FLEXERA™ 2022

State ofthe CloudReport
The post-pandemic worldcomes into focus and FinOps
practices gain momentum

ReuseWe encourage the reuse of data, charts and text published in this report under theterms 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 attribute theFlexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report as stipulated in the terms of the license.

© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2

Table of contents

7

23

8

Half of workloads and data from all
respondents is in a public cloud24

The need for FinOps grows

8

Nearly half of enterprise workloads anddata is in a public cloud25

Microsoft Azure usage surpasses that of AWS

8

Native tooling gains traction

8

Nearly two-thirds of SMB workloads will bein the cloud26

Growth of SMB cloud usage

8

COVID-19 increased cloud usage, though
not as much as predicted

27

Terminology used throughout the report8

Organizations are more open to moving
sensitive data to public cloud28

Dependency mapping is a top cloud
migration challenge

29

Executive summary

Public cloud adoption continues toaccelerate

The highlights

9

Methodology
Respondent demographics

9

Respondent geographical demographics

931

Understanding cloud initiatives and metrics

16

Optimizing usage is the top cloud initiative
for the sixth year running

31

Organizations take a hybrid approach

17

Organizations measure cloud progressby savings, agility and value

33

Applications are often siloed on
different clouds

18

Organizations embrace multi-cloud

35

19

Organizations are taking a centralized
approach to cloudMulti-cloud cost management tools used
for enterprises

20

Central teams optimize cloud costs andgovern use

36

All organizations are using at least
one cloud21

Software asset management and vendor
management can lend expertise

37

Managed service providers (MSPs) assist
with cloud work

38

Multi-cloud cost management tools used
for security and cost

© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

3

41

Top challenges are security,
expertise and spend
Enterprises and SMBs see security
as top challenge

42

YoY enterprise challenges continue

43

Cost, governance and security remainchallenges regardless of cloud usage

44

46

Organizations struggle to control
growing cloud spend
Organizations continue to waste significant
cloud spend

47

Finding savings opportunities with cloudprovider discounts

48

Organizations continue to use automation
to optimize costs

49

Choice of public cloud provider changing
for SMBs

65

Usage levels affect public cloudprovider choice67

Enterprises are expanding their
public cloud footprint

68

71

Use of public cloud PaaS services
is increasing
The most heavily used PaaS services
have shifted

71Enterprises use more PaaS services

73

PaaS services use increases with cloudusage level

74

76

Private cloud plays an important role
SMBs use private clouds less than enterprises

52

80

Container use becomes increasingly
mainstream
Containers may be mainstream, but lackof expertise is the top challenge

2022 State of the Cloud Report:
European spotlight
55

57

Adoption of cloud configuration tools
is shifting

61

Public cloud adoption is evolving
Major public cloud provider use is shiftingamong enterprises

77

63

European spotlight: highlights

80

European respondent demographics

81

Cloud has now become mainstream

85

European cloud usage accelerated
due to COVID-19

87

Most European respondents have cloud
teams or CCOEs

88

Assessing technical feasibility is a top cloud
migration challenge

89

Migrating to the cloud is a top initiative90© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

4

91

Global summary

92

Table of figures

95

About Flexera© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

5

FLEXERA™ 2022

State of the
Cloud ReportFLEXERA 2022

State of the
Cloud Report
The post-pandemic world comes into focus
and FinOps practices gain momentum
Executive summary
To compete in today’s game, organizations musthave the cloud play a role in their strategy. The cloudhelps enterprises scale, be more agile, increase
revenue and achieve business goals. Cloud adoption
was already expanding for several years—and has
been accelerated by the pandemic—but as a postpandemic world begins to take shape, new trends incloud usage are coming into focus.
The eleventh annual Flexera 2022 State of the
Cloud Report (previously known as the RightScale
State of the Cloud Report) explores the thinking of753 respondents from a survey conducted in late
2021. It highlights year-over-year (YoY) changes
to help identify trends. The respondents—global
cloud decision-makers and users—revealed theirexperiences and insights about the public, privateand multi-cloud market.

Modern enterprises are focused on optimizing
hybrid IT, rightsizing cloud environments, leveraging
consumption intelligence to plan cloud migrations
and looking for the best data to optimize spend
through negotiation readiness. In a hybrid IT world,a siloed approach to IT management is obsolete.
Today’s top challenges for organizations of all sizes
are security, managing cloud spend and a lack ofresources or expertise. Understanding current cloudcomputing trends can help guide your organization’s
digital business decision-making processes, vendor
and technology selection, cost forecasting andinvestment strategies to support upcoming stagesof your cloud journey.

© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

7

The highlights
The Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report survey
captured insights into the growing reliance on
Microsoft Azure, the move toward the use of native
tooling and the massive uptake of cloud amongsmall to midsized businesses. Among the mostinteresting highlights:

Terminology used throughout the report:

The need for FinOps grows

SMBs are small to midsized businesses with fewer
than 1,000 employees

Cloud costs continue to grow, and the amount ofwaste remains high. Numerous roles, including IT/
Ops, cloud centers of excellence and FinOps teams,
are seeking to keep costs down.

Large enterprises are public- or private-sector
organizations with 10,000 or more employeesEnterprises are public- or private-sector
organizations with 1,000 or more employees

Organizations refers to the combination ofenterprises and SMBs participating in the survey

Microsoft Azure usage surpasses that of AWS
In several instances in the 2022 survey, Microsoft
Azure usage met or exceeded that of Amazon Web
Services (AWS).

Native tooling gains traction
Third-party tools that assist in areas such as
orchestration and container management seem tobe losing ground to native tooling from the cloudproviders themselves.

Growth of SMB cloud usage
Cloud spend by SMBs reflects a massive uptake,with 53 percent of SMBs spending more than $1.2
million—up from 38 percent reported last year.

© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

8

Methodology

FIGURE 1

A total of 753 technical and business professionals
from around the world and across a broad crosssection of organizations participated in the Flexera
2022 State of the Cloud Report survey to provide
insights into their adoption of cloud infrastructureand services. Participants in the survey are sourced
from a respondent pool that is independent from
Flexera customers and prospects. The independent
panel is rigorously maintained and comprised ofvetted respondents with detailed profiles.
Most respondents are cloud decision-makers
and users from organizations ranging from 100
employees to more than 10,000 employees. Theiranswers provide a comprehensive perspective on thestate of the cloud today.

Respondent demographics
Organizations of all sizes are using the cloud to help
manage IT workloads. However, this survey skews
toward larger organizations. As figure 1 shows, 79
percent of participating organizations are enterprisesthat employ at least 1,000 people, and 31 percent
employ more than 10,000 people.

Portions of this report compare data based
upon geography:

The majority of respondents are from enterprisesthat employ at least 1,000 people.

Respondents by organization size

31%

10,001+15%

5,001-10,000

21%

2,001-5,000

12%

1,001-2,000

14%101-1000

7%

1-100

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report• The Americas region is comprised of
respondents from countries including theUnited States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil• Europe includes respondents froma broad set of countries• The Asia-Pacific region is comprised of
respondents from China, Australia, India,
Japan, Singapore and South Korea© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

9

Businesses in virtually every industry around the world leverage cloud computing. As figure 2 indicates, thereport covers a broad range of industries. As in previous years, the largest groups of respondents come from tech
and financial services, followed closely by software and hardware. This year we see larger representation fromconsumer products and services and transportation and logistics. The other category includes industries that
represent less than three percent of respondents.
FIGURE 2

Tech services and financial services lead respondents’ industries, followed closely by software and hardware.

Respondents by industry

22%

20%

17%

10%

Tech services

Financial services

Software andhardware

Healthcare

5%

5%

4%

4%

Retail ande-commerce

Consumer products
and services

Education/
Government

Transportationand logistics

4%

3%

3%

3%

Industrial
products

Business services

Telecom

Other

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

10

Figure 3 shows the locations of participating organizations’ headquarters or main offices around the world.
FIGURE 3

The majority of respondents are from the United States.

Respondents by geography

United States

64%

Germany2%

Belgium

Less than 1%

United Kingdom

8%Singapore

2%

Japan

Less than 1%

India

6%

Netherlands

1%

IrelandLess than 1%

Other

4%

Mexico1%South Korea

Less than 1%

Canada

3%

China

1%

IsraelLess than 1%

Australia

3%

Switzerland

1%

Austria

Less than 1%

France3%

Sweden1%

BrazilLess than 1%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

11

Figures 4, 5 and 6 indicate the breakdown of respondents by business role, level and where they work within
an organization, respectively. Most respondents are in IT/Ops; 73 percent are close to the cloud, either as IT/
Operations (44 percent) or Cloud Architects (29 percent). And 60 percent of respondents work within a central
cloud team or cloud center of excellence (CCOE) or similar.
FIGURE 4

FIGURE 5

Respondents by role

Respondents by level

Most respondents are in IT/Ops.

EnterpriseArchitect

Business
8%

Development

Most respondents are directors/managers.

8%

11%

IT/Development
IT/Ops

44%

Other
6%

7%
Executive

38%

19%

29%

Director/
Manager30%

CloudArchitect

Architect

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report

FIGURE 6

The majority of respondents work in a central cloud team (CCOE or similar).

Respondents by where in the organization they work

60%

22%

16%

2%

Central cloud team
(CCOE or similar)

Business unit
central IT/Dev team

Other central
IT/Dev team

Other

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

12

Cloud adoption continues to become moremainstream, as figure 7 shows. Heavy users (currently
running more than 25 percent of workloads in thecloud) are up to 63 percent, an increase from 59
percent in 2021 and 53 percent in 2020. Similarly,
respondents who reported light usage decreased
from 19 percent to 14 percent, implying moreorganizations are advancing through their cloudjourneys. The findings make sense with the growing
cloud adoption and need to remain competitive in
our ever-evolving digital world.

