ROCKVILLE, Md., May 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CloudBolt Software, The Cloud ROI Company™ and a recognized leader in cloud cost management, today released its latest CloudBolt Industry Insights (CII) report titled Performance vs. Perception: The FinOps Execution Gap. Conducted in collaboration with Wakefield Research, the study surveyed 350 senior IT leaders in the U.S. across a wide range of industries to assess the current state of FinOps practices.
The research underscores a significant perception vs. performance gap. While the FinOps discipline, championed by organizations such as the FinOps Foundation, is robust and proven, executives appear to be overconfident. Many label their FinOps practices as mature and automated, which stands in stark contrast with the reality:
- 78% of respondents admit difficulty in consistently demonstrating cloud ROI, which they defined primarily as revenue growth (43%), followed by operational efficiency/productivity (36%), and then cost savings (35%).
- 98% agree that Kubernetes is becoming a major driver of cloud spend, but 91% remain unable to effectively optimize their Kubernetes clusters, signaling a critical blind spot as container adoption grows.
- 66% report mostly to fully automated environments for cloud waste management and cloud spend optimization. Yet 58% of respondents say it takes weeks or months to detect and fully remediate cloud-cost waste opportunities. This calls into question the assertion of a truly automated approach for the majority of respondents.
"FinOps as a discipline is more sound than ever and continues to evolve effectively," said Kyle Campos, CTPO at CloudBolt. "But a good percentage of organizations may be taking a victory lap before even navigating the first turn. Through this research, it’s evident that while a majority indicate they believe they've achieved FinOps maturity, the data shows they are still in the early stages of operationalizing and optimizing FinOps practices. Confidence in lieu of measurable progress obscures reality and hinders the improvement necessary for significant business impact."
The report details key barriers to stronger ROI on cloud investments, with:
- 55% of respondents citing difficulty linking cloud spend directly to business outcomes.
- 48% blaming organizational misalignment and operational silos.
- 44% noting inefficient resource management, including poor tagging and inconsistent accountability.
Further, the report identifies private cloud/data centers as playing a key role in the ROI equation:
- Hybrid multi-cloud management was identified as the top priority by 42% of respondents.
- 39% say hybrid cloud management will be a “funded priority” for their organization over the next 6-12 months, only topped by AI/ML cloud-cost optimization (FinOps for AI) at 40%.
"Leaders believe they have visibility into their cloud spend. Yet without necessary governance, enforcement, and effective remediation, they are doing little to reduce the insight-to-action gap – the time it takes to go from ‘we have a problem’ to ‘problem fixed and cost optimized.’ This leads to persistent inefficiencies and inflated costs," said Campos. "Kubernetes and AI-driven workloads especially highlight this disconnect – rapid adoption without proper operational control and automated actions (both retrospective and proactive) is dramatically affecting return on investment. If FinOps practices are not focusing on continuous optimization and employing the capabilities to execute on that, organizations will continue to struggle to effectively show cloud ROI."
For a comprehensive data analysis and detailed recommendations, access the full CII report here: https://www.cloudbolt.io/industry-research/the-finops-execution-gap/.
About CloudBolt Software
CloudBolt Software is the Cloud ROI Company™, empowering enterprises to optimize cloud investments and maximize value across the full technology stack—spanning public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. Following its recent acquisition of StormForge, CloudBolt now unites industry-leading FinOps capabilities, cloud orchestration, and advanced Kubernetes optimization, delivering the most comprehensive platform for intelligent, ML-driven cloud cost optimization. This powerful combination helps organizations continuously reduce waste, increase efficiency, and close the critical insight-to-action gap across all layers of their infrastructure. Recognized as InfoWorld’s Cloud Cost Management Technology of the Year, CloudBolt enables technology, finance, and platform teams to align around actionable insights, driving performance and ROI at scale. Learn more at www.cloudbolt.io.
Media Contact:
Caroline Statile
Scratch Marketing + Media for CloudBolt
caroline@scratchmm.com
