"If you look at any technology at different points of adoption as it matures, you tend to find this side-effect of or growing outside of a prescribed governance model," said Hartman.

The survey data showed that the trend "was more pervasive than most people realized," said Hartman.

Ultimately, said Hartman, IT operations will realize that they have to control and govern the growing cloud sprawl to ensure systems comply with data security, privacy and regulatory requirements.

The business units that are adopting cloud may also save money by working with IT, particularly if other business units are adopting similar services and platforms but aren't leveraging any synergies.

Overall, the survey found that 74% of enterprises are using some form of cloud services, up 25% since Avanade conducted a similar survey in 2009.