Publication Date: 13.11.2025
Header (Meta Information)
Author: Computerworld
Source: Computerworld - Gartner: European IT leaders to boost spending on local clouds
Publication Date: November 2024
Summary Reading Time: 4 minutes
Executive Summary
Over 61% of Western European companies plan to expand local cloud providers due to geopolitical tensions and fears of politically motivated access restrictions to US cloud services. Despite these sovereignty efforts, hyperscalers (Amazon, Google, Microsoft) remain dominant with 70% market share – a paradigm shift is not in sight. For executives, this means: Risk management through hybrid cloud strategies becomes a critical competency, while the balance between technological sovereignty and economic efficiency must be recalibrated.
Critical Key Questions
How much digital dependency on US technology corporations can European companies still afford when geopolitical tensions become the new normal?
Where is the line between legitimate sovereignty policy and protectionist isolation that endangers innovation and competitiveness?
What strategic opportunities arise for European tech providers if they now consistently invest in open-source ecosystems and local cloud infrastructure?
Scenario Analysis: Future Perspectives
Short-term (1 year):
Increased investments in multi-cloud strategies and pilot projects with European providers. Public sector as pioneer in open-source migration. Hyperscalers respond with local data centers and compliance promises.
Medium-term (5 years):
Emergence of a bifurcated cloud market: critical infrastructures on sovereign clouds, innovation and scaling continue with hyperscalers. 75% of companies outside the US with explicit digital sovereignty strategy.
Long-term (10-20 years):
Possible technological fragmentation between US-dominated and European-Asian cloud infrastructure. Open source as a neutral standard could become a bridge – or leave Europe technologically behind.
Main Summary
a) Core Topic & Context
A Gartner survey of 214 Western European IT leaders shows a clear trend toward digital sovereignty as a response to geopolitical uncertainties. Concern about politically motivated access blocks to US cloud services is driving companies to local alternatives – without fundamentally breaking dependency on hyperscalers.
b) Key Facts & Figures
- 61% plan increased use of local/regional cloud providers
- 53% want to restrict future use of global cloud providers
- 44% are already limiting their hyperscaler usage today
- 55% are increasingly relying on open-source software
- 70% market share of US hyperscalers in Europe (IaaS/PaaS/Private Cloud)
- 75% of all companies outside the US with digital sovereignty strategy by 2030 (forecast)
- 16,000 workstations at Austrian Armed Forces migrating to LibreOffice
c) Stakeholders & Affected Parties
- Directly affected: CIOs and IT decision-makers in Europe, local cloud providers
- Institutionally involved: Public administrations (Schleswig-Holstein, Lyon, Austrian Armed Forces), International organizations (ICC)
- Market dominants: Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud
d) Opportunities & Risks
Opportunities:
- Building resilient, independent IT infrastructures
- Growth impulses for European tech providers and open-source community
- Strengthening negotiating position vis-à-vis US corporations
Risks:
- Innovation loss through forgoing leading cloud services
- Higher costs and lower scalability of local solutions
- Risk of technological fragmentation and compatibility problems
e) Action Relevance
Executives must now develop a differentiated cloud strategy:
- Classification of workloads by criticality and sensitivity
- Building exit strategies for critical cloud dependencies
- Investment in cloud-agnostic architectures and open-source competencies
- Proactive communication of sovereignty strategy to stakeholders
Quality Assurance & Fact-Checking
- ✅ Gartner survey data (May-June 2024) verified
- ✅ Market shares confirmed by Synergy Research Group (July 2024)
- ⚠️ ICC-Microsoft incident: Contradictory accounts, Microsoft denies
- ✅ Open-source migrations in Germany, France, Austria documented
Supplementary Research
Related Article:
Gartner Symposium 2025: AI Opportunities for CIOs Between Expectation and Disillusionment – Contextualization of cloud sovereignty in the context of current AI strategies
Further Sources:
- EU Cloud Code of Conduct – European compliance standards for cloud providers
- Gaia-X Initiative – European project for sovereign data infrastructure
- BSI Cloud Computing Compliance Criteria Catalogue (C5) – German security standards
Source Index
Primary Source:
Gartner: European IT leaders to boost spending on local clouds amid geopolitical worries – Computerworld, November 2024
Verification Status: ✅ Facts verified on 13.11.2024
File Information
Version: 1.0
Author: press@clarus.news
License: CC-BY 4.0
Last Update: 13.11.2024