94% of IT leaders struggle to optimize cloud costs

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08 Sep, 2025, 18:55 CST

Biggest headache for IT leaders highlights the need for FinOps practices.

OSLO, Norway, Sept. 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A new global report reveals that 94% of IT leaders are facing challenges to optimize cloud costs, making it the most persistent and pressing challenge in IT cost management today. The findings underscore the mounting complexity of cloud environments and the urgent need for strategic financial operations (FinOps) practices.

Commissioned by Crayon, the report from Sapio* surveyed about 2,300 IT decision-makers across the US, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. It focused on how organizations are navigating the evolving landscape of cloud, AI, and infrastructure strategy. The research shows that 41% of IT budgets are now being directed toward scaling cloud capabilities, largely to support AI workloads. While 60% of IT leaders are already using AI to automate IT processes, 40% say AI will be the top IT cost challenge they face over the next three years.

"Crayon has a 23-year history of helping companies to save costs, and as businesses have grown more complex, FinOps is especially critical in today's environment where cloud economics, AI governance, and security intersect," said SoftwareOne* Co-CEO Melissa Mulholland. "FinOps empowers organizations to take control of their IT investments, ensuring they are aligned with business outcomes, financially accountable, and resilient against emerging risks."

According to the research**, security and compliance have emerged as leading drivers for infrastructure decisions. The report also highlights that organizations are considering shifting IT infrastructure spend toward on-premises, with an average of 37% of budget earmarked for hybrid or on-premises strategies. This shift is largely motivated by concerns over data privacy, regulatory compliance, and vendor lock-in, which are factors that have increasing influence on workload placement decisions.

Despite widespread adoption of cloud-native and third-party FinOps tools, 44% of organizations still report limited visibility into their cloud spending, and nearly half cite unexpected cost fluctuations as a major issue. This lack of transparency is driving many to rethink their tooling strategies and seek external expertise.

As AI adoption accelerates, FinOps is playing a pivotal role in helping organizations forecast budgets, define success metrics, and manage governance risks. The convergence of AI and FinOps is creating new opportunities for organizations to optimize both technology and financial performance.

Crayon continues to support customers in navigating this landscape by offering tailored FinOps solutions that deliver transparency, efficiency, and measurable business value. Crayon is also one of only a handful of organizations worldwide to hold all three FinOps Foundation certifications – Service Provider, Platform, and Training Partner. This unique combination underscores Crayon's ability to both deliver FinOps as a service and equip customers with the platforms and skills they need to succeed.

"At Crayon, we see FinOps as the discipline that brings clarity to this challenge – helping IT leaders forecast, govern, and optimize across hybrid and cloud environments," said Crayon Vice President of Global Sales Ulrik Roland. "By combining transparency with actionable insights, we empower our customers to unlock the true business value of their technology investments."

For more information, visit our website: http://www.crayon.com

Media contact: Melanie Coffee
VP of PR and Communications
[email protected]
+47 46 74 8648

*SoftwareOne and Crayon joined forces in July to become a global software and cloud solutions provider. The combined organization helps businesses get the most from their technology investments by maximizing value through smarter software licensing, cloud solutions, and AI-driven innovation.

**The survey was conducted among 2,300 IT decision makers in companies with more than 200 employees across the US, EMEA (Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, France, UK, Poland, South Africa, Norway, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Serbia and Romania) and APAC (Singapore, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and India). The interviews were conducted online by Sapio Research in May and June 2025.