Most Companies Fail To Achieve Accurate Cloud Cost Visibility

CloudZero released survey findings revealing how organizations are addressing cloud spend. The report, named “The State Of Cloud Cost Intelligence 2022,” collates data from over 1,000 survey respondents asked about various dimensions of their cloud cost strategies. Comprising a 50/50 split between engineering and finance professionals, the report assesses organizations through a FinOps lens; specifically, the extent to which they are turning cloud cost data into fuel for better business decisions. Findings demonstrate that most organizations are challenged with cloud cost visibility, a trend which worsens as companies grow, mature, and go public. Cloud cost is more of a priority than the previous year – and both engineering and finance are sharing the responsibility to manage it. The report also reveals a single factor correlated with better visibility and fewer disruptions: an engineering culture that owns cost.

Key survey findings include:

• Only 13% of organizations have allocated more than 75% of their cloud costs
• 73% of respondents said cloud cost was a C-suite or board-level issue
• 65% of respondents said cloud cost is a shared responsibility between engineering and finance
• Organizations with engineering cultures of cloud cost ownership have improved visibility and cost attribution, higher confidence in financial reporting, and better adherence to budgets

“The report reflects the reality I’ve witnessed during my tenure in the cloud cost management industry. The good news is that organizations are taking meaningful steps to address this issue,” said Phil Pergola, CEO of CloudZero. “The survey responses show that more than half of companies are devoting significant resources to FinOps, whether that’s one full-time FinOps manager or a multi-person team. People clearly want to make the change.”

The cloud cost intelligence paradigm, pioneered by CloudZero, describes a state at which organizations know not only how much they’re spending on cloud services, but how much they’re spending on specific business dimensions: customers, products, features, departments, etc. Cloud cost intelligence puts raw expense numbers in context, allowing businesses to turn cloud spend data from a mystery into a point of leverage for improved decision-making.

The findings are available now. Visit cloudzero.com to read the full report.