Cloud strategies were tested in 2025, with service incidents, rising complexity, and cost volatility creating pressure for change. The VMware disruption intensified this, exposing how dependent many organisations had become on a handful of suppliers. This session explores what comes next for cloud in the UK: how to regain control, reduce lock‑in, and build resilience through data independence, sovereignty‑by‑design, predictable economics, evergreen IaaS, and targeted managed services. Attendees will leave with practical guidance for creating cloud environments that are compliant, cost‑stable, AI‑ready, and built to grow on your terms.