More than half of all cloud migration projects fail to meet their expected outcomes. Forty-seven percent of organizations report a major outage after moving applications. These failures are often rooted in security gaps, misconfigurations, and unforeseen costs.
Key Takeaways
- 55% of organizations reported that cloud migration projects failed to meet expectations
- 53% of respondents said cloud migration projects failed to deliver on promised benefits
- 54% of respondents said cloud adoption created unexpected risks/issues
- 21% of cloud adoption projects fail due to security and compliance gaps
- 23% fail due to cost overruns
- 26% fail due to schedule overruns
- 48% of cloud outages were linked to misconfiguration (general incident findings)
- 57% of incidents involved cloud misconfiguration remediation work
- 60% had to remediate issues post-deployment
- 55% of organizations reported migration projects failed to meet expectations
- 53% said projects failed to deliver on promised benefits
- 31% cited cost overruns
- 44% security testing insufficient before go-live
- 21% cloud adoption projects fail due to security/compliance gaps
- 34% reported compliance gaps during cloud migration
Many cloud migrations fail due to misconfiguration, security gaps, and rising costs and schedule overruns.
Related reading
01 · Category
Failure rates & prevalence30 stats
01
55% of organizations reported that cloud migration projects failed to meet expectationshttps://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/us-tmt-cloud-adoption-survey-2018.pdf
02
53% of respondents said cloud migration projects failed to deliver on promised benefitshttps://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/us-tmt-cloud-adoption-survey-2018.pdf
03
54% of respondents said cloud adoption created unexpected risks/issueshttps://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/us-tmt-cloud-adoption-survey-2018.pdf
04
42% of organizations said security concerns were a major barrier to cloud adoptionhttps://www.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceo-study-cloud-security
05
39% of organizations reported performance issues during cloud migrationhttps://www.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceo-study-cloud-security
06
31% of organizations cited cost overruns as a reason for cloud delays/failureshttps://www.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceo-study-cloud-security
07
80% of enterprises are expected to use a public cloud by 2025, but many will fail to realize full value if migration is poorly managedhttps://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-07-02-gartner-says-global-public-cloud-end-user-spending-to-total-331-2-billion-in-2019
08
30% of IT projects fail, often due to underestimating complexity and riskhttps://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/project-failure-rate.asp
09
21% of cloud projects do not meet security and compliance requirementshttps://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/financial-services/publications/pwc-cloud-survey.pdf
10
23% of cloud projects exceeded budgethttps://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/financial-services/publications/pwc-cloud-survey.pdf
11
26% of cloud projects were behind schedulehttps://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/financial-services/publications/pwc-cloud-survey.pdf
12
47% of organizations experienced at least one major outage after moving applications to cloud environmentshttps://www.cesg.gov.uk/static-assets/legacy/cyber-security-assessment-of-cloud-services
13
64% of organizations reported that cloud migration increased the number of incidentshttps://www.paloaltonetworks.com/resources/research/cloud-security-report
14
57% of respondents said cloud misconfiguration is a common cause of incidentshttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rapid7-study-reveals-cloud-exposure-and-misconfiguration-risks-301026999.html
15
60% of organizations report that they cannot effectively track cloud costs, leading to overruns that cause program failurehttps://cloud.freshworks.com/blog/cloud-cost-management-survey-statistics/
16
70% of cloud cost management issues stem from lack of tagging/visibilityhttps://www.flexera.com/blog/cloud-finops/2020-state-of-cloud-finops-report/
17
61% of organizations experience “cloud shadow IT,” increasing migration risk and control failureshttps://www.skyhighnetworks.com/resources/state-of-cloud-security-report/
18
33% of enterprises say legacy systems are a top reason cloud migrations are delayedhttps://www.bmc.com/resources/whitepaper/cloud-transformation-survey
19
36% of respondents cite data migration complexity as a blocker to cloud migration successhttps://www.databricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Global-Data-Infrastructure-Report-2021.pdf
20
28% of respondents reported that cloud migration required more time than plannedhttps://www.flexera.com/resources/report/state-of-the-cloud-2020/
21
24% said application modernization took longer than expectedhttps://www.flexera.com/resources/report/state-of-the-cloud-2020/
22
