DACH Companies Sound Alarm on Cloud Dependency Risks and Urge Digital Sovereignty

A recent study by Lünendonk & Hossenfelder reveals significant apprehension among companies in the DACH region regarding their reliance on major cloud providers. According to the study, 83% of surveyed IT leaders and C-level executives consider a "kill-switch" scenario—where a cloud provider unilaterally restricts or shuts down access to critical IT services—as a realistic threat. Despite the severity of this risk, only 57% of these companies have developed an exit strategy to switch providers, leaving nearly half without contingency plans.

The study, conducted between December 2025 and January 2026 with 155 participants from sectors including industry, critical infrastructure, banking, and insurance, further highlights the increasing importance of digital sovereignty. While 36% of companies already prioritize it, 96% expect its relevance to rise sharply over the next three years, driven by factors such as dependence on IT providers, crisis resilience, and protection from extraterritorial data access and cloud service restrictions.

In response, many companies are exploring local solutions; 55% view sovereign cloud offerings from European Union operators as highly relevant, while 48% acknowledge the growing significance of evolving German cloud providers emerging into "superscalers." Multi-cloud architectures are becoming the standard approach, with 42% already using them and an additional 46% planning adoption.

Despite this, the study points out that 93% of companies regard European cloud providers as competitive at the infrastructure level, but only 3% see them on par with US hyperscalers in platform, AI, and ecosystem services, with parity expected by only 2% by 2030.

Senior Consultant Tobias Ganowski stresses the urgency for enterprises to actively reduce dependency on hyperscalers to safeguard digital sovereignty. Senior Partner Mario Zillmann advocates for hybrid and differentiated IT solutions that complement traditional hyperscaler offerings rather than replacing them outright.

This study exposes the critical gap between cloud risk awareness and preparedness in the DACH region, spotlighting a growing strategic pivot toward sovereign cloud options and multi-provider strategies in the quest for greater control and resilience.