In my first blog of this two-part series, I broke down the five automation metrics and principles I rely on most to help leadership demonstrate value. This second blog builds on that thinking. In my e-book, ‘Network automation in 2026: building resilience, assurance and future-ready networks’, I explained that one of the biggest challenges that network and operations leaders face today is making every change safe. 

Automation is not just about efficiency, but maintaining control within modern networks that are dynamic, distributed and tightly-connected to cloud platforms and third-party services. While automation is essential, speed without control creates risk. By unifying the three capabilities of assurance, observability and lifecycle management, it becomes possible to execute network changes in a safe and repeatable way.

Assurance: Validate before and after every change

For me, assurance is the foundation. Validate every change is safe and compliant before it goes live, then confirm it behaves as intended after deployment. Continuous validation before and after every change is now expected, helping to ensure changes are safe and compliant. Streaming telemetry and service mesh architectures provide real-time visibility, making it easier to spot issues and respond quickly

How to implement assurance:

• Define policies as code and embed them in your pipeline. 
• Run intent checks to catch misconfiguration and drift early. 
• Use change windows that include automated validation and safe rollback paths.

Outcome: Fewer failed releases and emergency fixes and better audit outcomes because evidence is generated as part of normal work. 

Observability: Real insight from streaming telemetry

In my first blog, I covered MTTR and MTTD with the time it takes you to detect issues and restore normal service. Observability is what drives this. Move beyond static, device-centric health checks to provide continuous visibility across paths, services and users.

How to implement observability: 

• Stream telemetry from network and edge assets into a common model. 
• Use service mesh patterns where appropriate to trace requests end-to-end. 
• Align dashboards to service objectives, not individual devices. 

Outcome: Faster detection, clearer root cause and performance data that stakeholders can actually trust. 

Lifecycle management: Remove tech debt as you modernise

Teams often try to automate on top of legacy risks. Lifecycle management prevents that. You plan upgrades, renewals and retirements proactively to prevent new changes from piling risk onto legacy.

How to implement lifecycle management: 

• Maintain an accurate inventory and map controls to business risk. 
• Standardise on reference designs that are easier to secure and support. 
• Budget for renewal and decommissioning alongside new projects. 

Outcome: Lower exposure, simpler operations and a platform that adapts as the business evolves. 

How to implement a safe automation framework

To bring assurance, observability and lifecycle management together for safe automation, I recommend organisations consider the following best practices:  

1. Start with responsibility: Assign clear owners for providers and controls. Everyone should know who approves what. 
2. Use reference designs: Build simple patterns that map known threats to specific controls, then reuse them. 
3. Automate safely: Codify configuration and policy, prevent drift and escalate recovery with tested rollbacks. 
4. Adopt Zero Trust: Assume breach, verify access and enforce least privilege across sites and clouds. 
5. Strengthen monitoring: Track performance, changes, access and compliance in one place. 
6. Keep governance practical: Set standards that teams can follow, measure them and iterate. 

What to measure

To make progress visible and defensible, you can refer back to the core metrics from my e-book and previous blog:  

• Change success rate and rollback avoidance 
• MTTR and MTTD
• Compliance score and drift
• Latency and packet loss against service objectives.

These metrics will help you determine whether your automation is actually making change safer.  

Two quick wins for the first 30 days

If you want to quickly build momentum, I recommend: 

• Pre-change validation on one high-traffic service: Add automated checks for policy compliance and performance impact, then track the effect on change success rate. 
• Drift detection with weekly remediation: Choose a critical domain, enable drift alerts and close gaps to raise your compliance score. 

Where SD-WAN and SASE fit

At the edge, SD-WAN and SASE extend consistent policy and observability to every site. They simplify operations, support identity-led access that aligns to Zero Trust and reduce risks from technical debt and legacy systems so networks can adapt securely as business needs evolve. 

How we can help

In my work with clients, I see the same challenge time and again: network change needs to move faster, but it also needs to be safer and more predictable. At CACI, we help organisations bring structure, visibility and governance to complex networks so change can happen with confidence. 

We support teams in putting practical assurance and observability in place, improving lifecycle management and reducing configuration drift, without slowing delivery. That means fewer regressions, clearer accountability and a more predictable change pipeline.
 
If you’d like to explore how this approach could work in your environment, visit our Network Automation page to start the conversation with our specialists. 
 
You can also download my new Network Automation in 2026 eBook for a deeper dive into how assurance and automation work together to build resilient, future-ready networks. 

In my new e-book ‘Network automation in 2026: building resilience, assurance and future-ready networks’, I uncover how network automation is no longer just about speed, but about reducing operational risk, strengthening compliance and stabilising services when the unexpected strikes. To meet the expectations of leadership, network automation must clearly demonstrate its ability to deliver on outcomes.  

This first blog in a two-part series breaks down five automation metrics and principles I rely on to help advise leadership: practical, executive-friendly and aligned to how boards evaluate resilience, risk and customer experience.

1. Change success rate and rollback avoidance 

What it is: This is the proportion of changes that complete as planned without causing incidents or requiring rollback. 
Why it matters: In my experience, this is one of the fastest ways to prove to leadership that automation is about increasing safety and predictability, not just throughput. 

How to improve:  

• I always begin with applying pre-change validation, policy gates and standardised reference designs that map controls to threats with simple, repeatable patterns. These give teams simple, repeatable patterns that map controls to threats. 
• Instrument your pipelines to capture change outcomes automatically.
• Assign clear ownership to execute each change and align teams.  

What good looks like: A steady rise in successful, first-time changes and a consistent fall in rollbacks over consecutive release cycles. 

2. Mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to repair (MTTR)

What it is: The time it takes you to detect issues and restore normal service. 
Why it matters: I find that detection and recovery are very important for leadership, especially because automation and observability deliver measurable business value. 

How to improve:  

• Stream all of your telemetry into a single view, then use intent checks to highlight drift or policy violations and automate first line remediation where safe.  
• Strengthen monitoring by tracking network performance, changes, access, compliance and security events.

What good looks like: Faster detection windows followed by runbook-driven recovery that is measured in minutes, not hours.

3. Compliance score and configuration drift

What it is: A combined indicator of how closely your estate aligns to policy and how far it strays from approved configurations. 
Why it matters: Boards and auditors need confidence that controls are enforced consistently across hybrid estates. 

How to improve:  

• Treat policies as code and run continuous checks.  
• Block non-compliant changes before they land.  
• Generate audit evidence automatically to save a huge amount of time.  
• Keep governance practical by setting clear standards, control owners and measurable policies. 

What good looks like: A rising compliance score with drift trending down. Exceptions are documented and time-boxed. 

4. Alert volume reduction

What it is: A measure of how many alerts actually correlate to meaningful incidents. 
Why it matters: High alert volume hides real risk and drains team capacity. 

How to improve:  

• Consolidate tooling, de-duplicate at the source, only measuring what maps to user or service objectives.  
• Safely automate by applying Infrastructure as Code and Policy as Code to prevent drift and speed up recovery.

What good looks like: Fewer alerts, higher signal quality and a clear link between alerts and customer impact. 

5. Latency and packet loss against service objectives

What it is: End-to-end performance measured against the targets that matter most for your services. 
Why it matters: User experience is the ultimate goal. Device health means little if transactions stall. 

How to improve:  

• Set service-level objectives (SLOs) for your priority journeys, instrument path visibility and factor network changes into performance reviews.  
• Adopt Zero Trust principles to assume breach, verify access and enforce least privilege.  

What good looks like: Stable or improving latency and loss for your top services, even during high change periods. 

How to get started 

I recommend teams start small when adopting these metrics, but take the following into consideration: 

1. Select two high impact metrics that you can measure today. 
2. Automate the collection and reporting so data is timely and trusted.
3. Share a simple scorecard with trend lines and short commentary.
4. Only add more metrics when the first set is stable. 

How we can help

In my work with CIOs, one of the biggest challenges I see is turning network automation into something that’s measurable, governed and trusted. At CACI, we help organisations align automation with business goals, reduce operational risk and create real clarity around performance and compliance. 

We bring proven architectures, practical operating models and clear measurement frameworks, so teams can track success rates, reduce configuration drift and improve incident response. We also help teams build simple, outcome focused scorecards that connect day-to-day network activity to executive priorities. 

If you’d like support establishing a metrics baseline or shaping an automation roadmap around the principles in this blog, visit our Network Automation page to learn more or get in touch with our specialists. 

You can also download my Network Automation in 2026 eBook for a deeper look at the frameworks and metrics that high performing organisations are using today. 

In the next blog in this series, I’ll explore how assurance, observability and lifecycle management work together to make every network change safe. 

CACI Ltd is delighted to announce it has been selected by Amazon Web Services (AWS) as an official launch partner for the AWS European Sovereign Cloud (ESC), a major AWS initiative designed to help organisations meet stringent European digital sovereignty, security, and compliance requirements.

This appointment further reinforces CACI – a global AWS Premier Tier Partner – as a trusted advisor for organisations looking to adopt sovereign cloud solutions while leveraging the scale, resilience and innovation of AWS.

The European Sovereign Cloud is purpose-built to ensure the highest levels of governance and assurance, making it particularly suited for mission-critical and highly regulated sectors such as public services, national security, defence, financial services, healthcare, and critical infrastructure. This is also essential in supporting large commercial organisations navigate regulatory landscapes, protect sensitive data, and maintain customer trust at scale.

Why are the AWS ESC Principles Important?

The AWS ESC applies the principles above in the European context, giving organisations absolute confidence that their data and operations remain under tight European control, while enabling innovation without compromise.

Key capabilities include:

• EU-only operations: managed exclusively by EU-based personnel, ensuring governance and operational independence.

• EU data residency: all customer data – including metadata – remains within the EU, supported by isolated service environments.

• Independent European infrastructure: physically EU-based facilities with separate control systems including independent billing, security, and multiple Availability Zones for resilience.

