Europe’s Balancing Act: Businesses Are Shifting Toward Hybrid Storage

As organisations grapple with rising cloud costs, many are shifting toward a more balanced approach when it comes to storage. Findings from the third annual Wasabi Global Cloud Storage Index show that 40% of organisations in Europe are pursuing a hybrid approach to cloud IT services adoption – deploying a mix of both on premises and cloud solutions/services. Conducted by Vanson Bourne, the Global Cloud Storage Index surveyed 1,600 C-level leadership and managers, over 500 of which reside in Europe. All respondents chosen to participate are involved in their organisation’s cloud storage purchasing process. This year’s data explores themes around cloud storage purchase decisions, budgets and billing, data security challenges, and utilisation of services for use cases like backup and active archiving.

Unpredictable cloud storage fees push organisations beyond their budgets

Among European respondents, storage fees account for nearly half of all cloud billing expenses (47%), with the cost of actual stored capacity making up the remainder (approx. 53%). In large part due to this unfavourable mix, 56% of European organisations ended up exceeding their budgeted spending on cloud storage over the past year. Respondents from Germany indicated the highest level of budget excess at 66%, followed by the Netherlands (64%), France (53%) and the UK (51%). The main reasons for budget excess are misalignment and difficulty forecasting planned and actual usage, combined with fees from various data operations like replication and object tagging. Ultimately, 90% of European respondents cited at least one fee-related choice (e.g., higher API fees, data retrieval fees, deletion fees, egress fees than expected) as a contributing factor to public cloud storage budget excess. Unfortunately, the challenges don’t end there; more than half of the European organisations (55%) say egress or other data access fees associated with moving their data out of a public cloud environment have delayed IT or business initiatives.

“Organisations are being unfairly penalised for using and moving their data by anti-competitive practices like high egress fees and complex pricing models,” said Andrew Smith, director of strategy and market intelligence at Wasabi Technologies, and a former IDC analyst. “This is consequently stifling innovation, as data is the lifeblood for unlocking full growth potential. Our data also shows organisations are being prompted to rethink their approach, leading many to strike a more balanced mix between cloud and on-premise solutions. At Wasabi, we believe that the cloud market should enable businesses to access and utilise their data freely, without hidden costs or constraints in data mobility.”

Europe leads regional peers in “cloud-first” approach to IT services adoption

When it comes to IT services adoption, 34% of European respondents identify their organisation as “cloud-first,” which is defined as prioritising cloud IT services adoption over any alternative requiring owned or on-premises IT infrastructure. The rate of “cloud-first” in Europe is higher compared to the global average of 29%, and the highest among any global region. Furthermore, at the country level, UK and Netherlands respondents indicated the highest rates of “cloud-first” among all countries, both at 41%.

“We believe the higher rates of ‘cloud-first’ organisations across Europe are a positive indication of the region’s continued embrace of cloud IT services and cloud storage, and the growing preference among regional organisations to adopt cloud services, despite the complexity of data sovereignty, residency, and locality requirements,” comments Smith.

When it comes to choosing a cloud storage provider, European respondents’ top three considerations are performance and scalability (cited by 35% of respondents), native data protection, security and compliance (34%) and sustainability (31%). Data sovereignty considerations are also important, with 21% of European respondents ranking this within their top three choices. This rate is even higher in Germany, where 29% of IT decision-makers prioritise data sovereignty capabilities when choosing a cloud storage service – likely driven by strict regulations like GDPR, concerns over the US Cloud Act, and initiatives like GAIA-X to strengthen overall digital sovereignty.

Cloud storage for UK organizations remains an integral part of their infrastructure strategy

• 44% of UK respondents are following a “balanced” approach to IT services adoption, which is slightly higher than the average in Europe (40%). Almost the same number of organisations prioritise cloud-first (41%), making the cloud an integral part of most infrastructure strategies. Only 16% of UK organisations take a traditional approach —which is characterised by a majority of IT infrastructure still remaining on premises.
• 1 out of 2 organisations in the UK exceeded their public cloud storage budget. The vast majority of UK respondents (91%) cited at least one fee-related choice as a driver of budget excess.
• In the selection of a cloud storage provider, UK organisations prioritise performance and scalability (41%), sustainability (32%) and ease of use (30%).

German organisations are challenged by egress fees

• Germany is quite conservative when it comes to cloud IT services: While 36% have a mix of deployment models including both on-premises and cloud IT services, almost half of respondents in Germany take a “traditional” approach to cloud IT services – meaning the majority of their organisation’s IT infrastructure remains on-premises (45%).
• This is in line with the relatively recent adoption rates of cloud storage among respondents from Germany; 76% of whom have only been using cloud storage services for five years or less (2020 to present).
• The relatively recent rate of cloud storage adoption, combined with high rate of “traditional” approach to cloud IT services adoption, may be contributing to inefficiencies among organisations in Germany when it comes to managing cloud storage fees. Germany noted the highest proportional mix of fees (50%) in their billing average compared to all other European country.
• When asked about the impact of cloud storage fees, 35% of German respondents ranked egress fees among their top three most impactful.
• These fees seem to have an acute impact on German organisations at the IT/business level, with a staggering 3 out of 4 respondents (76%) indicating egress or other data access fees have hindered their organisation’s IT or business initiatives.

Data protection, security and compliance take centre stage in France

• 41% of respondents in France take a “balanced” approach to cloud IT services adoption, with 37% taking a “cloud-first” approach.
• When it comes to choosing a cloud storage provider, data protection, security and compliance take precedence among organisations in France, with 41% of respondents choosing native data protection, security, and compliance features as a top consideration for vendor selection.
• When asked about the key data security-related benefits realised using public cloud storage, French respondents chose ease of preventing and mitigating unplanned data loss.
• When asked about security-related challenges of public cloud storage, French respondents ranked securing data across multiple providers as a key issue – likely due to the complexity of managing multiple providers.

For more details on the global results of the 2025 Wasabi Global Cloud Storage Index, please visit here.

Methodology

Wasabi commissioned independent market research agency Vanson Bourne to conduct research into cloud storage. The study surveyed 1,600 IT decision makers who had at least some involvement in or responsibility for public cloud storage purchases in their organization. The research took place in November and December 2024 from organizations with more than 100 employees across all public and private sectors. All interviews were conducted using a rigorous multi-level screening process to ensure that only suitable candidates were given the opportunity to participate.

About Wasabi Technologies

Recognized as one of the technology industry’s fastest growing companies, Wasabi is on a mission to store the world's data by making cloud storage affordable, predictable and secure. With Wasabi, visionary companies gain the freedom to use their data whenever they like without being hit with unpredictable fees or vendor lock-in. Instead, they’re free to build best-of-breed solutions with the industry’s fastest-growing ecosystem of independent cloud application partners. Customers and partners all over the world trust Wasabi to help them put their data to work so they can unlock their full potential. Visit wasabi.com to learn more.

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