Apple @ Work: IT leaders fear vendor lock-in as ‘Cloud Only’ dream fades

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Over the past decade, the strategy for most IT departments has been simple: move everything to the cloud to save on costs. The promise was going faster, less downtime and less maintenance, but as we settle into 2026, the reality looks a little different for some teams. Parallels recently released its 2026 State of Cloud Computing Survey. The results paint a picture of IT teams slowing down “in the cloud at all costs” because they see it leading to vendor lock-in.

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Fear of vendor lock-in

The most striking number, to me, in the report is that 94% of organizations are concerned about vendor lock-in. This statistic confirms a lot of what I’ve heard from IT teams. SaaS has worked very well, but the constant increase in licensing for all your tools has pushed most of your costs to the point where teams start questioning their ROI. I know that as I start getting license renewals for the tools I carry at work, I’m in the same bucket. Something that was originally a three-figure purchase has reached four figures.

Nearly half of respondents said they were “very concerned,” citing uncertain product roadmaps and fears about future support as key drivers. This tells us that the era of blindly trusting a single platform vendor is over. IT managers are now prioritizing architecture that gives them an exit strategy and flexibility if price or features go sideways. The age of AI is certainly not helping here.

AI: From hype to help

In 2025, everyone was scrambling to find their “AI Strategy.” By 2026, the dust had settled, and the study found that organizations were no longer interested in AI for its own sake. They want the mockery activity to be reduced. Here’s what those who were asked said:

• 47% prioritize AI for problem detection
• 41% want automatic app patching
• 39% want a reduction in administrative overhead

Worse, only 29% of respondents are willing to pay more for these features. This is a clear signal to marketers: don’t click on a chatbot and charge a premium for it. Build automation that saves time for the team, or customers. There are a few places where I see AI in all my tools that helps me open a few support tickets, but it doesn’t really save me costs, but rather my vendors. What’s happening here in the next 24 months? I am very interested to see.

VDI fatigue is real

For Mac administrators, VDI can be a necessary evil for delivering Windows applications to macOS users, but the operational costs become a burden. Research has found that 85% of organizations spend between 1 and 10 hours per week managing their VDI environment. These “hidden costs” of staff time drive change. Two-thirds of organizations are actively looking for a new VDI or DaaS solution, and more than half plan to switch within the next six months.

Conclusion: The hybrid is the new standard

Perhaps the biggest change is moving away from cloud-only tactics. Almost half of survey respondents (49%) are actively considering or planning to move back to local or hybrid models. The drivers are exactly what you would expect: cost flexibility and data independence.

When you combine security breaches (about half of those surveyed have experienced them in the past year) and the rising costs of cloud computing, the pendulum swings back toward a more balanced path. IT teams are not abandoning the cloud, but they are certainly very selective about what lives there. Hybrid is certainly the future, and ensures long- and mid-term flexibility as SaaS tools look to raise prices to monetize their AI features.

Download the full survey to learn more.

Apple @ Work is brought to you only by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that combines in one place professional-grade all the solutions needed to seamlessly and automatically use, manage and protect Apple devices in the workplace. More than 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work effortlessly and affordably. Request your FREE TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.