FIGURE 7

More and more organizations are advancing
through their cloud journeys.

What’s your company’s usage
level o f public cloud?

63%

Heavy

23%

Moderate

14%

Light

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

13

Respondents have significant influence on both SaaS
and IaaS/PaaS. As figure 8 indicates, 78 percent
are involved in decisions on SaaS, compared to77 percent involved in decisions on public cloud.
Similarly, respondents are actively involved in theongoing usage and cost management for both SaaS
(69 percent) and public cloud IaaS and PaaS
(66 percent). Interestingly, more and more users are
swimming in the FinOps side of the pool, even if they
may not know it—or call it FinOps yet.

FIGURE 8

Respondents have significant influence on both SaaS and IaaS/PaaS.

Cloud involvement within organization
Involved in decisions on SaaS

78%

Involved in decisions on
public cloud

77%

Involved in managing use and/or costs of SaaS

69%

Involved in decisions
on private cloud

67%

Involved in managing use and/or costs of public cloud66%

User of public cloud IaaS/PaaS

66%

User of SaaS

65%

Involved in managing use and/or costs of private cloud

57%
55%

User of private cloud IaaS/PaaSManaging public cloud for ourcustomers (MSP, SI)

33%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

14

Organizations
embrace multi-cloudOrganizations embrace multi-cloud
Nearly all organizations have employed multi-cloud.
As figure 9 indicates, 89 percent of respondents
report having a multi-cloud strategy, a slightdecrease from 92 percent in 2021. However, single
public increased from eight to nine percent, andmultiple private made an appearance at two percent.

It seems multi-cloud is still the de facto standard,
but the ways in which organizations arrive at multicloud vary depending on their needs and the mix ofproviders chosen. Most are taking a hybrid approach,combining the use of both public and private clouds.

FIGURE 9

Multi-cloud remains the de facto standard.

Cloud strategy for all organizations

Singleprivate7%
2%

Multiple public
Multiple private

2%Single public

9%

89%

Multi-cloud80%

Hybrid cloud

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

16

cloud—an increase from last year. The most common
combination is a mix of various public and private
clouds.

Organizations take a hybrid approach
As figure 10 shows, 79 percent of respondents
said they’re incorporating multiple public clouds,
and 60 percent report using more than one private
FIGURE 10

Most respondents use multiple public and private clouds.

Hybrid cloud strategies for all organizations
Multiple public andmultiple private

48%

Multiple public andone private
One public andmultiple private
One public andone private

31%
12%
9%

N=602
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

17

Applications are often siloed on
different clouds
While organizations are using multiple clouds, thisdoesn’t necessarily mean individual applications arespanning clouds. As figure 11 shows, apps siloedon different clouds is the most common multi-cloud
implementation, with 45 percent of respondents

calling it the most popular architecture for the thirdyear running. DR/Failover saw a ten-percentagepoint gain YoY and is now at 44 percent. Major cloud
outages can have a downstream impact on otherintegrated platforms (which may themselves rely on
the affected cloud), rendering a move to a new cloudprovider ineffective in restoring services.

FIGURE 11

Apps siloed on different clouds remains the most common implementation, but DR/Failover between
clouds saw a significant increase YoY.

Use of multi-cloud architectures by all organizations
Apps siloed on different clouds

45%

DR/Failover between clouds

44%

Data integration
between clouds

41%

Workload mobility
between clouds

36%

Individual apps span public
and private cloud

32%

Workload bursting(cloud-bursting)

27%
25%

Intelligent workload placement
Cloud brokering

20%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

18

Multi-cloud management tools
used for security and cost
Multi-cloud architectures are more complex andmore challenging to manage—and multi-cloud
tooling is essential for managing cloud resources

cost-effectively and ensuring strong governance andsecurity. For the first time, multi-cloud security tools
took the number one spot (figure 12), while the useof multi-cloud tools otherwise decreased across theboard YoY.

FIGURE 12

Multi-cloud security tools becomes the front-runner for the first time.

Use of multi-cloud tools by all organizations
32%

Multi-cloud security tools

31%

Multi-cloud cost management tools
Multi-cloud governance tools

25%

Multi-cloud management tools

25%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

19

Multi-cloud cost management tools used for enterprises
It’s no surprise that for large enterprises with more than 10,000 employees, multi-cloud security tools also took
the number one spot, as figure 13 indicates.
FIGURE 13

For enterprises with more than 10,000 employees, multi-cloud security tools takes the lead.

Use of multi-cloud tools by large enterprises with more than 10,000 employees
41%

Multi-cloud security tools

37%

Multi-cloud cost management tools
Multi-cloud governance tools

34%

Multi-cloud management tools

33%

N=232
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

20

All organizations are using at least one cloudAs figure 14 indicates, all respondents are using at least one public or private cloud. Ninety-six percent ofrespondents utilize at least one public cloud, while 84 percent have at least one private cloud. Eighty percent ofrespondents are using hybrid cloud.
FIGURE 14

All respondents use at least one public or private cloud.

Types of clouds used

Public cloud only

16%

80%

4% Private cloud only

HybridPublic96%

Private84%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

21

Public cloud adoption
continues to acceleratePublic cloud adoption continues to accelerate
The increasing use of public cloud is driving up cloud
spend for organizations of all sizes, and public cloud
spend is now a significant line item in IT budgets, as
depicted in figure 15.
In fact, eight percent of all respondents spend morethan $60 million, and more than half spend over $2.4
million on public cloud each year. Public cloud spend
is even more significant among larger organizations.
Thirty-seven percent of enterprises said their annual
spend exceeded $12 million and 80 percent reported
that cloud spend exceeds $1.2 million per year.
These figures are similar to 2021, when 36 percent ofenterprises reported an annual spend of more than

$12 million and 83 percent reported yearly spend of
more than $1.2 million.
SMBs run fewer and smaller workloads, so it stands
to reason their cloud bills would also be lower.
Twenty-two percent of SMBs are spending lessthan $600,000 annually, compared with only sevenpercent of enterprises. However, 53 percent of SMBs
spend more than $1.2 million—up from 38 percent
reported last year. Enterprise spending remains high,as 37 percent of organizations with more than 1,000
employees spend more than $12 million a year.

FIGURE 15

Public cloud spend is now a significant line item in all IT budgets.

Annual public cloud spend for all organizations
All respondents

Enterprise

SMB

7%

22%

2nd

2nd

10%

23%

1st

15%

3rd

13%

2nd

22%

2nd

$2.4M to $6M

18%

1st

19%

1st

17%

3rd

$6M to $12M

11%

11%

3rd

9%

$12M to $24M

10%

13%

2nd

3%

$24M to $60M

10%

13%

2nd

1%

More than $60M

8%

11%

3rd

1%

Did not disclose

4%

5%

Up to $600K

10%$600K to $1.2M

12%$1.2M to $2.4M

3%

All respondents N=753, Enterprise N=597, SMB N=156
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

23

Half of workloads and data from all respondents is in a public cloud
Figure 16 shows that respondents are running 50 percent of their workloads in public cloud, and they expect
to increase that number to 56 percent in the next twelve months. Forty-eight percent of organizations’ data is
in a public cloud today, and respondents expect to add another seven percent over the next twelve months, as
illustrated in figure 17.
FIGURE 16

FIGURE 17

Workloads in public cloud for all organizations

Data in public cloud for all organizations

Respondents run half of their workloads in cloud—and are expecting to increase that amount overthe next year.

Additional workloads
in public cloudin twelve months

6%

Not inpubliccloud

Within the next year, more than half of respondents’
data will be in the public cloud.

Additional datain public cloudin twelve months

Workloads
in public
cloud today

7%

50%

44%

Not inpubliccloud

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report

45%

Data
in public
cloud today

48%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

24

Nearly half of enterprise workloads and data is in a public cloudAs figures 18 and 19 indicate, enterprises are running 49 percent of workloads and storing 46 percent of data ina public cloud. Enterprise respondents plan to increase workloads and data in public cloud over the next twelve
months by six percent and seven percent, respectively.
FIGURE 18

FIGURE 19

Enterprise workloads in public cloudEnterprise data in public cloudEnterprises run nearly half of their workloads in a
public cloud.

Additional workloads
in public cloudin twelve months

6%

Not inpubliccloud

Enterprises store nearly half of their data in a
public cloud.

Additional datain public cloudin twelve months

Workloads
in public
cloud today

49%

45%

Data inpublic
cloud
today

N=597
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report

Not inpublic
cloud

7%

46%

47%

N=597
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

25

Nearly two-thirds of SMB workloads will be in the cloud
SMBs are moving quickly to the public cloud. As figures 20 and 21 show, 63 percent of SMB workloads and 62
percent of data will reside in a public cloud within the next twelve months.
FIGURE 20

FIGURE 21

SMB workloads in public cloud

SMB data in public cloud

Nearly two-thirds of SMB workloads will bein the cloud within the next twelve months.

Additional workloads
in public cloudin twelve months

6%

37%

N=156
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report

Additional datain public cloudin twelve months

Workloads
in public
cloud today

57%

Not inpubliccloud

Sixty-two percent of SMB data will reside in a public
cloud within the next twelve months.

6%38%
Not inpubliccloud

Datain public
cloud today

56%

N=156
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

26

COVID-19 increased cloud usage, though not
as much as predicted
The emergence of COVID-19 prompted Flexera to
add a question to last year’s 2021 State of the Cloud
Report survey to understand how the pandemic
might affect cloud plans. For the Flexera 2022 Stateof the Cloud Report survey, we asked respondents torate their predictions. Cloud plans and adoption haveclearly shifted as a result of the pandemic, though
not as much as respondents had anticipated.

