The vast majority of businesses would fail to migrate business-critical workloads away from their largest cloud provider in less than three weeks, according to new research from Leaseweb.
Analysis by the company shows geopolitical tensions are leading firms to try and reduce their reliance on a particular technology or infrastructure provider, with 78% having taken action on this front.
Meanwhile, 45% of respondents told Leaseweb that they plan to take this even further. However, the company found that only 11% of organizations could make the move away from their largest cloud or infrastructure provider within three weeks.
Crucially, more than half (55%) said it would take longer than three months, or wouldn’t be currently possible.
The situation is the worst in the Netherlands, where 65% said migration would take more than three months, followed by the UK at 59%, the US at 55%, and Germany at 40%. Dutch businesses also gave the longest average estimated migration time, at 4.7 months.
Business leaders don't expect this to improve any time soon, with 89% in the US, 83% in the UK, 76% in Germany, and 67% in the Netherlands saying they expect AI to increase their reliance on a small number of providers over the next three years.
Almost all said they'd pay more to gain greater control, reduce provider dependence, or improve their freedom to move, with 73% saying they'd pay at least 11% more, and an average premium of around 16%.
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Willingness to pay was highest in the Netherlands, where 81% would pay at least 11% more and 26% would pay at least 21% more, followed by Germany with 79% willing to pay at least 11% more.
“Digital independence comes down to having real choices, and our research shows many businesses have fewer than they think,” said Lex Boost, co-CEO at Leaseweb.
"Organizations may believe they control their data, but once applications have been built around a provider’s platform, moving them is rarely quick or simple.”
Desire for independence
Fewer than three-in-ten said they treated regulatory and legal compliance or security and data protection as non-negotiable when choosing a cloud provider, and two-thirds would accept at least a minor trade-off on compliance for increased independence.
Dependence on particular AI technology providers was the most common potential barrier to digital independence, at 28%, although in Germany legacy-system complexity ranked first at 30%.
"With AI expected to tie businesses even more closely to a small number of providers, leaders need to understand and act on those dependencies now, not when a pricing change or geopolitical shift forces their hand," Boost commented.
What was non-negotiable, business leaders said, was availability and uptime in the US, at 35%, provider reputation and trust in the UK at 34%, and security and data protection in Germany at 30%.
Regulatory and legal compliance and exposure to geopolitical or trade-related risks were tied in the Netherlands at 27%.
The findings come as organizations are increasingly looking to move away from US cloud providers, largely driven by concerns about digital sovereignty.
Recent research from Civo concluded that digital sovereignty is now viewed as a “strategic priority” by 73% of firms, up 12 points on last year, with 64% highlighting reliance on a limited pool of foreign cloud providers as an area of concern.