Cloud adoption continues to accelerate across industries and geographies, driven by digital transformation, remote work, and agile business demands. What began as a technology-led initiative has evolved into a strategic imperative—organizations now view cloud deployment not just as infrastructure change, but as a catalyst for innovation, flexibility and resilience. Against this backdrop, understanding current adoption rates and trends is critical for benchmarking, planning and maximizing value.
This report presents the latest cloud adoption rate statistics for 2025–2026, drawn from authorised industry reports and verified enterprise surveys. These insights illustrate how many organizations are using cloud, how many workloads have shifted, what strategies are driving adoption, and where gaps remain. Whether you are leading cloud strategy, assessing vendor readiness or tracking competitive positioning, these metrics give clarity into the state of cloud adoption today.
From large enterprises to small-and-medium businesses, and from public- to private-to hybrid-cloud models, the adoption landscape is broad and varied. Below are key statistics grouped by overall usage, workload migration, regional and organizational differences, strategy and business impact. These numbers help shape expectations, allocate resources and identify where investment is still needed as we move into 2026.
1) Overall Enterprise Cloud Usage
- As of 2025, approximately **94% of enterprises worldwide** are using some form of cloud computing. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}
- About **72% of global workloads** are now hosted in cloud environments in 2025, up from 66% in the previous year. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}
- Just **3% of enterprises** report no current plans to use cloud services in 2025—a record low. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}
- In the European Union, **45.2% of enterprises** purchased cloud computing services in 2023, up from 41% in 2021. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}
- Among large enterprises in the EU (2023), **77.6%** had bought cloud computing services, increasing by 6 percentage points from 2021. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}
2) Workload and Migration Trends
- More than **48% of organizations** plan to migrate at least half of their applications to the cloud over the next year. :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}
- According to forecasts, by 2026 over **45% of IT spending** in system infrastructure, infrastructure software, application software, and business process outsourcing will shift from traditional solutions to the cloud. :contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6}
- Hybrid cloud adoption (public + private) now accounts for roughly **66% of global enterprises** as part of their cloud strategy. :contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}
- Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are projected to achieve a cloud adoption rate of **over 82% in 2025**, reflecting increased affordability and business agility. :contentReference[oaicite:8]{index=8}
- In the U.S. and Western Europe combined, these regions account for approximately **82% of global cloud computing usage**. :contentReference[oaicite:9]{index=9}
3) Strategy & Organizational Implementation
- In 2025, **78% of IT decision-makers** consider cloud their primary infrastructure strategy. :contentReference[oaicite:10]{index=10}
- Approximately **55% of organizations** now follow a “cloud-first” policy when adopting new technologies. :contentReference[oaicite:11]{index=11}
- About **52% of organizations** have already established a central cloud team or center of excellence. :contentReference[oaicite:12]{index=12}
- Enterprises running 1,000+ employees report more than **94% cloud usage** among them. :contentReference[oaicite:13]{index=13}
- While adoption is high, around **30% of organizations** still report that a majority of workloads remain on-premises or in private environments. :contentReference[oaicite:14]{index=14}
4) Regional Differences & Market Penetration
- In the EU, Finland (78.3%), Sweden (71.6%) and Denmark (69.5%) had the highest cloud-service purchasing rates among enterprises in 2023. :contentReference[oaicite:15]{index=15}
- In the EU, countries like Greece (23.6 %) and Romania (18.4 %) had among the lowest cloud adoption rates in 2023. :contentReference[oaicite:16]{index=16}
- Public cloud usage among all businesses is expected to reach about **72% by 2025**. :contentReference[oaicite:17]{index=17}
- Workloads moving to the cloud across developed economies reached roughly **60%** of SMB data storage in public cloud, according to some surveys. :contentReference[oaicite:18]{index=18}
- The Asia-Pacific region is among the fastest growing in cloud adoption as organisations in emerging markets accelerate migration. :contentReference[oaicite:19]{index=19}
5) Business Impact & Maturity Indicators
- Organizations with mature cloud adoption deploy changes roughly **30× more frequently** than those in traditional environments. (cloud adoption maturity metric) :contentReference[oaicite:20]{index=20}
- In surveys, nearly **60% of organizations** reported that more than half of their workloads were already running in the cloud. :contentReference[oaicite:21]{index=21}
- Approximately **37% of enterprises** now operate in a fully cloud-native environment (minimal reliance on traditional data centres). :contentReference[oaicite:22]{index=22}
- Organizations with cloud-first policies are 50% more likely to exceed innovation benchmarks than their peers. (industry trend) :contentReference[oaicite:23]{index=23}
- Despite high adoption, up to **30% of cloud spend** is reported as wasted due to misaligned projects, unused services or lack of governance. :contentReference[oaicite:24]{index=24}
Conclusion
Cloud adoption in 2025–2026 has moved beyond early experimentation into mainstream business strategy. The overwhelming majority of enterprises use cloud services, a substantial portion of workloads have migrated, and cloud-first policies are now standard across industries. But while the adoption rate is high, the work ahead is about optimization—maturing governance, reducing waste and ensuring that cloud usage translates into measurable business outcomes.
Regional disparities and organisational readiness remain key differentiators: mature markets and large enterprises lead the pack, while SMEs and emerging economies continue to catch up. The real test now is how quickly organisations can shift from basic adoption to cloud-native maturity, automate operations and extract full value.
Going into 2026, cloud adoption is as much about culture and process as it is about infrastructure. With nearly every organization now using some form of cloud, the advantage will accrue to those who execute with discipline—adopting multi-cloud strategies, cloud-first policies, and continuous improvement models that tie adoption to innovation and business growth.
FAQs
1. What percentage of companies have adopted cloud computing?
Surveys indicate that about 94% of enterprises use some form of cloud computing as of 2025. :contentReference[oaicite:25]{index=25}
2. What portion of workloads are in the cloud?
In 2025 roughly 72% of global workloads are hosted in cloud environments according to industry estimates. :contentReference[oaicite:26]{index=26}
3. What is a “cloud-first” strategy?
A cloud-first strategy means that new digital initiatives default to cloud deployment unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise. Around 55% of organizations follow this approach. :contentReference[oaicite:27]{index=27}
4. How widespread is multi-cloud or hybrid adoption?
Hybrid and multi-cloud models are used by more than 60% of enterprises as they seek flexibility and avoid vendor lock-in. :contentReference[oaicite:28]{index=28}
5. Are there regional differences in cloud adoption?
Yes — for example, some EU countries see over 78% enterprise adoption while others remain under 25%. :contentReference[oaicite:29]{index=29}
6. What are common pitfalls despite high adoption?
Even with high adoption rates, challenges remain: up to 30% of cloud spend can be wasted due to governance and optimization issues. :contentReference[oaicite:30]{index=30}
