May 29, 2025 — A global shift in enterprise cloud strategy is underway, with private cloud emerging as a strategic equal to public cloud, according to Broadcom’s Private Cloud Outlook 2025 report and VMware updates . The study, conducted in partnership with Illuminas, surveyed 1,800 senior IT leaders and found that 53% now prioritize private cloud for deploying new workloads, highlighting a significant pivot in how organizations approach cloud infrastructure.
The findings underscore a growing “cloud reset,” as 69% of organizations consider moving workloads back from public to private environments — with one-third already doing so. Security, cost predictability, and generative AI (GenAI) demands are key drivers behind the trend. Notably, 84% of enterprises are using private cloud for both legacy applications and modern, cloud-native workloads.
“Private cloud is now a strategic platform for IT modernization,” said Prashanth Shenoy, VP of Product Marketing at Broadcom’s VMware Cloud Foundation Division. “Enterprises are optimizing for control, performance, and financial transparency.”
Security, GenAI, and Cost: Driving Forces of Change
The report reveals that 92% of respondents trust private cloud for security and compliance, a significant factor as 66% express deep concerns about public cloud compliance. This concern is the leading reason behind workload repatriation from public platforms.
As generative AI becomes central to enterprise innovation, private cloud is increasingly seen as a more secure and manageable environment for training and deploying models. 55% prefer running AI workloads on private cloud, closely matching public cloud preference (56%). Data privacy, cited by 49% of respondents, remains the biggest GenAI adoption challenge.
From a financial standpoint, the report highlights striking inefficiencies in public cloud spending. 94% of organizations report waste in their public cloud budgets, and 49% estimate that over a quarter of that spend is wasted. In contrast, 90% of IT leaders value private cloud’s cost predictability and visibility.
Barriers and the Way Forward
Despite rising enthusiasm for private cloud, challenges persist. 33% of IT leaders cite siloed technical teams as the main obstacle to wider private cloud adoption, while 30% report a lack of in-house expertise. However, the transition is underway — 81% of organizations are now structuring IT around platform teams rather than fragmented tech stacks.
Broadcom’s Private Cloud Outlook 2025 –A Market Recalibration in Real Time
Broadcom’s research reflects a turning point in the cloud computing narrative. After years of “cloud-first” public cloud dominance, enterprises are reassessing long-term strategies. Industry experts see this as a maturing market response to persistent issues such as rising complexity, cost, and compliance risks in the public cloud model.
Originally viewed with skepticism, private cloud now meets modern expectations in terms of scalability, agility, and performance. The report indicates that enterprises embracing this new hybrid mindset — combining public and private cloud — are more likely to address changing business, security, and technology needs.
About the Study “Broadcom’s Private Cloud Outlook 2025”
The Private Cloud Outlook 2025 was conducted between March 6 and April 4, 2025, scrutinizing IT leaders across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific across industries such as finance, healthcare, government, and insurance. The Public and private cloud definitions based on NIST standards provided consistency in analysis.