Cloud repatriation – how to balance repatriation effectively and securely

Over the years, businesses have undergone several significant shifts in their attitudes towards IT infrastructure. However, the public cloud has long been hailed as the go-to solution for those looking for rapid scalability and flexibility.

With Gartner predicting end-user spending on public cloud will surpass $675 billion this year, its popularity continues. The emergence of modern technologies such as Generative AI means reliance on cloud computing is likely to continue its upwards trajectory.

Yet some businesses are actively going against this trend and openly discussing shifting data and applications away from the public cloud in a move commonly known as cloud repatriation.

Going against the cloudy grain

As an increasing number of businesses reconsider their strategies and move certain workloads back to on-premises, private and hybrid environments, the cloud repatriation – or de-clouding – trend may be gaining momentum. Businesses are undergoing cloud repatriation initiatives due to costs, such as 37 Signals, stating that it expects to save $7 million in cloud computing costs over the next five years by moving workloads from the cloud to its own private data centers.

This shift is being driven by several factors that reflect the evolving needs and challenges that businesses find themselves facing when it comes to cloud computing. For example, costs can be unpredictable and difficult to manage in the cloud. While cloud services are often marketed as cost-effective, many businesses encounter unexpected expenses, such as network traffic costs, or charges for moving specific services. Over time, these can add up significantly and need to be balanced with the many other merits of why workloads moved to the cloud in the first place.

Another concern many organizations wrestle with when it comes to public cloud is technology vendor lock-in. This can happen when a company becomes too reliant on a single cloud provider for their services. It can make it difficult and costly to switch to another provider, limiting flexibility and potentially leading to other challenges in terms of integration and innovation.

The move away from the cloud also includes some new workloads that one could assume would go to the cloud, but don’t. This can for example occur in highly regulated industries like finance or healthcare, where some sensitive workloads have not moved to the public cloud due to stricter controls over data and security protocols. As these systems and data still need to interact with the rest of the business, scenarios appear where placing new workloads off-cloud, adjacent to the others, makes more sense than growing the cloud estate.

The road to repatriation

Regardless of the reasons for making the move away from public cloud, the road to repatriation can be complex to navigate. Whether it is technical or talent issues, financial costs or compliance challenges, businesses making the switch should be prepared to spend time planning and executing an effective strategy. Within this strategy there are three areas that require special attention: observability, compliance and employing a holistic tech stack strategy.

Observability is crucial in cloud repatriation because in order to move data and applications in-house, a business must understand them and how they are being used. It is only then you can ensure a smooth and effective transition. For example, there might be Shadow IT or AI that is being used by employees to get around IT policy and help them to get their work done faster. Sometimes these technologies will store data on a cloud service, so businesses need to be aware of them before making the switch. By leveraging observability, organizations can mitigate risks, optimize their infrastructure, and achieve successful repatriation that meets their strategic objectives.

Compliance is also important as it is a major focus area for European and UK regulators with new and emerging regulations like DORA and NIS2 coming to the fore. Businesses should have a strong understanding of the types of data that are being held on the cloud services they use and what special processes are needed to move this data to a private or an on-premise environment. Ensuring compliance throughout the repatriation process is essential for avoiding legal penalties, maintaining customer trust, and safeguarding data integrity

Another key piece of the puzzle is creating a holistic tech stack strategy. Business should avoid only thinking about where the data will be hosted at the end of the migration. Instead, they should see the tech stack as an ever-evolving operation where planning for the future is as important as planning for today. The wider radius – the network that will shift the data back and forth – needs to be secure, fast enough and fit-for-use. A comprehensive approach is essential when repatriating in order to maintain operational efficiency and optimize long-term performance.

Following this, as data is being brought back into the private cloud, it’s essential security plays a key part in this strategy. Securing data with firewalls and DDoS protection from the beginning means the risk of breaches and vulnerabilities is reduced, and IT teams can continue their repatriation without having to devote extra resources towards threat defense later.

A solution enterprise may not be aware of but should be a consideration as part of their repatriation strategy is the use of Virtual Data Centres (VDCs). This is where the benefits of the public cloud can be realized, whilst also having the predictable costs and control of a private cloud. Managing workloads on VDCs and connecting with public clouds means data remains secure and compliant, but accessible as local compute.

Staying one step ahead

While the public cloud remains an integral part of most IT strategies, the shift towards repatriating specific workloads underscores the importance of flexibility and control in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

When it comes to whether to de-cloud or not, there is no right or wrong answer. Each business must do what works best for them. However, for those who do decide to undertake this journey, thinking about observability and compliance whilst taking a holistic approach to the tech stack and talent resourcing from the outset can help to make the road less bumpy.

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