The use of paid cloud computing services among enterprises in Cyprus declined slightly in 2025, placing the country among just three EU member states to record a decrease, even as cloud adoption across the European Union continued to expand at a rapid pace.

According to the latest Eurostat data on ICT usage in enterprises, 51.3% of Cypriot businesses used paid cloud computing services in 2025, down from 52.9% in 2023. Cyprus joins Poland and Denmark as the only EU countries where cloud usage fell over the two-year period.

The decline contrasts with the broader EU trend. Across the bloc, the share of enterprises using paid cloud services rose from 45.3% in 2023 to 52.7% in 2025, an increase of 7.4 percentage points. In practical terms, cloud computing is now used by more than half of EU enterprises with 10 or more employees, signalling that digital infrastructure is increasingly becoming a core operational layer for European businesses.

Cyprus’ performance places it close to the EU average in absolute terms, but the negative trajectory raises questions about the pace and depth of digital transformation among local enterprises. While near-universal internet access is no longer a constraint—almost all EU and Cypriot enterprises are connected—the data suggests that cloud adoption in Cyprus may be plateauing rather than accelerating.

At the top of the EU rankings in 2025 were Finland (79.2%), Italy (75.6%) and Malta (74.9%), where cloud services have become a standard business tool. At the opposite end of the scale, Bulgaria (17.8%), Greece (24.3%) and Romania (24.9%) remain significantly behind, with fewer than one in four enterprises using paid cloud solutions.

Eurostat’s figures also shed light on how enterprises use the cloud. Across the EU, cloud services are still predominantly deployed for relatively basic but essential functions. More than 85% of cloud-using enterprises rely on cloud-based email, while over 70% use cloud office software and file storage. These services allow companies to avoid maintaining in-house servers and reduce upfront IT costs, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises.

More advanced uses of cloud computing remain less widespread. Just under half of EU enterprises using cloud services host their databases in the cloud, while around 30% use cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and less than 28% rely on customer relationship management (CRM) tools delivered via the cloud. Roughly one in four enterprises purchase cloud platforms for application development, testing or deployment.

This pattern highlights a key finding of the Eurostat analysis: while cloud computing is becoming more common, it has yet to fully transition from a productivity tool to a strategic backbone for business operations across much of Europe.

The gap becomes clearer when examining sectoral and size-based differences. In the EU, 82.9% of enterprises in the information and communication sector use paid cloud services, far exceeding most other industries. Large enterprises also lead adoption, with 84.7% using paid cloud solutions in 2025, compared with 66.8% of medium-sized firms and 49.3% of small enterprises.

Despite this, Eurostat notes a growing reliance on more sophisticated cloud services. In 2025, around 41% of all EU enterprises were classified as highly dependent on cloud computing, meaning they used advanced services such as security software, hosted databases or cloud platforms for software development. Among enterprises already using cloud services, more than three-quarters fell into this “high dependence” category.

Here again, northern and western EU countries dominate. Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy recorded the highest shares of enterprises highly dependent on cloud computing, indicating deeper integration of digital infrastructure into business models.