According to the 2025 Cloud Readiness Report published by Kyndryl, a full 70 % of CEOs say their organisation’s current cloud environment was arrived at “by accident rather than by design.” Despite huge investments—cloud spending increased by over 30 % year-over-year—many enterprises are contending with fragmented systems, weak integration and rising regulatory, security and AI-governance pressures. The survey of 3,700 senior leaders in 21 countries found that 84 % of organisations now intentionally adopt multiple clouds, while 41 % are repatriating some workloads on-premises to regain control. Data sovereignty and geopolitical risk further complicate cloud strategy, with 75 % of respondents flagging concern about storing data in global cloud environments. These findings suggest that cloud transformation is no longer a matter of opportunistic migration—it must be treated as strategic architecture, especially in the age of AI.
Sources: IT Pro, Kyndryl.com
Key Takeaways
– Many enterprises — 70 % of CEOs surveyed — realise their cloud architecture emerged haphazardly rather than being the product of a clear strategic design, creating legacy issues as workloads and AI demands grow.
– Hybrid and multi-cloud strategies are now mainstream (84 % and 41 % respectively) as organisations seek to regain control of performance, cost, compliance and sovereignty.
– Big cloud-spend is not enough: despite spending increases of 30 %+, integration challenges, regulatory concerns and workforce readiness remain major barriers to realising value from cloud and AI investments.
In-Depth
In today’s digital economy, every major enterprise depends on cloud infrastructure. But according to the 2025 Cloud Readiness Report from Kyndryl, having infrastructure is no longer enough — how you arrived at it matters. The startling finding that 70 % of CEOs admit their current cloud environment was built “by accident, rather than by design” serves as a wake-up call for boards and technology leadership alike. Without a coherent strategy guiding migration, deployment and governance, organisations now face the consequences of speed-over-discipline.
What does “by accident” mean in practice? It often means incremental cloud adoption, bolt-on services, departmental cloud projects, or quick lifts without a unified architecture. Initially, rapid migration may have appeared efficient. But over time these scattered investments yield siloes, uncontrolled spend, duplicated capabilities and elevated risk. And now, as AI, data sovereignty, compliance and multi-cloud complexity intensify, those legacy decisions impose serious drag.
The Kyndryl survey paints a broader picture: cloud spending jumped by more than 30 % year-over-year, signalling strong intent. Yet, despite the investment, 35 % of respondents cite integration issues as a top barrier to achieving ROI from AI work, while 75 % express concern over the geopolitical risks of storing data across global cloud environments. This reveals a misalignment: technology ambition runs ahead of architectural readiness, governance discipline and organisational capability.
One of the key responses is the growing emphasis on hybrid- and multi-cloud architecture. The report finds that 84 % of IT leaders now intentionally use multiple clouds, and 41 % are repatriating some workloads back on-premises. The logic is clear: if the initial cloud build-out was reactive, organisations are now seeking to regain control — by defining where workloads go, for what purpose, and under whose governance.
For leaders, the message is unequivocal: cloud success is no longer about simply being in the cloud; it’s about how you build, integrate and manage your cloud ecosystem. The architecture must support agility, security, sovereignty and innovation. Firms that treat cloud as a foundational strategic asset — aligning business priorities, governance and infrastructure — will unlock the promise of AI and digital transformation. Those that continue to treat the cloud as a convenient place to put workloads risk a growing legacy of inefficiency, exposure and missed opportunity.
From a conservative business-perspective, the shift from “we simply migrated to the cloud” to “we architected our cloud for performance, control and risk” is fundamental. It reflects a maturation of IT from cost-centre to strategic enabler. Boards, CFOs and CEOs must now ask not only “are we in the cloud?” but “how did we get here, and is our cloud architecture helping or hindering our future?” Migrating was phase one. Designing with discipline is the phase the best-performing enterprises are now entering.
In short: the cloud era is evolving from ad-hoc deployment to deliberate orchestration. Your legacy cloud environment may have grown by accident—but the next wave of business value depends on purpose-built design.