The latest Wasabi Global Cloud Storage Index reveals that soaring costs are forcing companies to strike a balance between affordability and efficiency.
Cloud storage fees account for nearly half of all cloud billing expenses in Europe, at 47 per cent, with stored capacity making up the remaining 53 per cent. This skewed cost structure is wreaking havoc on budgets, with 37 per cent of UK firms slightly exceeding their allocated funds and 14 per cent massively overshooting.
Across Europe, Germany has been hit the hardest, with 66 per cent of businesses surpassing their budgets, followed by the Netherlands (64 per cent), France (53 per cent), and the UK (51 per cent).
The main culprit is poor forecasting and hidden costs tied to data operations like replication and object tagging. A staggering 91 per cent of UK organisations that exceeded their storage budgets cite fee-related issues as the reason. More than half of European businesses (55 per cent) report that data access fees, particularly egress charges, have delayed critical IT or business initiatives.
Wasabi VP & GM EMEA Kevin Dunn said organisations are being unfairly penalised for using and moving their data by anti-competitive practices like high egress fees and complex pricing models. This is consequently stifling innovation, as data is the lifeblood for unlocking full growth potential.
“At Wasabi, we believe that the cloud market should enable businesses to access and utilise their data freely, without hidden costs or constraints in data mobility.”
Despite cost concerns, UK firms remain ahead of the curve when it comes to cloud adoption, tying with the Netherlands at 41 per cent for prioritising a “cloud-first” strategy. This places the UK well above the global average of 29 per cent and the European average of 34 per cent. Cloud-first organisations prioritise cloud IT services over traditional, on-premises infrastructure.
“The higher rates of ‘cloud-first’ organisations across Europe are a positive indication of the region’s continued embrace of cloud IT services and cloud storage, and the growing preference among regional organisations to adopt cloud services, despite the complexity of data sovereignty, residency, and locality requirements,” said Dunn.
Performance and scalability (41 per cent) remain the top concerns for UK businesses selecting a cloud storage provider, followed by sustainability (32 per cent) and ease of use (30 per cent). Across EMEA, native data protection, security, and compliance were also key considerations, ranking as the second-highest priority (34 per cent), just behind performance and scalability (35 per cent).
Nearly half of UK organisations (44 per cent) are taking a hybrid approach to IT services, slightly above the EMEA average (40 per cent). Meanwhile, 41 per cent are going cloud-first, making cloud storage a core component of their infrastructure strategies. Only 16 per cent continue to follow a traditional, on-premises approach.
Public cloud storage costs remain a major challenge, with one in two UK businesses exceeding their budgets. Among those struggling with costs, 91 per cent cite fee-related expenses as a key driver of budget excess.
German organisations remain cautious about cloud adoption, with 45 per cent still maintaining a traditional, on-premises IT approach. While 36 per cent use a hybrid mix of cloud and on-premises solutions, overall cloud adoption remains slower compared to other European countries.
Germany also reports the highest proportion of cloud billing expenses tied to fees, at 50 per cent. Egress charges in particular have been a major pain point, with 35 per cent ranking them among their top three cost concerns. Alarmingly, 76 per cent of German firms say these fees have hindered key IT or business initiatives, highlighting a growing crisis in cloud cost management.
In France, 41 per cent of businesses have adopted a hybrid approach, while 37 per cent favour a cloud-first strategy. When selecting a cloud provider, security is the top priority, with 41 per cent of respondents citing native data protection, security, and compliance as the most important factor.
French businesses also struggle with multi-provider security challenges, ranking data security across multiple vendors as a key concern. At the same time, ease of preventing and mitigating unplanned data loss is seen as one of the biggest benefits of cloud storage, underscoring the dual priorities of security and resilience in the French market.
As cloud adoption accelerates across Europe, businesses are waking up to the realities of cloud cost management. Hidden fees, unpredictable billing, and budget overruns are forcing organisations to rethink their strategies, with many now seeking a more balanced approach that blends cloud flexibility with the stability of on-premises infrastructure.
