How do you overcome cloud complexity? Find out in our 2025 Cloud Complexity Report

Cloud has delivered flexibility and innovation at scale. But it has also introduced unprecedented levels of complexity. Our latest research with Vanson Bourne shows that almost every organization is feeling the strain and the costs. This post shares highlights from the report. For the full analysis, including practical recommendations, download your copy here:

Key findings:

• Hybrid cloud is the choice for most organizations.
• The tool landscape is too complicated.
• Operational challenges vary, but nearly all organizations admit they are struggling in some way with cloud infrastructure.
• Platform and security teams need to work better together.
• Most organizations find that a unified platform for infrastructure and security lifecycle management helps overcome complexity.
• Automation is key to cloud innovation.

»Complexity is the new constant

Respondents to this year’s survey were clear — cloud complexity is not going away, and unless organizations find ways to manage it, innovation will slow down. The top three cloud management challenges were:

• Complexity of managing multi/hybrid cloud environments (52%)
• Keeping an up-to-date security approach (49%)
• Maintaining a strong compliance posture (42%)

While complexity is the biggest cloud infrastructure challenge for over half of the organizations surveyed, nearly all (97%) admit to struggling in some way with their cloud infrastructure.

»Tool sprawl drains productivity and budgets

One of the largest contributors to cloud complexity (and cost) is the prevalence of tools used to manage cloud environments. Almost all organizations (97%) use multiple tools and/or services to do the job, with 5 being the average number.

For many organizations, dealing with tool sprawl often leads to extended deployment cycles and slow time to market as teams struggle to coordinate across disparate systems and processes.

»Platform and security teams must work together to lower risk

According to the survey, 83% of organizations have platform engineering teams, but only 46% of organizations have dedicated security personnel within their platform engineering teams.

Organizations with dedicated security personnel embedded within platform engineering report the strongest platform-security relationships, which are key to maintaining compliance and reducing risk.

»A unified platform tames complexity

Many respondents in the survey praised the value of a unified platform for lifecycle management. Fifty-one percent (51%) say a unified platform provides better visibility and monitoring, 37% cite lower costs of managing tools, and 51% report better team collaboration.

»AI and automation will dominate the next frontier

Organizations recognize the value of automation for faster, more accurate resource provisioning. On average, over half (56%) of infrastructure and application deployment is automated. This is expected to increase as more and more organizations invest in automation software and AI to drive cloud innovation in the future.

»From complexity to control

Cloud complexity is holding back many organizations from realizing the full potential of the cloud, but there are things you can do to address the challenges. Our full report has many more insights and recommendations from our survey, including the steps to overcoming cloud complexity.