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UK IT leaders are increasingly questioning their reliance on US cloud providers, and some say they are considering or have begun moving workloads. But the available evidence does not show a wholesale UK exodus: surveys measure different things, while switching cloud providers remains difficult and costly.
What the surveys say—and what they do not
The strongest evidence is of concern and intent, alongside some reported moves. Those are not the same as a completed migration or a national shift away from US providers.
| Source and respondents | Reported finding | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Asanti survey, reported by IT Pro in 2025 | 52% said they were taking strategic steps to reduce exposure to American technology firms; 95% were concerned about data-sovereignty risks. Among respondents using US public cloud, 45% planned to limit their data’s exposure to US jurisdiction. | Concern, strategic steps and plans—not a count of completed migrations. IT Pro’s visible report does not state the survey’s sample size or fieldwork date. |
| Computing poll of 138 UK IT leaders, January 2026 | 17% said they were considering moving data or services from US or Chinese cloud providers in 2026; another 17% said they had already done so. 65% were worried about the legal and operational reach of some nation states into data and infrastructure. | A small-sample poll reporting consideration and respondents’ claims of moves; it is not a national migration rate. |
| Civo survey of 1,000 UK IT leaders, published June 2026 | 66% would consider switching providers; 15% reported successful migration to a domestic alternative, and one in four believed their organisation could exit a major US provider entirely. | Willingness, reported migration and perceived ability to exit. Civo is a cloud provider with a commercial interest in sovereign cloud. |
These results should not be combined into one percentage or read as a time series: the surveys have different respondents, dates and questions. In particular, “would consider switching” is not equivalent to “has switched.” The Asanti findings were reported by IT Pro; Computing reported its January 2026 poll; and Civo published its own survey results.
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Why UK organisations are reassessing cloud dependence
Jurisdiction and geopolitical exposure
Data location is only part of the concern. Organisations also want to understand which laws may apply to a provider, who can access or control systems, and how exposed critical services are to changes in international relations. In the Asanti findings reported by IT Pro, CEO Stewart Laing said: “Organizations are becoming more aware and more wary of where their data is stored and who has jurisdiction over it.”
Computing’s January 2026 poll found 65% worried about the legal and operational reach of some nation states into data and infrastructure. One anonymous respondent, a CIO in education, told Computing: “We’re worried about the dominance of US companies and political implications of having our business dependent on US services,” Another respondent, a director of DevOps and transformation at a technology company, gave the fragment: “The risk of Trump”. These are individual comments, not evidence that politics is the sole reason for reassessment.
AI, control and governance
AI increases the stakes because organisations must consider not only where data is stored, but also where systems are built, who operates the infrastructure and which jurisdiction applies. Civo CEO Mark Boost described this concern in the company’s 2026 announcement: “AI has raised the stakes for digital sovereignty. The issue is no longer just where data is stored, but also where systems are built, who controls the infrastructure and which legal jurisdiction it falls under.” That is a vendor’s framing of the issue, rather than an independent finding.
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Reducing dependence on a small number of providers can be part of a resilience strategy, but relocating a workload does not automatically make it more resilient. Organisations also assess security, operating costs, customer expectations and regulatory requirements. Civo reported that 39% of its respondents had experienced outages originating from US hyperscalers in the preceding year. This is respondent-reported experience, not an independently audited outage rate.
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Does UK-hosted cloud keep data outside US jurisdiction?
Not necessarily. A server’s location and a provider’s legal exposure are different questions. UK hosting can address a location requirement without, by itself, resolving questions about the provider’s ownership, legal entity, applicable law or operational control. The reporting on sovereign-cloud offerings notes that a US-owned provider’s service remains subject to US law; check the provider’s current terms and legal structure rather than relying on the “UK-hosted” or “sovereign” label.
For a specific service, examine the full operating model—not just the region selected in a console:
- Provider and ownership: Identify the contracting legal entity, its ownership and the laws that may apply.
- Data and access: Check where primary data, backups, support access and control-plane operations are located and who can access them.
- Operational control: Establish who can administer the service, manage encryption keys and make changes to the infrastructure.
- Continuity: Understand what happens to access and support if a legal, commercial or geopolitical change disrupts normal operations.
- Portability: Confirm whether the workload and its data can move to another provider in practice, within the time and cost your organisation can tolerate.
Why switching providers is harder than expressing interest
Ofcom’s 2023 cloud market study identified several practical barriers. In its customer survey, 59% cited switching difficulty and expense, 55% cited egress fees, and 52% cited interoperability. Proprietary technical dependencies can add to the work: a service may rely on provider-specific databases, identity tools, application interfaces or operational processes that do not transfer directly.
Ofcom estimated that hyperscalers accounted for 70% to 80% of UK IaaS and PaaS revenue, using 2022 market data in its 2023 final report. That is historical market context, not a current 2026 market share. A large provider’s service breadth and existing technical footprint can make it costly to reproduce an application elsewhere, even when an alternative provider is available.
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Migration therefore involves more than copying stored data. Teams may need to redesign applications, adapt security and monitoring, train staff, test performance, run services in parallel and prove that recovery arrangements work. The cost and risk vary by workload; a move may be feasible for one system but unsuitable for another.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.UK businesses are using mixed infrastructure
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s UK Business Data Survey 2026, based on 2025–2026 fieldwork, found that 31% of businesses handling digitised data used a public cloud provider and 27% used servers on their business premises. Respondents could use more than one infrastructure type, so the figures are not competing market shares and do not show that businesses are migrating from one to the other.
Public-sector dependence also cannot be reduced to a single national figure. In a written answer on 5 February 2026, the UK Government said around 55% of central government organisations reported that more than 60% of their estate was on cloud; all participants in the referenced survey used one of two leading US-based cloud providers. The answer also said there is no centralised record of the proportion of critical public services using US-owned cloud. The figures describe the organisations and measures stated in that answer, not every public body or critical service.
How to assess an exit—or a smaller change
An organisation does not have to choose between leaving every US provider and doing nothing. It can assess workloads individually, reduce exposure where it matters most, or add a credible alternative for continuity. A useful comparison should answer these questions before a migration decision:
- Which workload is in scope? Record its data sensitivity, legal and customer obligations, performance needs, dependencies and recovery objectives.
- What does “sovereign” mean for this service? Document the provider’s legal entity and ownership, applicable law, data and backup locations, support access, administrative control and key management.
- Can the workload move? Inventory provider-specific services and test data exports, application changes and integrations. Identify the egress charges, contract terms, migration effort and skills required.
- Would the alternative improve resilience? Compare failure modes and recovery arrangements, and verify that the proposed fallback does not depend on the same infrastructure or operational access.
- What is the total cost over the relevant period? Include ongoing service charges alongside migration, parallel running, retraining and future exit costs. A domestic provider is not automatically cheaper.
- Is the plan executable? Set measurable recovery and portability goals, test them with a representative workload and establish who owns the migration and fallback procedures.
For some organisations, the result may be a full migration; for others, it may be retaining a hyperscaler for suitable workloads while moving sensitive systems or building a tested exit path. The choice depends on the service’s legal requirements, operational fit, resilience needs and migration economics—not the provider’s country label alone.
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