Less than a fifth of IT professionals say cloud infrastructure meets their needs

Less than one in five (18%) IT professionals believe their current cloud infrastructure meets their business needs, indicating a large disconnect between expectations and reality when it comes to cloud adoption.

That’s according to new data from a SolarWinds survey of 272 global IT professionals, which shows that while the cloud promises scalability and cost savings, the reality is mixed for many IT teams : Only a quarter of respondents (25%) feel that their organization’s approach to the cloud is carefully considered and successful, while 23% admit that their hybrid cloud strategy has created an overly complex IT environment. Despite this, less than a quarter (22%) of respondents have invested in external IT services to help implement their cloud migration strategy.

To address these cloud challenges, more than one in 10 (16%) respondents have moved workloads back on-premises. Meanwhile, 12% of respondents admitted that poorly planned cloud transformations have had long-term financial impacts on their organizations. This suggests that hasty cloud migrations can lead to costly fixes or reversals.

The data also shows a lack of trust in cloud security, with nearly half (46%) of IT professionals still storing their most sensitive data on-premises due to ongoing security concerns. However, the survey results do highlight the continued focus on cloud strategies to reduce costs. In fact, nearly one-third (29%) of respondents said they are prioritizing cloud migration to reduce operating costs.

Sascha Giese, global technology evangelist at SolarWinds, said: “The truth is, managing complex hybrid cloud ecosystems is not easy. While the cloud promises scalability and cost savings, the gap between expectations and execution is becoming increasingly apparent. In As a result, many businesses find themselves grappling with infrastructure that is too complex to keep up with changing demands.

“In a hybrid cloud world of increasingly complex networks, systems, devices and applications, managing microservices and containers adds to the challenge. Without proper planning and comprehensive visibility, organizations risk getting into trouble. Tool sprawl, information Both silos and alert fatigue can lead to an unpleasant cloud experience, making it more difficult to identify the root cause of complex issues.

“To overcome these challenges, IT leaders must take a more strategic and smarter approach to cloud migration, focusing on tools that are reliable, secure and accelerate modernization. A key advantage enterprise Can leverage comprehensive observability to successfully manage their hybrid cloud infrastructure. This means gaining instant visibility into every layer of your IT assets and taking proactive action with the help of machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence-driven analytics. Cloud infrastructure can be a powerful growth enabler, but it will be a bumpy ride due to a host of mismatched tools and poor visibility.

The results of the IT Community Pulse Survey are based on research conducted in September 2024 with responses from 272 respondents to the SolarWinds THWACK community.

These include IT professionals in a variety of practitioner, manager and director positions across Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. Respondents were drawn from the public and private sectors across small, medium and large organizations.