The rapid growth of information technology as a service is decentralizing the purchase of devices, apps and cloud services, leading to growing security concerns at large enterprises.

That’s according to a new study from VMware Inc., which said its survey highlights growing concerns about IT fragmentation and the security gaps it creates. The company argues that IT managers are failing to keep up with the cloud shift, and that their embrace of “non-secure solutions” is creating a multitude of new security and compliance issues.

VMware said that 69 percent of its survey respondents believe IT management has become more decentralized in the last three years, and 57 percent stated that this decentralization has led them to buy less secure cloud and other IT services. In addition, 57 percent said IT decentralization leads to the development of non-compliant applications.

VMware’s study also looked at what’s driving enterprises to the cloud, and found that long-term cost savings, greater efficiency and more flexibility were the key forces at play. The study found that enterprises are spending around 5.7 percent more on IT infrastructure, though 61 percent of respondents admitted that decentralization had led to some duplication of IT resources across organizations.

“This new dynamic, where business leaders go around the IT department to purchase technology, is fragmenting standards and increasing cost, complexity and risk to the firm,” VMware said in a statement on its survey results. “IT decentralization has increased vulnerability to cyber attacks, and the IT department—despite its lack of control over the purchasing, implementation and proliferation of technology across the enterprise—is still typically held responsible for security.”

Despite this, an earlier VMware study published last August revealed that IT staff are not always responsible for their companies’ IT purchases, though they are expected to deal with whatever security implications those purchases cause. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said business units are authorizing new devices for employees while 56 percent cited the purchase of third-party applications and just under half highlighted a shift in internal application development.

“Business users are taking control of a broad range of technologies—from devices to cloud to apps,” the newer survey stressed. As a result, that shift is increasing IT costs and increasing security vulnerabilities, two-thirds of IT managers agreed.

“IT leaders are increasingly responsible for managing tech sprawl and have a reputation for supporting a ‘culture of no’ in an effort to make the organization secure and manageable,” the survey commentary concluded. “However, business demands and technology adoption trends make it extremely difficult for IT to keep pace with business units.”

Not surprisingly, VMware has a dog in this hunt. It proposes network virtualization frameworks such as its own NSX Platform as a solution to the problem.

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