Gartner reports that the EU is most interested in local clouds!

Computerworld.com reported that “Western European organizations are ramping up investments in local and regional cloud providers because growing geopolitical tensions are raising concerns that access to global cloud services could be disrupted for political reasons.”  The November 12, 2025 article entitled “Gartner: European IT leaders to boost spending on local clouds amid geopolitical worries” (https://www.computerworld.com/article/4088666/gartner-european-it-leaders-to-boost-spending-on-local-clouds-amid-geopolitical-worries.html) included these comments:

A survey of 214 CIOs and IT leaders in Western Europe, conducted by Gartner between May and June, found that more than 61% plan to increase their reliance on local and regional cloud providers due to geopolitics. More than half (53%) plan to restrict future use of global cloud providers for the same reason — and 44% reported they’re already limiting use.

“It shows that geopolitics absolutely have an impact on the decision making of organizations when it comes to cloud,” said Rene Buest, senior director analyst at Gartner. 

There are several reasons for an increased focus on digital sovereignty, according to Buest. 

There’s also uncertainty around trade negotiations, with many worried that tariffs could be placed on US cloud services.  

Amid geopolitical uncertainty, many European organizations are turning to alternatives to established cloud providers, and 55% plan to expand their use of open-source software, according to the Gartner survey.

What do you think?