Enterprises at mature stages of cloud adoption are 3x more likely to achieve their cloud goals and see dramatically better results across satisfaction, cost efficiency, and performance.
Today, we’re excited to announce the release of our special edition report: “Private Cloud Outlook: The Maturity Advantage.” The research reveals a pivotal shift in how enterprises approach cloud strategy—and uncovers a critical success factor that separates high-performing organizations from the rest.
The Private Cloud Renaissance
Enterprises are fundamentally rethinking their cloud strategies, placing private cloud at the center to address today’s most pressing business challenges. While security, cost control, and data governance remain primary drivers, our research shows that private cloud has evolved into a powerful enabler for modern workloads, including AI initiatives.
But here’s what’s truly fascinating: the benefits of private cloud aren’t just about the technology—they are about deployment maturity which also brings along people and process.
The Maturity Advantage: A Game-Changing Discovery
When we analyzed responses through the lens of cloud maturity, a striking pattern emerged that reveals why some enterprises are pulling dramatically ahead of their peers.
Enterprises that are mature in their cloud journey experience significantly superior results in strategic impact and operational excellence. They are investing in their infrastructure to drive business goals:
- 59% are increasing their private cloud investments, compared to 38% of developing-stage peers
- 60% rank private cloud workloads as their top IT priority, compared to 41% of developing-stage peers
- 90%+ report satisfaction in infrastructure operations, application deployment, security and compliance, compared to 50-65% satisfaction for developing-stage peers
The Strategic Repatriation Trend
Perhaps most telling is the workload repatriation trend we discovered. Mature enterprises are 3x more likely to have repatriated workloads from public cloud, with 50% having brought modern, cloud-native applications back to private infrastructure.
This isn’t about reversing failed migrations—it’s a deliberate, strategic move driven by heightened security concerns, rising costs, and the growing demands of modern workloads like AI.
What Separates the Leaders
Our research identified six critical dimensions that determine cloud maturity progress across people, process and technology:
- Workload diversity – Successfully running both traditional and modern applications
- Self-service provisioning – Enabling tenant self-provisioning via catalogs and APIs
- Policy-based guardrails – Implementing automated governance for security and compliance
- Cost transparency – Providing chargeback/showback information to internal customers
- Platform model – Organizing around platform teams vs. technology silos
- Custom services – Delivering tailored applications and service catalogs
Organizations excelling in these areas consistently outperform their peers, achieving satisfaction rates of 90%+ compared to organizations who are earlier in their cloud journey.
The Path Forward
The message from our research is clear: maturity is the multiplier. While private cloud delivers value at any stage, mature enterprises gain outsized benefits. They’re more capable, more confident, and more likely to scale innovation with reduced risk.
For enterprise leaders, this research provides a roadmap. The question isn’t whether to invest in private cloud—it’s how to accelerate your journey to cloud maturity and transform your infrastructure from a cost center into a competitive advantage.
Ready to Assess Your Cloud Maturity?
Understanding where your organization stands on the maturity spectrum is the first step toward unlocking greater cloud advantage. The organizations leading in our research didn’t get there by accident. They followed a deliberate path of continuous improvement across the six critical dimensions we identified.
Contact your sales representative or VMware Partner to schedule a comprehensive Maturity Assessment and discover how to accelerate your private cloud advantage.
Download your copy of “Private Cloud Outlook: The Maturity Advantage“ today and discover how to unlock the full potential of your private cloud.
The Private Cloud Outlook: The Maturity Advantage is a special report based on the Private Cloud Outlook 2025: The Cloud Reset report that surveyed 1,800 senior IT decision-makers globally to understand the current state and future direction of private cloud adoption. The full methodology and detailed findings are available in the complete research report.