What Being an AWS ESC Launch Partner Means for CACI Clients

CACI brings proven expertise in cloud transformation, security, and compliance. Becoming an ESC launch partner further enables CACI to:

• Guide organisations through sovereign cloud adoption using AWS best practices.

• Deliver secure and compliant solutions tailored to EU regulatory requirements.

• Enable innovation without compromise, by combining sovereignty with AWS scalability and resilience.

To prepare for this milestone, CACI has invested in advanced training for its teams on AWS Digital Sovereignty competency and principles, ensuring clients receive expert guidance in planning, migrating to, and operating sovereign cloud environments.

Tracy Weir, Chief Executive of CACI Ltd, comments: “We’re proud to be named an AWS launch partner for the European Sovereign Cloud. This partnership reinforces our dedication to helping organisations across public and private sectors meet stringent sovereignty requirements, whilst leveraging the power of AWS. It also underlines our commitment to delivering excellence and best practice across every stage of AWS cloud adoption.”

CACI AWS Credentials and Sovereign Cloud Expertise

CACI pairs deep AWS expertise with secure cloud delivery experience across defence, public services, finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure. Our powerful capabilities include:

• First AWS Trusted Secure Enclave Vetted Partner the UK providing trusted National Security & Defence sensitive solutions

• Other AWS Competencies including Migration, DevOps and Government Consulting

• A partner ecosystem of 36+ strategic partners across all verticals

• Jezero Landing Zone Accelerator: AWS validated secure cloud LZA enabling rapid deployment on AWS, and compliance with global security standards

• 400+ AWS certifications: held by expert CACI engineers.

AWS ESC launch timeline, locations, and investment

AWS ESC begins its roll out from January 2026, starting with its first region in the State of Brandenburg, Germany, expanding capabilities and coverage to additional regions over time. This phased approach reflects AWS’s commitment to supporting European organisations with scalable, sovereign cloud solutions.

AWS has also committed €7.8 billion in investment in Germany by 2040 as part of this initiative, reinforcing its long-term support for European digital sovereignty and innovation.

With over five decades of delivering complex programmes across commercial and public sectors including highly regulated, mission-critical industries, CACI is well-positioned to help organisations adopt secure, compliant cloud solutions on the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.

For help with ESC or any AWS or other cloud projects, get in touch today.

Refactoring in cloud migration means making significant architectural and code-level changes to an existing application to optimise it for cloud environments. Instead of simply lifting and shifting a workload, refactoring restructures it to use cloud native services such as managed databases, containers, microservices or serverless computing. 

Common migration patterns include rehosting, re-platforming, refactoring, rebuilding or replacing. Refactoring sits in the middle of the modernisation scale, keeping the core application but improving internal structure, removing legacy dependencies, updating frameworks and unlocking new capabilities. 

This approach is growing in adoption, with a large percentage of enterprises now combining cloud migration with application modernisation to remain competitive. When done well, organisations can reap substantial benefits of refactoring from cloud elasticity and faster development to improved resilience and long-term cost efficiency, which this blog uncovers. 

Benefits of refactoring in cloud migration

Refactoring requires investment, but the long-term gains are often significant. In doing so, organisations can gain: 

Improved scalability and performance

By adapting applications to use cloud native components such as container orchestration, managed databases or asynchronous workloads, organisations can achieve higher performance and better resilience under load. 

Reduced long-term costs

Although refactoring may increase migration effort, it often leads to lower operational costs. Cloud-native services offer auto-scaling, pay-per-use pricing and more efficient resource consumption. Over time, this results in better financial performance than traditional lift-and-shift. 

Faster delivery and innovation

Refactored applications are usually more modular and easier to update. This supports continuous deployment, quicker releases and faster time to market, which are ideal for product teams and digital delivery. 

Lower technical debt and easier maintenance

Refactoring replaces old libraries, removes legacy components and reduces complexity. This improves stability and simplifies systems for engineering teams to maintain and enhance. 

Stronger security and compliance

Modern cloud architectures embed identity management, encryption, monitoring and audit controls. This makes it easier to meet regulatory requirements and improve security posture.

Future-readiness and flexibility

Refactored solutions adapt more easily to new technologies, cloud services and business requirements. They are better positioned for AI integration, data platform modernisation and future cloud strategies. 

Challenges of refactoring in cloud migration

Refactoring is one of the more advanced cloud migration strategies, which lends itself to complications. Some of the challenges to be aware of include: 

Higher upfront effort and cost 

Refactoring requires redesigning and rewriting parts of the application. This means more time and investment compared to rehosting or re-platforming. 

Complex transformation risk

Innate changes to architecture may introduce new bugs or operational risk. Without careful planning, live services may face disruption during cutover. 

Legacy constraints and dependencies

Some applications are tightly coupled or built on outdated frameworks, which makes refactoring more time consuming. Legacy systems may require major rework before they are cloud-ready. 

Risk of cloud provider lock-in

Cloud-native services offer significant value, but can complicate multi-cloud strategies. Organisations must balance innovation with portability requirements. 

Cloud skill gaps across teams 

Refactoring requires cloud architecture expertise, software engineering capability, DevOps skills and updated security practices. Many organisations are still building on skills in these areas. 

Delayed return on investment

Refactoring benefits increase over time. Stakeholders may expect instant cost savings, which can create pressure if results take longer to appear. 

Best practices for cloud migration refactoring

Refactoring is most successful when approached with structure and clarity. The following best practices can help reduce risk and improve outcomes: 

1. Carry out a complete application assessment

Review application dependencies, integrations, data flows, technical debt, scalability and risk. This helps map the complexity of the estate and segment workloads based on refactoring suitability. 

2. Prioritise the right applications

Focus refactoring on high-value workloads such as customer facing services, highly scaled systems or applications requiring innovation. Avoid refactoring low-value or soon-to-be-retired solutions. 

3. Create a clear business case and measurable KPIs

Define long-term success: improved performance, cost efficiency, error reduction, increased release frequency or reduced maintenance overhead. Tie each refactoring decision to a measurable outcome. 

4. Adopt cloud native architecture patterns

Use microservices, event-driven design, serverless functions, containers, managed data services, API gateways and infrastructure as code. CACI’s Cloud Engineering and Implementation Services helps organisations effectively adopt this. 

5. Embed security and governance from the beginning

Security must not be retrofitted. Implement identity and access management, encryption, logging, monitoring, network controls and compliance checks early.  

6. Invest in skills and organisational readiness 

Support DevOps adoption, cloud architecture upskilling and platform engineering capabilities. Consider establishing a cloud centre of excellence.  

7. Deliver refactoring in waves

Avoid large, risky transformations. Move applications into the cloud in phases: pilot, assessment, refactor, migrate, validate and optimise. This will reduce risk and increase confidence. 

Cloud migration with CACI

Refactoring during cloud migration can unlock scalability, performance, agility and long-term cost savings. However, success depends on having the right expertise, governance, cloud architecture and migration strategy. 

CACI helps organisations design and deliver modern cloud solutions through its 
Cloud Engineering and Implementation Services, including:  

• Cloud readiness assessments 

• Refactoring planning 

• Modernisation frameworks 

• Cloud native delivery. 

We also provide Platform Migration for complex legacy estates and Solution Implementation to build secure, scalable platforms for modern applications. 

If you are planning to refactor applications for cloud or considering a modernisation strategy, get in touch with us to find out how CACI can help you achieve scalable, secure and cost-effective results. 

The anticipated cyber threats facing UK businesses in 2026 are evolving faster than security teams can adapt. Attackers are using AI to generate convincing phishing attacks, exploit software supply chains, compromise cloud identities and launch highly disruptive ransomware campaigns. 

Recent research highlights the severity of the issue: 

• The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warns that ransomware remains the most dangerous threat to UK businesses, noting that attackers now use automation and AI to scale campaigns across thousands of victims. 

• The latest UK Government Cyber Security Breaches Survey shows 50% of UK businesses experienced a cyber incident in 2024, rising to 74% for medium businesses and 91% for large organisations. 

• Meanwhile, the IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report reports an average UK breach cost of £3.4 million, one of the highest globally. 

To effectively safeguard your organisation into 2026, understanding how these cyber threats are evolving will be paramount. The key threats to prepare for are expected to be: 

1. AI-powered phishing and social engineering 

Cyber criminals now use generative AI to produce highly convincing phishing emails, cloned voices and deepfake videos. 

According to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), AI will likely continue to “make elements of cyber intrusion operations more effective and efficient, leading to an increase in frequency and intensity of cyber threats.”Approximately £100 million was lost to investment scams driven deepfake videos in the first half of 2025.

Why it matters:

AI removes spelling errors, improves targeting and creates believable voice calls, making phishing harder to detect.

Actions to take:

• Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) across all accounts 
• Train staff using AI-simulated phishing exercises 
• Introduce payment verification with multi-person approval 
• Use real-time email threat scanning. 

2. Ransomware as a service targeting UK SMEs 

Ransomware continues to dominate the UK threat landscape. 

• Global ransomware attacks have increased by 56% over the last two years. 
• The average downtime after a ransomware incident exceeds 21 days. 

Why it matters:

Ransomware groups now target SMEs because they are less likely to have strong incident response capabilities.

Actions to take:

• Maintain offline backups 
• Implement zero-trust identity policies 
• Create and rehearse a ransomware response pla
• Block admin rights by default 

3. Software supply chain compromise 

Supply chain attacks are now a priority risk area. 

• ENISA reports that supply chain risks comprise 10.6% of threat distribution.
• These attacks impact thousands of organisations simultaneously by compromising trusted software components. 

Why it matters:

Compromising one supplier can affect thousands of UK organisations simultaneously.

Actions to take: 

• Maintain a third-party risk register 
• Request Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) from critical suppliers 
• Apply continuous dependency scanning 
• Implement zero trust network segmentation. 