Sixty-six percent of respondents said cloud usage
is higher than initially planned this year, though
90 percent had predicted higher usage last year,
as shown in figure 22. Twenty-one percent ofrespondents said cloud usage was significantly
higher than planned this year, though 29 percent had
thought that would be the case last year.

FIGURE 22

Actual cloud usage was somewhat higher than planned from the previous year, though not as significant aspreviously anticipated.

Predicted cloud usage compared to actual usage and spend
Total

1%
2%

SMB

0% 4%

Enterprise1%
2%

Significantly lower
than planned

31%

45%

36%

40%
47%

29%

Somewhat lower
than planned

About the sameas planned

Somewhat higher
than planned

21%
20%
21%

Significantly higher
than planned

All respondents N=753, SMB N=156, Enterprise N=597
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

27

As figure 23 shows, more than half of respondents
said they’ll consider moving at least some of their
sensitive consumer data or corporate financial data
to the cloud, which reflects increasing confidence inthe security tools and processes of cloud providers to
implement adequate protection.

Organizations are more open to moving
sensitive data to public cloudIn the past, some organizations hesitated to put
certain types of data in public clouds. This year’s
survey found many respondents are reconsidering.

FIGURE 23

More than half of respondents are planning to move at least some sensitive data to the cloud.

Data in the cloud
Consumer data
Corporate(PII/PHI, etc.) financial data

Order/
Sales data

IoT/Edge dataNon-sensitive
data foranalytics

Other
non-sensitivedata

All data stays
on-premises

15%

19%

7%

7%

5%

3%

Most data stays
on-premises

23%

25%

17%

11%

10%

10%

Mix of on-premises
and in cloud/SaaS

31%

26%

29%

25%

22%

24%

Most data will move tocloud/SaaS

15%

15%

24%

22%

25%

24%

All data will move tocloud/SaaS

13%

11%

19%

21%

34%

31%

100%

0%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

28

Dependency mapping is a top
cloud migration challenge
Mapping all the relationships across apps, hardwareand networking devices for each IT-delivered service
is notoriously difficult to do, especially in a rapidly
evolving environment, as illustrated in figure 24.
The data findings for this year’s report are similar to
the Flexera 2021 State of the Cloud Report, indicatingorganizations still need to address these challenges
in order to make informed decisions as to whichapps to optimize and migrate.

It’s therefore no surprise that 53 percent ofrespondents reported understanding app
dependencies as the top cloud migration challenge.
Other critical challenges for all respondents include
assessing the technical feasibility (of migrating onpremises apps), assessing on-premises versus cloudcosts and rightsizing/selecting the best instance.
For SMBs, knowing the implications of bring your own
license (BYOL) was reported to be a more significant
challenge, likely due to SMBs being more likely touse more open-source software and less licensed
software.

FIGURE 24

Understanding app dependencies and assessing technical feasibility are top challenges for all organizations.

Cloud migration challenges
All respondents

Enterprise

SMB

Understanding app dependencies

53%

1st

52%

1st

Assessing technical feasibility

48%

2nd

49%

2nd

44%

2nd

Assessing on-premises
vs. cloud costs

41%

3rd

42%

3rd

38%

3rd

Rightsizing/selecting best instance

41%

3rd

42%

3rd

36%

Knowing the implications of BYOL

37%

39%

Selecting the right cloud provider

34%

32%

38%

3rd

Prioritizing apps to migrate

34%

33%

38%

3rd

Migrating the app and data

34%

35%

29%

Optimizing costs post-migration

33%

35%

25%

Managing the app post-migration

23%

24%

1st

57%

29%

19%

All respondents N=753, Enterprise N=597, SMB N=156
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

29Understanding cloud
initiatives and metrics

Understanding cloud initiatives and metrics
Optimizing usage is the top cloud initiative forthe sixth year running

is a cost-control measure. Migrating workloads
can save money and drive agility. As organizations
move more workloads to the cloud, they can retire
the technical debt associated with maintaining
and operating traditional data centers. Moving to
SaaS solutions eliminates the resources required to
manage equivalent on-premises software packages.

The discipline of FinOps continues to gain traction
in large enterprises. For the sixth year in a row,
optimizing the existing use of cloud (cost savings) is the
top initiative, followed by migrating more workloads
to the cloud, as shown in figure 25. Optimizing usage
FIGURE 25

Cost-control measures and moving to SaaS solutions are top of mind.

Top cloud initiatives for 2022 across all organizations
Optimizing existing use of cloud(cost savings)

59%

Migrating more workloads
to cloud57%

Move from on-premises
software to SaaS

42%

Progressing on a
cloud-first strategy

40%

Better financial reporting on
cloud costs

38%

Automated policies forgovernance

36%

Expand use of containers

35%

Manage software
licenses in the cloud33%

Expanding public clouds we use

33%

Expand use of public cloudIaaS/PaaS services

31%

Continuous Integration and
Deployment (CI/CD)

29%

Enabling IT to broker cloudservices

15%
12%

Expand use of cloud MSPs
Expand use of cloudmarketplaces

7%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

31

Figure 26 divides respondents by cloud usage basedon light, moderate and heavy utilization of cloud.
Each ranks optimizing existing use of cloud andmigrating more workloads to cloud as one of the
top two initiatives. Moving from on-premises to SaaS

appeared in the top five for each category for the firsttime. As organizations expand their usage of cloud,they look beyond experimentation and greenfield
applications, focusing on SaaS options for existing
on-premises software.

FIGURE 26

Regardless of cloud usage level, optimizing existing use of cloud and migrating more workloads to cloud
remain top initiatives.

Top cloud initiatives for 2022 by cloud usage for all organizations
Light

Moderate

Optimizing our existing use of cloud(cost savings)
Progressing on a cloud-first strategy

1st

57%
36%

2nd

Moving from on-premises to SaaS
versions of software applications

37%

3rd

Better financial reporting on cloudcosts (showback/chargeback)

37%

3rd

Implementing automated policies
for cloud governanceManaging software licenses
used in the cloud

2nd

63%
39%

47%

Migrating more workloads to cloud

Heavy

23%

58%
42%

68%
47%

3rd

1st

56%
42%

31%

40%

31%

42%

31%

26%
28%

Expanding use of public cloudIaaS/PaaS services

24%

Expanding use of containers

25%

Implementing continuous
integration/delivery in cloud22%

Enabling Central IT to broker
multiple cloud services

16%

10%

17%

Expand use of cloud managed
service providers (MSPs)

12%

13%

11%

9%

7%

7%

1%

0%

1%

Expand use of cloud marketplaces
to procure software
Other

3rd
2nd
3rd

3rd

36%

Expanding public clouds we use

31%

1st

34%
26%

35%
26%

34%
38%
32%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

32

product/services. Cost avoidance ties for third
with increased speed of innovation, which moved
up from fifth in 2021. Cost remains top of mind—
as does the ability to deliver to customers quickly—
but organizations are beginning to realize andprioritize the innovation and competitive
advantages of the cloud.

Organizations measure cloud progressby savings, agility and value
To achieve cost benefits, organizations must optimize
as they migrate by rightsizing and using automation
to continually monitor and optimize spend. Figure
27 lists the ranking of metrics that organizations areusing to measure cloud progress. The top two arecost efficiency/savings and delivery speed of new
FIGURE 27

Increased speed of innovation and increase in competitive advantage rise in importance compared to last year.

Top metrics for assessing progress against cloud goals for all organizations
74%

Cost efficiency/savings
Delivery speed of new
products/services

68%

Increased speed ofinnovation

48%

Cost avoidance48%

Value delivered tobusiness units

47%

Increase in competitive
advantage

47%

Number of workloads
migrated

45%

Customer adoption ofcloud offerings

44%

Decreased data
center footprint

41%

Retirement/decrease oftechnical debt

37%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

33

Organizations aretaking a centralized
approach to cloudOrganizations are taking a centralized approach to cloud
As organizations adopt cloud-first strategies, manyare creating a central cloud team or a cloud center of
excellence (CCOE) tasked with providing centralized
controls, tools and best practices. The purposeof these teams is to accelerate cloud adoption by
centralizing expertise while reducing costs and risk.
Figure 28 depicts respondents’ plans for adopting acentral cloud team or CCOE.

portfolios, have a greater need for centralization
than do SMBs. Spend, governance and security
within larger organizations are much more complex;
teams overseeing those areas must coordinate
across multiple business units and functional areas.
Seventy-four percent of enterprises already havea central cloud team or CCOE compared with 64
percent of SMBs. Only eight percent of enterprises
and 21 percent of SMBs have no plans for a central
cloud team.

The majority of organizations (71 percent) have acentral cloud team or CCOE. Enterprises, due totheir larger size and more extensive application
FIGURE 28

The majority of organizations have a central cloud team or similar.

Adoption of central cloud team or similar across organizations
All respondents

Enterprise

SMB

Have CCOE

36%

1st

40%

1st

Have central
cloud team
Planning one in next
twelve months

35%

2nd

34%

2nd

40%

11%

3rd

12%

3rd

6%

Planning one beyond
twelve months

6%

No plans
Don't know

11%

6%
3rd

1%

24%

1st

6%

8%
1%

2nd

21%

3rd

1%

All respondents N=753, Enterprise N=597, SMB N=156
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

35

Central teams optimize cloudcosts and govern use
Figure 29 shows the continued role central IT
teams play in providing guardrails for cloud use
and controlling shadow IT, and it has remained
consistent YoY. These cloud teams shoulder mostof the responsibility for cloud cost optimization,
migration planning and governance. They also servein an advisory capacity to help stakeholders makeinformed decisions and ensure the apps selectedcomply with the governance framework and security
policies.

FIGURE 29

The top priority for organizations is to decide/advise on apps appropriate for the cloud.

