Cloud was meant to make technology costs simpler. For many organisations it has done the opposite. Spend is spread across platforms, subscriptions and teams, and the bill often arrives before anyone can explain it.
That is why cloud spend has moved from the IT budget to the board agenda.
The numbers have turned
Flexera’s 2026 State of the Cloud Report, a survey of more than 750 cloud decision-makers, found that managing cloud spend is a top challenge for 85% of organisations. Respondents estimate that 29% of their cloud spend is wasted, and that figure has risen for the first time in five years.
The reason is AI. Generative AI is now used by 81% of respondents, up from 47% two years ago, and AI workloads are among the hardest to forecast. They scale quickly, they are easy to start and easy to forget, and they rarely sit neatly inside one department’s budget.
Why this belongs with the board
Cloud spend is no longer a technical line item. It is an operating cost that grows with every new initiative, and it carries risk as well as cost. When nobody can see the whole estate, three things happen.
- Waste goes unchallenged. Idle resources, oversized services and duplicate subscriptions persist because no single owner can see them.
- Forecasts lose credibility. Finance cannot plan with confidence when the largest variable cost in IT is the least predictable.
- Value is hard to prove. Without linking spend to outcomes, every renewal becomes a debate about cost rather than return.
Five steps to take back control
- Make it visible. Bring every cloud platform, subscription and contract into one view. You cannot manage what you cannot see.
- Give every pound an owner. Tag spend to the teams and services that drive it, so accountability sits where decisions are made.
- Measure value, not just cost. Unit economics, such as cost per customer, per transaction or per user, turn a cloud bill into a business conversation. Flexera found 49% of organisations now use them, up from 40%.
- Put guardrails around AI. Agree budgets, approvals and review points for AI workloads before they scale, not after the invoice arrives.
- Review continuously. Cloud costs change daily. An annual review is a post-mortem, not a control.
Control made visible
This is the problem we built Ark Intelligence to solve. Our AI-first platform brings Cloud, Infrastructure, Security, Communications and AI into one real-time view, so leaders can see where money and risk sit, and act on it.
Data you can see. Results you can control.
If cloud cost is on your board’s agenda, let’s talk. Start a conversation at citycom.co.uk or call 0330 912 1212.
