The cloud revolution has reshaped the IT industry, offering scalability, agility, and innovation to organizations worldwide. However, the journey to the cloud isn’t always straightforward.

According to IDC, 83 percent of enterprise CIOs are planning to repatriate at least some workloads from public cloud environments to on-premise servers or private clouds. Why? Rising costs, security concerns, vendor lock-in, and a rapidly changing regulatory landscape are increasingly driving organizations to rethink their cloud strategies to what suits them best.

Despite these concerns, only eight percent of organizations are considering full repatriation, highlighting more balanced thinking that not all workloads need to reside on cloud infrastructure. So, rather than viewing repatriation as an exit from the cloud, organizations view it as an opportunity to maximize the value of their cloud infrastructure by harnessing the advantages of a multi-cloud environment - deploying workloads on-premises - alongside private and public environments.   

But how will a balanced approach, including workload repatriation, benefit an organization in the long term?  

Managing risks

While the cloud offers scalability and innovation, restrictive agreements and fears of vendor lock-in, unforeseen expenses, and compromised data security lead to many organizations now adopting a more balanced cloud adoption strategy.  

Recognizing the undeniable value that the cloud can bring, organizations also understand that not all workloads need to reside on cloud infrastructure. They will think in the future ‘cloud-if’ rather than ‘cloud first’ strategy. 

By selectively repatriating workloads and potentially migrating them back into the cloud as needed, organizations can harness the advantages of both on-premises and cloud infrastructures. This approach elevates cloud-repatriation to a strategic advantage, allowing organizations more efficient resource scaling, cost reductions, and ensuring data sovereignty and security.

Moving forward with repatriation

Repatriation can provide benefits such as cost optimization and enhanced control, but it also introduces significant challenges. Key obstacles organizations encounter during cloud repatriation include the absence of cloud-native services, limited access to provider-managed applications, the need for highly skilled professionals, and potentially substantial capital expenditures required for building or upgrading on-premises infrastructure.

Migrating workloads back on-premises often results in the development of hybrid environments or, in cases where multiple public cloud providers are used, multi-cloud environments. This shift adds complexity to managing IT infrastructure, requiring greater coordination and expertise.

In public cloud environments, providers offer a wide array of managed services, automated management, and orchestration capabilities that simplify operations and reduce the burden on IT teams. When repatriating workloads, organizations must find alternatives or develop in-house solutions to replicate these functionalities. This can be time-consuming, costly, and may result in reduced capabilities compared to cloud-native offerings.

As such, organizations must carefully balance the trade-offs between the advanced capabilities of cloud-native solutions and the control offered by on-premises environments. Proper planning, sufficient resources, and robust cloud management expertise are essential to successfully navigate the complexities of the repatriation process.

Get smart with data when it comes to repatriation

Workload repatriation introduces another significant challenge: the high cost of data egress. Companies who want to move their data back from the cloud to on-premises systems may face unexpected fees and charges. These fees are usually charged by public cloud providers for transferring data out of their network, known as egress fees.

Egress fees can quickly add up especially if large amounts of data need to be repatriated. This is because most public cloud providers charge based on the amount of data being transferred out, in addition to other factors such as distance and time. These charges can become a major deterrent for companies looking to migrate their workloads back from the cloud.

To make repatriation financially sustainable, organizations must adopt smart approaches to optimize and standardize data transitions. 

This approach simplifies and standardizes data movement, reducing costs and complexity for organizations repatriating data today and tomorrow. By using automation, and multi-cloud networking and benefiting from direct inter-cloud connectivity, organizations gain greater control, cut egress costs, and improve transfer efficiency.

Repatriation as opportunity

As rising costs, operational complexity, and regulatory pressure continue to challenge the value organizations derive from their cloud investments, workload repatriation is emerging as a path to re-establish positive cloud value. 

However, workload repatriation should not be approached as a singular or isolated strategy. The true value of the cloud extends beyond cost savings, encompassing its ability to drive innovation, enhance business resilience, and unlock new growth opportunities.

By incorporating on-premises environments as part of a “true” multi-cloud strategy, organizations can strategically deploy workloads where they perform most effectively. This approach maximizes flexibility, ensures regulatory compliance, and optimizes operational costs to better align with business objectives.