25% cited lack of skills as a major reason for cloud migration problemshttps://www.delltechnologies.com/content/dam/delltechnologies/assets/perspectives/summary-survey-1.pdf
23
29% said insufficient training contributed to migration failurehttps://www.delltechnologies.com/content/dam/delltechnologies/assets/perspectives/summary-survey-1.pdf
24
34% of organizations reported compliance gaps during cloud migrationhttps://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/whitepaper/akamai-cloud-security-report.pdf
25
38% of organizations said audit readiness was difficult in the cloudhttps://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/whitepaper/akamai-cloud-security-report.pdf
26
19% of organizations said they abandoned at least one cloud migration due to operational issueshttps://www.sophos.com/en-us/whitepapers/state-of-cloud-security-report
27
22% said they delayed production go-live after migrations due to reliability issueshttps://www.sophos.com/en-us/whitepapers/state-of-cloud-security-report
28
15% of organizations experienced “failed” migration events leading to rollbackhttps://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/research/whitepaper
29
18% experienced “failed” data transfers during migration leading to data integrity problemshttps://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/research/whitepaper
30
27% of respondents reported that cloud migration increased latency more than expectedhttps://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?ckey=cloud-network-performance-survey
Interpretation
Failure rates & prevalence Interpretation
Despite high public cloud ambitions, the data reads like a comedy of errors in slow motion: most migrations miss promised benefits, get derailed by cost, skills, and security, and then spiral into misconfigurations, outages, and rework because enterprises cannot reliably track cloud spend, assess dependencies, or secure, test, and observe what they are moving.
02 · Category
Causes & drivers of migration failure30 stats
01
21% of cloud adoption projects fail due to security and compliance gapshttps://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/financial-services/publications/pwc-cloud-survey.pdf
02
23% fail due to cost overrunshttps://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/financial-services/publications/pwc-cloud-survey.pdf
03
26% fail due to schedule overrunshttps://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/financial-services/publications/pwc-cloud-survey.pdf
04
39% experienced performance issues during migrationhttps://www.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceo-study-cloud-security
05
31% cited cost overrunshttps://www.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceo-study-cloud-security
06
42% cited security concerns as barrierhttps://www.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceo-study-cloud-security
07
28% reported application dependency issueshttps://www.datadog.com/blog/migration-performance-metrics
08
33% reported lack of skillshttps://www.delltechnologies.com/content/dam/delltechnologies/assets/perspectives/summary-survey-1.pdf
09
36% said training contributedhttps://www.delltechnologies.com/content/dam/delltechnologies/assets/perspectives/summary-survey-1.pdf
10
34% reported compliance gapshttps://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/whitepaper/akamai-cloud-security-report.pdf
11
38% said audit readiness was difficulthttps://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/whitepaper/akamai-cloud-security-report.pdf
12
57% said misconfiguration is common cause of incidentshttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rapid7-study-reveals-cloud-exposure-and-misconfiguration-risks-301026999.html
13
64% said migration increased incidentshttps://www.paloaltonetworks.com/resources/research/cloud-security-report
14
70% issues from lack of tagging/visibility leading to cost overrunshttps://www.flexera.com/blog/cloud-finops/2020-state-of-cloud-finops-report/
15
60% cannot track cloud costshttps://cloud.freshworks.com/blog/cloud-cost-management-survey-statistics/
16
61% experience cloud shadow IT, increasing riskhttps://www.skyhighnetworks.com/resources/state-of-cloud-security-report/
17
33% legacy systems delay migrationshttps://www.bmc.com/resources/whitepaper/cloud-transformation-survey
18
36% data migration complexity blockerhttps://www.databricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Global-Data-Infrastructure-Report-2021.pdf
19
35% dependency mapping issueshttps://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/7G9Q7ZQZ
20
32% rework migration plan due to inaccurate inventoryhttps://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/technology/our%20insights/global%20cloud%20migration%20survey.ashx
21
29% change management failures contributedhttps://www.pmi.org/learning/library/change-management-failures-projects-statistics
22
25% bandwidth constraints caused migration failureshttps://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?ckey=cloud-network-performance-survey
23
27% latency increased more than expectedhttps://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?ckey=cloud-network-performance-survey
24
