address IT professionals' challenges by bringing control and flexibility to achieve more cost-effective cloud consumption.

As the study found, the benefits of cloud computing are irrefutable given its potential for scalability, agility and cost savings. However, in order to reap its true benefits, companies must have a clear strategy in place, including the use of FinOps to ensure it is operating efficiently. Without this level of structure and planning, businesses will continue to experience unexpected costs, security breaches and operational inefficiencies.

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

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

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 ...

Image
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 ...