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 US 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 hosting model
Ensure flexibility to move, repatriate, or adapt infrastructure based on shifting priorities.