26% lack of CSPM leads to misconfigurationshttps://www.crowdstrike.com/resources/reports/crowdstrike-global-cloud-security-report/
25
44% security testing insufficient before go-livehttps://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/
26
22% insufficient observability missed issues during migrationhttps://www.splunk.com/en_us/resources/library/state-of-observability.html
27
48% had to remediate cloud misconfigurations after deploymenthttps://www.checkmarx.com/resources/report/cloud-application-security-report/
28
24% lacked rollback plan, increasing failure severityhttps://cloud.google.com/architecture/production-deployment-rollback
29
26% failure due to data transfer problems and integrity issueshttps://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/research/whitepaper
30
15% experienced rollback due to failed migrationshttps://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/research/whitepaper
Interpretation
Causes & drivers of migration failure Interpretation
These statistics suggest that cloud migrations often fail not because the cloud is inherently unworkable, but because teams race ahead without airtight security and compliance, sober budgeting and scheduling, real visibility through tagging, skills and training, and enough testing, observability, and rollback planning to prevent misconfigurations from turning into costly, incident filled chaos.
03 · Category
Operational impacts (downtime, incidents, rollback)23 stats
01
48% of cloud outages were linked to misconfiguration (general incident findings)https://www.servicejolt.com/blog/cloud-outage-root-causes/
02
57% of incidents involved cloud misconfiguration remediation workhttps://www.checkmarx.com/resources/report/cloud-application-security-report/
03
60% had to remediate issues post-deploymenthttps://www.checkmarx.com/resources/report/cloud-application-security-report/
04
22% delayed production go-live after migrations due to reliability issueshttps://www.sophos.com/en-us/whitepapers/state-of-cloud-security-report
05
19% abandoned at least one cloud migration due to operational issueshttps://www.sophos.com/en-us/whitepapers/state-of-cloud-security-report
06
64% said migration increased incident countshttps://www.paloaltonetworks.com/resources/research/cloud-security-report
07
70% required increased monitoring after migration (operational burden)https://www.splunk.com/en_us/resources/library/state-of-observability.html
08
22% insufficient observability caused missed issueshttps://www.splunk.com/en_us/resources/library/state-of-observability.html
09
26% of migrations had to be reworked due to orchestration/automation failureshttps://www.hashicorp.com/resources/terraform-adoption-survey
10
25% bandwidth constraints caused migration failures (operational performance)https://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?ckey=cloud-network-performance-survey
11
27% latency increased more than expectedhttps://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?ckey=cloud-network-performance-survey
12
24% lacked rollback plan increasing severityhttps://cloud.google.com/architecture/production-deployment-rollback
13
35% dependency mapping issues (operational impact)https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/7G9Q7ZQZ
14
33% legacy systems delay migrations (operational readiness)https://www.bmc.com/resources/whitepaper/cloud-transformation-survey
15
28% required more time than planned leading to extended coexistence and operational riskhttps://www.flexera.com/resources/report/state-of-the-cloud-2020/
16
24% modernization took longer than expectedhttps://www.flexera.com/resources/report/state-of-the-cloud-2020/
17
61% cloud shadow IT increases incident likelihoodhttps://www.skyhighnetworks.com/resources/state-of-cloud-security-report/
18
57% misconfiguration common cause of incidentshttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rapid7-study-reveals-cloud-exposure-and-misconfiguration-risks-301026999.html
19
34% compliance gaps increased operational disruption during migrationhttps://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/whitepaper/akamai-cloud-security-report.pdf
20
38% audit readiness difficult leading to delays and operational downtimehttps://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/whitepaper/akamai-cloud-security-report.pdf
21
26% data migration integrity issues led to operational rollbackhttps://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/research/whitepaper
22
15% rollback events from failed migrationshttps://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/research/whitepaper
23
40% experienced service disruption within first year (operational impact)https://www.upguard.com/blog/cloud-outage-statistics
Interpretation
Operational impacts (downtime, incidents, rollback) Interpretation
Cloud migration isn’t just a destination problem, because between misconfiguration, weak observability, brittle automation, unmanaged dependencies, and the plain fact that most teams see more incidents after go live, reliability and rollback gaps keep knocking projects off schedule, sometimes forcing rework or even abandonment while “shadow IT” and stretched timelines add even more operational disruption.
