In recent years, the concept of cloud repatriation has gained traction among organizations seeking to optimize their IT infrastructure by having more control over the security and compliance of their data while aiming to reduce overall cost. IDC, a leading IT analyst firm, notes in an interview with Data Center Dynamics, that its surveys show repatriation as a steady trend ‘essentially as soon as the public cloud became mainstream,’ with around 70 to 80 percent of companies repatriating at least some data back from public cloud each year.
Cloud repatriation, simply put, refers to the process of moving workloads and applications from the public cloud back to on-premises infrastructure or a co-location facility. It does not have to mean a full scale “lift and shift” from public cloud back to 100% on-prem, nor should it. This strategic move is becoming increasingly popular, particularly among large enterprises and organizations with high security and performance needs.
What is Cloud Repatriation?
Cloud repatriation involves withdrawing certain workloads from public cloud services like AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform and relocating them to an organization’s own data centers or co-location facilities. This doesn’t mean a complete abandonment of cloud services but rather a selective approach where specific workloads are identified and moved based on business needs.
Why Consider Cloud Repatriation?
Several factors drive organizations to consider cloud repatriation:
- Cost Management: While the cloud offers significant agility and operational efficiency, the cost can escalate rapidly, especially for large-scale, high-performance applications. Repatriating these workloads can lead to substantial cost savings in the long term. The initial allure of cost savings in the cloud is diminishing as organizations realize the ongoing operational expenses involved. The progressive costs of cloud services are quite often higher than an on-premise set up for stable workloads, giving the opportunity to recognize long-term savings with predictable expenses.
- Security and Compliance: For industries like finance and healthcare, data security and compliance are paramount. Owning the infrastructure ensures tighter control over sensitive data, which is crucial for meeting regulatory requirements and protecting proprietary information. Despite advancements in cloud security, certain organizations find the security of their proprietary data better managed within their own infrastructure.
- Performance and Reliability: High-performance applications, such as those in financial trading or AI-driven analytics, demand low latency and high reliability. On-premise infrastructure can be optimized to meet these stringent requirements more effectively than public cloud services. The ability to customize and optimize the infrastructure to specific application needs is a significant advantage. Trying to accomplish the same performance and latency demands within the public cloud can become extremely expensive.
- Operational Control: Organizations with complex, custom applications benefit from the operational control that comes with managing their own infrastructure. This control allows for tailored optimizations and configurations that public cloud providers might not support. When you add this to security concerns, markets and industries that rely heavily on low latency, and the booming demand for highly intense computing environments centered around AI, coming back on-prem may be right decision for a growing number of workloads.
The Hybrid Approach: Best of Both Worlds
Rather than a complete shift back to on-premise, many organizations are adopting a hybrid strategy. This involves maintaining a mix of public cloud services and on-premise infrastructure, leveraging the strengths of both environments. Here’s why a hybrid approach makes sense:
- Flexibility: Organizations can choose the best environment for each workload, optimizing for performance, cost, and security.
- Scalability: The cloud provides the ability to scale resources up or down based on demand, which is ideal for handling variable workloads.
- Resilience: A hybrid model enhances disaster recovery capabilities, ensuring that critical applications have multiple layers of redundancy.
Considerations for Implementing a Hybrid Strategy
Transitioning to a hybrid cloud strategy requires careful planning and consideration. Here are key points to keep in mind:
- Assessment of Workloads: Identify which workloads are best suited for on-premise and which should remain in the cloud. Consider factors such as cost, performance, security, and compliance.
- Migration Planning: Develop a detailed migration plan that addresses potential compatibility issues and ensures seamless data transfer. Incremental migration can help mitigate risks. Early cloud adopters that jumped right in with a forklift shift for applications and workloads that were not initially cloud native likely didn’t experience the efficiencies and benefits that are often bragged about. Now, with an ongoing hybrid approach, IT organizations appropriately plan, and test against, which workloads should live where.
- Resource Management: Ensure your organization has the technical expertise to manage both cloud and on-premise environments. Investing in cloud and infrastructure engineers can bridge this gap. The scarcity and cost of skilled cloud engineers can be a challenge that needs addressing.
- Cost Analysis: Conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis to determine the financial implications of repatriation. Consider both immediate capital expenditures and long-term operational costs. The initial capital expense might be significant, but long-term savings could justify the investment.
- Scalability Considerations: Ensure that your on-premise infrastructure can scale as needed. Planning for future growth is crucial to avoid repeated migrations. You can consider running certain high compute workloads in the cloud for the short term and make sure they provide the expected benefits They can be tweaked and purpose built and then consideration can be make to bring that strategic workload back on-prem for a longer term, predicable cost structure.
How OSI Global Can Help
OSI Global specializes in supporting organizations through their cloud repatriation journey. OSI provides experience and expertise within all core aspects of the datacenter; networking, optical design and engineering, large-scale computing, and a wide range of support and Professional Services.
By partnering with OSI Global, organizations can navigate the complexities of cloud repatriation and hybrid cloud strategies, ensuring they achieve the optimal balance of cost, performance, and security.
Conclusion
Cloud repatriation and hybrid cloud strategies are not just trends but essential considerations for organizations looking to optimize their IT infrastructure. By understanding the benefits and challenges, and with the right partners like OSI Global, businesses can make informed decisions that drive efficiency, security, and growth in the digital age.
