The report also shows a decline in perceived cloud maturity. In 2020, two-thirds of organisations rated their cloud strategy as “effective” or “very effective.” In 2025, that number has dropped to just one in two.
Mike Walls, Director Cloud at Datacom, says this shift in perceived maturity reflects a growing awareness of the complexity involved in managing cloud environments and the need for more deliberate, strategic investment beyond the platform, to deliver expected business outcomes and modern digital experiences.
“Organisations that lift and shift workloads to the cloud without modernising their environments or ways of working are unlikely to see the full benefits,” says Walls.
“To realise ROI, businesses need to invest in continuous optimisation, automation and observability.”
While the report paints a picture of cloud ROI falling short for many Australian organisations, it also identifies areas where cloud is delivering tangible value. Respondents cited improvements in agility, scalability and operational efficiency.
Another factor that could help address some of the cloud computing pain points is the growing adoption of containerisation. The report found that 43% of organisations are either using or planning to adopt containerisation within the next two years. This approach is helping reduce overheads, improve resource utilisation and enable greater deployment flexibility.
“Containerisation is a key enabler of portability, scalability and automation,” says Walls. “It gives teams the flexibility to innovate faster and more efficiently across platforms.”
Cloud is also seen as a critical enabler of AI, automation, and analytics – technologies that are increasingly central to innovation and competitive advantage.
However, infrastructure readiness is emerging as a new concern. Only 56% of respondents believe Australia’s in-country infrastructure is capable of supporting the large-scale compute and storage demands that AI will bring.
“AI is not only reshaping compute, network and storage requirements, it is also driving a renewed focus on local infrastructure and in-country cloud capabilities. AI is reshaping infrastructure requirements and putting pressure on local capacity,” says Hile.
“Organisations need to ensure their infrastructure is resilient, scalable and secure enough to support the next wave of innovation.”
“Amid an increasingly complex and challenging geopolitical environment, organisations should also consider whether they need to review existing decisions about platforms and workloads. Unlocking its full potential requires deliberate, ongoing management of your cloud environment.”