Central IT responsibilities in organizations
Decide/advise on apps
appropriate for cloud61%

Plan for cloud migrations

58%

Manage/optimize costs ofcloud services

57%
55%

Set policies for cloud use

49%

Select public cloud providers
Automate policies togovern cloud use

45%

Select private clouds

37%

Act as a cloud broker

37%Manage all cloud deployments

29%

Provide/manage aprivate cloud

29%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

36Software asset management and vendor
management can lend expertise
As figure 30 indicates, the cloud team and theinfrastructure and operations team are actively
involved in enterprise cloud cost management.
Their top responsibilities include governing IaaS andPaaS usage and costs, forecasting cloud costs post
migration and optimizing cloud spend.

These are responsibilities that software asset
management (SAM) and vendor management teams
have traditionally handled for on-premises software.
Organizations could benefit significantly fromincreased involvement by SAM, vendor management
and FinOps teams in cloud cost management. This
year, 17 percent of SAM and vendor management
teams optimized cloud spend, up from seven percent
last year.

FIGURE 30

SAM, vendor management and FinOps teams can lend expertise in cloud cost management.

Cloud cost management responsibilities by IT team for all organizations
Cloud teamor CCOE

Infrastructure
FinOps team and Ops team Business units

Application
teams

Finance/
Accounting

SAM team

Vendormanagement
team

Govern IaaS/PaaS
usage/costs

53%

24%

54%

24%

22%

26%

5%

11%

Optimize SaaS
usage/costs

44%

21%

50%

26%

26%

21%

7%

11%

Govern software
licenses in IaaS/PaaS

42%

18%

49%

22%

26%

20%

10%

15%

Define costmanagement policies

41%

26%

44%

22%

21%

26%

9%

13%

Chargeback of cloud
costs

36%

28%

35%

24%

17%

32%

6%

10%

Report/analyze
cloud costs

42%

24%

44%

22%

20%

30%

7%

11%

Own cloud budgets

38%

18%

44%

31%

20%

22%

5%

10%

Optimize cloud spend

45%

20%

50%

20%

25%

19%

8%

9%

Forecast cloud costs
post migration

45%

21%

50%

28%

27%

23%

7%

8%

100%

0%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

37

Managed service providers (MSPs) assist with cloud work
Fifty-seven percent of all organizations are outsourcing at least some public cloud work, including 26 percent
that engage cloud MSPs for most of their public cloud use, as depicted in figure 31.
FIGURE 31

More than half of respondents engage cloud MSPs.

Leveraging MSPs to manage public cloud resources for all organizations
Don’t know
4%

Plan to decrease use
Plan to use

No plans

6%
31%

12%

Are used for somepublic cloud usage

21%
26%
Are used for mostpublic cloud usage

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

38

Figure 32 indicates that enterprises are slightly more likely than SMBs to use MSPs.
FIGURE 32

SMBs are less likely to use MSPs than enterprise organizations.

MSP usage by enterprises vs. SMBs
57%

Use MSP

55%
21%

No plans

21%
13%

Plan to use

Plan to use lessDon’t know

11%
5%

8%
4%
5%

Enterprise
SMB

Enterprise N=597, SMB N=156
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

39Top challenges are security,
expertise and spend

Top challenges are security, expertise and spend
When it comes to the top cloud challenges, it’s a close race for respondents. As figure 33 illustrates, the top three
are security, lack of resources/expertise and managing cloud spend. Security was the number one challenge
facing respondents in ten of the eleven State of the Cloud reports.
FIGURE 33

Security remains consistent as a top challenge for respondents.

Top cloud challenges for all organizations
Security85%

Lack of resources/expertise

83%

Managing cloud spend

81%

Governance77%

Managing software licenses

76%

Compliance

76%

Central cloud team/Business unit
responsibility balancing

73%

Cloud migration

73%

Managing multi-cloud

71%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

41

Enterprises and SMBs see security as top challenge
Security is the top challenge for both enterprises and SMBs, but this year lack of resources/expertise climbed
from fourth place (at 76 and 72 percent respectively) to second (at 84 and 78 percent respectively). Figure 34
compares the top challenges for both enterprises and SMBs.
FIGURE 34

Security is a top challenge for both SMBs and enterprises, but lack of resources/expertise is climbing the ranks.

Comparison of top cloud challenges for enterprises and SMBs
85%

Security

82%
84%

Lack of resources/
expertise

78%
83%

Managing
cloud spend

77%
79%

Governance

73%
77%

Managing software
licenses

69%
76%

Compliance

76%
74%

Cloud migration

67%

Central cloud team/
BU responsibility
balancing

73%
70%
72%

Managing
multi-cloud

67%
EnterpriseEnterprise N=597, SMB N=156
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

SMB

42

YoY enterprise challenges continue
Enterprises are gaining experience with cloud, butchallenges remain (figure 35). For the tenth time ineleven years, respondents ranked security as the top
challenge, rising from 81 percent to 85 percent YoY.

As mentioned, lack of resources/expertise also madea large jump and is now the second highest cloudchallenge as more and more organizations expand
their cloud footprint and the demand for skilled staff
grows.

FIGURE 35

Lack of resources/expertise as a top challenge indicates the demand for skilled staff is growing.

YoY comparison of top challenges for enterprises
85%

Security

81%
84%

Lack of resources/
expertise

76%
83%

Managing
cloud spend

79%
79%

Governance

77%
77%

Managing software
licenses

75%
76%

Compliance

77%
74%

Cloud migration

73%
72%

Managing
multi-cloud71%

Respondents 2022 N=597, 2021 N=637
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Enterprise 2022
Enterprise 2021

43

Cost, governance and security remainchallenges regardless of cloud usage
As figure 36 shows, security is the top challenge formore advanced users heavily relying on cloud, andlack of resource/expertise is the top challenge forbeginners who experience a lighter use of the cloud.

Regardless of cloud usage level, challenges such as
managing bring your own license (BYOL), managing
cloud spend, cloud migration and governance arealso significant obstacles. As cloud estates expand,they need better governance controls to maintainvisibility. With this expansion, more workloads withcompliance mandates are entering the cloud.

FIGURE 36

Regardless of cloud usage level, security, lack of resources/expertise and managing cloud spend are
top challenges.

Cloud challenges by cloud usage level
Light

Moderate

Heavy

Lack of resources/expertise

84%

1st

83%

2nd

82%

3rd

Security

83%

2nd

90%

1st

84%

1st

Managing BYOL

70%

Managing cloud spend

74%

Cloud migration

71%

GovernanceManaging multi-cloudCompliance

79%

3rd

64%
74%

79%

3rd

79%

3rd

83%

2nd

79%

3rd

75%

76%
83%

2nd

71%
77%

77%

71%

77%

76%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

44

Organizations struggle
to control growing
cloud spend

Organizations struggle to control growing cloud spend
It’s easy to see why FinOps is evolving and being
adopted as a cultural practice and financial
management discipline. Organizations continue
to increase their cloud spend, although the rate of
growth is slowing. This could be an indication thatsome organizations have already deployed highpriority applications to the cloud and will continue
to expand their cloud footprint but at a lessaccelerated rate.

As figure 37 indicates, respondents reported their
public cloud spend was over budget by an averageof 13 percent, down from 24 percent YoY. Moreover,
respondents expect their cloud spend to further
increase by 29 percent in the next twelve months.
This trend indicates it’s more critical than ever to
get a handle on forecasting and cost optimization.

FIGURE 37

The growth rate may be slowing, but organizations continue to increase cloud spend.

Organizational spend on public cloudGrowth in next
twelve months

Current spend
Next twelve
months29%
Original budget

Current cloudspend

Amount overbudget13%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

46

Organizations continue to waste significant cloud spend
Wasted cloud spend is a major issue and becomes more critical as cloud costs continue to rise. Respondents
self-estimated that their organizations waste 32 percent of cloud spend (figure 38), up from 30 percent lastyear. However, spend is likely less efficient and likely even higher on average, as many organizations tend tounderestimate their amount of waste.
FIGURE 38

Respondents indicated their organizations have increased cloud spend waste.

Respondent self-estimates of wasted cloud spend for all organizations

Self-estimated wasted spend

32%

68%

Efficient spend

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

47

Finding savings opportunities with cloudprovider discounts
Cloud provider pricing structures are complex anddifficult to decipher, but provider discounts could
identify opportunities to reduce costs. According
to figure 39, some organizations aren’t taking
advantage of all the available discounts. It’s worth
noting that YoY the number of respondents indicating
they’re leveraging these discounts has dropped.

For example, 36 percent of AWS users use reserved
instances and 31 percent use savings plans(down from 52 percent and 44 percent last year,
respectively). Similarly, only 32 percent of Azure users
utilize reserved instances.

FIGURE 39

Organizations can leverage public cloud discount options for additional cost savings.

Discount types used, by cloud providerAWS
AWS Reserved
Instances

36%

AWS EDP (Enterprise
Discount Program)

32%
31%

AWS Savings Plans

28%

AWS Spot Instances
Ad hoc negotiateddiscounts

19%

AZURE
Azure EA (Enterprise
Agreement) discount37%

Azure Reserved
Instances

32%
26%

Azure Hybrid Benefit

20%

Azure Low-priority VMs

GOOGLE
Google Committed
Use Discounts

26%

Ad hoc negotiateddiscounts

10%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

48

to their current level of automation. Only 33 percent
are using automated policies to implement requiredtags, and another 43 percent perform this laborintensive process manually. Automated cloud
cost optimization policies can save time while
ensuring organizations monitor their environments
consistently to eliminate waste.

