Hybrid cloud has hit the mainstream – but firms are still confused about costs

More than half of organizations in the UK and Ireland are flying blind on hybrid cloud costs, making ROI measurement impossible.

In a survey of more than 1,000 IT decision makers, managed cloud and security services firm Ekco found that hybrid cloud adoption has risen from 58% in 2022 to 68% today.

However, 54% of IT leaders said they lacked complete visibility into their cloud spend. And while 82% of organizations said cloud modernization efforts have contributed to a more agile culture, only one third deliver on every goal.

One major factor holding back innovation is legacy infrastructure, with 71% of respondents reporting that outdated on-prem technology is hampering progress.

Among those still relying heavily on legacy systems, 70% believe migrating to the cloud could reduce costs yet 46% cite management failing to prioritize cloud migration as a key barrier.

“Organizations are making substantial cloud investments, but without proper cost visibility and optimization, they're essentially flying blind," said James Young, head of technical solution architecture at Ekco.

"The jump to 68% hybrid adoption shows businesses want more control and governance, but that comes with complexity – a challenge that lends itself to a ‘FinOps’ approach, bringing together internal engineering, finance and business teams to ensure smarter, and more accountable cloud spending.”

MSPs are filling in the gaps on cloud adoption

Managed service provider (MSP) partnerships jumped from 30% to 40% year-on-year, Ekco noted, claiming that projects supported by MSPs are 6.6% more likely to achieve all objectives and 8.3% more likely to stay within scope and timeline.

Gartner predicts that by the end of 2027, 90% of organizations will have adopted hybrid cloud, thanks largely to the increasing adoption of AI.

However, the consultancy warned that 25% of organizations will have experienced significant dissatisfaction with their cloud adoption by 2028, thanks to unrealistic expectations, suboptimal implementation and/or uncontrolled costs.

Organizations with a clear cloud strategy and effective execution that have successfully addressed upfront strategic focus by 2029 should find that their cloud dissatisfaction will decrease.

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