2023 State of CloudOps

A survey of IT cloud decision makers

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Cloud operations remains a struggle for IT teams

Effective CloudOps teams can control costs, improve security, optimize resources, and provide superior services across their cloud environments.

Want to learn more about the 2023 State of CloudOps? Dive into the full report.

Automation is key to cloud operations success

Cloud automation typically improves efficiency by replacing manual configuration with automated processes, enabling the management of more cloud resources by fewer people.

Enterprise teams are embracing FinOps

The practice of Financial Operations (FinOps) is designed to help organizations align cloud adoption and investment with business strategy and promote enterprise-wide accountability for cloud financial operations.

Find out how you stack up against industry leaders in the 2023 State of CloudOps report.

Key findings

Finding #1

As CloudOps continues to evolve, almost all large enterprises (98%) acknowledge that their organization faces obstacles with cloud operations.

Cloud operations remains a struggle for IT teams

33%

are “very confident” in their ability to operate a public cloud environment

45%

continue to use spreadsheets and manual methods for cloud costs and budgeting

64%

report security and compliance as a leading challenge

area of investment for CloudOps in 2023 is cost management

Finding #2

Automation is key to cloud operations success

Greater amounts of CloudOps automation promote greater team confidence in effectively managing cloud environments.

Finding #3

Enterprise teams are embracing FinOps

Nearly all (96%) cloud decision makers believe implementing FinOps practices is essential to their cloud strategy.

95%

do some level of cloud operations automation, but only 15% do a “significant” level

99%

of those who have automated report their company has benefited

88%

plan to increase cloud operations automation in 2023

82%

say automation is “critical” or “very valuable” for optimizing cloud operations and ROI

report having a “mature” FinOps practice

92%

struggle with FinOps, especially around reducing cloud costs (50%)

19%

report that their use of discounted cloud purchase options has been effective

59%

believe they could further reduce costs with discounted offerings for cloud resources if they had more expertise

Finding #1

Security and compliance

What challenges does your company face with cloud operations?

Do you believe a lack of cloud operations skills and expertise is impacting your organization’s ability to meet key business goals?

Yes, significantly

Yes, somewhat

No, not at all

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Finding #2

Finding #3

Hover over the bars to explore below.

*among those using containers

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Report

This study examines the current state of CloudOps for teams of all sizes, primarily focusing on operational activities, staffing and expertise, automation, and FinOps.

Key findings

CloudOps remains a struggle

Automation is the key to success

Teams are embracing FinOps

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Cost management

Multi-cloud and/or hybrid cloud infrastructure

Operational efficiency

Managing containers and/or Kubernetes*

Lack of cloud operations expertise and resources

Redundancy, resiliency, and business continuity

Scaling resources

We don’t have any challenges with cloud operations

53%

64%

60%

28%

43%

42%

38%

32%

2021

How confident are you that your company has visibility into all aspects of your company’s public cloud costs?

2023

Not confident

Very confident

Somewhat confident

25%

63%

11%

20%

68%

12%

Tools provided by the cloud vendors

76%

What tools does your company use to manage cloud costs and budgeting?

Hover over the bars to explore below.

76%

74%

45%

44%

47%

Spreadsheets or other manual methods

36%

32%

42%

In-house developed tools

21%

26%

32%

Open source cloud cost management solutions

28%

32%

40%

Commercial or third-party cloud cost management solutions

2023

2022

2021

No, not at all

Yes, somewhat

Yes, significantly

22%

15%

63%

What is your personal opinion about the value of automation for optimizing cloud operations and ROI?

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Somewhat valuable

Very valuable

Critical

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Not valuable

Critical

Executive

24%

56%

19%

14%

56%

35%

Individual contributor

Very valuable

Not valuable

Somewhat valuable

What benefits has your company achieved by automating cloud operations tasks?

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Improved application reliability

Improved visibility and governance

Enhanced security and compliance

Saved time through operational efficiency

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Purchasing and optimal utilization of commitment-based discounts

Data management and reporting

Driving adoption of FinOps across the organization

Enabling automation of FinOps processes

Accurate cost allocation

Reducing waste and optimizing resources

Forecasting cloud spend

Reducing cloud costs

30%

34%

35%

41%

42%

44%

47%

56%

What FinOps challenges is your company facing?

Other. Please specify.

We don’t face any challenges with FinOps

In your opinion, how important is FinOps to the success of your company’s cloud strategy?

How would you describe your company’s use of discounted offerings for cloud resources?

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Hover over the pie chart to explore answers.

12%

We don’t use discounted resource offerings

Discounted offerings are not appropriate for our workloads or would not notably reduce our costs even if we had more expertise

10%

We believe we could further reduce costs with them if we had more expertise

59%

We have been able to use them very effectively to drive significant savings

19%

e.g., reserved instances, savings plans, committed-use discounts, spot instances/VMs

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26%

52%

18%

Extremely important

Slightly important

Somewhat important

Not important

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*real data from the 2023 State of CloudOps report

Finding #1

Finding #2

Finding #3

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We haven't achieved any benefits from automating cloud operations tasks

Enabled faster time to market and quicker deployments

Optimized costs

We haven't achieved any benefits from automating cloud operations tasks

Enabled faster time to market and quicker deployments

Optimized costs

Improved application reliability

Improved visibility and governance

Enhanced security and compliance

Saved time through operational efficiency

43%

45%

48%

49%

59%

Hover over the bars to explore.

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