Organizations continue to use automation to
optimize costs
Figure 40 indicates that policies are being
implemented by organizations to optimize costs.
Over 40 percent of respondents are using automatedpolicies to shut down workloads after hours and torightsize underutilized instances. These processes
have evolved over the years from manual operations
FIGURE 40

Automated cloud cost optimization policies can save time and reduce wasted spend.

Types of policies used to optimize cloud costs
42%

Rightsize instances

32%

Allowed instance sizes/types
Shut down workloads
after hours

48%
45%

33%

Eliminate inactive storage

42%

33%

Underutilized discounts

44%

29%

Use lowest cost regions

47%

33%

Required tags

43%

22%

Automated policies

35%
46%

36%

Specify expiration dates

Use lowest cost cloud

44%

52%

Manual policies

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

49

Organizations use a combination of processes to analyze and reduce their cloud costs. As figure 41 shows,only six percent of respondents did not use any of the specified processes, while 39 percent utilized theunit economics model, which is a key component of the emerging FinOps discipline and the preferred way
to perform cost analysis.
FIGURE 41

Nearly 40 percent of respondents leverage the unit economics model.

Processes used for cloud cost analysis
Maximize resource
utilization

64%

Unused/idle resource
deletion/removal

50%

Provider discounts(reserved instances, etc.)

41%
39%

Unit economics model
None of the above

6%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

50

Container
use becomesincreasingly
mainstream

Container use becomes increasingly mainstream
The use of Docker and Kubernetes continues to beconsiderable. As figure 42 indicates, container-asa-service (CaaS) offerings from the public cloudproviders continue to gain traction with customers;
this year, AWS Elastic Container Service (ECS) andAWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) surpassed
Docker for the top spot. However, Docker andKubernetes remain near the top of the list ofcontainer tools, each used by over 40 percent ofrespondents.

FIGURE 42

AWS ECS/EKS surpassed Docker for the top container spot this year.

Container tools used by all respondents
47%

AWS ECS/EKS

42%

Kubernetes
Azure Kubernetes Service
(AKS)

25%

38%

29%

43%

Docker
Google Kubernetes Engine
(GKE)

25%
25%

Docker Enterprise

14%

22%

Docker Swarm

15%

21%

13%

Rancher

8%

20%
28%

21%

Red Hat OpenShift

D2iQ

23%

18%
18%

Currently use

Plan to use

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

52

Figures 43 and 44 show that native tools such as AWS ECS and AWS EKS are the most used container tools for both
enterprises (48 percent) and SMBs (43 percent). Along with growing interest in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), organizations are planning to use provider-specific, purpose-built tools.
FIGURE 43

Enterprises prefer to use AWS ECS/EKS, followed closely by Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Docker
and Kubernetes.

Enterprise use of container tools
48%

AWS ECS/EKS
Azure Kubernetes Service
(AKS)

42%

29%

Kubernetes

44%

Docker44%

Google Kubernetes Engine
(GKE)

25%

Red Hat OpenShift24%

Docker Enterprise

15%

Docker Swarm

14%

Rancher

13%

D2iQ

24%

8%

24%
20%
29%

24%
22%
20%
18%

17%

Currently use

Plan to use

N=597
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

53

FIGURE 44

SMBs prefer to use Kubernetes, followed closely by AWS ECS/EKS and Docker.

SMB use of container tools
35%

Kubernetes

28%
43%

AWS ECS/EKS

38%

DockerAzure Kubernetes Service
(AKS)

19%

22%

Google Kubernetes Engine
(GKE)

29%

26%

21%

18%

Docker Swarm
Red Hat OpenShift12%

Docker Enterprise

13%

24%
29%
24%

16%

Rancher
D2iQ

19%

8%

19%
21%

Currently use

Plan to use

N=156
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

54

Containers may be mainstream, but lack ofexpertise is the top challenge
Organizations face challenges using containers.
Figure 45 shows that the top container challenges
for all organizations are the lack of internal resources
with expertise, ensuring security and migrating
traditional applications to containers. Respondents
citing lack of internal resources with expertiseas a significant challenge grew from 30 percent
last year to 42 percent this year. The resource
challenges can be attributed to the strong uptickin the use of container technology. Migrating
traditional applications to containers is more
problematic, as traditional apps aren’t implemented
via microservices, which are more aligned tocontainerized deployment models.

FIGURE 45

As more organizations begin or expand their use of containers, finding the resources to implement is
becoming more difficult.

Top container-related challenges for all organizations
Lack of internal staff
with expertise

42%

39%

34%

Ensuring security
Migrating traditional
applications to containers

44%

31%

46%

Managing containerizedenvironments

25%

51%

Ensuring compliance

26%

48%

Optimizing costsof containers

18%

55%

Lack of service providers
with expertise

25%

44%

Tracking software licenses
use in containers

23%

45%

Deciding on container
platform

19%

Very much of a challenge

47%

Somewhat of a challenge

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

55

Adoption of cloud
configuration
tools is shiftingAdoption of cloud configuration tools is shifting
Cloud use often goes hand in hand with adopting
DevOps processes. Organizations frequently choose
to utilize configuration management tools that allow
them to standardize and automate deployment andconfiguration of servers and applications.

36 percent to 30 percent; Ansible dropped from 31
percent to 27 percent; Chef dropped from 27 percent
to 20 percent; Puppet dropped from 27 percent to20 percent; and Salt/SaltStack dropped from twelve
percent to five percent. This may indicate that theease and features of provider-specific tools are more
enticing to organizations, despite our multi-cloudworld. In comparison, it can be cumbersome to
implement a third-party tool and cover all provider
services.

Native cloud tools are most commonly used today,
including AWS CloudFormation templates (50 percent)and Azure Resource Manager templates (48 percent),as shown in figure 46. Third-party tool usage
declined from last year: Terraform dropped from
FIGURE 46

Provider-specific tools are hard for organizations to resist.

Current and planned configuration tools for all organizations
AWS CloudFormation
templates
Azure Resource Manager
templates

20%

48%

22%

27%

AWS Systems Manager
Google Cloud Deployment
Manager templates

29%

Terraform

30%

29%
24%
20%

23%

AWS OpsWorks

25%

27%

Ansible

18%

Chef

20%

19%

Puppet20%

17%

Salt/SaltStack 5%

50%

9%

Currently use

Plan to use

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

57

Figures 47 and 48 show the configuration tools used by enterprises and SMBs, respectively. Overall, respondents
indicate they rely most heavily on native cloud provider configuration tools, not third-party tools.
The configuration tools respondents say they’ll use in the future vary, based on organization size. Google Cloud
Deployment Manager templates have the highest percentage (31 percent) of enterprises planning to use them inthe future. The highest percentage of SMBs (29 percent) plan to use AWS Systems Manager.
FIGURE 47

Most enterprises plan to use Google Cloud Deployment Manager templates in the future, followed by
AWS Systems Manager.

Enterprise cloud configuration tool usage
Azure Resource Manager
templates

52%

20%

AWS CloudFormation
templates

51%

20%

Google Cloud Deployment
Manager templates

27%

31%

AWS Systems Manager

28%

29%

31%

Terraform

19%

24%

AWS OpsWorks

25%

29%

Ansible

17%

Chef

21%

18%

Puppet21%

17%

Salt/SaltStack

15 %Currently use

23%

Plan to use

N=597
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

58

FIGURE 48

Most SMBs plan to use AWS Systems Manager in the future, followed by Azure Resource Manager templates
and AWS OpsWorks.

SMB cloud configuration tool usageAWS CloudFormation
templates

47%

Azure Resource Manager
templates

19%

34%

26%

24%

AWS Systems Manager
Google Cloud Deployment
Manager templates

29%
33%

15%

24%

24%

AWS OpsWorks

22%

25%

Ansible21%

Terraform

23%

Chef

16%

22%

Salt/SaltStack

17%

20%

Puppet16%

19%

Currently use

Plan to use

N=156
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

59

Public cloud adoption
is evolving

Public cloud adoption is evolving
The Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report survey
probed into the private and public clouds thatorganizations are using. Figure 49 shows how the
major providers stack up for adoption across all
respondents this year. Figure 50 compares YoY
rankings.

experimenting, plan to use it or had no plans to use it.
Most respondents are using more than one cloud, so
individual percentages sometimes total more than
100 percent.
It’s important to note that adoption—meaning anorganization is using a cloud provider—is only one
factor influencing revenue growth for the provider.
The survey also explores other factors, including thenumber of virtual machines (VMs) running and PaaS
cloud services used. This year respondents were also
asked about their level of cloud spend per cloudprovider.

As in previous years, AWS, Azure and Google Cloud
Platform are the top three public cloud providers. But
for the first time, Azure has closed the gap with AWS,
while other cloud providers have not shown muchgrowth. For each public cloud provider, respondents
specified whether they’re running significant
workloads in that cloud, running some workloads,
FIGURE 49

Azure, AWS and Google Cloud Platform lead the pack of public cloud providers.

Public cloud provider adoption rates for all organizations
Azure

45%

32%

12%

AWS

46%

30%

11%

Google Cloud
Platform
Oracle Cloud
Infrastructure
IBM Cloud

19%
10%

18%

8%

Alibaba Cloud 3%
Other

29%

16%
9%

8%

8%

16%
15%

13%
12%

22%

6%
6%

10%

12%
11%

10%
5%

Running significant workloads

Running some workloads

Experimenting

Plan to use

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

61

FIGURE 50

For the first time, Azure took a slight lead over AWS in YoY public cloud adoption.

YoY public cloud provider adoption rates for all organizations
77%

Azure

73%
76%

AWS

77%
48%

Google Cloud
Platform

47%
28%

Oracle Cloud
Infrastructure

29%
24%

IBM CloudAlibaba Cloud

24%
12%

2022

12%

2021

Respondents 2022 N=753, 2021 N=750
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

62

Major public cloud provider use is shifting among enterprises
As figure 51 indicates, Azure passed AWS for breadth of adoption among enterprises. Google Cloud Platform
has the highest percentage for experimentation (23 percent) and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure has the highest
percentage of plan to use (twelve percent), which could drive more adoption in future years.
FIGURE 51

Azure surpassed AWS for enterprises running some or significant workloads on the platforms.

