More than half (53%) of EMEA organisations exceeded their budgeted spend on cloud storage in 2023, with half of all cloud storage costs in EMEA going to data access and usage fees rather than capacity, reveals the 2024 Global Cloud Storage Index from Wasabi Technologies.
Nonetheless, EMEA companies still see the value of cloud storage services, with 91% planning to increase their cloud storage budget in 2024 and 92% planning to increase the amount of data they store in the public cloud.
Andrew Smith, Senior Manager of Strategy and Market Intelligence at Wasabi Technologies, said: “Organisations worldwide are increasing their use and budgets for public cloud storage solutions, and Europe is no exception. Like the rest of the world, European cloud storage users continue to struggle with storage fees, but despite this the region continues to show a healthy preference towards ‘cloud-first’ decision-making when it comes to IT services adoption.”
Almost half (44%) of EMEA organisations pursue a ‘cloud-first’ strategy for IT services adoption.
Almost all (99%) of EMEA respondents have adopted or are planning to adopt AI/ML in 2024 and 96% believe they will face new cloud storage concerns as a result. These include the requirement to store data across a wider range of locations e.g. core data centres and edge remote locations (46%); new data backup, protection and recovery requirements (43%); and new or increasing storage migration/movement requirements (42%).
Jon Howes, Wasabi Technologies VP & GM of EMEA, said: “Wasabi’s annual research once again shows that progress towards off-premises cloud storage solutions is a direction nearly all enterprises are taking. However, the ever- growing frustration with unnecessary fees and vendor lock-in, as highlighted by the investigation by the UK’s market watchdog, provides a navigational challenge for cloud- first organisations in EMEA.”
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