Cloud agility without management capabilities can turn into data sprawl: redundant data, unmanaged workloads, and opaque cost models. Regaining control requires a unified data platform to fulfill the promise of the cloud.
Companies have embraced the promise of cloud agility for decades. The ability to instantly spin up environments, experiment rapidly, and scale on demand has transformed how organizations build and run digital services. Today, 88% of organizations are already operating or building hybrid cloud environments and 79% use multiple cloud providers, according to IDC.
But as hybrid and multicloud adoption has expanded, unmanaged growth of cloud services has created a new strategic threat: data sprawl.
The results? Redundant data sets, siloed workloads, opaque costs, and widening security blind spots.
This is no small issue. The top inhibitor of cloud adoption is budget and cost control, with 46% of organizations stalled by cost concerns and a lack of visibility into where spending is going, according to the Foundry 2025 “Cloud Computing Study.”
The solution? An intelligent data infrastructure that replaces years of fragmented decisions to unlock data mobility, visibility, and control.
Cloud and AI adoption fuels data sprawl
Cloud agility makes it easy for teams — especially DevOps — to spin up volumes, environments, and snapshots on demand. However, without a clear data strategy, consistent governance, and unified visibility, organizations lose track of what data exists and where it resides. Workloads that should interoperate become isolated. Storage commitments get out of sync with actual usage.
This lack of centralized oversight is exacerbated by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The “Cloud Computing Study” found that 64% of organizations plan to increase investment in AI/ML platforms — data-intensive solutions that will accelerate data sprawl — in the next 12 months.
52% of IT leaders cite lack of visibility into cloud security issues as a major inhibitor to cloud adoption, and one-third cite the lack of a unified platform to secure data across cloud and on-premises environments.
Source: Foundry 2025 “Cloud Computing Study”
Hidden inefficiencies that erode value
Sprawl diminishes any value to be gained from cloud and AI adoption and increases inefficiencies, including:
- Operational complexity. Managing disparate storage systems consumes time, talent, and budget.
- Security and compliance gaps. Data sprawl leaves blind spots that increase risk and hinder regulatory compliance.
- Cost overruns. Organizations routinely pay for underused capacity, duplicated data sets, and multicloud management overhead yet lack tools to pinpoint waste.
- Innovation bottlenecks. Asdata scientists wrestle with incomplete or inaccessible data sets scattered across clouds, AI and analytics initiatives slow down.
Rethinking data infrastructure
To regain control, CIOs are turning to unified data platforms that replace years of fragmented decisions with an intelligent data infrastructure for data mobility, visibility, and control.
A robust, unified data platform:
- Provides end-to-end visibility. True observability reveals where data lives; how it’s used; and where waste, risk, or unused capacity exists.
- Automates life cycle and cost management. Cloud-native tools can track usage and identify waste, set autodeletion or archival policies, and implement data tiering for cost control.
- Enables seamless mobility. Unified data platforms support workload portability across on-premises and multicloud environments.
- Implements consistent operations. Unified governance helps eliminate the use of fragmented tools and reduces security blind spots.
- Builds an AI-ready data foundation. A unified, intelligently managed data layer mitigates data sprawl, enabling faster, more accurate AI outcomes.
The business benefits are substantial: reduced cloud waste, fewer security blind spots, and a data environment that supports rather than constrains emerging technologies such as AI.
An intelligent data infrastructure turns cloud agility from a liability back into an advantage, delivering the visibility and control needed to scale securely, cost-efficiently, and competitively.
Explore how an intelligent data infrastructure can help control data sprawl and deliver greater cloud and AI agility with NetApp.