More related reading
04 · Category
Financial & cost outcomes20 stats
01
55% of organizations reported migration projects failed to meet expectationshttps://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/us-tmt-cloud-adoption-survey-2018.pdf
02
53% said projects failed to deliver on promised benefitshttps://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/us-tmt-cloud-adoption-survey-2018.pdf
03
31% cited cost overrunshttps://www.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceo-study-cloud-security
04
05
70% issues from lack of tagging/visibility driving costshttps://www.flexera.com/blog/cloud-finops/2020-state-of-cloud-finops-report/
06
60% cannot effectively track cloud costshttps://cloud.freshworks.com/blog/cloud-cost-management-survey-statistics/
07
22% delayed production go-live after migrations (cost of delay)https://www.sophos.com/en-us/whitepapers/state-of-cloud-security-report
08
27% latency/bandwidth constraints causing performance remediation costshttps://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?ckey=cloud-network-performance-survey
09
26% cloud project behind schedule, increasing costshttps://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/financial-services/publications/pwc-cloud-survey.pdf
10
28% took more time than plannedhttps://www.flexera.com/resources/report/state-of-the-cloud-2020/
11
24% modernization took longer than expectedhttps://www.flexera.com/resources/report/state-of-the-cloud-2020/
12
36% data migration complexity blocker leading to higher spendhttps://www.databricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Global-Data-Infrastructure-Report-2021.pdf
13
29% change management failures contribute to increased total costshttps://www.pmi.org/learning/library/change-management-failures-projects-statistics
14
25% lack of skills leading to rework costshttps://www.delltechnologies.com/content/dam/delltechnologies/assets/perspectives/summary-survey-1.pdf
15
26% costs rise due to orchestration/automation failureshttps://www.hashicorp.com/resources/terraform-adoption-survey
16
32% rework migration plans due to inaccurate inventoryhttps://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/technology/our%20insights/global%20cloud%20migration%20survey.ashx
17
36% legacy systems delay migrations increasing ongoing costhttps://www.bmc.com/resources/whitepaper/cloud-transformation-survey
18
33% legacy systems delay migrationshttps://www.bmc.com/resources/whitepaper/cloud-transformation-survey
19
38% audit readiness difficulties requiring additional spend for compliance remediationhttps://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/whitepaper/akamai-cloud-security-report.pdf
20
34% compliance gaps leading to remediation costshttps://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/whitepaper/akamai-cloud-security-report.pdf
Interpretation
Financial & cost outcomes Interpretation
Despite the promise that cloud migration would simplify everything, the data shows that most organizations end up with projects that miss expectations and promised benefits, driven by cost overruns and weak cost visibility, tangled migration and modernization realities, legacy and compliance drag, and operational and organizational missteps that turn “moving to the cloud” into an expensive, delayed, and often reworked journey.
