54% of organisations flying blind on cloud costs as hybrid adoption surges

• 54% of IT leaders lack complete visibility into their cloud spend, making ROI measurement impossible
• Hybrid cloud adoption jumps to 68% – up from 58% in 2022, but only one third of cloud projects deliver on every goal
• MSP involvement in cloud projects has risen to 40% as organisations recognise the benefits of their support
• 82% of organisations say cloud modernisation efforts have contributed to a more agile culture

As organisations ramp up infrastructure modernisation efforts, Ekco’s Infrastructure Modernisation Survey reveals more than half (54%) of businesses cannot effectively track their cloud spending, potentially undermining billions in infrastructure investment.

The research, surveying over 1,000 IT decision-makers across the UK and Ireland, found that only one-third (33%) of cloud projects deliver on every goal. This gap between partial and complete success is costing organisations significant value, with many struggling to measure true return on investment due to poor cost visibility.

Legacy infrastructure continues to be a major drag on innovation, with 71% of organisations reporting that outdated on-prem technology is actively holding them back. Among those still relying heavily on legacy systems, 70% believe migrating to the cloud could reduce costs – yet 46% cite management failing to prioritise cloud migration as a key barrier.

Commenting on the findings, James Young, Head of Technical Solution Architecture at Ekco, said: “Organisations are making substantial cloud investments, but without proper cost visibility and optimisation, they’re essentially flying blind. 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.”

The skills gap is driving demand for external expertise, with MSP partnerships jumping from 30% to 40% year-on-year. Projects supported by MSPs are 6.6% more likely to achieve all objectives and 8.3% more likely to stay within scope and timeline, demonstrating clear value from specialised expertise.

Beyond infrastructure challenges, the research reveals interesting cultural shifts. A significant 82% of organisations report that moving to cloud helps create a more agile culture, suggesting the benefits extend far beyond technical improvements to fundamental business transformation.

The survey suggests that while cloud momentum remains strong with 98% of organisations considering cloud moves, the focus must shift from basic adoption to sophisticated optimisation and governance.