Cloud and infrastructure costs are outpacing the value they deliver. What was once a relatively predictable technology foundation has become a source of financial volatility, driven by a convergence of forces that extends far beyond any single vendor or platform.
Recent VMware pricing changes have brought this challenge into sharper focus, but they represent only one visible signal of a broader and more structural cost problem.
Across mid-market and upper mid-market organizations, infrastructure spend is being inflated by overprovisioned cloud environments, aging on-premises assets, fragmented tooling, and operating models that were never designed for today’s hybrid reality.
Vendor consolidation has further shifted the balance of power, increasing pricing leverage while accelerating the shift from capital-based predictability to operating expense volatility. McKinsey research underscores this shift, noting that approximately 79% of enterprise IT spend now sits in operating expenditures, fundamentally changing how technology costs are forecasted, governed, and controlled.
For finance leaders, this volatility directly impacts EBITDA, forecasting accuracy, and capital planning. For IT leaders, it compresses decision timelines and forces reactive choices—often under renewal or contract pressure—that optimize for short-term relief at the expense of long-term efficiency and flexibility.
This guide is designed for CFOs, CIOs, and infrastructure leaders who share accountability for cost control, risk management, and are responsible for ensuring that IT provides needed value to business stakeholders.
Three Immediate Actions for You to Take
- Establish a unified cost baseline across on-premises, cloud, and platform environments.
- Identify structural vs. tactical cost issues to avoid short-term fixes that create long-term drag.
- Prioritize changes that balance savings, risk, and agility
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