In recent years, digital sovereignty has become a central topic in the European debate, involving not only CIOs of companies and technology vendors but also institutions and lawmakers. The growing dependence on global infrastructures and technology platforms has raised questions about data control, technological autonomy, and regulatory compliance.
In this context, the cloud has ceased to be merely an architectural choice focused on scalability and efficiency and has become a strategic tool to strengthen autonomy and data control. The rise of the private cloud is the primary consequence of this shift.
KEY POINTS
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Adoption of private cloud is growing within hybrid IT strategies that leverage the strengths of both public and private cloud.
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Digital sovereignty, technological independence, interoperability, and reducing the risk of vendor lock-in are increasingly decisive factors in corporate cloud decisions.
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Public cloud remains central, but companies are moving from a cloud-first approach to a workload-first logic, where each environment is chosen based on operational, regulatory, and business needs.
Private Cloud: Much More Than an “In-House” Infrastructure
Private cloud is an architectural model based on the concepts of isolation and full control over resources, regardless of their physical location. In addition to traditional in-house models, hosted solutions have become increasingly important: dedicated environments hosted in regional or local providers’ data centers, managed according to cloud principles and often using open-source technologies, yet designed to ensure full data sovereignty, regulatory compliance, and operational transparency.
This evolution reflects a clear market trend. According to Broadcom’s Private Cloud Outlook 2025, “over half of respondents (54%) identify private cloud as the preferred destination for new workloads in the next three years, while 65% are evaluating workload repatriation from public to private cloud, and one-third have already done so.”
Private cloud emerges not as an ideological alternative to public cloud, which still maintains its central role, but as a concrete response to organizations’ evolving needs: retaining cloud benefits such as scalability, flexibility, and access to innovative technologies within an infrastructure perimeter that is more controllable and natively compliant with European data management requirements.
Why Companies Choose Private Cloud
The growing focus on private cloud is linked to the maturation of corporate cloud strategies. After an initial phase driven mainly by agility and time-to-market, many organizations are now reassessing where and how to run their most critical workloads, finding private cloud to be a suitable solution.
- Among the traditional benefits of private cloud, the most important are control and performance. Dedicated environments avoid the resource contention typical of multi-tenant models, ensuring high performance and more manageable service levels. It is no coincidence that private cloud has long been established in regulated sectors and for core operational workloads, where continuity, reliability, and predictable performance are essential requirements.
- In addition, private cloud offers a high level of architectural customization. Dedicated environments allow organizations to tailor infrastructure, networking, security, and policies to their actual application needs without having to adapt processes to the constraints of third-party platforms.
- Besides these traditional factors, new motivations have emerged in recent years, directly related to data sovereignty. Companies must comply with increasingly strict regulations, manage sensitive information, and demonstrate transparency in data location and processing. Private cloud allows organizations to keep data and workloads within local jurisdictions, reducing exposure to non-EU regulations and increasing control over the technology supply chain.
Unsurprisingly, local and European cloud providers compete not only on data location but also on a broader set of strategic factors: infrastructures physically close to customers, with tangible benefits in latency and performance; technological independence; and a strong focus on interoperability, often ensured through open-source technologies. This approach helps reduce the risk of technological lock-in, one of the most closely monitored factors by CIOs in long-term planning.
The Evolution Toward More Mature Hybrid Models
As noted, the increasing adoption of private cloud does not challenge the cloud paradigm but represents an evolutionary step in corporate IT strategies.
Hybrid Cloud Remains the Winner
It is no coincidence that the preferred model for companies remains the hybrid one, often with a clearer distinction between what should stay in private environments and what can be assigned to public components. The underlying philosophy, however, remains the same: the goal is not to separate the two worlds but to make them work in synergy within a coherent ecosystem, governed by a uniform and centralized control plane to ensure visibility and consistent operational management across all resources.
From cloud first to workload first
The most significant aspect is strategic rather than operational. In light of these transformations, many companies are moving from the traditional cloud-first approach, driven by the goal of migrating as many systems as possible to public cloud, to a workload-first logic, where each application and workload is placed in the most suitable environment based on its criticality, regulatory requirements, and performance needs.
Core workloads, sensitive data, and critical applications tend to reside in private environments, while public cloud continues to play an essential role for scenarios that require elasticity, on-demand computing capacity, and rapid access to advanced services.
Public Cloud is not being replaced
Setting digital sovereignty considerations aside, public platforms remain difficult to replace, particularly because of their innovation capacity. In recent years, hyperscalers have redefined technological paradigms, investing globally in advanced services, AI platforms, cloud-native development environments, and operational models that have profoundly accelerated the evolution of software and digital business processes.
It is in public cloud that many of the technologies driving digital transformation are born and mature: artificial intelligence and generative AI services, advanced DevOps tools, scalable data platforms, rapid testing and experimentation environments, and virtually unlimited computing power. Forgoing these components would limit innovation speed and the ability to compete in increasingly dynamic markets.
Kirey: tailored cloud architectures
Companies can extract real value from the cloud only when adoption is guided by a clear strategy and supported by IT architectures designed in alignment with business objectives and regulatory requirements.
At KIrey, we have always supported organizations in their journey toward hybrid and multi-cloud ecosystems, highlighting the role of private cloud. Our approach is based on a simple principle: there are no standard architectures because every company has unique needs in data governance, application integration, security, compliance, and operational continuity.
For this reason, our work focuses on designing customized cloud environments, where public and private components are orchestrated to serve IT strategies and business priorities, also considering requirements for sovereignty, technological independence, and interoperability.
Contact us to discover how to maximize cloud potential through highly personalized, scalable, secure solutions that comply with regulatory frameworks.
