Cost blowouts push UK businesses towards hybrid cloud storage, Wasabi finds  

Rising and unpredictable cloud storage fees are pushing UK organisations to reconsider their IT infrastructure strategies. Nearly half are now adopting a hybrid approach that blends on-premises and cloud storage solutions, according to the third annual Wasabi Global Cloud Storage Index.

Based on a survey of 1,600 C-level leaders and managers, the report found that 44% of UK organisations are now pursuing a hybrid IT model, slightly above the European average of 40%. Meanwhile, 41% are prioritising cloud-first strategies, and just 16% rely predominantly on on-premises infrastructure.

The shift comes as many UK organisations struggle to keep cloud costs under control, with the Global Cloud Storage Index showing that one in two UK businesses reported exceeding their cloud storage budgets. Why? 91% cited fee-related reasons such as data egress charges, object tagging fees or replication costs.

“Organisations are being unfairly penalised for using and moving their data by anti-competitive practices like high egress fees and complex pricing models,” said Wasabi EMEA VP and GM Kevin Dunn.

“This is consequently stifling innovation, as data is the lifeblood for unlocking full growth potential. This also shows in our data, with organisations being prompted to rethink their approach, leading many to strike a more balanced mix between cloud and on-premises solutions.”

Wasabi: Forecasting remains a problem for cloud storage

The report also showed cost forecasting remains a key challenge, with 44% of UK respondents stated their actual data storage usage and growth was higher than expected.

Despite these challenges, the UK is still leading in cloud adoption. The report found 41% of UK organisations follow a “cloud-first” strategy, placing the UK equal with the Netherlands at the top of global rankings and well above the European average of 34% and the global average of 29%.

“We believe 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.

Wasabi says that when choosing a cloud storage provider, performance and scalability are the top considerations for UK organisations, followed by sustainability and ease of use.

Finally, Wasabi’s Global Cloud Storage Index highlighted broader trends across Europe. Most notably, France’s focus on data protection, security and compliance take centre stage when selecting cloud providers, while German companies were hit with similar data-egress costs to their UK cousins.

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