4. Cloud misconfiguration and identity-based attacks 

Cloud adoption has surged across UK organisations, but configuration drift and weak identity controls are leading causes of breaches. 

• Cloud security breaches have been on the rise in recent years, with as much as 75% reportedly caused by inadequate identity, access or privilege management. 
• Misconfigured storage services continue to expose millions of records annually. 

Why it matters:

Most cloud breaches are preventable with strong identity, configuration and policy controls. 

Actions to take:

• Adopt secure cloud landing zones 
• Enforce MFA and conditional access 
• Use policy-as-code to eliminate misconfigurations 
• Continuously scan cloud environments. 

5. Nation state threats to UK critical infrastructure 

Geopolitical tensions have increased targeting of critical national infrastructure (CNI). 

• The NCSC warns that hostile states present a persistent and realistic threat to UK CNI. 
• ENISA notes a 30% rise in targeted attacks on European infrastructure providers. 

Why it matters:

Healthcare, energy, transportation and public services remain key targets due to their societal impact.

Actions to take:

• Implement zero trust across operational technology 
• Segment networks between IT and OT 
• Improve visibility with 24/7 threat monitoring 
• Apply NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework controls. 

6. Deepfake enabled fraud and CEO impersonation

Deepfake technologies are enabling highly sophisticated financial fraud. 

• Deloitte reports deepfake incidents have increased as much as 700% in certain industries.  
• UK Finance warns that criminals are increasingly impersonating executives to initiate fraudulent transactions. 

Why it matters:

Deepfakes undermine trust in human-to-human verification processes.

Actions to take: 

• Introduce strict financial verification processes.
• Train staff to spot manipulated audio and video.
• Adopt secure communication channels for executive approvals. 

7. Zero-day exploitation of widely used platforms

Zero-day attacks are escalating in frequency and speed. 

•  Google’s Threat Analysis Group recorded a 50 percent increase in zero-day exploitation in 2024.
• Attackers now exploit vulnerabilities within days or hours of disclosure. 

Why it matters:

Complex estates with legacy systems are especially vulnerable.

Actions to take:

• Prioritise patching for high-risk assets.
• Monitor for exploitation evidence.
• Implement virtual patching where possible.
• Use threat intelligence feeds. 

8. IoT and OT vulnerabilities in connected environments

Manufacturers, utilities, healthcare providers and logistics operations increasingly rely on connected devices. 

• ENISA cites OT systems as being “high value targets across all types of threats”. 
• Many IoT devices still rely on outdated firmware or contain default credentials. 

Why it matters:

Compromised IoT devices can become pivot points into critical operational systems.

Actions to take:

• Replace unsupported devices.
• Apply network segmentation for OT.
• Block inbound internet access to IoT.
• Deploy device-level monitoring. 

9. Insider threats amplified by hybrid working

Hybrid and remote work models increase insider risk: 

• The Ponemon Institute states that insider incidents account for over 25% of data breaches. 
• Misconfigurations, accidental data sharing and shadow IT remain serious concerns. 

Why it matters:

Accidental insider threats are far more common than malicious actors. 

Actions to take:

• Enforce least privilege access.
• Use behavioural analytics.
• Implement secure file sharing and DLP.
• Train staff on emerging threats.

10. API exploitation and automated attacks 

APIs now underpin modern digital services. 

• Akamai observed a 137% increase in API attack traffic. 
• Poorly secured APIs expose sensitive data and authentication weaknesses. 

Why it matters:

APIs expose data, identity and business logic if not securely managed.

Actions to take:

• Authenticate and authorise every API.
• Implement rate limiting.
• Continuously test API endpoints.
• Apply zero trust principles to API gateways. 

What has changed in the last year? 

• Phishing is now AI-powered 
• Ransomware involves triple extortion and data auctions 
• Supply chain attacks now target trust models in AI systems 
• Cloud attacks increasingly abuse identity, APIs and automation 
• Deepfake fraud has moved from fringe to mainstream 
• The threat landscape is faster, smarter and more financially motivated. 

An actionable cyber checklist: What UK organisations should do now 

These are the most impactful security actions UK organisations can take in the next 30 days to reduce exposure to cyber threats in 2026: 

Week 1: Strengthen identity and access 

• Enforce MFA for all users 
• Audit all admin and privileged accounts 
• Enable conditional access across cloud platforms 
• Remove shared accounts where possible 
• Rotate any high-risk or stale credentials. 

Week 2: Reduce cloud and configuration risk 

• Run a cloud misconfiguration scan (AWS, Azure, GCP) 
• Apply baseline cloud landing zone guardrails 
• Review API authentication and rate limiting 
• Disable any unused cloud workloads or exposed endpoints 
• Validate backup integrity and ensure offline copies exist. 

Week 3: Improve ransomware and supply chain resilience 

• Conduct a ransomware tabletop exercise 
• Review supplier risk for your top 10 critical vendors 
• Update incident response playbooks 
• Request Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) where relevant 
• Validate segmentation between IT and OT networks. 

Week 4: Prepare for AI-enabled and deepfake attacks 

• Deliver an AI phishing simulation across the organisation 
• Implement voice and video verification checks for senior leadership 
• Update payment verification and financial approval processes 
• Train staff to recognise deepfake and social engineering signs 
• Review your organisation’s readiness against the NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework. 

What your board needs to know in 2026 

• Cyber threats now represent a material business risk, not just IT risk. 
• AI increases threat volume and reduces detection time. 
• Cloud identity and configuration security are top failure points. 
• Regulatory pressure is rising under ICO expectations and NIS2/DORA impacts. 
• Investment in governance, resilience and people is essential. 

How CACI can help

CACI helps organisations strengthen controls and capabilities through its Network Security and Enterprise Architecture services. Our cloud engineering and implementation services also ensure these controls are embedded from day one.

FAQs around cyber threats facing UK businesses in 2026

What are the biggest cyber threats to UK businesses in 2026?

The biggest threats include AI powered phishing, ransomware, supply chain compromise, cloud misconfiguration, API exploitation and nation-state activity. These attacks are highly automated and increasingly difficult to detect.

Why are UK SMEs at high risk of cyber attacks?

SMEs often have fewer cyber resources, limited monitoring and weaker controls, making them easier targets for ransomware and phishing. Attackers know SMEs are more likely to pay ransoms or fall for social engineering.

How can UK organisations defend against ransomware?

Defence strategies include MFA everywhere, secure backups, endpoint protection, zero trust principles, patching and rehearsed incident response plans. Aligning cloud governance with best practice significantly reduces risk.

How does AI change cyber threats in 2026?

AI increases attack volume and accuracy. Threat actors use AI to generate phishing content, clone voices, create deepfakes and analyse vulnerabilities faster than before. This reduces detection time and increases breach likelihood.

What does the NCSC recommend for improving cyber resilience?

The NCSC recommends MFA, patching quickly, securing cloud identities, conducting supply chain checks, reviewing backups and following the Cyber Assessment Framework. Businesses should ensure governance, risk and controls are regularly tested.

When it comes to strengthening your network security posture, doing so is no longer a nice-to-have, but a strategic necessity. The notion of strengthening your network may sound time-intensive and lengthy, however, there are some immediate changes that can lead to quick wins. In this blog, we uncover four key steps IT leaders can take to strengthen network security posture and immediate quick wins that can be achieved upon doing so.  

Four steps to strengthen your network security posture

Security is no longer optional. These four foundational actions will help you reduce risk and build resilience: 

1. Adopt zero trust principles

Zero trust means “never trust, always verify.” Every user and device inside or outside the network must be authenticated and authorised. This approach limits the impact of breaches and is now recommended by the NCSC and leading global providers.  

• Implement strong authentication for all users and devices.  
• Segment networks to limit lateral movement.  
• Continuously monitor for unusual behaviour.  

2. Automate detection and response

Manual processes cannot keep pace with modern threats. Automation can reduce response times by up to 40%, demonstrating its ability to help defenders stay ahead. 

• Use AI-driven tools for threat detection and alert triage.  
• Automate patching, backup, and incident response workflows.
• Regularly test and updated automated playbooks.

3. Operational load

With many IT teams stretched thin, managed network services allow organisations to focus on strategy while experts handle day-to-day operations, monitoring and compliance. 

• Consider managed firewall, detection and response and vulnerability management services.  
• Ensure providers offer transparent reporting and clear SLAs.

4. Secure hybrid work

With two-thirds of UK employees working remotely at least part-time, endpoint protection and secure remote access are essential.  

• Enforce multi-factor authentication for all remote access.  
• Protect endpoints with up-to-date security software and policies.
• Educate staff on secure working practices. 

Quick wins: Immediate actions UK IT leaders should take 

Not every improvement requires a major investment or a long-term project. The following actions can quickly reduce risk and strengthen your security posture:  

Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) 

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is one of the most effective ways to prevent account compromise, blocking the majority of phishing and credential stuffing attacks.  

• Enforce MFA for all users, not just administrators.  
• Use app-based or hardware tokens for stronger protection. 
• Regularly review and test MFA coverage.  

Read NCSC guidance on MFA  

Patch the basics consistently and quickly

Most breaches exploit known vulnerabilities. Even delays in patching of a few days can be costly.  

• Maintain an up-to-date inventory of all assets, including cloud workloads and remote endpoints. 
• Apply critical patches within 14 days, as recommended by the NCSC.  
•  Automate patch deployment and monitor for failures.  

Back up critical data securely and test your restores

Ransomware is only effective if you cannot recover your data. Secure, tested backups are essential.  

• Use immutable, offsite or cloud-based backups.  
• Regularly test restores to ensure data integrity.  
• Protect backup credentials with MFA and restrict access.

Review firewall rules and access controls

Firewall policies can become cluttered over time with unused or overly permissive rules, creating hidden vulnerabilities.  

