Cloud Monitor 2026 – Sovereignty, security and AI are reshaping the cloud agenda

Cloud computing is now firmly established in German businesses. However, the focus is shifting. Rather than migration and scaling, the emphasis is now on issues such as digital sovereignty, cyber security, cost control and the productive use of AI. These are the key findings of our Cloud Monitor 2026, for which we surveyed more than 500 companies in Germany. The results show the priorities companies are setting in their cloud strategies and how the requirements for modern IT landscapes are changing.

The public cloud remains the preferred target platform for many businesses. At the same time, 42 per cent cite the need to adapt their existing IT infrastructure as the biggest hurdle to cloud integration. The bottleneck therefore lies less in the technology itself than in legacy system landscapes and complex operating models.

Companies are paying closer attention to issues of data sovereignty and vendor lock-in. 45 per cent are currently evaluating sovereign cloud solutions, whilst 38 per cent already view them favourably. At the same time, the vast majority are indicating a willingness to pay for greater control and regulatory certainty.

Only 20 per cent of companies consider themselves fully prepared for NIS2. Data protection, network security and zero-trust approaches are therefore at the forefront of many organisations’ security agendas. Cloud security is evolving from an infrastructure issue into a management task.

GPT, Gemini and other language models have become established in many organisations. The biggest challenge now lies elsewhere: data quality, data access and compliance are holding back the scaling of analytics and AI applications. Anyone wishing to use AI productively must first strengthen their data foundation.