A new study from cloud service provider Aptum highlights the top causes of unexpected cloud costs.

Aptum, a hybrid multi-cloud managed service provider, has released its annual Cloud Impact Study, Taking Control of Cloud Costs. The findings reveal cloud computing has resulted in higher-than-expected costs for 73 percent of IT decision-makers. The report explores the common financial drivers behind cloud computing, and the causes of its unplanned expenses.
The operating expenditure (OpEx) payment structures of cloud computing allow organizations to pay for the computing and storage they use, while also monitoring monthly usage and spend. The study’s respondents concur that 71 percent believe cloud transformation positively impacts operational efficiency.
However, 65 percent of surveyed IT decision-makers reveal they have “wasted significant IT spend due to cloud inefficiencies” and only 20 percent of respondents have a holistic strategy in place when it comes to their transformation. The report identifies the most common causes of unforeseen costs and details how businesses can overcome them. The top causes of unforeseen costs include:
Lack of familiarity – Limited internal knowledge, expertise and resources are obstacles to managing cloud effectively.
Runaway costs – When businesses do not configure the cloud to scale up and down effectively, they often consume more resources than predicted.
The ‘Hotel California’ effect – Cloud is temptingly easy to enter, but hard to leave. To avoid egress charges, planning and expertise are crucial to choosing the best cloud infrastructure for workloads.
Hybrid complexity – Mixing hybrid, multi-cloud and legacy infrastructure platforms has its own additional management costs associated to it.
Cloud modernization – Organizations are increasingly looking to modernize their cloud applications. However, lack of expertise and legacy systems often add complexity and costs for those looking to do this.
Wrong consumption model – Companies unfamiliar with cloud may find themselves adopting the wrong consumption model.
“Unforeseen costs associated with the cloud can be a challenge for many businesses that lack a comprehensive cloud strategy. Typically, unanticipated costs come about due to a lack of familiarity with the cloud,” said Marvin Sharp, vice president of Product & Strategy for Aptum. “Businesses don’t always fully understand how consumption models work and which one is best for their organization. For example, the original migration can often cause a peak in price due to lack of successful refactoring of applications. This price increase can be large, and isn’t always explained to businesses, causing unnecessary concern.”
The study canvassed the opinions and approaches to cloud technology of 400 senior IT professionals. Respondents were from organizations with 250+ employees in the U.S., Canada and UK. Industries included manufacturing, financial services, technology, retail and the commercial sector.
To see the full findings from Aptum’s Cloud Impact Study 2022, Taking Control of Cloud Costs, download the report.