• Schedule regular firewall reviews to remove unused or risky rules.  
• Align policies with current business needs.  
• Use automated tools to analyse policies for overlaps and compliance gaps.   

Run a tabletop incident response exercise 

Plans are only effective if teams can execute them under pressure. Tabletop exercises simulate real-world incidents, allowing teams to rehearse roles and identify gaps.  

• Involve both technical and business stakeholders.  
• Use realistic scenarios tailored to your organisation.
• Capture lessons learned and update your incident response plan.  

See NCSC’s guidance on incident response exercises 

How CACI can help enhance your network security

CACI has helped UK businesses protect their networks for decades. From network security to data centre solutions and IT consulting, our expertise delivers secure-by-design architectures, automation, and incident readiness for robust network security.  

Download our 2026 Network Security Survival Guide today to learn more about how your organisation can set its network environments up for success. 

The property sector is under increasing pressure to deliver on sustainability. Rising energy costs, stricter regulations and growing tenant expectations mean that greener buildings are no longer optional, they’re essential. Technology is at the heart of this transformation, helping owners and investors cut emissions, reduce costs and enhance asset value. Here’s how:

Smart building management systems

Modern building management systems (BMS) integrate heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting and power into one intelligent platform. These systems monitor and adjust operations in real time, responding to occupancy and external conditions. Studies show BMS can cut energy use by up to 30% through optimisation and predictive maintenance.

IoT sensors and data analytics

IoT sensors track energy consumption, occupancy and environmental conditions. Combined with analytics, this data helps identify inefficiencies and optimise performance. This supports ESG compliance and reduces waste.

Energy-efficient upgrades

LED lighting with smart controls: LEDs use up to 90% less energy than traditional bulbs.
AI-controlled HVAC: AI-driven systems can reduce HVAC energy use by 8–19%.
Renewable energy integration: Solar panels and heat pumps lower reliance on fossil fuels and cut carbon emissions.

Digital twin and simulation technology

Digital twins create a dynamic, data-driven replica of a building that mirrors real-world conditions in real time. This allows owners to test scenarios before committing to physical changes.

For example, you can simulate the impact of adding solar panels on energy consumption and carbon output, helping you forecast savings and validate ROI before installation.

Green building certifications

Tech-enabled buildings are better positioned for certifications like BREEAM, LEED and WELL, which validate sustainability practices and enhance asset value.

Automation and centralised IT

Automated workflows streamline maintenance and lease administration, reducing labour and energy costs. Centralised IT unifies disconnected systems, such as access control, HVAC and lighting for greater efficiency.

AI and machine learning

AI analyses large datasets to forecast energy demand and recommend retrofits. This enables smarter investment decisions and maximises ROI while reducing environmental impact.

Sustainable construction and circular economy

Sustainability starts with how buildings are designed and built. Digital tools enable low-carbon materials, modular construction and design for reuse, reducing embodied carbon and waste.

Optimising logistics is equally important. CACI’s work with major retailers shows that advanced route planning and transport management can cut supply chain emissions by up to 25%, helping construction projects lower costs and support circular economy goals.

Real-world impact

Smart buildings can reduce energy costs by up to 40% through integrated management systems.
Examples include The Edge in Amsterdam, which generates more energy than it consumes, and The Crystal in London, which achieved BREEAM Outstanding and LEED Platinum certifications.

Ready to make your buildings greener?

Technology is no longer just about efficiency, it’s about future-proofing your assets and meeting sustainability goals. At CACI, we help real estate leaders harness data, digital tools and smart systems to deliver measurable impact.

Get in touch today to explore how we can support your ESG strategy and make your portfolio greener, smarter and more valuable.

The demand for cloud-based offerings has surged following the uptake of hybrid working and evolving customer expectations and digital infrastructure. Businesses that fail to adapt run the risk of being left behind. Understanding the benefits to determine whether cloud adoption is right for you is therefore critical. 

In our previous blogs, we shared the key advantages of cloud adoption and challenges in cloud security. In our final blog of this series, we share integral steps to strengthen your organisation’s cloud security. 

As more businesses adopt cloud technology, primarily to support hybrid working, cybercriminals are focusing their tactics on exploiting vulnerable cloud environments. Over the last year, a report found that 80% of organisations experienced at least one cloud security breach. 

This issue has been exacerbated by soaring global demand for tech talent. On a global scale, the demand for cybersecurity professionals reaches well into the millions, which is far beyond the current number of working individuals as is. Hiring and training new talent at pace is impossible with this accelerating demand. 
 
It’s a vulnerable time for enterprise organisations, and cloud security is the top priority for IT leaders. Here we consider the critical steps you can take now to make your business safer. 

1. Understand your shared responsibility model

Defining and establishing the split of security responsibilities between an organisation and its CSP is one of the first steps in creating a successful cloud security strategy. Taking this action will provide more precise direction for your teams and mean that your apps, security, network and compliance teams all have a say in your security approach. This helps to ensure that your security approach considers all angles.

2. Create a data governance framework

Once you’ve defined responsibilities, it’s time to set the rules. Establishing a clear data governance framework that defines who controls data assets and how data is used will provide a streamlined approach to managing and protecting information. Setting the rules is one thing, however; ensuring they’re carefully followed is another. Employing content control tools and role-based access controls to enforce this framework will help safeguard company data. Ensure your framework is built on a solid foundation by engaging your senior management early in your policy planning. With their input, influence and understanding of the importance of cloud security, you’ll be better equipped to ensure compliance across your business. 

3. Opt to automate

In an increasingly hostile threat environment, in-house IT teams are under pressure to manage high numbers of security alerts. It doesn’t have to be this way though. Automating security processes such as cybersecurity monitoring, threat intelligence collection and vendor risk assessments means your team can spend less time analysing every potential threat, reducing admin errors and dedicating more time to innovation and growth activities. 

4. Assess and address your knowledge gaps

Your users can either provide a strong line of defence or open the door to cyber-attacks. Make sure it’s the former by equipping staff and stakeholders access to your cloud systems with the knowledge and tools they need to conduct safe practices, such as by providing training on identifying malware and phishing emails. For more advanced users of your cloud systems, take the time to review capability and experience gaps and consider where upskilling or outsourcing is required to keep your cloud environments safe. 

5. Consider adopting a Zero Trust model

Based on the principle of ‘Never Trust, Always Verify’, a Zero Trust approach removes the assumption of trust from the security architecture by requiring authentication for every action, user and device. Adopting a Zero Trust model means always assuming that there’s a breach and securing all access to systems using multi-factor authentication and least privilege. In addition to improving resilience and security posture, this approach can also benefit businesses by enhancing user experiences via Single Sign-On (SSO) enablement, allowing better collaboration between organisations and increased visibility of your user devices and services. However, not all organisations can accommodate a Zero Trust approach. Incompatibility with legacy systems, cost, disruption and vendor-lock-in must be balanced with the security advantages of Zero Trust adoption. #

6. Perform an in-depth cloud security assessment

Ultimately, the best way to bolster your cloud security is to perform a thorough cloud security audit. Having a clear view of your cloud environments, users, security capabilities and inadequacies will allow you to take the best course of action to protect your business. 

7. Bolster your defences

The most crucial principle of cloud security is that it’s an ongoing process and continuous monitoring is key to keeping your cloud secure. However, in an ever-evolving threat environment, IT and infosec professionals are under increasing pressure to stay ahead of cybercriminals’ sophisticated tactics. 

A robust threat monitoring solution can help ease this pressure and bolster your security defence. Threat monitoring works by continuously collecting, collating and evaluating security data from your network sensors, appliances and endpoint agents to identify patterns indicative of threats. Threat alerts are more accurate with threat monitoring analysing data alongside contextual factors such as IP addresses and URLs. Additionally, traditionally hard-to-detect threats such as unauthorised internal accounts can be identified. 

Businesses can employ myriad options for threat monitoring, from data protection platforms with threat monitoring capabilities to a dedicated threat monitoring solution. However, while implementing threat monitoring is a crucial and necessary step to securing your cloud environments, IT leaders must recognise that a robust security programme comprises a multi-layered approach utilising technology, tools, people and processes. 

Download our Cloud Security Assessment Checklist and discover proven strategies to strengthen your defences in our comprehensive guide.

The demand for cloud-based offerings and cloud adoption has accelerated, with the importance of flexibility and agility now being realised. Without adapting, businesses risk being left behind. What are the benefits, however, and how do you know if it’s the right solution for you? 

We shared the key advantages of cloud adoption in our previous blog. This time around, we identify the biggest challenges of cloud security. 

Cloud adoption has become increasingly important in recent years, with 64% of all enterprises now regarding cloud security as a pressing security discipline. Despite its integral role, more than half of all enterprises find securing cloud environments to be more complex than securing on-premises venues. 

As cybercriminals increasingly target cloud environments, the pressure is on for IT leaders to protect their businesses. Here, we explore the most pressing threats to cloud security you should take note of. 

Limited visibility

The traditionally used tools for gaining complete network visibility are ineffective for cloud environments as cloud-based resources are located outside the corporate network and run on infrastructure the company doesn’t own. Furthermore, most organisations lack a complete view of their cloud footprint. You can’t protect what you can’t see, so having a handle on the entirety of your cloud estate is crucial. 

Lack of cloud security architecture and strategy

The rush to migrate data and systems to the cloud meant that organisations were operational before thoroughly assessing and mitigating the new threats they’d been exposed to. The result is that robust security systems and strategies are not in place to protect infrastructure. 

Unclear accountability

Pre-cloud, security was firmly in the hands of security teams. In public and hybrid cloud settings, however, responsibility for cloud security is split between cloud service providers and users, with responsibility for security tasks differing depending on the cloud service model and provider. Without a standard shared responsibility model, addressing vulnerabilities effectively is challenging as businesses struggle to grapple with their responsibilities. This not only obfuscates incident response, but increases the likelihood of risks and misconfigurations. 