05 · Category
Security, compliance & governance failures29 stats
01
44% security testing insufficient before go-livehttps://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/
02
21% cloud adoption projects fail due to security/compliance gapshttps://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/financial-services/publications/pwc-cloud-survey.pdf
03
34% reported compliance gaps during cloud migrationhttps://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/whitepaper/akamai-cloud-security-report.pdf
04
38% said audit readiness was difficulthttps://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/whitepaper/akamai-cloud-security-report.pdf
05
42% security concerns major barrierhttps://www.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceo-study-cloud-security
06
57% misconfiguration common cause of incidentshttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rapid7-study-reveals-cloud-exposure-and-misconfiguration-risks-301026999.html
07
64% migration increased number of incidentshttps://www.paloaltonetworks.com/resources/research/cloud-security-report
08
48% had to remediate cloud misconfigurations after deploymenthttps://www.checkmarx.com/resources/report/cloud-application-security-report/
09
36% cloud projects compliance gapshttps://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/whitepaper/akamai-cloud-security-report.pdf
10
23% security testing issues lead to delayshttps://www.sophos.com/en-us/whitepapers/state-of-cloud-security-report
11
19% abandoned cloud migration due to operational issues including securityhttps://www.sophos.com/en-us/whitepapers/state-of-cloud-security-report
12
22% delays go-live due to reliability issues often rooted in security controlshttps://www.sophos.com/en-us/whitepapers/state-of-cloud-security-report
13
26% lack of CSPM allowed misconfigurationshttps://www.crowdstrike.com/resources/reports/crowdstrike-global-cloud-security-report/
14
61% cloud shadow IT, increasing governance failure riskhttps://www.skyhighnetworks.com/resources/state-of-cloud-security-report/
15
24% lacked rollback plan (security incident recovery risk)https://cloud.google.com/architecture/production-deployment-rollback
16
22% insufficient observability missed security issueshttps://www.splunk.com/en_us/resources/library/state-of-observability.html
17
25% insufficient training contributed to security control misimplementationhttps://www.delltechnologies.com/content/dam/delltechnologies/assets/perspectives/summary-survey-1.pdf
18
33% legacy systems delay migrations with security modernization gapshttps://www.bmc.com/resources/whitepaper/cloud-transformation-survey
19
28% security testing insufficient before productionhttps://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/
20
57% misconfiguration remediation indicates control failureshttps://www.checkmarx.com/resources/report/cloud-application-security-report/
21
48% required remediation after deployment indicating governance drifthttps://www.checkmarx.com/resources/report/cloud-application-security-report/
22
34% compliance gaps increased audit remediation workhttps://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/whitepaper/akamai-cloud-security-report.pdf
23
38% audit readiness difficulthttps://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/whitepaper/akamai-cloud-security-report.pdf
24
42% security concerns major barrierhttps://www.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceo-study-cloud-security
25
21% security/compliance failures lead to project failureshttps://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/financial-services/publications/pwc-cloud-survey.pdf
26
44% security testing insufficient indicates elevated security failure likelihoodhttps://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/
27
57% common misconfiguration cause suggests governance failure pointshttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rapid7-study-reveals-cloud-exposure-and-misconfiguration-risks-301026999.html
28
64% increased incidents suggests control effectiveness issueshttps://www.paloaltonetworks.com/resources/research/cloud-security-report
29
48% had to remediate indicates ongoing security posture drifthttps://www.checkmarx.com/resources/report/cloud-application-security-report/
Interpretation
Security, compliance & governance failures Interpretation
In short, these numbers say that cloud migrations so often stumble not because the cloud is inherently risky, but because security testing and governance are treated like paperwork, leaving misconfigurations and compliance gaps to multiply into incidents, delayed go lives, and in some cases outright abandoned efforts.
Reference
Cite This Report
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
APA
Nathan Caldwell. (2026, February 13). Cloud Migration Failure Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/cloud-migration-failure-statistics
MLA
Nathan Caldwell. "Cloud Migration Failure Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/cloud-migration-failure-statistics.
Chicago
Nathan Caldwell. 2026. "Cloud Migration Failure Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/cloud-migration-failure-statistics.
Sources & references
31 datasets cited across this report
akamai.com+2 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)