Cloud infrastructure and AI are no longer emerging trends. They are core to how enterprises plan, build, and scale technology. To better understand this shift, ETR conducted the annual 2025 Cloud Drill Down Survey, which looked at IaaS and PaaS usage, spend, vendor adoptions, and AI capabilities. The results show strong momentum for cloud adoption, rapid workload growth, and a sharp rise in AI-driven investment.

The survey data was aggregated from a diverse circle of 300 enterprise technology leaders. Nearly six in ten respondents (59%) represent large enterprises, including 50 from the Fortune 500 and 70 from the Global 2000. North America makes up the majority of the sample at 73%, while more than half of participants come from the Services/Consulting, IT/TelCo, and Financials/Insurance sectors. Importantly, most respondents (78%) hold executive or VP/Director titles, ensuring that the perspectives captured reflect high-level strategic decision making within their organizations.

Key Findings at a Glance:

• Cloud adoption remains nearly universal. Ninety two percent of enterprises expect to use IaaS or PaaS in the next three years, only slightly below last year’s 94%, showing the central role of cloud platforms in IT strategy.
• Workloads are on the rise. More than half of respondents reported 10 to 25 percent workload growth over the past year, and 54% expect similar growth in the year ahead.
• Cloud workloads will dominate by 2028. Enterprises project 72% of workloads will run on cloud platforms within three years, up from 58% today.
• AI is accelerating investment. Sixty five percent of organizations already use IaaS or PaaS based AI resources.
• Value perception is improving. Most respondents see the value of cloud outpacing costs. For AI in particular, more organizations now believe the benefits outweigh costs compared to the prior year.

These highlights show that enterprises are entering a new phase of cloud adoption. AI is becoming a key driver of spend and organizations are increasingly confident in the value they are gaining from their investments.

The full 2025 Cloud Drill Down Survey provides deeper analysis on vendor adoption, workload distribution, AI strategies, and cloud economics. Contact our sales team to request the complete report and see how tech leaders are navigating the cloud landscape.