Misconfigured cloud services

Misconfiguration of cloud services can cause data to be publicly exposed, manipulated or even deleted. It occurs when a user or admin fails to set up a cloud platform’s security setting properly. For example, keeping default security and access management settings for sensitive data, giving unauthorised individuals access or leaving confidential data accessible without authorisation are all common misconfigurations. Human error is always a risk, but it can be easily mitigated with the right processes. 

Data loss

Data loss is one of the most complex risks to predict, so taking steps to protect against it is vital. The most common types of data loss are: 

• Data alteration – when data is changed and cannot be reverted to the previous state. 
• Storage outage – access to data is lost due to issues with your cloud service provider. 
• Loss of authorisation – when information is inaccessible due to a lack of encryption keys or other credentials. 
• Data deletion – data is accidentally or purposefully erased, and no backups are available to restore information. 

While regular back-ups will help avoid data loss, backing up large amounts of company data can be costly and complicated. Nonetheless, ransomware attacks swelled by 126% earlier this year, reiterating the necessity for businesses to conduct regular data backups.  

Malware

Malware can take many forms, including DoS (denial of service) attacks, hyperjacking, hypervisor infections and exploiting live migration. Left undetected, malware can rapidly spread through your system and open doors to even more serious threats. That’s why multiple security layers are required to protect your environment. 

Insider threats

While images of disgruntled employees may spring to mind, malicious intent is not the most common cause of insider threat security incidents. Worryingly, the frequency of insider-led incidents is on the rise. According to a report published this year, nearly half of the organisations surveyed noticed an increase in the frequency of their insider threats. The financial repercussions of this increase have led to costs increasing by 109% between 2018 to 2024, posing serious financial risks to affected organisations. 

Compliance concerns

While some industries are more regulated, you’ll likely need to know where your data is stored, who has access to it, how it’s being processed and what you’re doing to protect it. This can become more complicated in the cloud. Furthermore, your cloud provider may be required to hold specific compliance credentials. 

Failure to follow the regulations can result in substantial legal, financial and reputational repercussions. Therefore, it’s critical to handle your regulatory requirements, ensure good governance is in place and keep your business compliant. 

API vulnerabilities

Cloud applications typically interact via APIs (application programming interfaces). However, insecure external APIs can provide a gateway, allowing threat actors to launch DoS attacks and code injections to access company data. 

In 2020, Gartner predicted API attacks would become the most frequent attack vector by 2022. With over half of all enterprises reporting an increase in direct attacks to compromise infrastructure as of 2025, this prediction has become a reality. Addressing API vulnerabilities will therefore be a chief priority for IT leaders in 2025 and beyond. 

Check out our comprehensive guide to cloud security for more insights on overcoming these challenges and safeguarding your business against evolving threats.

Cloud adoption is no longer seen as a means for storage, but a foundation for intelligent business capabilities. Businesses that have adopted the cloud are able to reap benefits far beyond cost savings, enhancing operational flexibility, enabling faster disaster recovery and much more. In the first blog of our cloud security series, we explore the key advantages of cloud adoption. 

Flexibility

Cloud infrastructure is the key to operational agility, allowing you to scale up or down to suit your bandwidth needs. The pay-as-you-go model offered by most cloud service providers (CSPs) also means that you pay for usage rather than a set monthly fee, making IT spending a more manageable operational expense. The ability to scale resources according to demand also ensures performance will be optimal during peak times and eliminate waste during downtime. 

Reduced cost

Kind to your cash flow, cloud computing cuts out the high hardware cost. The availability of the aforementioned pay-as-you-go models can significantly cut costs. Not to mention the cost-savings of reduced resources, lower energy consumption and fewer delays.  

Disaster recovery

From natural disasters to power outages and software bugs, if your data is backed up in the cloud, it is at a reduced risk of system failure as the servers are typically far from your office locations. You can recover data anywhere to minimise downtime by logging into the internet’s cloud storage portal. 

Accessibility

We’ve all heard that the office is dead. Workers want the ability to work anytime, anywhere. With cloud (and an internet connection), they can. The cloud enables workforces to be distributed through secure access to data and applications from any location, which is critical in today’s hybrid working world. 

Greater collaboration

Cloud infrastructure makes collaboration a simple process, changing the parameters of how and where teams can work. The cloud can drastically improve workplace productivity, from online video calls to sharing files and co-authoring documents in real-time. It offers a centralised, secure and real-time working environment that bolsters communication and helps streamline workflows. These cloud-native applications are designed to make our lives more efficient through greater collaboration.  

Strategic value

Ultimately, businesses that have adopted the cloud typically experience greater cost efficiencies, faster speed to market and enhanced service levels. Adopting the cloud not only reimagines business models and builds resilience but also enables organisations to be agile and innovative. For example, adopting DevOps methodologies can be an essential element for businesses looking to get ahead of their competitors. 

But what about security? Earlier this year, a reported 61% of organisations felt security and compliance were their primary barriers to cloud adoption. Rushed application and the resulting lacklustre security have only intensified security concerns as cybercriminals increasingly target cloud environments. 

Download our comprehensive guide to cloud security and start securing your cloud today.

Hybrid cloud isn’t just a transitional phase – it’s the reality for most businesses. While the promise of cloud-native infrastructure is appealing, the complexity of legacy systems, on-prem dependencies and non-cloud-native workloads means hybrid cloud infrastructure is often the most feasible and flexible option. However, it doesn’t come without its challenges.

So, what does your business need to know to future-proof your hybrid cloud infrastructure? How can the complexities of a hybrid technology stack be navigated with the help of a trusted data partner?

Hybrid cloud isn’t going anywhere (and why that’s okay)

Most businesses aren’t ready (or suited) for full cloud-native infrastructure. This is why the flexibility of hybrid cloud infrastructure, especially for workloads that perform better outside of cloud-native environments, can be especially beneficial.

Beyond flexibility, some of the compelling reasons to retain hybrid setups include:

• Feasibility of full migration
• Performance of certain workloads
• Configurability of services.

In essence, hybrid isn’t a compromise; it can be a strategic advantage. Many businesses find that hybrid infrastructure gives them the best of both worlds: the scalability of cloud with the control and compliance of on-prem. When done intentionally, hybrid can reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Addressing the “lift and shift trap” & hidden complexity

Despite the promise of hybrid cloud infrastructure, the “lift and shift” concept and other hidden complexities should not be ignored. Amidst the rush to move on-prem workloads to the cloud without rearchitecting them, “lift and shift” often replicates inefficiencies, leading to higher infrastructure costs without the expected savings in maintenance or total cost of ownership (TCO).

Instead of reducing costs, businesses may find themselves paying premiums for cloud infrastructure while still managing the same maintenance overhead. Without a strategic approach, cloud migration can become a costly exercise in replication.

Furthermore, maintaining a hybrid stack introduces networking and security challenges. Data must pass through multiple domains, increasing latency, management overhead and the risk of data loss. Hybrid environments also often require more complex connectivity and governance, which can strain IT resources and reduce security posture.

Making hybrid cloud infrastructure work for innovation & transformation

Intentionality is key in the realm of innovation and transformation within hybrid cloud infrastructure. Hybrid may be here to stay, but it should be a strategic and practical choice for businesses, not a default. Businesses must assess which workloads belong where, understand the trade-offs and build a roadmap that balances performance, cost and security. With the right strategy, hybrid can deliver the flexibility, performance and cost-efficiency needed to support innovation and transformation.

The CACI Approach

With deep expertise across on-prem, cloud-hosted and cloud-native environments, CACI brings clarity to complexity, helping clients navigate and make intentional decisions about their hybrid cloud infrastructure. From rearchitecting legacy workloads and systems to optimising cloud-native deployments and scaling new digital services, we work with businesses to build hybrid strategies that unlock innovation, reduce TCO and accelerate transformation.

Whether you’re modernising infrastructure, improving security posture or enabling new digital services, CACI ensures your hybrid environment is not just functional and maintained, but optimised for the future.

With the right partner, hybrid doesn’t have to be complex – it can be your competitive edge. Contact us today to find out more.

In the first blog of this two-part series, we explored the business impact of network automation and how to build a compelling case for investment. In this follow-up, we focus on practical strategies to keep the C‑suite engaged and the common mistakes to avoid when shaping your automation roadmap.

How to keep C-Suite interested

Long-term network automation strategies will only be successful if the C-suite has consistent buy-in on its implementation and maintenance. This can be achieved through:   

• Providing progress updates: Sharing network automation progress updates with C-suite staff will help quantify its impact on the business and keep momentum high in terms of maintaining it. 
• Highlighting ROI for the business: Cost reductions, increased capacity or resources and overall performance are all high interest to C-suite staff. Ensuring the C-suite is aware of how network automation affects these will be critical. 
• Demonstrating alignment with the business’ strategic goals: Highlighting the ways in which network automation consistently aligns with the business’ strategic goals will help C-suite staff visualise the long-term business outcomes. 
• Adapting to changes: C-suite members’ business priorities are likely to change over time. Remaining flexible and willing to re-align to changing priorities as needed will ensure long-term success of network automation within the business.
• Adhering to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) priorities: Despite the technical nature of network automation, there has been increased emphasis for C-suite members to encourage wider organisations to drive energy efficiencies, leverage sustainable hardware, optimise access and align to governance standards.  
• Futureproofing via AI: For C-suite members, AI is more than just embracing technology and maintaining a competitive advantage. AI-readiness means meeting customers’ evolving expectations, navigating operational complexities with ease and automating at scale. 

