A global survey of over 750 technical professionals and executive leaders finds that 60 percent are using managed service providers (MSPs) to handle some (29 percent) or more of their public cloud management, and 18 percent report they expect to increase their reliance on MSPs.
SMBs are turning to MSPs for enhanced cloud management
Conducted by Flexera, a provider of tools for managing spending on cloud services, the survey also notes there has been a sharp increase in the number of small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) relying on MSPs to help manage their cloud computing environments.
A similar Flexera survey conducted last year found that 36 percent of SMBs were using an MSP, and an additional 13 percent planned to use one. Nearly half (48 percent) are now working with an MSP, but the survey this year finds that those planning to use one decreased to 6 percent.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the most popular cloud platform, with a strong 79 percent adoption rate. Hot on its heels is Microsoft Azure, which is used by 77 percent of organizations, while Google Cloud Platform holds a respectable 46 percent share. Interestingly, a whopping 86 percent of respondents are navigating multi-cloud environments, showcasing the growing trend of juggling multiple cloud platforms to meet diverse business needs.
Businesses bringing workloads back to on-premises
Overall, the survey finds that more than half of all workloads, including software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, are now running in a public cloud. However, 21 percent of organizations have recently repatriated workloads to some type of on-premises IT environment.
The primary reason for making that shift is typically cost, with 84 percent identifying managing cloud spend as their biggest challenge. 87 percent identify cost efficiency/savings as the number one metric for assessing progress against cloud goals. Additionally, the survey finds cost avoidance (64 percent) is a major concern, up from 28 percent a year ago. On average, organizations exceed their cloud budgets by 17 percent. Additionally, according to the survey, they aim to recapture 27 percent of their current cloud spend.
Cloud spending continues to rise
Despite those concerns, the total number of workloads deployed in the cloud continues to rise. The survey finds that, on average, respondents expect their organization to increase cloud spending by 28 percent in 2025. A third (33 percent) of respondents noted that their organizations are already spending more than $12 million annually on public cloud services.
Additionally, the survey finds that 59 percent have embraced FinOps as a methodology to better control cloud costs.
Well over half of respondents (57 percent) also have or plan to have a defined sustainability initiative in place in 2025, including carbon footprint tracking of cloud use.
In general, it’s clear most organizations don’t have enough internal expertise needed to efficiently manage cloud computing environments. Many of them are not even sure how much of these resources they use at any given time. Adding insult to injury, many of the resources are being wasted because workloads are routinely overprovisioned.
MSPs can help control cloud costs while accelerating deployment
MSPs have recently played a much larger role in helping organizations contain cloud costs. However, it’s clear that organizations still need to do much work as the overall number of workloads deployed in the cloud continues to increase steadily.
The challenge, as always, is determining how to implement those controls effectively. Find the opportunity to implement controls without slowing the pace at which applications build and deploy.
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