Almost half of German companies question cloud strategy and US dependency

Pfungstadt, June 12, 2025 - The unpredictable conditions of ongoing collaboration with American tech companies are prompting more and more companies in Germany to rethink their cloud strategy and the associated US dependency. A recent survey conducted by TechConsult on behalf of eperi has revealed a heterogeneous picture of how companies deal with American cloud service providers.

Although 33.2% of the companies surveyed say that their trust in US cloud providers is stable and that they continue to rely on US clouds, 19.9% admit that their trust has deteriorated, even though they would continue to rely on US clouds. Only in the retail sector is trust above average at 41.9%. It is impossible to say whether this assessment is sincere or more like the famous “whistling in the woods”. The fact is: despite a noticeable loss of trust, 80.6% of the German companies surveyed continue to rely on the American cloud - even if perhaps only due to a lack of quickly implementable alternatives.

20 percent of companies are looking for European alternatives to the US cloud

When asked whether they could imagine an exit strategy from the US cloud, 26.1% of companies say that they could possibly imagine an exit and are closely monitoring developments in the US. 22.3 percent also affirm the possibility of a switch and reveal that they are already looking for European alternatives.

According to the survey, 48.4% - i.e. just under half of the companies surveyed - are in a phase of reorientation. These considerations are most prevalent in the public sector (65.2 percent). In addition, 33.3 percent of healthcare and social services companies state that they are already looking for alternatives to the US cloud.

In addition, 11.4 percent said they are already actively withdrawing from the US cloud and 3.8 percent said they no longer rely on the US cloud. The differences in the responses are interesting when comparing company sizes: A quarter of companies with 2,000-4,999 employees have already made the exit or are actively planning to do so, and almost 20 percent of companies with 99-1,999 employees are doing so. It is also striking that IT decision-makers, at 13.4 percent, are much more likely to be planning an exit than business decision-makers, at 9.6 percent. For 33.6% of the companies surveyed, however, a complete exit from US clouds is inconceivable.

Conclusion
The current snapshot shows three things: Firstly, companies have recognized the changed situation. Secondly, they are specifically looking for European alternatives to get out of their dependence on America. Thirdly, the cloud exit debate is being driven primarily by IT departments. It is therefore time for German IT companies to recognize their opportunities and use the crisis-related changes to their own advantage; the results of the TechConsult survey suggest that there appears to be sufficient interest and demand.