As software migrates to cloud, IT spending waste follows

Dive Brief:

IT asset managers are shifting their attention from data center and desktop software to cloud-based SaaS solutions, according to Flexera’s State of ITAM report, released Tuesday.
Nearly three-quarters of IT professionals responsible for enterprise software use and compliance expect increased scrutiny of SaaS solutions in the next three years, the software company’s survey of 500 IT asset managers found. More than two-thirds are eying public cloud as a source of software spending waste, the report found.
As companies push to optimize IT investments, curbing waste remains a problem. Roughly one-third of enterprise spend across desktop, data center, SaaS and “as a Service” infrastructure is wasted, respondents estimated.

Dive Insight:

Unnecessary, redundant and uncatalogued tech assets are the bane of enterprise budget hawks. As organizations migrate workloads out of on-prem data centers, tracking down sources of overspending is leading IT asset managers to the cloud.

Identifying overlapping software and finding ways to squeeze more out of license use rights were priorities for 2 in 5 respondents.

While tracking on-prem software usage remained the most common responsibility of asset management teams, cited by 7 in 10 respondents, the proliferation of cloud services is driving a realignment in priorities.

Teams are moving rapidly to reign in cloud-based software bloat. Nearly half of respondents expressed concerns about containerized applications deployed in hybrid ecosystems, up from just 28% in last year’s survey. The number of respondents focused on cloud-based software grew by 10 percentage points year over year, to 52%.

The move is a practical and predictable response to an industrywide shift to SaaS and a broad drive to optimize cloud spend, a trend mirrored by changes in organizational accountability structures.

Most of the organizations surveyed — nearly 3 in 5 — have established a central cloud management team. Including an asset management professional on the cloud team has become the norm, according to Flexera.

As c loud cost control strategies are standardized under the banner of FinOps, asset managers are taking note. One-quarter of asset management teams already report interacting heavily with FinOps teams, a category that was new to this year’s survey.