Enterprise public cloud adoption rates
Azure

47%

33%

AWS

47%

30%

Google Cloud
Platform

18%30%

Oracle Cloud
Infrastructure

8%

19%

IBM Cloud8%

17%

Alibaba Cloud 3%

8%

13%

23%

18%
16%

11%
10%

4%
6%

9%

12%
11%

10%

Running significant workloads

Running some workloads

Experimenting

Plan to use

N=597
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

63

Figure 52 shows Azure adoption rates rose somewhat among enterprises over the previous year, and Azure is
now at 80 percent. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure dropped from 32 percent last year to 27 percent this year, andadoption of other cloud providers stayed stable.
FIGURE 52

Azure rose slightly ahead of AWS in enterprise adoption this year.

YoY enterprise public cloud adoption rates
80%

Azure

76%
77%

AWS

79%
48%

Google Cloud
Platform

49%
27%

Oracle Cloud
Infrastructure

32%
25%

IBM CloudAlibaba Cloud

25%
11%
13%

2022
2021

Respondents 2022 N=597, 2021 N=637
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

64

Infrastructure more than doubled from lastyear (six percent) to this year (15 percent).

Choice of public cloud provider
changing for SMBs
Among SMBs, AWS continues to be the frontrunner,
although the percentage of respondents
who are running significant workloads in AWS
decreased from 53 percent last year to 31
percent this year. As figure 53 indicates, almosta third of SMBs are running workloads in Google
Cloud Platform; SMB respondents who reportrunning significant workloads in Oracle Cloud

SMB respondents with future projects—indicated by
the combination of the clouds they’re experimenting
with and planning to use—demonstrated themost interest in Google Cloud Platform (31percent), followed closely by Azure, IBM Cloudand Alibaba Cloud (all tied at 25 percent).

FIGURE 53

SMB respondents indicated the most interest in Google Cloud Platform, Azure, IBM Cloud and Alibaba Cloud fortheir future plans.

SMB public cloud adoption rates
41%

AWS

31%

Azure
Google Cloud
Platform
IBM CloudOracle Cloud
Infrastructure
Alibaba Cloud 4%

19%

22%
15%

13%

15%
13%

13%

28%

21%
11%

13%

28%

13%

8%

15%

Running significant workloads

7%

12%

12%

10%
12%
10%

Running some workloads

Experimenting

Plan to use

N=156
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

65

SMB adoption of AWS dropped from 72 percent to 69 percent. Oracle jumped 13 percentage points (15 percent in
2021, 28 percent in 2022), as shown in figure 54.
FIGURE 54

SMB adoption of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure nearly doubled YoY.

YoY public cloud adoption rates for SMBs
69%

AWS

72%
59%

Azure

48%
43%

Google Cloud
Platform

39%
28%

Oracle Cloud
Infrastructure

15%
24%

IBM CloudAlibaba Cloud

20%
17%
7%

2022
2021

Respondents 2022 N=156, 2021 N=113
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

66

As the first large-scale cloud provider, AWS is used
more frequently by organizations that have beenusing the cloud over a longer period and are heavy
cloud users. Across all respondents, 81 percent ofheavy cloud use organizations use AWS comparedwith 80 percent using Azure. Among organizations
with moderate cloud use Azure has a slight leadand enjoys higher adoption for organizations thatare light users. Although Google Cloud Platformremains in third place among all maturity levels,
its popularity is significantly higher (51 percent)within organizations with heavy use of the cloud.

Usage levels affect public
cloud provider choice
Usage levels—showing how heavily an organization
relies on the cloud—are indicated in figure 55.
Public cloud provider adoption is based on theorganization’s cloud usage level. As organizations
mature, they tend to gravitate toward market
leaders. Data from this year’s survey indicates
Azure seems to be either closing the gap—or has
slightly surpassed—AWS with some users.

FIGURE 55

Azure surpassed AWS among light and moderate users and is closing the gap with heavy users.

Clouds used by cloud usage level
Azure

66%

70%

80%

AWS

65%

68%

81%

Google Cloud
Platform

45%

51%

37%

Oracle Cloud
Infrastructure

29%

22%

IBM Cloud

30%

12%

29%
27%

Alibaba Cloud 17% 5% 13%

Light usage

Moderate usage

Heavy usage

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

67

Cloud spend is a good indicator of how much anenterprise is using a public cloud provider. As figure
56 indicates, 18 percent of enterprises spend $12
million or more annually on AWS. By comparison, 15
percent spend $12 million or more annually on Azure.
Seven percent of enterprises reported spending $12
million or more annually on Google Cloud Platform.

Enterprises are expanding their
public cloud footprint
Cloud-first policies and cloud migration are
top of mind for senior IT leaders, particularly
in enterprise environments. As a result,enterprises are rapidly increasing public
cloud spend and workload volumes.
FIGURE 56

AWS holds a slight lead among enterprises spending over $12 million annually.

Enterprise spend on top three cloud providers
AWS

Azure

Google Cloud Platform

Up to $600K

18%

1st

18%

1st

$600K to $1.2M

16%

2nd

18%

1st

12%

2nd

$1.2M to $2.4M

14%

3rd

14%

2nd

10%

3rd

$2.4M to $6M

12%

14%

2nd

10%

3rd

$6M to $12M

8%

9%

$12M to $24M

9%

7%

5%

$24M to $60M

5%

4%

1%

More than $60M

4%

4%

1%

3rd

22%

1st

6%

N=597
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

68The number of virtual machines (VMs) or instances running in each cloud provides additional insight into the sizeof organizations’ footprints within them. For example, figure 57 indicates that Microsoft Azure is now on par withAWS among the larger footprint sizes of 500+ instances. Ten percent of respondents run more than 1,000 VMs in
AWS compared to nine percent running that many in Microsoft Azure.
FIGURE 57

For larger instances (500+), Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud Platform lead the pack.

Number of VMs in use by cloud provider
AWS

31%

25%

21%

13%

10%

Microsoft
Azure

29%

26%

25%

11%

9%

Google Cloud
Platform

51%

22%

16%

8%

3%

IBM Cloud

68%

15%

11% 5% 1%

OracleClound
Infrastructure

67%

15%

12%

72%

OpenStack

7%

1%
2%

11%

1%
3%

13%

77%

Alibaba Cloud

13%

5% 1%

AWS
Outposts67%

17%

10% 5% 1%

GoogleAnthos70%

13%

10% 6% 1%

Microsoft
Azure Stack

59%

1 to 50

51 to 10020%

101 to 500

501 to 1,000

13%

5%

3%

More than 1,000

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

69

Use of public cloud PaaS
services is increasingUse of public cloud PaaS services is increasing
The number of public cloud users who utilize service
beyond basic compute, storage and network services
continues to grow.

The most heavily used PaaS
services have shifted
Organizations are increasingly utilizing PaaS services
from cloud providers. Figure 58 ranks the services
that organizations are currently using, experimenting
with or plan to use. The top three currently being
used are data warehouse, relational database-as-a-service (DBaaS) and container-as-a-service.
Organizations are driving this shift due to theirgrowing interest in using containers to quicken
deployment, scale operations and increase theefficiency of workloads running in the cloud.
A look at the respondents experimenting withor planning to use a PaaS service sheds light on
their strategies. Nearly half are experimenting withor plan to use DRaaS (47 percent) and Machine
Learning/Artificial Intelligence (46 percent).

© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

71

FIGURE 58

Data warehouse, relational database-as-a-service (DBaaS) and container-as-a-service are the top three public
cloud services organizations use.

Public cloud services used
Currently use

Experimenting

Plan to use

Data warehouse

55%

1st

21%

13%

DBaaS (relational)

49%

2nd

20%

13%

Container-as-a-Service

44%

3rd

25%

DBaaS (NoSQL)

38%
26%

Hadoop

2nd

15%

22%

14%

22%

16%

Serverless(Function-as-a-Service)

36%

28%

Caching

39%

22%

15%

Batch processing

37%

22%

17%

Search

43%

16%

16%
17%

1st

16%

Stream processing

31%

23%

Machine Learning/
Artificial Intelligence (AI)

37%

28%

Mobile services

41%

21%

15%

Push notifications

41%

20%

17%

33%

20%

18%

Queuing
DRaaS (Disaster
Recovery-as-a-service)

29%

25%

Edge services

29%

23%

IoT

28%

24%

1st

2nd

3rd

18%

22%

1st

19%

3rd

20%

2nd

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

72

service in the top three. Serverless (Function-as-aService) and Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence(AI) have the highest percentages of respondents
experimenting with the service.

Enterprises use more PaaS services
Enterprises use more PaaS services overall than
SMBs. Figure 59 lists the rankings for enterprise
respondents. These respondents place data
warehouse, DBaaS (relational) and container-as-aFIGURE 59

Serverless (Function-as-a-Service) and Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence (AI) have the h ighest percentagesof respondents experimenting.

