Cloud Repatriation has created a buzz, and it’s not just the usual suspects in the blogosphere, the users and businesses alike are frustrated and ready to make changes. Cloud storage bills are not just high, they’re unpredictable and blowing up budgets. IT teams are experiencing high latency in their data storage slowing down application response times. And, the promised savings in staffing never truly actualized. Companies are realizing the need to regain tighter control over their data which sometimes means specific physical locations for regulatory reasons. In fact, according to IDC, approximately 70-80% of companies are in the process of repatriating some data from the cloud. And you can find stories online that make it seem like organizations are stampeding back to on-premises data centers en-mass. But the reality is more nuanced.
Despite the rising interest in Cloud Repatriation, the cloud itself is still on an upward trajectory. Gartner predicts over 20% annual growth in cloud spending over the next three years. Cloud repatriation, or cloud spend optimization is a trend that will most likely continue because CTOs, CFOs, and IT leaders are making thoughtful decisions, balancing their requirements across a range of options, including large cloud providers, smaller service providers, co-location centers, and traditional on-premises data centers.
The Critical Role of Storage Performance
For those who executed a “lift and shift” of a transactional application into the cloud, there is a good chance you aren’t seeing the performance you would like. Cloud storage comes in many different flavors with object, file, block, and even bare metal offerings. However, achieving extremely low latency storage from the big cloud vendors continues to be both prohibitively expensive and challenging to manage effectively.
Expertise is Hard to Find, Especially Storage Expertise
One of the big advantages of moving to the cloud was supposed to be ease of management. Self-service provisioning and straightforward offerings, were meant to eliminate the need to hire and keep high-priced experts on your team. But this didn’t really hold true, especially if you need performance or fault tolerance. To achieve these goals for your business you require not only storage expertise, but also cloud expertise and vendor management proficiency as well.
Agility Beyond The Cloud
Cloud environments excel in agility. Need to store more data? No problem. Need to get more computing power? No problem. But, with modern IT infrastructure, it turns out, you can achieve the same level of agility without being bound to the cloud. Now, with brand-new web or mobile applications that scale from 10 to 100s of thousands of users overnight, then yes, the cloud is probably the best way to go. However, the odds are good that with a modern IT infrastructure including virtualization, software-defined solutions, or hyper-converged architectures, you can achieve the agility you need on-premises for all but the most dynamic workloads.
On-Premises Solutions Help Manage Costs
A key driver of cloud repatriation is cost control. Cloud storage can become extremely expensive, and can have unexpected spikes that can break your budget. Cloud pricing tends to be extremely complex and sometimes seems purposefully opaque. On-premises pricing, in contrast, is generally much more straightforward. Some vendors take things a step further with all-inclusive pricing including software licenses, maintenance, support, even onboarding and performance tuning all for a simple usage-based price.
Cloud Repatriation: A Natural Evolution of Modern IT
There are compelling reasons to run certain IT operations in the cloud, and equally compelling reasons to keep some on-premises. These considerations can change over time requiring adjustments in where applications run or where data is stored. Regulations can change, requiring changes to data locale or data control processes. Cost models can fluctuate both in the cloud and with on-premises operations. Maybe the decision to move that particular application to the cloud didn’t hold up over time.
The questions of “Where should this application run” and “Where should this data reside” can not be treated as a one-and-done scenario. IT and business teams need to regularly reassess their decisions and be prepared for migrations to and from the cloud. In short, cloud repatriation is a normal part of modern IT. You will very likely be moving some data and applications from the cloud back to your data center. And when you do, you’ll want a flexible, agile, scalable, and high-performance data storage solution. StorPool can help you navigate this evolving landscape seamlessly.
Cloud repatriation is not a retreat; it’s an evolution – a testament to the adaptability of modern IT in the face of ever-changing needs and circumstances.