There’s a clear pattern emerging across enterprise DevOps. Under pressure to move faster, adopt AI, and modernize aging systems, leaders are reaching for the same silver bullet: replace everything with one consolidated platform.
Over the past year, CIOs from multiple industries told us nearly identical stories: “We’re going all in on a new DevOps platform. Twelve months, one vendor, clean slate.” A year later, the results were nearly identical too: delayed releases, exhausted teams, and budgets that bled into the next fiscal year. Different companies, same outcome.
That consistency raised a bigger question: Is this bad luck or a systemic problem?
To find out, we partnered with independent research firm TrendCandy to survey more than 300 enterprise IT and DevOps leaders. We wanted to understand what was really happening inside these modernization efforts, beyond the marketing promises.
The DevOps Migration Index was created to share what we learned. It’s not a critique of platforms, but a reality check for enterprise leaders under pressure to modernize, consolidate tools, and move faster in the AI era. The “rip and replace” approach has become the default playbook, yet it keeps failing in the same predictable ways.
Key findings from the research:
57% of enterprises spent over $1 million USD on migrations last year, with projects running an average of 18% over budget.
37% lost more than a quarter of their migration budgets to failed or abandoned initiatives.
68% of IT leaders said tool consolidation reduced productivity.
74% reported more tool sprawl post-migration.
70% saw increased developer burnout.
75% found it harder to maintain security integrations post-migrations
The data confirmed what we long suspected: there’s a better way.
92% of enterprises achieved greater delivery efficiency by integrating tools instead of replacing them. Rather than tearing down and rebuilding, these organizations are creating connected ecosystems that deliver unified visibility, stronger governance, and faster delivery without the disruption of starting over.
The Migration Money Pit
It’s no surprise that enterprise platform migrations come with a hefty price tag. These are high-stakes initiatives that demand months of planning, cross-functional coordination, and multimillion-dollar budgets, with the average cost per migration project coming in at $1.75 million USD.
More than half of enterprises spent over $1 million on platform migrations last year, yet nearly 40% of those projects delivered less ROI than promised to executive sponsors. TrendCandy found that 37% of organizations reported losing more than a quarter of their migration budgets to sunk costs—work that delivered no lasting business impact.
And budget overruns aren’t the exception; they’re the rule. More than three-quarters of platform migrations run at least 10% over budget, with the average migration coming in at 18% above projected cost.
These unexpected costs might be justifiable if those investments paid off in performance and productivity, but the data tells a different story.
“37% of organizations reported losing more than a quarter of their migration budgets to sunk costs—work that delivered no lasting business impact.”
Performance Gains Never Arrive
For most enterprises, success isn’t defined by how much is spent or how many tools are replaced, but by measurable improvements in the software delivery lifecycle (SDLC). Faster release cycles. Quicker recovery from incidents. Shorter time-to-value for new features. Higher deployment frequency without sacrificing stability. These are the indicators that prove modernization efforts are working. Despite mounting costs, these measurable improvements were rarely seen:
Mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR): Only 6% of enterprises saw improvement after migration.
Cycle time: Just 21% experienced shorter cycle times.
Time-to-value: 75% missed their time-to-value targets entirely.
The Consolidation Paradox
So, what’s going wrong here? In theory, consolidation should streamline delivery and reduce operational overhead, leading to the performance gains leaders expect to see as a result of this simplified system. Yet the data shows the opposite.
This can be explained by the consolidation paradox: the counterintuitive outcome in which efforts to consolidate actually increase complexity. Organizations migrate to a single platform expecting it to handle all their needs, but discover the new platform lacks specific capabilities their teams relied on. Missing integrations, limited functionality, or workflow incompatibilities force teams to add point solutions and workarounds to patch the gaps created by replatforming. They bring on new tools to close these gaps, and before long they end up with more sprawl than pre-migration. In fact, among survey respondents, 74% reported more tool sprawl after migration, not less.
Stalled Innovation Among Burnt Out Teams
Developers bear the brunt of these failed efforts as they struggle with disrupted workflows and unfamiliar tools. Only 24% of organizations maintained high developer morale during platform transitions, while 70% experienced increased burnout.
The fallout lingers long after the migration is complete. 61% of DevOps leaders report that migration fatigue prevented their teams from pursuing new initiatives for over six months—a devastating blow in fast-moving software markets where competitive advantage depends on continuous innovation.
“61% of DevOps leaders report that migration fatigue prevented their teams from pursuing new initiatives for over six months.”
Security and Compliance Take a Step Back
The data doesn’t bode well for CISOs either. At the very moment when enterprises need stronger governance to safely integrate rapidly emerging AI tools, platform migrations are introducing blind spots as the security posture they carefully built over years gets disrupted during platform transitions.
"40% of organizations discovered new blind spots that increased compliance exposure."
The problem goes beyond temporary gaps in visibility. The locked-in nature of consolidated platforms makes it difficult to maintain the secure integrations that once connected diverse tools across the delivery ecosystem. As a result, existing security controls and compliance workflows often break down or become harder to extend.
“75% of organizations found maintaining security integrations harder after migration.”
If Not Migration, Then What?
The survey respondents themselves point to a better approach. A remarkable 92% reported achieving greater delivery efficiency by integrating tools rather than replacing them.
These aren't vendor promises—they're real outcomes from organizations that chose evolution over revolution. Integration-first modernization creates a unified control plane that orchestrates across existing tools, providing the visibility and governance enterprises need without forcing teams to abandon workflows that already work.
Modernization should accelerate innovation, not delay it. And enterprises don't need to rebuild from the ground up to get there.
“92% report achieving greater delivery efficiency by integrating tools rather than replacing them.”
Read the full findings in the first DevOps Migration Index to see where traditional migrations go wrong and how leading organizations are modernizing smarter—delivering value without the upheaval.