Cloud Migration Statistics for 2026

Cloud adoption has officially crossed a tipping point. In 2026, the conversation is shifting from whether companies are moving to the cloud to how complicated things are getting once they’ve moved. Hybrid architectures, multi-cloud strategies, AI workloads, and rising security pressure are turning “the cloud” into a web of interconnected environments. For IT and network teams, that creates huge opportunity—and plenty of room for chaos if visibility doesn’t keep pace. Here are some of the trends we’re seeing in 2026 supported by key cloud migration statistics.

Key cloud migration statistics:

• The cloud migration services market is projected to grow from $19.28 billion this year to $143.7 billion by 2035 
• Small and midsize enterprise cloud migration is growing at 17.65% annually 
• 75% of CFOs plan to increase technology budgets this year with cloud at the helm
• 55% of organizations now use two or more cloud providers
• Public cloud holds 54.82% of the market, while hybrid cloud is growing at 18.35% annually
• Sovereign cloud IaaS spending is expected to reach $80 billion in 2026, shifting 20% of workloads to local providers
• Lift-and-shift leads migration approaches at 38.3%, while refactor/re-architect strategies are growing at 22.35% annually
• SaaS accounts for 46.10% of market revenue, while PaaS is the fastest-growing segment at 21.35% CAGR
• Hyperscale providers are investing over $630 billion in AI infrastructure in 2026 
• Global IT spending will reach $6.15 trillion in 2026, with data center spending up 31.7% 
• 70% of AI deployments are concentrated in three industries, favoring hybrid or proprietary infrastructure 
• 72% of organizations are already using generative AI, and 50% are running it in the public cloud 
• 79% of organizations are using or experimenting with AI and ML platform services 
• 84% of organizations cite managing cloud spend as a top challenge, while 77% point to security 
• 33% of organizations spend more than $12 million annually on public cloud
• 72% of organizations are prioritizing cloud cost optimization this year 
• 88% of organization are increasing their focus on cloud security
• 36% of organizations are now tracking their cloud carbon footprint 

Cloud adoption has crossed the tipping point

#1: The cloud migration services market is projected to grow from $19.28 billion this year to $143.7 billion by 2035

The cloud migration services market is expected to grow at more than 22% annually through 2035, jumping from $19.28 billion today to nearly $144 billion. That kind of growth tells you cloud migration is staying at the top of the priority list for years to come. For network and IT pros in 2026, this means more projects, more hybrid environments, and more moving parts to keep an eye on. As organizations modernize apps, data, and infrastructure across industries, the pressure on networks only increases.

#2: Large enterprises lead cloud migration today, but SMEs are growing at 17.65% annually

Large enterprises currently account for over 60% of the cloud migration services market, but small and midsize organizations are advancing quickly. That growth among small and midsize enterprises creates new opportunities (and new operational challenges) for IT teams and MSPs supporting them. Smaller organizations are adopting hybrid models, SaaS platforms, and cloud-hosted infrastructure at a faster pace than ever. In other words: cloud maturity is moving downstream, fast. 

#3: 75% of CFOs plan to increase technology budgets this year, with 48% boosting spend by 10% or more

Technology investment is climbing again, with three quarters of CFOs planning budget increases and nearly half preparing double-digit growth. Digital transformation, AI adoption, and cybersecurity remain high on the priority list, driving sustained funding into cloud platforms and infrastructure modernization. For network and IT teams in 2026, this translates into more deployments, more integrations, and higher performance expectations from leadership. 

Hybrid and multi-cloud are the new normal

#4: 55% of organizations now use two or more cloud providers

Multi-cloud is becoming a deliberate strategy, with more than half of organizations running workloads across multiple public cloud providers. Rather than consolidating under a single vendor, IT leaders are distributing applications to improve resilience, manage costs, and reduce dependency risk. As environments span multiple platforms, performance monitoring and consistent visibility across providers become increasingly complex for network and IT teams.

#5: Public cloud holds 54.82% of the market, while hybrid cloud is growing at 18.35% annually

Public cloud continues to dominate cloud migration activity, holding over half the market share in 2025. At the same time, hybrid cloud deployments are expanding at an 18%+ growth rate through 2031. For network pros, this reinforces what you’re already seeing: environments aren’t consolidating… they’re spreading out. Workloads move between on-prem, public cloud, and edge locations, and traffic patterns get harder to predict.