It is often the case where organisations’ focus on network automation, while well-intended, results in them biting off more than they can chew rather than breaking down more tactical, low-hanging fruit. Despite this having an immediate impact, it can be less visible to senior executives. In general, network automation should be applied to try and achieve two key areas for immediate impact:  

1. Improve the consistency of network deployment  
2. Reduce noise within network operations.  

6 common mistakes to avoid when developing a network automation strategy

Some of the common mistakes we see that diverge these two key aims include:

Trying to do too much too soon 

The key with any automation in winning over detractors is incremental consistency over widespread adoption. We often find that small, tactical, lower-level automations with well-scoped outcomes for low-hanging fruit can exceptionally impact the overall consistency of deployment for this element and kickstart the incremental flywheel of trust. This is due to lower-level engineers and operations staff seeing the immediate benefit of automation and beginning to organically adopt these approaches within other higher-value, business-impacting tasks. 

Successfully adopted and maintained automation efforts nearly always look like bottom-up, grassroots endeavours, where buy-in through adoption and proven time efficiency or consistency outcomes have been recognised by low-level engineering resources closest to the network who can advocate for the approach to other peers on their level to the wider organisation. Quantifiable results which prove IT’s ability to deliver are key in achieving grassroots adoption which flows up the organisational hierarchy, rather than trying to mandate this as a top-down approach. Human psychology is as big a factor in network automation’s success in an organisation as technical prowess, given the personal friction many engineers will have to automation as something which could affect their personal wellbeing or circumstances.  

Focusing on the wrong use cases (selection bias)

Use cases which resonate with the business context faced by your organisation are pivotal in creating network automations that are immediately impactful and reap actual business rewards. Executive-led automation efforts can focus too intently on senior IT leaders’ specific issues that may be perceived as higher-affecting but are often more niche and low-scale than more commodity – but wider-scale – issues as seen by engineering and deployment resources.   

Network automation should focus on the daily toil rather than the aspirational state. For example, more dividend will be yielded by automating a firewall rule request process which several of your engineers unknowingly gatekeep as a bottleneck to your application development and implementation projects than would be from, for example, automating network configuration backups, which will likely already be catered for by a disaster recovery process, no matter how human-intensive that may be.   

Tool-led strategy adoption

Network automation is a complex area of abstractions and principles built atop chains of other abstractions or fundamentals. For this reason, it can be tempting to lean on the lowest common denominator within the field – often the “lingua franca” of the tooling and framework buzzwords such as Terraform, Ansible, IaC, YAML, YANG and so on.   

While countless types and competing network automation tools exist, this doesn’t always mean they’re developed for or relevant to your business’ specific issues. It’s also worth being mindful of “resume-driven development” here– while the “new shiny” might look great to your engineering and architecture teams, it doesn’t always mean it’s best for your business context, budget or other regulatory constraints.   

Automation in isolation of process review and improvement

There’s a reason “garbage in, garbage out” is a phrase– automating the garbage to go faster doesn’t get rid of its existence. Automation often lives in the space between process and technology, so improvements in one can feedback into the other. Automation tends to inform improvements to existing business processes through its installation than for static business processes that were perfect all along.   

The mere act of undergoing an automation journey can also be an exponential value-add when focusing on and improving business processes which would otherwise not have been explored. This ensures a double win from both optimising the business process itself and enables an extended reach of that into the network and IT plane, speeding up the process and improving its efficiency. This virtuous flywheel can often become a force-multiplier that tremendously benefits the organisation for relatively little upfront effort. 

Targeting only one component within Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) priorities

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) priorities are meant to be holistic rather than siloed, and network automation can address each component if carefully designed. Organisations may accidentally place too much emphasis on optimising one of the three components, however. To avoid this, the focus should remain on all-encompassing initiatives that enable reliable network access, enforce governance best practices and encourage operational efficiencies.

Avoiding AI limitations through design, blind spots or scalability

Network automation strategies can face limitations when integrating AI if the design inhibits workflow and ultimately decision-making, if blind spots through siloed or inaccurate data arise or if future planning hasn’t been considered. Futureproofing AI is critical for organisations to avoid wasting resources, costly errors or shaky foundations into the future. 

How can CACI help?

CACI’s expert team comprises multidisciplined IT, networking infrastructure and consultant and automation engineers with extensive experience in network automation. We can support and consult on every aspect of your organisation’s network from its architecture, design and deployment through to cloud architecture adoption and deployment, as well as maintaining an optimised managed network service. 

To learn more about the impact of network automation and how to sell its value to the C-suite, please read our e-book “How to sell the value of network automation to the C-suite”. You can also get in touch with the team here.  

This blog kicks off a two‑part series on the business value of network automation and how to win C‑suite buy‑in. Part two will share proven tactics for sustaining executive engagement and highlight common pitfalls to avoid when building your automation strategy.

Why is network automation critical for businesses in 2025?

Network automation orchestrates how you plan, deploy and operate network services across data centres, clouds and the edge. Done well, it lifts service reliability, reduces change risk and compresses time‑to‑value by removing repetitive, manual tasks that are prone to error. The business case has only strengthened in the AI era, as AI‑assisted operations and modern application traffic put new pressure on network scale and agility. Recent global studies show leaders expect automation to underpin this shift, with 60% planning AI‑enabled predictive network automation across domains within two years.

Adoption is accelerating. Gartner forecasts that by 2026, 30% of enterprises will automate more than half of their network activities, up from under 10% in mid‑2023. This trend reflects how Infrastructure & Operations teams are using analytics, AIOps and intelligent automation to boost resilience and service velocity. At the same time, market evidence still shows significant headroom. Independent community surveys and analyst research indicate many organisations have automated less than half of day‑to‑day network tasks, citing skills, organisational and technology barriers as the top obstacles.

The ROI picture is also clearer than ever. Prior research from EMA found that around half of data‑centre network automation projects achieved ROI within two years, and more recent enterprise networking studies highlight how a modernised, automated network directly improves customer experience, employee productivity and revenue growth. Meanwhile, Cisco’s 2025 networking research quantifies the cost of inaction: 77% of organisations report major outages over the last two years, with the impact of a single severe disruption extrapolated to $160B globally, underscoring the value of automation for risk reduction.  

How to create a successful business case

Step 1: Lead with evidence 

According to an article by Enconnex, the weakest link in data operations tends to be humans, with human error accounting for ~80% of all outages. Existing pipelines in businesses tend to operate sequentially and manually, increasing the probability of human error through the involvement of multiple individuals in the chain of events.   

Step 2: Outline a strategic software development process  

Ensuring each step of the operational process from integration to delivery is tested and accounted for and outlining this in a cohesive plan for the C-suite level will help earn their trust. Developing a process flow that outlines a long-term strategy and what the business will achieve through network automation will further encourage this crucial buy-in. A visualisation tool or platform to convey this can significantly enhance their understanding. 

Step 3: Stage a production deployment in a test environment 

Unlike application testing, network testing is often difficult because the network itself doesn’t exist in isolation and is nearly always the lowest level of the technical stack. This makes performing tests complex. While the applications within a development or pre-production environment are often considered non-production, the underlying network to these application test environments is nearly always considered “production” in that it must work, in a production-like, always-on, fault-free state for the applications atop it to be tested and fulfil their function. Replicating complex enterprise, data centre or even cloud networks often come at a price. Organisations can typically only duplicate or approximate small proportions of their network estate. As a result, staging looks more like unit testing in software development by making small but incremental gains and applying them exponentially to the production network looking to be automated.   

While many organisations may opt for a waterfall, agile or other project management approach, we nearly always find that an agile-like, iterative, unit-tested approach to developing network automations – such as scripts, runbooks, playbooks and modules — are more beneficial in pushing automation both into the organisation and into wider adoption than any other approach.  

Step 4: Prove that benefits will be reaped through the staged production 

One of the benefits of modern network engineering is quickly leveraging the commoditisation of the vertically integrated network hardware stack the industry has embarked upon over the last decade. It is now easier – and cheaper – than ever before to spin up a virtual machine, container or other VNF/NFV-equivalent of a production router, switch, firewall, proxy or other network device that will look, feel, act and fail in the same way that its production network equivalent device would. When combined with software development approaches like CI/CD pipelines for deployment and rapid prototyping of network automation code, this can be a winning combination to rapidly pre-test activities within ephemeral container-like staging environments and maintain dedicated staging areas which look like production. 

How can CACI help?

CACI’s team comprises multidisciplined IT, networking infrastructure and consultant and automation engineers with extensive experience in network automation. We can support and consult on every aspect of your organisation’s network from its architecture, design and deployment through to cloud architecture adoption and deployment, as well as maintaining an optimised managed network service. 

To learn more about the impact of network automation and how to sell its value to the C-suite, please read our e-book “How to sell the value of network automation to the C-suite”. You can also get in touch with the team here. 

Network automation has become increasingly prevalent in enterprises and IT organisations over the years, with its growth showing no signs of slowing down.  

In fact, as of 2025, the Network Automation Market size is estimated at USD 31.02 billion (GBP 23.30 billion), expected to reach USD 84.69 billion (GBP 63.60 billion) by 2029. By 2028, a growth rate of nearly 30% is predicted in this sector in the UK. Within CACI, we are seeing a higher demand for network automation than ever before, supporting our clients in NetDevOps, platform engineering and network observability.  

So, how is the network automation space evolving, and what are the top network automation trends that are steering the direction of the market in 2025? 

Hyperautomation

With the increasing complexity of networks that has come with the proliferation of devices, an ever-growing volume of data and the adoption of emerging technologies in enterprises and organisations, manual network management practices have become increasingly difficult to uphold. This is where hyperautomation has been proving itself to be vital for operational resilience into 2025.  

