After the ‘emotional choice’ for cloud-first, CIOs now embrace the hybrid reality

Beltug’s 2025 Belgian Business ICT Market Study details the results of a broad survey of 1,159 respondents, with the findings discussed by a panel of ICT decision-makers during a round table discussion. The full downloadable report is available for members after login. Brief summaries are available (in French and Dutch), including a summary infographic (no login required). We have also published a 7-page report on the findings of the CIO panel here.

A hybrid reality

The striking figures around cloud-first and IaaS point to a new reality: in 2025, companies are fully embracing hybrid infrastructure. “The on-premises data centre will never disappear completely,” one CIO asserts. “The reality now is hybrid.”

Definitions are also evolving: the concept of the on-premises data centre is increasingly merging with that of a private cloud. “You don’t necessarily have to manage your own data centre,” says one decision-maker. “You can just as easily work with an external partner.”

For CIOs, total cost of ownership (TCO) remains central. Public cloud often isn’t the cheapest option. “When we chose the cloud, we thought we would achieve cost savings. That turned out not to be the case,” one CIO admits. “Having said that, we do a lot more in the cloud now than we did before.”

Best of breed

Companies moving away from the cloud aren’t doing so solely for financial reasons. They’re also seeking better guarantees around compliance, lower latency for critical applications, and/or local data storage to optimise AI. Others are making deliberate strategic choices to keep their core applications on-premises.

But the hybrid reality is also increasing infrastructure complexity. Building the right in-house competencies for all facets of the hybrid environment – both on premises and in the cloud – has become a key focus area. “Today, companies think more in terms of best of breed,” says one decision-maker. “They’re using a very rational approach, whereas cloud-first was all too often an emotional decision.”

Restricted freedom

Another key issue is what happens to company data in the cloud, with half of the respondents expressing this concern. That’s understandable: data is a company’s goldmine, combining information from different systems, for example, to create new insights for customers. “But what if the US government forces cloud providers in its jurisdiction to give it access to our systems?” asks one CIO. “Or obliges them to seal off the connection to SaaS applications? This has happened already to some companies, and even though the US provided an explanation, other countries might take another stand, based on different laws, different values and another societal consensus. It doesn’t seem so unlikely these days.”

At the same time, most CIOs acknowledge that it’s practically impossible to avoid all US cloud services. “We use them,” says one, “for example, to run complex AI applications. But to properly manage this, we’ve rolled out a comprehensive data governance framework, together with the business.”

This dynamic results, however, in a sense of restricted freedom. “Having to return to on-premises out of necessity would be a serious concern,” one CIO warns. “Where is our freedom then? Before moving business-critical applications to the cloud, we’ll certainly think twice.”

Is your company’s reality hybrid, too?

The conclusion from the CIOs is clear: today’s ICT reality is hybrid. Do you agree? What’s your organisation’s approach to ICT infrastructure and operations? Join the conversation.

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