Inside the execution gap: why cloud ROI is still elusive 

Part 3 of our series unpacking the 2025 CloudBolt Industry Insights (CII) Report 

Cloud has always promised value: faster time to market, greater agility, operational efficiency, and lower cost of ownership.  

But for all the dashboards, alerts, and tooling investments over the years, most FinOps teams still can’t answer a basic question with confidence:  

Are we actually getting a return on our cloud spend? 

According to the 2025 CloudBolt Industry Insights (CII) Report, 78% of IT leaders say they still struggle to demonstrate cloud ROI—not just to finance, but to the business at large. 

This third post in the Inside the Execution Gap series looks at why that gap persists, what’s blocking visibility into real value, and what it will take to shift from reporting to results.

The value we expect—but struggle to prove

When we asked IT leaders what outcomes they expect from cloud investments, the answers were clear: 

• Faster time to market 
• Revenue growth and innovation 
• Improved cost-efficiency 
• Stronger security and compliance 

But the ability to link spend to those outcomes remains elusive. Three common issues surfaced in the research:

• Unclear connections between cloud costs and business results 
• Misalignment between teams on priorities and metrics 
• Inconsistent execution on tagging, forecasting, and allocation

And as CloudBolt CTPO Kyle Campos noted during our recent webinar, Beyond the Dashboard: Why FinOps Must Evolve for AI, Automation, and Reality, the challenge isn’t data—it’s context and follow-through.

“A lot of FinOps teams feel like they’re being pulled in ten different directions,” Kyle said. “If there’s an anomalous spike, it derails weeks of progress. And when business leaders ask for ROI, it’s hard to show value if you’re stuck firefighting.” 

That firefighting often looks like productivity, but it masks a deeper problem.  

Tracy Woo, Principal Analyst at Forrester, added tjos: “Have you been able to trace spend to value, margin, or profit? Not really. It requires deep customization and a clear understanding of your cost model. And most teams just aren’t there yet.” 

The result is FinOps teams are busy, leaders are asking for proof, and no one’s quite convinced the value is there. 

From cost tracking to business alignment 

To move beyond dashboards and daily operations, teams need to reconsider how they define—and demonstrate—impact.  

Here are four patterns we’ve seen in teams making real progress:

1. Treat operational basics as non-negotiable 

If tagging is still best-effort, if forecasting isn’t enforced, if cost allocation is inconsistent, then you don’t have the foundation to show value. These aren’t simply best practices—they are the price of admission. 

2. Measure outcomes, not just spend 

What does cloud success look like for product, finance, or engineering? If your metrics don’t connect to things like velocity, margin impact, or unit economics, you’re not telling a value story. You’re just listing expenses. 

3. Translate goals across stakeholders 

FinOps doesn’t prove value in a silo. It has to connect across engineering, finance, and leadership—bridging what each function sees as success and identifying shared outcomes everyone can support.

4. Track lead time from signal to action

Insight-to-action lead time is one of the clearest indicators of both maturity and impact. 
As Kyle said in the webinar: “Insight-to-action lead time is a trackable metric that helps realign the business around current-state reality and where we can actually move the needle—and it keeps both sides honest.” 

If your dashboards are full of savings opportunities, but nothing’s getting implemented, you don’t have an optimization problem—you have an execution one.  

Ready to declare ROI? Ask yourself: 

• Can we clearly articulate the business outcomes we’re aiming for? 
• Do our metrics reflect value not just cost? 
• Are our tagging, forecasting, and allocation strategies enforced and trusted? 
• Can stakeholders see the impact of FinOps without needing a translator? 

If those answers aren’t solid, don’t be too hard on yourself. At least you’re now seeing the gap more clearly, and clarity is what opens the door to progress. 

Where FinOps goes from here 

FinOps has come a long way. The frameworks, tools, and organizational buy-in are there. But cloud ROI is still the missing link between operational effort and strategic influence.

The teams that will stand out in this next phase won’t be the ones with the flashiest dashboards. Instead, they’ll be the ones who slow down when it counts, close the loop on fundamentals, and stay relentlessly focused on business outcomes.  

After all, confidence is great, but capability is what delivers. 

Download the full 2025 CloudBolt Industry Insights Report to explore the findings that inspired this series.