Virtana Research: Cloud Complexity Grows as 83% of IT Leaders Use More Than One Cloud Service Provider and 44% Use More Than Three

Virtana released its latest independent research report, The State of Multi-Cloud Management 2023. The report, part of the company’s fourth annual multi-cloud survey, asked 350 IT leaders in the US and UK-all cloud decision-makers-about their multi-cloud infrastructure, challenges, and future plans. The report found that 83% of IT leaders are using more than one cloud service provider (CSP), and 44% are using more than three CSPs. The survey results demonstrate growing management and data complexities that come from the high number of cross-provider interactions.

Complexity leads to cost

The survey asked respondents what their number-one challenge is in managing their hybrid/multi-cloud infrastructure. The top challenge for respondents using five or more CSPs, cited by 31% of that cohort, was keeping rising costs under control, compared to 17-26% of respondents with fewer CSPs to manage.

It is a hybrid world – and complexity abounds 

Very few organizations are not using public and private clouds at all (0.3% and 2%, respectively). The vast majority have a solid mix of public and private clouds, with multiple CSPs in use. Complexity does not come just from managing multiple CSPs, other factors include:

• 77% of organizations manage more than four or more instances, and 22% manage 11 or more.
• Cost consolidation adds to the complexity, as 56% of respondents are not trying to consolidate cloud costs from multiple CSPs. And of the 44% who are consolidating multi-cloud cost information, two-thirds are doing that work manually.

“CSPs are not one-size-fits-all, so going multi-cloud to take advantage of specific capabilities is often the appropriate strategy. Most businesses need the flexibility to add instances to support evolving requirements,” said David McNerney, Cloud Management Product Lead at Virtana. “But our main point to customers is that they can streamline the management of it all.” 

Financial accountability structures are underdeveloped

FinOps is the practice of bringing financial accountability to the variable spend model of the cloud to enable all teams to make informed and appropriate business trade-offs between speed, cost, and quality. Less than one-quarter of respondents (24%) have a mature, effective FinOps practice in place, leaving 76% with incomplete, or even nonexistent, processes and controls to hold stakeholders throughout the organization accountable for cloud costs. 

Other survey highlights include: 

• Despite the growing pains associated with establishing a FinOps practice, 38% of respondents have put in the effort to move beyond the early stages (up from 36% in March 2022), which means 62% have a solid structure for a FinOps practice in place.
• But when it comes to tracking costs, most organizations aren’t looking to their FinOps team to take the lead. 89% of organizations use their IT team, compared to only 41% that use their finance or procurement team and just 17% that use FinOps.
• It’s interesting to note that the more CSPs an organization has – and 69% of respondents using five or more – the more likely they are to track costs in a siloed way, compared to 54-58% of those using fewer.