Public cloud services that enterprises use
Currently use

Experimenting

Plan to use

58%

1st

20%

11%

DBaaS (relational)

50%

2nd

20%

12%

Container-as-a-Service

46%

3rd

27%

DBaaS (NoSQL)

40%

Data warehouse29%

Hadoop

2nd

14%

22%

15%

22%

15%

Serverless(Function-as-a-Service)

36%

29%

Caching

40%

22%

15%

Batch processing

39%

20%

19%

Search

43%

17%

16%

23%

17%

Stream processing

31%

1st

18%

Machine Learning/
Artificial Intelligence (AI)40%

Mobile services

42%

20%

15%

Push notifications

43%

20%

17%

35%

20%

18%

Queuing
DRaaS (Disaster
Recovery-as-a-service)
Edge services
IoT

29%
30%

29%

25%

1st

3rd

24%
29%

25%

3rd

3rd

17%

23%

1st

19%

3rd

20%

2nd

N=597
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

73

lead the pack among heavy users. The adoption ofthese services increases as organizations mature. As
organizations rely on cloud more heavily, they cometo appreciate the operational burden these services
eliminate from internal teams.

PaaS services use increases with cloudusage level
Organizations increase their use of PaaS services
as they increase their overall cloud usage, as figure
60 demonstrates. For example, Data warehouse,
DBaaS (relational) and Container-as-a-Service (CaaS)FIGURE 60

Data warehouse, DBaaS (relational) and Container-as-a-Service (CaaS) dominate the top three spots
for PaaS services.

PaaS services used based on cloud usage level for all organizations
Light
Data warehouse

Moderate

38%

1st

29%

DBaaS (Relational)

44%

30%

3rd

33%

Search

30%

3rd

35%

27%

34%

Mobile services

33%

2nd

1st

60%

1st

2nd

57%

2nd

51%

3rd

54%

Container-as-a-Service

Push notifications

Heavy

35%

3rd

49%
47%

3rd

44%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

74

Private cloud plays
an important role

Private cloud plays an important role
Most organizations are taking a multi-cloud, hybrid
approach, in which private cloud plays an importantrole. Figure 61 lists the technologies all organizations
are currently using, experimenting with or plan to use.

Microsoft Azure Stack increased slightly YoY
and replaced VMware vSphere for the top spot.
It’s important to note that respondents could
choose more than one response, so there may
be overlap with some of these technologies.

FIGURE 61

Microsoft Azure Stack takes the top spot for private cloud adoption.

Private cloud technologies used for all organizations
Currently runningworkloads

Experimenting

Plan to use

Microsoft Azure Stack

37%

1st

21%

3rd

13%

3rd

VMware vSphere/vCenter

31%

2nd

23%

1st

13%

3rd

AWS Outposts

30%

3rd

22%

2nd

10%

28%

23%

1st

13%

3rd

Microsoft System Center
VMware vCloud Director

19%

22%

2nd

14%

2nd

Google Anthos

17%

22%

2nd

14%

2nd

OpenStack

15%

19%

15%

1st

Bare-metal cloud

13%

16%

11%

N=753
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

76

SMBs use private clouds less than enterprises
Figures 62 and 63 show the ranking of the private
cloud technologies usage by enterprise and SMB
respondents, respectively. Among enterprises,
Microsoft Azure Stack took the top spot. The biggest
drop this year for enterprises was with OpenStack,which fell from 31 percent last year to 16 percent
this year. When it comes to SMB preferences, theMicrosoft technologies (System Center and Microsoft
Azure Stack) are most popular, with 32 percent
currently using each of these solutions.

FIGURE 62

Enterprises prefer Microsoft Azure Stack for private cloud adoption.

Private cloud adoption for enterprises
Currently use

Experimenting

Plan to use

Microsoft Azure Stack

38%

1st

21%

3rd

13%

3rd

VMware vSphere/vCenter

35%

2nd

22%

2nd

13%

3rd

AWS Outposts

31%

3rd

23%

1st

10%

Microsoft System Center

29%

23%

1st

13%

3rd

VMware vCloud Director

22%

21%

3rd

14%

2nd

OpenStack

16%

20%

15%

1st

Google Anthos

16%

23%

14%

2nd

Bare-metal cloud

14%

16%

1st

11%

N=597
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

77

FIGURE 63

SMBs prefer Microsoft technologies (System Center and Microsoft Azure Stack) for private cloud adoption.

Private cloud adoption for SMBs
Currently use

Experimenting

Plan to use

Microsoft System Center

32%

1st

21%

2nd

12%

2nd

Microsoft Azure Stack

32%

1st

21%

2nd

12%

2nd

AWS Outposts

28%

2nd

19%

10%

Google Anthos

21%

3rd

17%

12%

2nd

VMware vSphere/vCenter

17%

24%

15%

1st

OpenStack

13%

17%

15%

1st

VMware vCloud Director

9%

24%

1st

15%

1st

Bare-metal cloud

8%

20%

3rd

11%

3rd

1st

N=156
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

78

FLEXERA™ 2022

State of the
Cloud Report:
European
spotlight

FLEXERA 2022

State of the
Cloud Report:
European spotlight
European organizations face similar challenges and cite
the same tech priorities as their global counterparts.
The 140 European participants in the Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report represent about one-fifth of thetotal survey audience and are executives or high-level managers in IT with significant knowledge of theirorganizations’ overall cloud usage and IT budgets. This European spotlight examines the technology andspend issues respondents face as their organizations develop tech strategies. It includes comparisons between
European organizations and their counterparts in other parts of the world.

European spotlight: highlights• Cloud usage is now mainstream. More than half
(58 percent) of European respondents use cloudheavily, compared to 63 percent globally• Top cloud initiatives in Europe are migrating more
workloads to the cloud (69 percent), optimizing
existing use of cloud (68 percent) and progressing
on a cloud-first strategy (47 percent)• The COVID-19 pandemic drove higher than normal
cloud usage in Europe. Sixty-five percent ofEuropean respondents reported cloud usage thatwas somewhat or significantly higher than planned• Similar to last year, assessing technical feasibility
is the top cloud migration challenge for European
respondents (51 percent). Other top challenges
include understanding app dependencies (49percent), assessing on-premises vs cloud costs (44percent) and rightsizing/selecting the best instance(42 percent)© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

80European respondent demographics
As figure 64 shows, 55 percent of European
participants work in organizations with 5,000
or more employees compared with 46 percent
globally. Representation by European organizations
with 1,001 to 5,000 employees is 28 percent inEurope, compared to 33 percent globally. This
year, we included a 10,000+ category; 36 percent ofrespondents are from these very large enterprises.

FIGURE 64

Most European respondents work in organizations
with 5,000 or more employees.

European respondents by organization size

36%

10,001+19%

5,001-10,000

18%

2,001-5,000

10%

1,001-2,000

15%

101-1000

2%

1-100

N=140
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

81

Figure 65 summarizes European participation by industry. While the survey spans a range of industries, two havedouble-digit representation: financial services and technology services. The other category represents a variety ofindustries, with each representing less than two percent of respondents.
FIGURE 65

Financial services and tech services lead European respondent industries.

European respondents by industry

26%

18%

9%

8%

Financial services

Tech services

Transportationand logistics

Software andhardware

7%

7%

6%

5%

Industrial products

Retail andeCommerce

Consumer products
and services

Telecom

5%

4%

3%

2%

Other

Healthcare

Business services

Education/
Government

N=140
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

82

Figure 66 summarizes European respondents by country. Forty-one percent are from theUnited Kingdom, 14 percent are from France and 12 percent are from Germany.
FIGURE 66

Most European respondents are from the United Kingdom.

European respondents by country

United Kingdom

41%

Germany

12%

Other Europe

21%

Netherlands

6%

France14%

Switzerland

4%

Sweden3%

N=140Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

83

Figure 67 indicates the breakdown of European respondents by role within the organization.
Figure 68 shows the breakdown of European respondents by level within the organization.
FIGURE 67

FIGURE 68

European respondents by role

European respondents by level

Most European respondents are in IT/Ops.

Most European respondents are directors/managers.

EnterpriseArchitect
Business
10%
Development

5%

Other
IT/Ops7%

Directors/
Managers

13%
38%

10%
51%

Cloud
Architect

IT/Development

Executives

15%

24%
27%
Architect

N=140
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report

N=140
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

84

Figure 69 illustrates the breakdown of European
respondents by where in the organization they work.
FIGURE 69

Almost half of European respondents workin a CCOE or similar.

European respondents by wherein the organization they work
Other
4%

Business
unit IT/Dev team

Centralcloud team
(CCOE orsimilar)

22%
49%

Other
central IT/
Dev team

Cloud has now become mainstream
As figure 70 shows, more than half (58 percent)of European respondents use the cloud heavily,
compared to 62 percent globally; 28 percent use it
moderately and 14 percent have light usage. This
could be a result of more organizations entering thecloud and therefore starting with a lighter load. It
could also reflect more respondents realizing that theevolving dynamics of the cloud are more complex
than originally anticipated and are still working up toa heavier load.
FIGURE 70

More than half of European respondents reported being heavy cloud users.

European respondents by cloud usage level

25%

N=140
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report

58%

Heavy

28%

Moderate

14%

Light

N=140
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

85

Figure 71 provides a comparison of organizational cloud usage in Europe and in the Americas.
FIGURE 71

European respondents are more moderate cloud users than in the Americas.

Comparison of cloud usage level between Europe and the Americas

Europe
58%

28%

14%

Heavy
cloud users

Moderate
cloud users

Light
cloud users

Americas
63%

23%

14%

Heavy
cloud users

Moderate
cloud users

Light
cloud users

Europe N=140, Americas N=516
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

86European cloud usage accelerated due to COVID-19
In the 2021 State of the Cloud survey, Flexera asked respondents how much they expected their cloud usage tochange over the next twelve months due to the pandemic. This year we asked respondents to rate the accuracyof their predictions. As figure 72 shows, Europe saw higher than normal cloud usage due to COVID-19.
FIGURE 72

Most European respondents indicated their cloud usage was somewhat higher than planned dueto the pandemic.

