52% of UK IT Leaders Seek Alternatives to US Cloud Providers Citing Regulatory and Geopolitical Concerns

More than half of UK IT decision makers currently using public or hybrid models say they are planning to move away from U.S. based cloud providers – citing growing concerns around data sovereignty (95%) and data residency (93%), according to new research commissioned by Asanti, one of the UK’s leading colocation data centre providers, conducted by Vanson Bourne.

The findings reveal the increasing influence of global politics on IT infrastructure decisions, with 52% of those surveyed saying they’re taking strategic steps to reduce their organisation’s exposure to US cloud providers. In addition, 45% of those surveyed, currently using US public cloud platforms, confirmed that they plan to actively limit their data’s exposure to U.S. jurisdiction in light of recent political developments.

“Organisations are becoming more aware and more wary of where their data is stored and who has jurisdiction over it,” said Stewart Laing, CEO of Asanti. “It’s no longer just about performance or cost. It’s about trust, control and strategic sovereignty.”

Repatriation Trends Continue to Rise

This shift builds on the findings from Asanti’s October 2024 research, which showed that 91% of organisations were already in the process of bringing at least some applications back on-premise or into colocation facilities.

Key reasons included:

• High recurring public costs for certain workloads in public cloud (41%)
• Limited control and customisation (39%)
• Slow data transfer for real-time applications 36%
• Security, compliance, and risk management concerns (39%).

However, repatriation is not without its challenges. The most commonly cited barriers were:

• Complexity of moving applications back to internal systems (38%)
• Inflexible contracts or cloud vendor lock-in (36%)
• Lack of internal skills for repatriation 41%.

“Cloud is powerful – but not perfect. The lesson here is that infrastructure strategy needs to be driven by business needs, not vendor hype,” added Laing. “We strongly advise UK organisations to revisit their current and future hosting strategies with a more critical eye, especially as AI workloads, regulatory scrutiny, and cyber threats escalate.”

Key recommendations:

• Assess geopolitical risk when selecting providers
• Match workload sensitivity to the hosting model
• Ensure flexibility to move, repatriate, or adapt infrastructure based on shifting priorities.

Methodology

The research was conducted with research company Vanson Bourne in June 2025. The cohort was made up of 100 respondents, of whom 30 were Board member/C-level, and 70 were Senior management.

They came from the public sector, including healthcare, private financial and professional services, as well as IT, and the technology and telecoms sectors in the UK. All respondents worked for organisations with over 250 employees and more than £5.1 million in annual revenue.

About Asanti Data Centres Limited

Asanti is a UK-based data centre solution provider, dedicated to providing businesses with secure and sustainable colocation solutions across its six data centres in the UK. With a focus on regional edge locations and over 125 years’ experience in designing, deploying and managing data centres, they help businesses achieve optimal performance, scalability, and cost-effectiveness.

They are committed to their clients’ success and the environment, utilising 100% renewable energy to power their facilities, and have been featured in directories such as Crunchbase, Techbehemoths, and GoodFirms.