As India's cloud market continues to soar, a pressing question remains: are businesses getting the cloud they paid for, or are they being held back by unexpected costs, complexity, and regulatory uncertainty?
By 2030, the Indian cloud market is expected to reach $58.73 billion (rising from $21.82 billion in 2025). As Indian businesses become more reliant on cloud infrastructure, the need to manage cloud costs effectively is becoming increasingly critical. Our recent white paper, "The Cost of Cloud 2025: India Edition," highlights the key challenges and opportunities facing Indian businesses in the cloud computing landscape.
How almost 90% of Indian businesses have reported unexpected cloud bills
The research reveals that managing cloud costs is a significant challenge for Indian businesses. Over 84% of respondents reported experiencing unexpected billing or cost overruns since moving to the cloud. The top cost management challenges faced by respondents include:
- Unexpected expenses (e.g., egress fees): 33%
- Difficulty optimizing workloads: 22%
- Lack of in-house expertise: 16%
- Lack of cost visibility and reporting tools: 16%
- Overprovisioning of resources: 14%
To address these challenges, organizations are adopting various strategies, including conducting regular cost audits and reviews (31%), improving cost visibility through enhanced reporting tools (27%), and leveraging reserved or spot instances (21%). However, the research suggests that more needs to be done to address the issue of rising cloud costs. Cloud providers must offer transparent and predictable pricing models to help businesses manage their cloud expenses effectively.
The lack of transparency in cloud pricing is a significant concern for Indian businesses. The research highlights that data egress charges, API call fees, and premium support add-ons can drive bills far beyond what was originally forecast. These hidden costs create uncertainty and erode trust, leaving organizations frustrated by the gap between expected and actual spend.
Over 60% of Indian businesses prioritize local data storage
As data breaches and regulatory non-compliance continue to make headlines, Indian businesses are increasingly prioritizing data sovereignty. But are they doing enough to ensure that their data is stored and processed in compliance with local regulations? With over 63% of respondents stating that it is "extremely important" for their data to remain within Indian borders, the answer is clear: data sovereignty is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP) 2023 and the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) data localization norms are driving this trend. However, a significant compliance gap persists, with over 70% of Indian enterprises still storing sensitive data on foreign cloud servers.
“Sovereignty, on a broad notion, is all about the customer being able to exercise control over the IT resources they use. I think that includes things like having a say in where your data is stored, who can access that data, and for what purposes that data is used.” - David Michels, Researcher at Queen Mary University of London, Civo Navigate London 2025
To address this challenge, businesses must prioritize data sovereignty and compliance. Cloud providers that offer locally compliant solutions and clear, transparent pricing are well-positioned to address this critical market need. By partnering with such providers, businesses can ensure that their data is stored and processed in compliance with Indian regulations.
Nearly 50% of Indian businesses plan to scale up cloud usage
The cloud is no longer just a trend - it's a necessity for businesses looking to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. With nearly half of respondents (48%) planning to increase their cloud usage significantly over the next 12-24 months, the need for scalable, flexible, and compliant cloud solutions has never been more pressing.
The top drivers for switching cloud providers are lower costs (29%), improved performance (26%), and better regulatory compliance support (23%). As businesses look to future-proof their cloud strategies, these factors will play a critical role in determining their success.
“There are still concerns around the high costs involved in migrating to the cloud, particularly the initial investments in working with system integrators and refactoring workloads… Businesses often get excited about cloud, but when the free credits run out, they’re faced with unexpected bills that come as a shock” - Janakiram MSV
To navigate this evolving landscape, enterprises, policymakers, and cloud providers must work together to drive growth and innovation. By prioritizing cost transparency, data sovereignty, and skills development, businesses can harness the scalability, flexibility, and speed to market that cloud technologies offer.
The future of cloud in India
At Civo, we are committed to playing our part in shaping this future. By providing simple, transparent, and locally compliant cloud solutions, we aim to empower Indian businesses to thrive in a rapidly changing digital landscape.
“Civo has been a game-changer for us, reducing the time it takes to create Kubernetes clusters from minutes to seconds! This has significantly accelerated our development cycles and allowed our team to focus on delivering business value. The web based workloads deployed in Mumbai region provide lower latency and faster load times for us as compared to DigitalOcean” - Vikas Yadav, Founder of KubeNine
Civo isn’t just another cloud and AI platform; it’s a whole new way of thinking. Designed to challenge traditional models, we’ve built a new kind of cloud, defined a better business model to support it, and put control back where it belongs - in the hands of users.
Cloud was always supposed to offer freedom and flexibility. Somewhere along the way, that promise got lost. Today, most providers prioritize growth over what customers actually need.
But we don’t.
We provide everything our customers ask for: more speed, more control, more flexibility, transparency, and value. Together, we’re on a mission to open up the AI-powered, hybrid cloud era.
The Cost of Cloud 2025 - India Edition
Based on a survey of over 600 Indian tech professionals, we dive deep into the real-world challenges: the shock of unexpected egress fees, the headache of vendor lock-in, and the race to comply with strict data sovereignty rules like the DPDP Act.
The findings of this report highlight the need for a renewed focus on the fundamental principles that underpin a successful cloud strategy: data sovereignty, cost transparency, and skills development.
