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For the last decade, the strategy for many IT departments was simple: move everything to the cloud to save on costs. The promise was moving faster, with less downtime and less maintenance, but as we settle into 2026, the reality is looking a bit different for some teams. Parallels has just released its 2026 State of Cloud Computing Survey. The results paint a picture of IT teams slowing down on “cloud at all costs” because they are realizing it’s leading them into vendor lock-in.
About Apple @ Work: Bradley Chambers managed an enterprise IT network from 2009 to 2021. Through his experience deploying and managing firewalls, switches, a mobile device management system, enterprise grade Wi-Fi, 1000s of Macs, and 1000s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple IT managers deploy Apple devices, build networks to support them, train users, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for IT departments.
The fear of vendor lock-in
The most striking number, for me, in the report is that 94% of organizations are concerned about vendor lock-in. This stat confirms a lot of what I’ve heard from IT teams as well. SaaS has worked great, but continuous license increases across all your tools have pushed many of your costs to the point where teams start questioning their ROI. I know that as I start to get license renewals for tools I manage in my job, I am in the same bucket. Something that was a three-figure purchase originally has drifted to four figures.
Nearly half of the respondents said they are “very concerned,” mentioning uncertain product roadmaps and fears over future support as key drivers. This tells us that the era of blindly trusting a single platform vendor is over. IT directors are now prioritizing architectures that give them an exit strategy and flexibility if pricing or features go sideways. The AI era is certainly not helping here.
AI: Moving from hype to help
In 2025, everyone was scrambling to figure out their “AI Strategy.” In 2026, the dust had settled, and the survey found that organizations were no longer interested in AI for its own sake. They want it to reduce the grunt work. Here’s what those surveyed are saying:
- 47% prioritize AI for issue detection
- 41% want automated application patching
- 39% seek reduced administrative overhead
Crucially, only 29% of respondents are willing to pay extra for these features. This is a clear signal to vendors: don’t bolt on a chatbot and charge a premium for it. Build automation that actually saves a team time, or they aren’t buying it. There are a number of places where I am seeing AI across my tools that’s helping me open fewer support tickets, but it’s not really saving me costs, but rather my vendors. What happens here in the next 24 months? I am very interested to see.
VDI fatigue is real
For Mac admins, VDI can be a necessary evil for delivering Windows apps to macOS users, but the operational costs are becoming a burden. The survey found that 85% of organizations spend between 1 and 10 hours per week managing their VDI environment. This “hidden cost” of staff time is driving change. Two-thirds of organizations are actively seeking a new VDI or DaaS solution, and more than half plan to switch within the next six months.
Wrap up: hybrid is the new standard
Perhaps the biggest reversal is the shift away from cloud-only strategies. Almost half of the survey respondents (49%) are actively considering or planning a move back to on-premises or hybrid models. The drivers are exactly what you would expect: cost volatility and data sovereignty.
When you combine security breaches (nearly half of those surveyed experienced one in the last year) with the rising cost of cloud computing, the pendulum is swinging back toward a balanced approach. IT teams aren’t abandoning the cloud, but they are certainly becoming more selective about what lives there. Hybrid is certainly the future, and it ensures long- and medium-term flexibility as SaaS tools look to raise prices to monetize their AI features.
Download the entire survey to learn more.
Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage & protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.
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