The HashiCorp State of Cloud Strategy Survey reveals that infrastructure tool buyers seek support, compliance, and management features, as well as a faster return on investment. Most practitioners prefer to build on open source projects and run the software themselves, but also use cloud-enabled commercial tools for security. The survey found that respondents were more likely to use cloud-enabled commercial tools for security than for other infrastructure components, and nearly four times as many respondents use open source projects for their infrastructure scaffolding. Companies buy infrastructure tools primarily for support, compliance, and management features, with a growing appreciation for agility, distinctive competence, and ROI. The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in the use of open source software by 39% of respondents, who turned to it to rapidly respond to new business needs.