AI experimentation outpaces usage;
The Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud Report sheds light on cloud computing trends and the pressures facing IT professionals and the strategic initiatives they’re utilizing to remain competitive in today’s dynamic and evolving landscape.
Report highlights
Here’s a sample of key findings from this year’s report based on a survey of 753 cloud decision-makers and users from around the world.
Organizations embrace multi-cloud
N=753
Source: Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud Report (Figure 8)
What challenges do you face in migrating workloads to public cloud?
All: N=753, Enterprise: N=621, SMB: N=132
Source: Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud Report (Figure 21)
Does your company have a FinOps team to advise, manage or execute cloud cost optimization strategies?
N=753
Source: Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud Report (Figure 26)
What public cloud providers does your organization use?
N=753
Source: Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud Report (Figure 38)
Use of generative AI (GenAI) public cloud services
N=753
Source: Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud Report (Figure 50)
Cloud cost optimization and sustainability prioritization
N=753
Source: Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud Report (Figure 55)
In the face of ongoing economic uncertainties, many organizations are investing in transformative initiatives such as generative AI (GenAI) and sustainability. At the same time, managing costs effectively remains a top priority—and trying to find a balance between the two is a formidable challenge. Despite this, cloud usage is on the rise, while wasted spend is decreasing. Hybrid cloud strategies are evolving, with a notable increase in the number of businesses adopting a more comprehensive view of cost management for hybrid deployments, including the licensing of software used in the cloud.
Cloud spending remains substantial, as nearly half of all workloads and data are now in the public cloud. For the second year in a row, managing cloud expenses has emerged as a more pressing challenge than security, highlighting an intensified focus on FinOps practices and tools for optimizing cloud costs and enhancing efficiency. This trend is consistent with the broader adoption of multi-cloud strategies, the increased use of cloud services, and the establishment of cloud centers of excellence (CCOEs) in more than half of the organizations surveyed, signifying a shift toward more centralized and strategic cloud management.
The Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud Report reveals:
Methodology
The Flexera State of the Cloud survey tapped 753 technical professionals and executive leaders worldwide in the winter of 2023. The network includes professionals across industries and context areas.
Flexera sources participants from an independent panel that is rigorously maintained and is comprised of vetted respondents with detailed profiles. All numbers and percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.
At numerous points throughout the report, we’ve provided our own interpretation of the data as Flexera Points of View.
SMBs: Businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees
Enterprises: Organizations with more than 1,000 employees
Large enterprises: Organizations with more than 10,000 employees
Reuse
We encourage the reuse of data, charts and text published in this report under the terms of this Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You are free to share and make commercial use of this work as long as you provide attribution to the Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud Report as stipulated in the terms of the license.
This year’s survey leans toward enterprises, with 68% of respondents in organizations with more than 2,000 employees. Eight percent have more than 100,000 employees.
What size is your organization?
N=753
Source: Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud Report (Figure 1)
Tech-related industries (35% between software, hosting/cloud provider/managed services) and financial services (19%) lead respondents’ industries, followed by healthcare (12%).
What’s your company’s industry?
N=753
Source: Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud Report (Figure 2)