#6: Sovereign cloud IaaS spending is expected to reach $80 billion in 2026, shifting 20% of workloads to local providers

Gartner forecasts sovereign cloud infrastructure spending will hit $80 billion in 2026, up more than 35% year over year, with 20% of current workloads moving from global hyperscalers to local cloud providers. As geopolitical tensions rise and data sovereignty regulations tighten, governments and regulated industries are prioritizing digital independence and in-country data control. 

Cloud migration strategy is evolving

#7: Lift-and-shift leads migration approaches at 38.3%, while refactor/re-architect strategies are growing at 22.35% annually

Lift-and-shift (AKA moving applications to the cloud with minimal changes to their architecture) remains the most common migration approach, accounting for over a third of activity in 2025. But refactoring and re-architecting applications for cloud-native environments are gaining serious momentum. That shift changes how applications communicate, how traffic flows, and how performance issues surface. For IT teams in 2026, this means supporting both legacy-style workloads in the cloud and modern, distributed architectures at the same time.

#8: SaaS accounts for 46.10% of market revenue, while PaaS is the fastest-growing segment at 21.35% CAGR

Software-as-a-service continues to lead the cloud market, but platform-as-a-service is growing even faster. As more organizations build and customize applications in cloud environments, traffic flows become more dynamic and distributed. APIs, integrations, and cloud-to-cloud communication increase the surface area IT teams need to manage. As SaaS sprawl and platform complexity rise, maintaining visibility across application traffic becomes a central network challenge in 2026.

AI is reshaping cloud infrastructure

#9: Hyperscale providers are investing over $630 billion in AI infrastructure in 2026

Tech giants including Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta are collectively expected to invest more than $630 billion in AI infrastructure this year. That level of capital expansion signals rapid growth in data center capacity, AI-optimized servers, and cloud platform scaling. For network and IT teams, this means higher-density environments, heavier internal traffic, and growing performance expectations from AI-driven workloads.

#10: Global IT spending will reach $6.15 trillion in 2026, with data center spending up 31.7%

Worldwide IT spending is projected to rise nearly 11% year over year in 2026. A major driver is AI infrastructure, as hyperscale providers continue investing heavily in servers optimized for AI workloads. Server spending alone is expected to grow almost 37%, while total data center spending will surpass $650 billion. For network and IT teams, this surge means denser environments, heavier east-west traffic, and higher performance demands across infrastructure built to support AI-driven workloads.

#11: 70% of AI deployments are concentrated in three industries, favoring hybrid or proprietary infrastructure

Retail, financial services, and healthcare account for more than 70% of enterprise AI deployments. In these sectors, hybrid and proprietary infrastructure is often preferred due to strict data security, compliance, and sovereignty requirements. Rather than centralizing everything in public cloud environments, organizations are distributing AI workloads across private data centers, hyperscalers, and emerging GPU-focused cloud providers. As AI adoption expands, infrastructure is becoming more fragmented and specialized, increasing the need for visibility across hybrid environments.

#12: 72% of organizations are already using generative AI, and 50% are running it in the public cloud

Unsurprisingly, generative AI adoption has surged, with 72% of organizations reporting they’re already using it either extensively or in limited ways, and another 26% experimenting. At the same time, 50% of organizations are running generative AI workloads in the public cloud. For comparison, data warehouses sit at 74% adoption, database-as-a-service at 61%, and container-as-a-service at 56%. 

#13: 79% of organizations are using or experimenting with AI and ML platform services

Adoption of AI-focused public cloud services continues to accelerate, with 79% of organizations already using or testing AI and machine learning platform-as-a-service offerings. At the same time, data warehouse usage has surged, reflecting the growing need to store and prepare large datasets that fuel AI models. As these services expand, they increase compute demands and drive more data movement across cloud environments, placing additional performance and monitoring expectations on IT teams.

