A recent survey conducted by Azul, which included three hundred Chief Information Officers from organizations with over five hundred employees in the U.S., revealed that eighty-three percent of respondents are spending, on average, thirty percent more on cloud infrastructure and applications than initially budgeted. Despite rising costs, CIOs are focusing on maximizing their cloud investments, with over half citing methods such as modernizing workloads and leveraging cost management tools to optimize spending. The survey indicates that eighty percent of participants reported cost savings from cloud adoption, with more than half receiving support from business leadership for continued spending. However, concerns regarding cloud expenditures were expressed by forty-three percent of respondents, highlighting the crucial role managed service providers play in helping organizations enhance their cloud computing returns. With seventy-one percent of CIOs currently running over sixty percent of their workloads in the cloud, the trend towards increased cloud deployment is expected to continue, with many planning to elevate that figure to between eighty-one and one hundred percent within the next five years.
A recent survey by Channel Futures reveals that managed service providers are increasingly integrating security solutions into their offerings. In the fourth quarter of 2024, approximately 47 percent of managed service providers reported adding these services, marking a significant rise from the 20 percent who did so in the previous quarter. The survey, which included around 60 leaders in the field, also indicated that 41 percent incorporated artificial intelligence vendors during the same period. Managed security and AI solutions emerged as the top demands in 2024, with remote monitoring and management, software as a service, and managed backup and disaster recovery also seeing notable interest. Matt Kinsey, chief information security officer at IT Fusion, emphasized the need to differentiate from competitors as a primary motivation for this trend. Overall, 64 percent of surveyed providers noted growth in managed security solutions, while only 36 percent cited artificial intelligence as a significant contributor to business gains.
Why do we care?
Cloud Spend Is Out of Control. That’s not a rounding error—it’s systemic. And it’s no longer just a “finops” problem. This overspend is now a strategic performance issue. Despite that, 80% still report net savings from cloud, showing the value proposition is intact—but mismanaged. That’s the wedge MSPs can exploit: helping clients realize the promise of cloud without the budget bloat.
As CIOs turn to cost management tools, they’re often adding complexity. MSPs that act as integrators, not just resellers, are in prime position to streamline toolsets, rationalize platforms, and reduce redundancy.
Show clients where they’re overpaying, where workloads are misaligned, and how to modernize. And bundle Managed Security Into Your Core Stack
Not as an upsell—as the foundation, remembering it already runs a risk of commoditization and does not act as a differentiator.