As an advanced approach that integrates artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), robotic process automation (RPA), process mining and other automation technologies, hyperautomation streamlines complex network operations by not only automating repetitive tasks, but the overall decision-making process. This augments central log management systems such as SIEM and SOAR with functions to establish operationally resilient business processes that increase productivity and decrease human involvement. Protocols such as gNMI and gRPC for streaming telemetry and the increased adoption of service mesh and overlay networking mean that network telemetry and event logging are now growing to a state where no one human can adequately “parse the logs” for an event. Therefore, the time is ripe for AI and ML to push business value through AIOps practices to help find the ubiquitous “needle” in the ever-growing haystack. In the network realm, this not only includes automating devices, but orchestrating workflows across multi-domain and vendor environments that AI helps make possible.  

Through the ability to analyse real-time network data, patterns or issues, AI helps networks transform intelligently. Enterprises shifting towards hyperautomation this year will find themselves improving their security and operational efficiency, reducing their operational overhead and margin of human error and bolstering their network’s resilience and responsiveness. When combined with ITSM tooling such as ServiceNow for self-service delivery, hyperautomation can truly transcend the IT infrastructure silo and enter the realm of business by achieving wins in business process automation (BPA) to push the enterprise into true digital transformation.  

Increasing dependence on Network Source of Truth (NSoT)

With an increasing importance placed on agility, scalability and security in network operations, NSoT is proving to be indispensable in 2025, achieving everything the CMDB hoped for and more.  

As a centralised repository of network-related data that manages IP addresses (IPAM), devices and network configurations and supplies a single source of truth from these, NSoT has been revolutionising network infrastructure management and orchestration by addressing challenges brought on by complex modern networks to ensure that operational teams can continue to understand their infrastructure.

It also ensures that data is not siloed across an organisation and that managing network objects and devices can be done easily and efficiently, while also promoting accurate data sharing via data modelling with YAML and YANG and open integration via API into other BSS, OSS and NMS systems.  

Enterprises and organisations that leverage the benefits of centralising their network information through NSoT this year will gain a clearer, more comprehensive view of their network, generating more efficient and effective overall network operations. Not to mention, many NSoT repositories are much more well-refined than their CMDB predecessors, and some – such as NetBox – are truly a joy to use in daily Day 2 operations life compared to the clunky ITSMs of old. 

Adoption of Network as Service (NaaS)

Network as a Service (NaaS) has been altering the management and deployment of networking infrastructure in 2025. With the rise of digital transformation and cloud adoption in businesses, this cloud-based service model enables on-demand access and the utilisation of networking resources, allowing enterprises and organisations to supply scalable, flexible solutions that meet ever-changing business demands.  

As the concept gains popularity, service providers have begun offering a range of NaaS solutions, from basic connectivity services such as virtual private networks (VPNs) and wide area networks (WANs) to the more advanced offerings of software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualisation (NFV). Instances where AI-powered NaaS is possible offer even faster onboarding, more effective operations and enhanced connectivity, all of which can be automated at scale. 

These technologies have empowered businesses to streamline their network management, enhance performance and lower costs. NaaS also has its place at the table against its aaS siblings (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS), pushing the previously immovable, static-driven domain of network provisioning into a much more dynamic, elastic and OpEx-driven capability for modern enterprise and service providers alike. 

Network functions virtualisation (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN)

A symbiotic relationship between network functions virtualisation (NFV), software-defined networking (SDN) and network automation is proving to be instrumental in bolstering agility, responsiveness and intelligent network infrastructure as the year is underway. As is often opined by many network vendors, “MPLS are dead, long live SD-WAN”; which, while not 100% factually correct (we still see demand in the SP space for MPLS and MPLS-like technologies such as PCEP and SR), is certainly directionally correct in our client base across finance, telco, media, utilities and increasingly government and public sectors.  

NFV enables the decoupling of hardware from software, as well as the deployment of network services without physical infrastructure constraints. SDN, on the other hand, centralises network control through programmable software, allowing for the dynamic, automated configuration of network resources. Together, they streamline operations and ensure advanced technologies will be deployed effectively, such as AI-driven analytics and intent-based networking (IBN).  

We’re seeing increased adoption of NFV via network virtual appliances (NVA) deployed into public cloud environments like Azure and AWS for some of our clients, as well as an increasing trend towards packet fabric brokers such as Equinix Fabric and Megaport MVE to create internet exchange (IX), cloud exchange (CX) and related gateway-like functionality as the enterprise trend towards multicloud grows a whole gamut of SDCI cloud dedicated interconnects to stitch together all the XaaS components that modern enterprises require. 

Intent-based networking (IBN)

As businesses continue to lean into establishing efficient, prompt and precise best practices when it comes to network automation, intent-based networking (IBN) has been an up-and-coming approach to implement. This follows wider initiatives in the network industry to push “up the stack” with overlay networking technologies such as SD-WAN, service mesh and cloud native supplanting traditional Underlay Network approaches in Enterprise Application provision. 

With the inefficiencies that can come with traditional networks and manual input, IBN has come to network operations teams’ rescue by defining business objectives in high-level, abstract manners that ensure the network can automatically configure and optimise itself to meet said objectives.

Network operations teams that can devote more time and effort to strategic activities versus labour-intensive manual configurations will notice significant improvements in the overall network agility, reductions in time-to-delivery and better alignment with the wider organisation’s goals. IBN also brings intelligence and self-healing capabilities to networks— in case of changes or anomalies detected in the network, it enables the network to automatically adapt itself to address those changes while maintaining the desired outcome, bolstering network reliability and minimising downtime. 

As more organisations realise the benefits of implementing this approach, the rise of intent-based networking is expected to continue, reshaping the network industry as we know it. The SDx revolution is truly here to stay, and the move of influence of the network up the stack will only increase as reliance on interconnection of all aspects becomes the norm. 

How CACI can support your network automation journey? 

CACI is adept at a plethora of IT, networking and cloud technologies. Our trained cohort of network automation engineers and consultants are ready and willing to share their industry knowledge to benefit your unique network automation requirements. 

From NSoT through CI/CD, version control, observability, operational state verification, network programming and orchestration, our expert consulting engineers have architected, designed, built and automated some of the UK’s largest enterprise, service provider and data centre networks, with our deep heritage in network engineering spanning over 25 years. 

Take a look at Network Automation and NetDevOps at CACI to learn more about some of the technologies, frameworks, protocols and capabilities we have, from YAML, YANG, Python, Go, Terraform, IaC, API, REST, Batfish, Git, NetBox and beyond. 

To find out more about enhancing your network automation journey, get in touch with us today.  

Call it Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), call it Secure Services Edge (SSE), call it Zero Trust Network Architecture (ZTNA), even call it the Service Edge — whatever the label, modern secure access looks nothing like the SSL/IPsec VPNs you’ve used for years. That’s because the application landscape has changed: apps live in multiple clouds, SaaS dominates, teams are distributed, and users expect fast, secure access from anywhere. VPNs were designed for a world where the data centre was the centre of everything. That world is gone. 

From “castle and moat” to cloud-native access 

Historically, enterprises kept most apps on-prem and routed remote users through a small number of VPN concentrators. That model tolerated wasteful backhaul, brittle firewall changes, and long change cycles because traffic and users were predictable. When remote work went mainstream, the limitations became obvious: VPN concentrators saturated, latency spiked, and IT teams were buried in firewall change tickets and routing problems. 

SASE/SSE/ZTNA solve that by making access app-centric instead of network-centric. Instead of extending a user into your LAN (Layer-3 network extension), ZTNA authenticates and authorises each user-to-app session and only opens the exact access required. The heavy lifting is done in cloud PoPs close to the user or at app locations, reducing latency, avoiding backhaul, and enabling consistent policy enforcement across cloud, on-prem and branch. 

What actually changes 

• Performance — traffic to SaaS or cloud apps exits locally (closest PoP), not via an overloaded corporate gateway. That reduces latency and frees WAN circuits. 
  
• Security — micro-segmentation and per-session access reduce lateral movement; policies are applied at the application layer, not by blunt network tunnels. 
  
• Scale & resilience — providers run global PoPs and elastic control planes; you gain capacity without building a global VPN fabric. 
  
• Operational simplicity — fewer firewall rule churns, fewer emergency change requests, and a centralised policy model that spans clouds and branches. 

Why it matters in practice 

SASE is not just “VPN in the cloud.” It’s a new architecture: orchestration + control plane + distributed enforcement. It transforms remote access from a brittle network extension into an auditable, programmable security service that aligns with modern app architectures and business needs. 

Practical migration advice

Move in phases. Start with low-risk SaaS apps and pilot ZTNA connectors close to your cloud workloads. Run hybrid models during migration: keep legacy VPNs for stateful or non-cloudable apps while shifting web and SaaS traffic to SSE. Test legacy application behaviour (authentication, session stickiness, IP expectations) early — those are the usual blockers. Use PoVs to validate user experience, telemetry and failover behaviour before a full rollout. 

How CACI can help you transition to SASE and SSE

Making the move from legacy VPNs to modern secure access isn’t just a technology shift — it’s an architectural transformation. At CACI, we specialise in designing and deploying SASE and SSE solutions that fit your business model, application landscape and security posture. From initial assessments and phased migration planning to PoC validation and full-scale rollout, our experts ensure performance, resilience and compliance at every stage. Whether you need ZTNA for SaaS, hybrid models for legacy apps or global PoPs for distributed teams, we’ll help you build a secure access strategy that scales with your future.

Ready to start your transition? Get in touch with CACI today to discuss your secure access roadmap.

Modern networks are dynamic: multi-vendor, multi-cloud, API-driven and constantly changing. The old configuration-management playbook – manual discovery, Excel exports and a static CMDB – can’t keep up. The result is stale data, fragile automation, slow incident response and risk that compliance asks remain theoretical, not operational. 

A Network Source of Truth (NSoT) solves this by becoming the canonical, machine-readable representation of your network estate: devices, topology, configurations, policies and relationships. Unlike a traditional CMDB, an NSoT is designed to be updated continuously by automated collectors and to be consumed directly by automation pipelines, orchestration systems and analytics engines. This is not “one more database” — it’s the operational spine for an automated, auditable network. 

