A wake-up call for real cloud ROI

Enterprise adoption of public cloud platforms has been skyrocketing. More than half of all enterprise workloads are now running in public clouds, with spending projected to rise by nearly a third this year alone. Many organizations are allocating more than $12 million annually to public cloud services. Despite this massive investment, a significant portion—about 27%—of cloud spend goes to waste. This is especially frustrating as enterprises flocked to the cloud for lower costs, speed, and business agility, yet find themselves grappling with ballooning bills and limited return on investment.

The root of the problem often lies in moving too quickly. Many enterprises view the cloud as an automatic path to efficiency and cost reduction. Still, without a well-defined strategy, they often end up creating complex environments filled with idle resources, unnecessary storage, and hidden networking costs. The confusing nature of cloud pricing, paired with a lack of granular visibility, leaves IT and finance teams scratching their heads over baffling invoices. This complexity prevents organizations from tying cloud spending back to real business value, causing frustration and feeding the cycle of waste.

Plan carefully, act quickly, spend wisely

To make cloud spending work for you, the first step is to stop, assess, and plan. Do not assume the cloud will save money automatically. Establish a meticulous strategy that matches workloads to the right environments, considering both current and future needs. Take the time to analyze which applications genuinely benefit from the public cloud versus alternative options. This is essential for achieving real savings and optimal performance.

Adopting a finops framework can be transformative. Finops unites IT, finance, and business stakeholders in a shared pursuit of continuous cloud cost optimization. It fosters a culture of transparency and accountability, making it possible to track spending, identify trends, and address waste before it gets out of control. When paired with automated tools and regular reviews, finops empowers organizations to proactively manage costs, right-size resources, and align every cloud dollar with business value.

Governance must go hand in hand with these financial practices. Draft clear policies for cloud use, enforce tagging standards, and automate shutdowns or cleanup of underutilized resources. Everyone who uses the cloud should be empowered to make wise choices but must also be responsible for their spending. This fundamental shift takes leadership commitment and constant communication and pays dividends in clarity and cost control.

Diversify your workload locations

If the economics of public cloud are coming up short for specific applications or workloads, or if you require greater regulatory control, you should consider other options. Private clouds can offer greater control and predictable cost structures, especially for workloads with steady demand or strict compliance requirements. Sovereign clouds run by regional or national providers have become especially relevant for organizations navigating stringent data privacy and residency regulations.

Specialized and regional cloud providers are also rising in prominence. They can deliver tailored solutions, provide better support, and sometimes offer significantly lower prices for certain types of workloads, especially when data transfer or unique technical needs are a factor. For businesses willing to look beyond the top three hyperscalers, these alternatives could unlock significant financial and operational benefits.

Enterprises should rigorously review their existing usage, streamline environments, and identify optimization opportunities. Invest in cloud management platforms that can automate the discovery of inefficiencies, recommend continuous improvements, and forecast future spending patterns with greater accuracy. Optimization isn’t a one-time exercise—it must be an ongoing process, with automation and accountability as central themes.

What to do now?

Enterprises are facing mounting pressure to justify their escalating cloud spend and recapture true business value from their investments. Without decisive action, waste will continue to erode any promised benefits. Here are the key steps I recommend to regain control and drive meaningful results:

Audit your current cloud environment: Conduct a thorough review of all cloud workloads, spending patterns, and resource utilization. Quickly decommission idle or redundant assets to stop unnecessary spending.

Implement finops practices: Form a cross-functional finops team that unites IT, finance, and business leadership. Monitor spending in real time, set clear cost controls, and create a culture of financial accountability.

Optimize your cloud architecture: Regularly reevaluate how applications are deployed. Right-size resources, consolidate workloads, and eliminate sprawl across compute, storage, and networking.

Automate cost governance: Deploy tools that automatically detect anomalies, track usage, and shut down orphaned or underutilized resources without manual intervention.

Upskill your teams: Invest in continuous education to ensure staff understand cloud pricing and best practices for managing costs. Empower everyone to identify inefficiencies early.

Explore alternative models and providers: Consider hybrid, private, or sovereign cloud options for specific workloads, as well as lesser-known or specialized vendors that may offer more cost-effective or compliant solutions.

Negotiate proactively with cloud vendors: Use your spend visibility to drive better contract terms, volume discounts, or enhanced service agreements.

Taking these actions now will help enterprises turn cloud from a growing cost center into a source of measurable business value.

In the end, cloud’s potential for delivering economic and business value is real, but only for organizations willing to put in the planning, discipline, and governance that cloud demands. Moving workloads to the cloud is not a business outcome in itself—it must serve clear goals for innovation, efficiency, and return on investment. Enterprises must approach cloud growth with intention: tightening financial controls, building a culture of cost awareness, and considering an expanded menu of cloud solutions. The companies that can manage this will not only control their spending but will also finally realize the benefits they’ve been promised.