Acceleration of cloud plans in Europe due to COVID-19

Europe
22%

43%

31%

4%
0%

32%

2%
1%

Somewhat lower
than planned

Significantly lower
than planned

Americas19%

Significantly higher
than planned

45%

Somewhat higher
than planned

About the sameas planned

Europe N=140, Americas N=516
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

87

Most European respondents have cloud teams or CCOEs
As figure 73 indicates, most European organizations (63 percent) have a central cloud team or a cloud center of
excellence (CCOE), although that figure is still lower than their global counterparts (74 percent).
FIGURE 73

Nearly two-thirds of European organizations have a CCOE or central cloud team.

Adoption of central cloud team/CCOE for European organizations
Have cloud center of
excellence (CCOE)

34%
29%

Have central cloud team16%

No plans
Planning one in next
twelve months

12%

Planning one beyond
twelve months
Don’t know

8%
1%

N=140
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

88

Assessing technical feasibility is a top cloud migration challenge
Fifty-one percent of respondents reported assessing technical feasibility as the top cloud migration challenge
in Europe, as figure 74 shows. Other critical challenges include understanding app dependencies, assessing onpremises vs. cloud costs and rightsizing/selecting the best instance.
FIGURE 74

Similar to their global counterparts, European respondents indicated assessing technical feasibility
is a top challenge.

Cloud migration challenges for European organizations
Assessing technicalfeasibility

51%

Understanding app
dependencies

49%

Assessing on-premises vs.
cloud costs

44%

Rightsizing/selecting
best instance

42%
36%

Migrating the app and data
Optimizing costs
post-migration

34%

Knowing the implicationsof BYOL

32%

Prioritizing apps to migrate

32%

Selecting the rightcloud provider
Managing the app
post-migration

29%
25%

N=140
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

89

Migrating to the cloud is a top initiative
Migrating more workloads to the cloud is the top European cloud initiative this year (figure 75), followed by
optimizing the existing use of cloud (cost savings) and progressing on a cloud-first strategy.
FIGURE 75

Migrating workloads to the cloud is a top priority for European respondents.

Cloud migration initiatives for European organizations
Migrating more workloads to cloud69%

Optimizing existing use of cloud(cost savings)

68%

Progressing on a
cloud-first strategy

47%

Move from on-premsoftware to SaaS

44%
41%

Expand use of containers
Better financial reporting on
cloud costs

37%

Automated policies for governance37%

Manage software licenses
in the cloud37%

Implement CI/CD in the cloud33%

Expand use of public cloudIaaS/PaaS services

32%

Expanding public clouds we use

31%

Enabling IT to broker
cloud services

12%

Expand use of cloud MSPs

12%

Expand use of cloud marketplaces

6%

N=140
Source: Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

90

Global summary
As the world becomes more digital and continues
to define what a post-pandemic "new normal"
looks like, the way businesses approach the cloud
becomes increasingly important. The Flexera 2022
State of the Cloud Report highlights key insights
surrounding ways in which organizations aretackling the complexities of the cloud.
The emergence of COVID-19 increased cloud usage,
although not as much as predicted. Sixty-six percent
of respondents said cloud usage is higher thaninitially planned this year, although 90 percent had
predicted higher usage last year.
Today, organizations are progressively more
comfortable with putting sensitive data in the cloud,reflecting increasing confidence in the security of
the cloud. More than half of respondents are now
considering moving at least some of their sensitive
consumer data or corporate financial data to thecloud.
Multi-cloud strategies remain dominant, but theway they take shape varies. Hybrid approaches
are adopted by approximately four out of five
respondents, with the most common among
enterprises a mix of various public and multiple

private clouds. Notably, usage of cloud configuration
tools is shifting as well. Native cloud tools are mostused commonly today, and as the reliance on native
tooling grows, the usage of third-party tools declines.
SMBs are experiencing a significant uptake of usage
and spend on the cloud. More than half (53 percent)of SMBs now spend more than $1.2 million on cloud
annually, up from 38 percent reported last year.
Companies continue to adopt FinOps practices as
cloud spend is wasted and optimization remains apriority. For the sixth year in a row, saving on costsby optimizing the existing use of cloud is the top
initiative. Wasted spend on cloud is growing, and as
the need to maximize every dollar spent grows sodoes the importance of FinOps.
One thing is for certain: to remain competitive andmaximize the available advantages, organizations
must make strategic decisions about cloudarchitecture, usage of public clouds, effective toolingand cloud cost management. And the siloed anddisjointed approaches of yesterday will no longer be
effective in today's fast-evolving digital world.

© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

91

Table of figures
FIGURE 1

Respondents by organization size
FIGURE 2

Respondents by industry
FIGURE 3

Respondents by geography
FIGURE 4

Respondents by role

9

10

11

12

FIGURE 5

Respondents by level

12

FIGURE 6

Respondents by where in t heorganization they work

FIGURE 16

Workloads in public cloud for all organizations
FIGURE 17

Data in public cloud for all organizations
FIGURE 18

Enterprise workloads in public cloud
FIGURE 19

Enterprise data in public cloud

12

SMB workloads in public cloud
FIGURE 21

What’s your company’s usage level ofpublic cloud?
FIGURE 8

Cloud involvement within organization

SMB data in public cloud
13

14

Cloud strategy for all organizations

16

Predicted cloud usage compared toactual usage and spend

Data in the cloud
FIGURE 24

FIGURE 10

Hybrid cloud strategies for all organizations

17

23

24

24

25

25

26

26

FIGURE 22

FIGURE 23

FIGURE 9

Cloud migration challenges

27

28

29

FIGURE 25

FIGURE 11

Use of multi-cloud architectures by
all organizations

18

Top cloud initiatives for 2022 acrossall organizations

31

FIGURE 26

FIGURE 12

Use of multi-cloud tools by all organizations

19

FIGURE 13

Use of multi-cloud tools by large enterprises
with more than 10,000 employees

Types of clouds used

Annual public cloud spend for all organizations

FIGURE 20

FIGURE 7

FIGURE 14

FIGURE 15

Top cloud initiatives for 2022 by cloudusage for all organizations

32

FIGURE 27

20

21

Top metrics for assessing progress against
cloud goals for all organizations

33

FIGURE 28

Adoption of central cloud team or similar
across organizations© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

35

92

FIGURE 29

Central IT responsibilities in organizations

36

FIGURE 30

Cloud cost management responsibilities
by IT team for all organizations

FIGURE 32

MSP usage by enterprises vs. SMBs
FIGURE 33

Top cloud challenges for all organizations

37

38

39

41

FIGURE 36

Cloud challenges by cloud usage level
FIGURE 37

Organizational spend on public cloud42

Discount types used, by cloud provider

FIGURE 47

Enterprise cloud configuration tool usage
FIGURE 48

SMB cloud configuration tool usage

Public cloud provider adoption rates
for all organizations

43

44

46

YoY public cloud provider adoption rates
for all organizations
FIGURE 51

Enterprise public cloud adoption rates
FIGURE 52

YoY enterprise public cloud adoption rates
FIGURE 53

47

SMB public cloud adoption rates

48

YoY public cloud adoption rates for SMBs
FIGURE 55

FIGURE 40

Types of policies used to optimize cloud costs

49

Clouds used by cloud usage level
FIGURE 56

FIGURE 41

Processes used for cloud cost analysis

50

Enterprise spend on top three cloud providers
FIGURE 57

FIGURE 42

Container tools used by all respondents
FIGURE 43

Current and planned configuration tools
for all organizations

FIGURE 54

FIGURE 39

52

Number of VMs in use by cloud provider
FIGURE 58

Enterprise use of container tools

55

57

58

59

61

FIGURE 50

FIGURE 38

Respondent self-estimates of wasted
cloud spend for all organizations

Top container-related challenges forall organizations

FIGURE 49

FIGURE 35

YoY comparison of top challenges
for enterprises

54

FIGURE 46

FIGURE 34

Comparison of top cloud challenges forenterprises and SMBs

SMB use of container tools
FIGURE 45

FIGURE 31

Leveraging MSPs to manage public
cloud resources for all organizations

FIGURE 44

53

Public cloud services used

© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

72

93

FIGURE 59

Public cloud services that enterprises use

73

FIGURE 60

PaaS services used based on cloudusage level for all organizations

84

74

European respondents by where in theorganization they work
FIGURE 70

76

European respondents by cloud usage level

85

85

FIGURE 71

FIGURE 62

Private cloud adoption for enterprises
FIGURE 63

Private cloud adoption for SMBs
FIGURE 64

European respondents by organization size
FIGURE 65

European respondents by industry
FIGURE 66

European respondents by country
FIGURE 67

European respondents by level
FIGURE 69

FIGURE 61

Private cloud technologies used forall organizations

FIGURE 68

77

78

81

82

83

Comparison of cloud usage level between
Europe and the Americas

86

FIGURE 72

Acceleration of cloud plans in Europe
due to COVID-19

87

FIGURE 73

Adoption of central cloud team/CCOE
for European organizations

88

FIGURE 74

Cloud migration challenges for
European organizations

89

FIGURE 75

European respondents by role84

Cloud migration initiatives for
European organizations© 2022 Flexera. All rights reserved. This work by Flexera is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

90

94About Flexera
Flexera delivers SaaS-based IT management solutions that enable enterprises to accelerate
digital transformation and multiply the value of their technology investments. We helporganizations inform their IT with definitive visibility into complex hybrid IT ecosystems,
providing unparalleled IT insights that allow them to seize technology opportunities.
And we help them transform their IT with tools that deliver actionable intelligence acrossan ever-increasing range of dimensions to effectively manage, govern and optimize theirhybrid IT estate.
More than 50,000 customers subscribe to our technology value optimization solutions,delivered by 1,300+ passionate team members worldwide. To learn more, visit flexera.com
Contact us for more information or a demo:+1 800.809.5659 | +44 870.871.1111
sales@flexera.com
flexera.com