While the common assumption is that the cloud represents reduced costs and better application performance, many organizations will fail to realize those benefits, according to research by VMTurbo, the application performance control system for cloud and virtualized environments. A multi-cloud approach, where businesses operate a number of separate private and public clouds, is an essential precursor to a true hybrid cloud. Yet in the survey of 1,368 organizations 57% of those surveyed had no multi-cloud strategy at all. Similarly, 35% had no private cloud strategy, and 28% had no public cloud strategy.

"A lack of cloud strategy doesn't mean an organization has studied and rejected the idea of the cloud; it means it has given adoption little or no thought at all," said Charles Crouchman, CTO of VMTurbo. "As organizations make the journey from on-premise IT, to public and private clouds, and finally to multi- and hybrid clouds, it's essential that they address this. Having a cloud strategy means understanding the precise costs and challenges that the cloud will introduce, knowing how to make the cloud approach work for you, and choosing technologies that will supplement cloud adoption. For instance, by automating workload allocation so that services are always provided with the best performance for the best cost. Without a strategy, organizations will be condemning themselves to higher-than-expected costs, and a cloud that never performs to its full potential."