Out with the CMDB, in with the Source of Truth 

The CMDB was built for a world of physical assets, servers, printers, desktops. It struggles with today’s logical constructs: nested virtualisation, container overlays, service meshes, and sidecar proxies. Its rigid data model and legacy structure make it a poor fit for modern IT. 

CMDB’s rigid data model and legacy data structure has opened the door to a series of contenders within the space, largely grouped together under the umbrella of “Source of Truth”. Some notable examples in the NetDevOps and DevOps spaces include:  

• NetBox – An open-source NSoT platform that models network infrastructure and integrates with notable automation tools to gain accurate, real-time data  

• Ansible – An open-source automation engine supporting IT functions including configuration management, application deployment and orchestration  

• MAAS – An open-source solution offering the self-service provisioning of operating systems and implementation of all public cloud standard features. 

Instead of CMDBs, many organisations are now turning to Source of Truth practices. This is often a repository or database used to store configuration data for an organisation’s IT environment.  

Source of Truth is a DevOps practice 

The key “why” behind all this can be easily summarised when contrasting the strengths and weaknesses of the CMDB against the NSoT further. In short, the Source of Truth is a DevOps practice that seeks to simplify configuration management by listing all configuration items and their relationships in a single location. This one version of truth can then be used for deployment automation, infrastructure management and much more. 

Another key attribute of the SoT is the use of data-driven, structured data models such as YANG, which naturally integrates with well-used DevOps data structures such as YAML and JSON for frictionless flow between the ITSM process and the intended infrastructure outcome required.  

Integration Integration in the age of disaggregation 

Increasingly, we see IT departments stretched with their ITIL-based approaches and ITSM systems which were designed for singular, homogenous deployments of IT network infrastructure within the confines of the on-premises data centre – unable to cope as increasing amounts of their application workload estate migrates off-premises into the various public cloud PaaS, SaaS and hybrid cloud models of today.

As Network Consultants and Deployment Engineers, we see first-hand the issues that CMDB-based approaches create and frustrations throughout. Contrast this with a NSoT-led approach, where we might instead see the ability to: 

• Simplify configuration management: By using a single source of truth, organisations can avoid the complexity and cost of managing multiple CMDBs across their hybrid IT network, compute, storage and application estate. 
• Improve collaboration: Using a central repository for configuration data helps improve collaboration between development and operations teams (hence why they call it DevOps). 
• Enable automation: With a centralised source of configuration data, it becomes easier to automate repetitive tasks such as deployment and testing, freeing up valuable development and operations resource time away from undifferentiated heavy lifting tasks. 
• Facilitate auditing and compliance: A centralised repository of configuration data also makes it easier to track changes and ensure compliance with IT security standards such as SOC2, HIPAA, NIST, PCI-DSS, CESG and DORA. 

How CACI can help bolster your configuration management journey

Along with a strong heritage in Network Infrastructure Engineering and Consulting, we have a strong set of ITSM Consultants available to help with your CMDB migration programmes – across the spectrum from service design, project and programme management and through to data and solution architecture.  

Let us help and see how we can unlock the value of the CI data you have to bring you closer to the point of application observability over just plain asset visibility. 

The telecommunications industry is steadily moving towards the public cloud for mission-critical backend systems, particularly Operational Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS). These platforms underpin the business and revenue models of modern telcos. With pioneers such as Totogi and the rise of cloud-native architectures, the management plane of a telco network is increasingly interacting with cloud service provider offerings.

So, what is driving this rethink and how can telcos stay ahead?

Pressure to maximise revenue through increased agility

Legacy, monolithic OSS/BSS stacks are struggling to keep pace with growing service diversity across 3G, 4G, 5G, edge and IoT, rising customer expectations and competitive pressure from MVNOs and hyperscalers. Agility is now the key differentiator. Telcos need to launch, adapt and monetise services quickly, something traditional systems cannot deliver.

Disaggregation and open APIs

The old vertically integrated model is giving way to disaggregated architectures powered by open APIs. This shift matters because vendor lock-in is no longer sustainable in a cloud-first world. Composable OSS/BSS enables faster innovation and easier integration with third-party ecosystems, while standards such as TM Forum Open APIs are accelerating interoperability and reducing time to market.

Automation and intelligence

Managing sprawling, hybrid networks with manual processes is no longer viable. Operators are adopting advanced analytics and automation for predictive maintenance and anomaly detection, network automation to reduce operational overhead and smarter orchestration to optimise performance and resource allocation.

Cloud-native OSS/BSS

Cloud-native principles such as microservices, containerisation and orchestration are transforming telco operations. These approaches enable elastic scalability for unpredictable demand, lower total cost of ownership through pay-as-you-go models and faster feature deployment without disruptive upgrades.

Monetising the network with data

Telcos hold vast amounts of data but need modern analytics to unlock its value. This includes dynamic pricing and personalised offers, churn prediction and retention strategies, and real-time policy enforcement for fair usage and quality of service.

How CACI can support your move towards a connected industry 

We help telcos modernise OSS/BSS without costly rip-and-replace programmes. Our expertise in cloud-native architectures, open API integration and network automation enables operators to modernise the network for agility, monetise assets through data-driven insights and reduce costs while improving resilience.

With a strong track record in telecoms and enterprise transformation, we can help you future-proof your network and unlock new revenue streams, get in touch today.

Cloud computing has become the backbone of digital transformation for organisations across the UK and beyond. As cloud adoption accelerates, however, many IT leaders are facing a new challenge: cloud sprawl. Understanding what cloud sprawl is, why it happens and, crucially, how to prevent it, is now essential for IT Directors, Digital Transformation Leads, Heads of Innovation and CTOs who want to control costs, reduce risk and unlock the full value of their cloud investments. 

What is cloud sprawl?

Cloud sprawl happens when cloud resources, such as applications, services and infrastructure grow unchecked across an organisation. It usually starts with the best intentions from teams wanting to move quickly and creating new environments and services as a result. Over time, this leads to a patchwork of workloads, platforms and tools, many of which are underused, duplicated or simply forgotten.

Why is cloud sprawl a problem?

Cloud sprawl can quietly drain your budget, increase security risks and complicate everyday operations. Some of the most common issues include:

• Rising costs: Idle or underused resources, redundant SaaS subscriptions and forgotten cloud instances all add up. Industry analysts estimate that up to 30% of cloud spend is wasted due to sprawl. 
• Security and compliance risks: Untracked assets can become vulnerabilities, especially if they aren’t patched or monitored. Data may be stored in regions without proper regulatory controls. 
• Operational complexity: IT teams are stretched thin managing a maze of platforms, permissions and integration points. 

How does cloud sprawl happen?

Cloud sprawl is rarely intentional and more often the by-product of rapid digital transformation, decentralised decision-making and the result of the ease with which anyone can now provision infrastructure at the click of a button. Common causes include:

• Multiple teams or departments adopting cloud independently, often with different providers or platforms. 
• Lack of governance or clear policies around provisioning, tagging and decommissioning resources. 
• Shadow IT, where business units bypass central IT to get things done quickly. 
• Mergers, acquisitions or legacy migrations that bring in new cloud estates with little integration.

How to prevent cloud sprawl: practical steps

Preventing cloud sprawl doesn’t require a complete IT overhaul, but it does demand clearer oversight and smarter consolidation. To start regaining control, consider:

1. Conducting a cloud inventory 

A comprehensive inventory is the foundation for effective management, so beginning by auditing your current cloud landscape, including which apps and services are active, who owns them and the value they deliver will be pertinent.  

2. Establishing cloud governance policies  

Good governance is the backbone of cloud control. Set clear rules for cloud procurement, usage and approval. Define who can spin up resources and under what conditions. Standardise on approved tools and platforms to reduce duplication.  

3. Consolidating and standardising 

Where teams are using similar tools, consolidate onto a single platform. For example, unify file-sharing or collaboration tools across departments to reduce complexity and simplify cost management. 

4. Implementing monitoring and alerts 

Visibility is critical for preventing waste, so using cloud management tools to monitor spend, detect idle resources and track usage trends will be critical. Setting automated alerts to flag anomalies or unexpected spikes in usage will further support this.  

5. Educating and aligning your teams 

Most cloud sprawl happens with good intentions. Equip your teams with guidance on approved tools and platforms and make it easy for them to do the right thing. Regular training and communication help reduce shadow IT. 

6. Reviewing and optimising regularly 

Cloud environments are dynamic and require ongoing attention. By scheduling regular reviews, you can identify and decommission unused resources, right-size workloads, and renegotiate contracts where needed. Leveraging best practices such as the AWS Well-Architected Framework can help ensure your cloud setup remains secure, efficient, and cost-effective. The savings you unlock through optimisation can be reinvested to fuel your next wave of innovation. 

7. Embedding security and compliance from the start 

Every new cloud resource is a potential risk if not properly secured. Build security and compliance into your provisioning process, not as an afterthought. Automate patching, monitoring, and reporting to maintain a secure posture, and implement preventive and detective guardrails to enforce policies and catch misconfigurations early. Ensure you have clear visibility into where sensitive data resides and who has access to it, so you can act quickly if issues arise.

The CACI approach: practical, proven and partnership-led

At CACI, we see cloud as an enabler, not an end in itself. Our approach is grounded in practical experience, helping organisations regain control, reduce waste and build a foundation for sustainable innovation. 

We start by understanding your current environment, mapping out where sprawl and hidden costs are lurking. We then work with you to design governance frameworks, implement visibility tools and optimise your workloads. Our partnerships with leading cloud providers mean we can offer best-in-class solutions tailored to your needs. 

We recognise that cloud is never “done” but is an ongoing journey. We provide ongoing support, regular reviews and continuous optimisation, so you can focus on what matters: innovation.

Want to explore how your organisation can reduce cloud waste and regain control? 

Speak to our cloud optimisation specialists today.