The latest Penteo report positions the cloud in a maturity phase where it ceases to be just a technical means and becomes a results lever: accelerating innovation, ensuring resilience, enabling generative AI, and controlling costs simultaneously. The dominant pattern is hybrid by default and purpose-driven multi-cloud. In this context, the role of the integrator shifts: it’s no longer enough to “assemble parts,” you must deliver measurable outcomes —cost, time-to-market, compliance, and operational quality—.
From “cloud exploration” to “cloud necessity”
The sector has moved from an exploratory cloud approach (spot IaaS for peaks or disaster recovery) to a transformational stage: application modernization, native cloud operations, integrated FinOps, and data sovereignty as a requirement. The immediate trend points to a necessary cloud: infrastructure, data, and AI aligned with business goals and governed by common policies across on-premises, public clouds, and edge.
What is driving this evolution:
- Scalability and resilience with flexible economic models compared to fixed data center investments.
- Continuous access to innovation (managed services, analytics, AI/ML) without building capabilities from scratch.
- Talent shortage internally, which pushes managed services and partners with industrial capacity.
- Pressure to optimize costs and justify ROI with data (FinOps), while complying with regulations and sustainability objectives.
What is still holding this back:
- Contractual complexity and dependence on specific catalogs of each hyperscaler.
- Skills deficit to operate multi-cloud with good governance.
- Legacy migrations that are costly if not approached methodically (assessment, waves, selective refactoring).
Elevating the integrator: from “technologist” to “transformer”
The relevant integrator in 2025 hybridizes on-premises, public cloud, and edge, operates multi-cloud with a governance landing zone, and offers managed services 24/7 with clear SLOs. The key difference from earlier stages: the focus now includes finance, data, and AI as much as infrastructure. A capable partner must translate strategy into repeatable blueprints: security by design, automation, observability, built-in FinOps, and demonstrable compliance.
Five key points for CIOs and CTOs
- Cloud = strategy. It’s the foundation for AI/ML, big data, IoT, and continuous modernization. Those who govern cloud well differentiate their business (agility, CX, efficiency).
- Hybrid and purpose-driven multi-cloud. Less “one provider for everything” and more conscious portfolio: what goes where, why, and how it’s governed.
- Sovereignty and compliance. Locate, classify, and protect critical data, with residency, encryption, and audits integrated into the platform.
- Pragmatic GenAI. From isolated pilots to production use cases with governed data, MLOps, and impact metrics (quality, cost, risks).
- Industrial partnerships. Capabilities, certifications, and methodology to execute the cloud strategy from start to finish, not just standalone projects.
How to choose (wisely) a cloud integrator in 2025
1) Governance and strategy. Does it translate your vision into a realistic roadmap? Does it define a multicloud landing zone (identity, security, network, IaC, tagging, service catalog) and a control model with continuous auditing?
2) Modernization and data. Real experience in replatforming/refactoring and building a data platform with lineage, quality, catalogs, and advanced analytics. Observability and automation as standard.
3) Usable GenAI. Production cases with MLOps, risk assessment (bias, privacy, data ownership), security controls, and business metrics (response time, quality, cost per inference).
4) Compliance and sovereignty. Industry/regional certifications, residency and continuity plans; end-to-end encryption, key management, immutable backups, and tested DR.
5) 24/7 Operations. Managed SRE/DevOps teams with SLOs, integrated FinOps (showback/chargeback, commitments, rightsizing), incident response, and proactive performance and security management.
Recommended roadmap (6 steps)
- Diagnostics: inventory of applications/data, dependencies, RTO/RPO, residency and compliance requirements; quick wins and risks.
- Governance: define the landing zone (identity, networks, security, observability, IaC, tagging, FinOps), service catalogs, and adoption process.
- Wave-based modernization: prioritize by value and risk; start with rehost/replatform for quick gains; refactor where ROI justifies; address technical debt with metrics.
- Data first: standardize ingestion, lineage, quality, catalog, and secure access; separate zones (bronze/silver/gold); embed governance into the process.
- Controlled GenAI: cases with governed data, guardrails, observability of cost and quality; MLOps to train, serve, and measure.
- Operate and optimize: managed SRE/DevOps, SLOs, continuous FinOps, periodic audits; patch automation, security, incident responses; continuity gamedays.
Best practices to avoid pitfalls
- Avoid trying to do everything at once. Select a few well-governed clouds instead of “multicloud just for catalog reasons”.
- Don’t underestimate data. Without governance, GenAI and analytics become costly pilots.
- Don’t delay FinOps. Each month without visibility and policies is money lost.
- Don’t leave continuity for last. Immutable backups, tested DR, DNS/GTM, and observability outside the same failure domain.
- Remember the culture. Training and aligning teams is as crucial as platform investments.
Key metrics that matter to the board
- % of workloads with agreed RTO/RPO and met during testing.
- Unit cost per service (€ per transaction, €/GB processed) and its trend.
- FinOps savings (reservations, rightsizing, off-hours shutdowns) and deviations.
- Delivery times (idea to production) by change type.
- Compliance coverage (classified data, encryption, audits passed).
- GenAI in production: quality, cost per inference, delivery timelines, and mitigated risks.
Conclusion
The message from Penteo is clear: cloud has shifted from being a tool to a leverage and now demands serious governance. The differentiating integrator will be the one that combines architecture, operations, and financial management to deliver measurable results: faster, more stable, secure, and efficient services, with data and AI as competitive advantages and costs under control. Those who understand this today will have a more agile company tomorrow; those who don’t will keep accumulating technical debt as the market accelerates.