Cost, security, and accountability are now the priority

#14: 84% of organizations cite managing cloud spend as a top challenge, while 77% point to security

Cost control and security continue to lead the list of cloud-related headaches, with 84% of organizations naming cloud spend management as a top concern and 77% highlighting security. As environments scale across public, private, and hybrid models, visibility gaps can quickly turn into overspending or risk exposure. Unused resources, misconfigured services, and shadow IT all compound the issue. For network and IT teams in 2026, keeping a close eye on traffic patterns and infrastructure usage plays a direct role in both cost optimization and risk reduction.

#15: 33% of organizations spend more than $12 million annually on public cloud 

Public cloud spending continues to climb, with one third of organizations now investing over $12 million per year. According to a Flexera survey of nearly 800 organizations—most of them enterprises—cloud has become a significant, recurring line item rather than a short-term modernization expense. As cloud budgets scale into the millions, expectations around performance, uptime, and cost efficiency rise alongside them, increasing pressure on IT teams to maintain clear visibility into how infrastructure is being used.

#16: 72% of organizations are prioritizing cloud cost optimization this year 

Cost control remains the dominant cloud priority in 2026, with 72% of organizations focused on optimizing their existing cloud usage for savings. In fact, 87% rank cost efficiency as the top metric for evaluating progress against cloud goals. As cloud environments mature, perhaps some of the conversation has shifted from adoption to accountability: ensuring workloads are right-sized, resources are fully utilized, and spending aligns with business value.

#17: 88% of organization are increasing their focus on cloud security

Cloud security is taking center stage, with 88% of organizations planning to increase their team’s focus on protecting cloud environments over the next two years. That shift comes alongside broader cybersecurity budget growth, as nine in ten organizations expect to increase spending in 2026. As hybrid and multi-cloud footprints expand, so does the responsibility to monitor traffic, manage access, and close visibility gaps across environments.

The next frontier: sustainability

#18: 36% of organizations are now tracking their cloud carbon footprint 

Cloud sustainability is moving from discussion to action, with 36% of organizations now tracking the carbon footprint of their cloud usage — and more planning to follow. As cloud environments grow, so does awareness of their environmental impact, especially in regions with stricter ESG reporting requirements. For IT teams, this introduces a new dimension to infrastructure decisions, where efficiency, workload placement, and resource optimization influence both performance and sustainability goals.

The future of cloud migration

Over the next five years, organizations will rethink architecture, security, cost management, and performance at scale. Based on current trends, here’s where cloud migration is headed:

• The market will continue expanding at double-digit rates. With the cloud migration services market projected to grow at more than 20% annually through 2035, demand for planning, optimization, and hybrid integration isn’t slowing down. Migration will increasingly be treated as a continuous modernization cycle rather than a completed milestone.
• Hybrid and multi-cloud will become the default architecture. As organizations distribute workloads across public, private, sovereign, and edge environments, “single cloud” strategies will become the exception. The focus will shift toward interoperability and consistent visibility across platforms.
• AI workloads will reshape infrastructure decisions. Generative AI and AI/ML platform adoption are accelerating quickly, driving higher compute density and more data movement between systems. Infrastructure design will increasingly prioritize performance, proximity, and scalability.
• Cost optimization will move from reactive to proactive. As cloud spending climbs into the millions for many organizations, financial accountability will be embedded into migration strategy from the start, with stronger governance, usage monitoring, and workload right-sizing.
• Security and sovereignty will influence provider selection. Regulatory pressures and geopolitical considerations will continue to push workloads toward hybrid and sovereign cloud environments, increasing architectural diversity and complexity.
• Sustainability will become part of cloud planning conversations. Carbon tracking and ESG reporting are already emerging priorities. Over time, energy efficiency and workload placement decisions will factor into migration strategies alongside cost and performance.

Don’t let a cloud migration make your organization vulnerable

Cloud migration has entered a new phase. Adoption is widespread, AI is accelerating infrastructure growth, multi-cloud is intentional, and cost and security pressures are intensifying. Each of these trends introduces new operational challenges; fragmented environments, rising spend, expanding threat surfaces, and heavier, less predictable traffic patterns across hybrid networks. For IT and network teams, success in 2026 is less about migration itself and more about maintaining control once you’re there.That’s where better visibility and SaaS management come in. With Auvik’s SaaS Management platform, teams can gain clearer insight into their SaaS environments, reduce risk, and improve governance across distributed cloud ecosystems. Explore how Auvik’s platform helps simplify complexity and strengthen security today.