Opkey Report: Cloud Complexity Strains Enterprise IT

Enterprises are struggling to keep up with the growing complexity of cloud environments, according to a new report from Opkey. 

The 2026 State of ERP Testing and Cloud Application Lifecycle Management report highlights a widening gap between the pace of innovation and the operational capacity needed to support it—forcing enterprise leaders to rethink how they manage modern application ecosystems. 

Enterprises rethink IT operations amid cloud complexity

The report highlights six major pressure points affecting enterprise IT leaders and QA teams: 

• rising integration management costs 
• keeping pace with rapid cloud updates 
• persistent production issues 
• managing post-implementation consultant costs 
• heightened expectations around agentic AI
• reinvesting AI-driven efficiency gains into meaningful business innovation

“Enterprises are moving to the cloud to accelerate innovation, with a particular focus on tapping into new AI capabilities across their myriad of business applications,” said Pankaj Goel, chief executive officer and co-founder of Opkey. 

“The promise of faster, smarter business is real, but slow, manual cloud app management processes and complex integrations hold teams back. This report gives a glimpse into how companies are starting to rethink their approach to IT operations, leveraging automation and AI in new ways to unlock the transformative potential of their cloud-based applications,” Goel continued.

Cloud release cycles outpace IT teams’ capacity

Below are key findings from the report:

• Integrations are bleeding budgets dry: 61% of respondents said integrations are their largest cost driver, ahead of testing (34%), configuration (34%) and support (29%).
• Cloud velocity outpaces IT capacity: Rapid release cycles are overwhelming IT teams, with 42% struggling to allocate sufficient staff time to keep up with updates, and 51% citing configuring new features as their top challenge.
• Production issues are (still) an ongoing drain: 53% said they face “significant to severe” annual costs due to failed production changes, while 12% said the impact is minimal.

• Consultant spend is lowering as AI shifts the balance: There’s currently a 70/30 split between in-house teams and external consultants, but leaders expect automation to shift this toward an 80/20 model.
• Agentic AI expectations are sky-high: 83% said they plan to adopt agentic AI, with 69% expecting adoption to save between 5,000 and 30,000-plus hours annually.
• Freed resources from automation and AI investments to fuel innovation: More than 40% of respondents said they would reinvest these newfound efficiency gains in employee experience and business innovation.

Why manual cloud management is breaking down

According to Opkey, the findings highlight how traditional, manual approaches to managing enterprise applications are breaking down under the pressure of continuous cloud releases, increasing integration complexity, and rising costs.

The company adds that organisations still relying on “stitched-together tools” are spending more time and money on personnel and external partners just to keep pace, rather than reducing risk and freeing up capacity.

IDC: AI adoption outpaces operational readiness

In an official statement, Mickey North Rizza, group vice president of enterprise software at IDC, reinforced Opkey’s findings and pointed to a widening gap between rising IT budgets and actual innovation efforts.

“61% of organizations increased IT spend in 2026, yet nearly half of those budgets remain consumed by maintaining and upgrading existing systems, leaving precious little runway for innovation,” Rizza said, citing IDC’s Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Wave 1 March 2026 research.

“What makes the Opkey report particularly valuable is how it connects the operational pain that practitioners feel every day to the AI adoption imperative that business leaders are starting to act on: IDC found that more than half of organizations are embedding AI agents into core workflows (same survey). The question is no longer whether to adopt AI and automation — it’s whether your application lifecycle management practices are mature enough to capture the value,” Rizza emphasized.

To get ahead, Opkey recommends that organizations consolidate onto AI-driven platforms that automate routine lifecycle tasks and redirect thousands of hours toward innovation that can potentially yield meaningful business outcomes.

Last March, Opkey introduced its AI-powered Release Advisor, which automates analysis of Oracle and Workday updates. Learn how it delivers tailored insights, impact assessments, and faster testing plans to help IT teams stay ahead.