TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY
s enterprises continue to grapple with rising costs and elusive returns on investment, cloud migration has evolved from an innovation play to a survival imperative. With worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services forecast to reach US $ 723.4bn in 2025 – up 21.5 % from 2024 – the question is no longer whether to migrate, but how to do it profitably.
The stakes couldn’ t be higher. Recent research from Akamai Technologies reveals a sobering reality: only 35 % of EMEA businesses are satisfied with their current cloud providers, while 67 % expect cloud costs to rise over the next year, with 42 % anticipating increases of more than 10 %. This widespread dissatisfaction is forcing a fundamental rethink of cloud strategy, moving from traditional FinOps approaches to what experts call‘ ValueOps’ – a focus on measurable business outcomes rather than just cost savings.
The ROI reality check Perhaps the most concerning finding from the Akamai study is that 82 % of businesses lack a strategy for tracking return on investment for their AI projects, which increasingly depend on cloud infrastructure. This represents a massive disconnect between investment and accountability at a time when CFOs demand justification for every technology expenditure.
86 September 2025