Cloud services are driven by data sovereignty and Ai

A 'cloud' that year after year continues to grow in double figures and in 2025 will generate a market of 8.13 billion in Italy, an increase of 20% compared to 6.76 billion last year. This growth is driven by the demand for 'virtual private clouds' as a result of the growing demand for control and sovereignty over data coming from the public administration and businesses, plus artificial intelligence. A trend that will continue in 2026 with a forecast of +20%. The European cloud market this year is worth 112 billion, +20% on the previous year. This was revealed by the data of the 15th edition of the Cloud Transformation Observatory of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano, presented during the conference 'Cloud between artificial intelligence and sovereignty: strategies and industrial policies for a new digital ecosystem'. "Nearly 90% of the cloud market in Europe is in the hands of the large US hyperscalers and non-European providers," points out Alessandro Piva, director of the Cloud Transformation Observatory. "This figure reignites the debate on the issue of digital sovereignty and the continent's ability to remain competitive and resilient in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical context.

In terms of the domestic market, 'Private Cloud' grows by +23% and reaches 1.35 billion, supported by the need for greater control and the spread of sovereign cloud offerings. Data centre automation is up +12% and reaches EUR 950 million, confirming the modernisation of on-premise infrastructures. The public administration contributes to the growth with the migration projects envisaged by the Italian Cloud Strategy and the National Strategic Pole, confirming the importance of the cloud for the resilience of the public sector. Driving demand is the 'public & hybrid cloud' component with an expenditure of 5.8 billion (+21%). Within this perimeter there are: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) which reaches 2.6 billion (+23%) and accounts for 45% of total spending, supported mainly by the use of Virtual Machines for development and production environments, now also indispensable for artificial intelligence applications. Software as a Service (SaaS), on the other hand, comes in at 2.2 billion (+19%), driven by the adoption of security and analytics solutions and the integration of Ai functionalities into corporate platforms. Platform as a Service (PaaS), while remaining the smallest component, exceeds 1 billion for the first time (+21%), thanks to the spread of APIs and services for generative models.

For Italian SMEs, Cloud adoption remains stable at 67%, but overall spending on Public & Hybrid Cloud is growing, reaching EUR 690 million (+18%). SMEs that have adopted the Cloud tend to extend its use, particularly for security services and application infrastructures. The percentage of companies adopting a Cloud First approach is decreasing: from 39% to 32%. At the same time, the focus on data+ security and compliance is strengthening: 72% of companies have initiated cybersecurity and cyber risk management projects, while 39% have focused on complying with new European regulations such as the NIS2 directive, the Digital operational resilience act (Dora), a European Union regulation that aims to strengthen the cybersecurity and operational resilience of financial institutions, such as: banks, insurance companies and investment firms, and the Ai Act.

"The year 2025 marks a turning point: the cloud is no longer just the paradigm for building and modernising information systems, but a strategic asset for innovation and competitiveness, which must be built while maintaining control of applications and data, the 'sovereign cloud'," explains Stefano Mainetti, Scientific Director of the Cloud Transformation Observatory. Companies are more aware of this and this is reflected in a more selective approach: 46% of very large organisations are now adopting hybrid and targeted strategies, carefully choosing which workloads to entrust to the cloud and which to keep on-premise, an increase of 10 percentage points over the previous year. Repatriation initiatives, on the other hand, remain marginal and under 5%, although the intention to evaluate them is growing and now concerns 35% of very large organisations.

The Observatory also highlights a crucial node: Europe's dependence on hyperscalers such as, for instance, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), which provide cloud computing services on a massive scale through their global hyperscale data centres. To truly become an Ai Continent we need common industrial policies, continental digital supply chains and synergies between global players and the European ecosystem, balancing regulation and competitiveness. The cloud is confirmed as the enabling infrastructure for artificial intelligence. In 2025, 25% of very large enterprises will use Ai-as-a-Service APIs, 23% ready-to-use applications and 16% developer platforms. However, only 30% of companies entrust their Ai projects exclusively to the public cloud, with the majority preferring 'private' or on-premise environments to ensure greater control and compliance.