Cloud Report 2026: Status Quo and Trends in Business and Politics (Bitkom)

Summary

• 86 percent of German companies already use cloud computing, and a further 14 percent plan or discuss it.p.3
• The survey covered 603 companies of all sectors in Germany with 20 or more employees.p.3
• 4 percent of companies offer their own products or services exclusively as cloud services and 18 percent partly.p.8
• 40 percent of companies run more than 50 percent of IT applications from the cloud today, rising to 60 percent in five years.p.10
• 28 percent of cloud users had serious disruptions from cloud outages in the past 12 months.p.14
• Cloud operating costs rose for 64 percent of cloud-using companies in the past year.p.18
• 85 percent of companies consider Germany too dependent on US cloud providers.p.25

Key insights

1. Cloud use is roughly at the prior-year level, when 90 percent of companies used cloud services.p.7
2. 38 percent of cloud-using companies already use multi-cloud and 34 percent use hybrid cloud.p.13
3. 66 percent can maintain emergency operation with local solutions during a cloud outage.p.14
4. Trust in IT security, data protection and compliance is a must-have criterion for 95 percent when choosing a cloud provider.p.20
5. 98 percent say the provider's country of origin plays a role in their choice.p.22
6. 97 percent say the location of data centers plays a role in choosing a cloud provider.p.23
7. Digitalization of internal processes is a goal of cloud use for 71 percent of companies.p.12