Private clouds are no longer playing catch-up, and public clouds are no longer the default as organisations recalibrate their cloud strategies. This “cloud reset” was the key takeaway from the Private Cloud Outlook 2025 report, a survey of 200 UK senior IT leaders conducted by Illuminas, in partnership with Broadcom.
More than half (57%) of survey respondents say deploying new workloads in private cloud is their top priority over the next three years, while 73% are considering workload repatriation from public to private cloud, with one-third having already done so. Private cloud is also now a strategic equal for AI and cloud-native apps, with 68% preferring to run container and Kubernetes-based applications on private cloud or a mix of public and private, while 60% prefer private cloud for AI model training, tuning and inference.
"This report makes it clear: private cloud is a strategic platform for IT modernisation," said Prashanth Shenoy, vice president of product marketing, VMware Cloud Foundation Division (VCF) at Broadcom. "Customers are intentionally architecting for flexibility, placing workloads in environments that offer the best balance of performance, control, and cost efficiency. The cloud reset presents an opportunity to create a more effective, secure and cost-efficient IT environment. Organisations that strategically adopt a modern private cloud can better support secure GenAI innovation, improve fiscal visibility, and accelerate workload repatriation."
Security, GenAI, and Cost Predictability Accelerate the Shift to Private Cloud
As IT leaders modernise their infrastructure, they are increasingly turning to private cloud to meet a range of critical needs, from securing sensitive data to managing unpredictable GenAI workloads to improving financial visibility.
Security and compliance
• 96% trust private cloud for security and compliance needs.
• 69% are "very" or "extremely" concerned about public cloud compliance, and security is cited as the leading driver for workload repatriation from public cloud.
Generative AI requirements
• Data privacy and security concerns (47%) top the list of GenAI adoption challenges.
• Organisations are choosing private cloud environments for AI workloads at nearly the same rate as public cloud (60% vs. 55%).
Cost predictability and reduction
• 94% value private cloud’s financial visibility and predictability.
• 95% report at least some level of waste on public cloud spend.
• 47% believe more than 25% of their public cloud spend is wasted, creating significant optimisation opportunities.
Accelerating the Private Cloud Momentum
Real-world public cloud experiences, the rapid rise of GenAI workloads, and increasing demands for security, compliance, and cost predictability are driving this strategic cloud realignment. To fully capitalise on private cloud advantages, organisations must address two key challenges: overcoming siloed IT teams and a perpetuating skills gap. Respondents identified siloed IT teams present the greatest challenge to private cloud adoption (30%), and 29% cite a lack of in-house skills/expertise as a barrier to private cloud adoption. Organisations that transition from technology silos to platform teams can focus on upskilling staff to permanently close the skills gap and reduce reliance on professional services. The report found that 86% are now structuring their technical organisations around a platform team rather than technology silos.
