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Originally Posted On: https://rack59.com/blog/cloud-repatriation-and-cloud-expectations/

The Cloud Computing Phenomenon

Over the past decade, cloud computing became the go-to option for compute and data storage for thousands of companies worldwide. Generally speaking, it has several advantages compared to the traditional on-premise data center, the most notable being cost efficiency (both capital and operational), improved mobility (the time it takes to bring an application online), increased collaboration capabilities, and adaptable provisioning based on shifts in processing demand. Taking these advantages into account, cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular. IT giant Cisco is predicting that 94% of all workloads will be stored in cloud data centers by 2021. Furthermore, MarketsandMarkets.com recently unveiled data that shows the massive monetary increase in the cloud computing market. In particular, it is expected to grow from USD 233 billion in 2019 to USD 295 billion by 2021, with an annual growth rate of 12.5%.

Public Cloud Alternatives Gaining Steam

While public cloud computing and storage can have several advantages, there is a recent trend of shifting specific workloads into private cloud, hybrid-cloud, local data center colocation, and to edge environments. It appears in the speed to take advantage of competitive offerings, businesses were likely unaware of the suitability of their data in a public cloud environment and how it would impact the well-being of their applications or compute strategies. 451 Research is a global research firm that has analyzed this trend and has named the transition from public cloud computing to private clouds and other compute environments as “Cloud Repatriation“. Additionally, they surveyed several cloud users, with 20% of them revealing that they already moved various portions of their workloads into a private cloud. The transition does not stop there though, with another 40% of surveyed users saying that they will switch to private clouds soon as well. Based on this trend, we would gather that your teams might also be having similar conversations as to what service or product offerings may best fit your growing operation’s needs.

Analyzing the Various Options

Any business decision, especially those that are IT-related, that are not thoroughly analyzed, researched, and tested are bound to struggle long-term and cause painful setbacks. Before deciding on transitioning your workload out of the public cloud and into other available solutions, we would recommend a thorough conversation and contemplation to determine the needs of your business and explore the various offerings for the best short and long term fit.

If you’ve run your applications or data storage on a public cloud and had less than stellar results, a change in the cloud environment may be called for. The most common issues that occur when running compute or storing data on a public cloud are related to security compliance and or levels of latency due to traffic congestion, and inconsistent application execution.

It has recently been rumored that a Fortune 500 (500 most financially successful businesses in the world) has recently divested themselves from a totally public cloud service and began the migration of data and applications to hybrid-cloud and collocated private servers. This repatriation of various data assets was rumored to have occurred due to a discrepancy in its own terms and privacy policies that strictly prohibited the storage of personal data and the sharing of info on external public servers.

Additionally, Dropbox, one of the world’s largest data and image storage platforms, has reportedly saved over $75 million over two years after moving a vast portion of their data to a private cloud environment. Cloud computing at scale can be very expensive over time, and if done appropriately, repatriation of assets can net large profits when moving from the public cloud and into collocated and or hybrid cloud environments.

Another factor to consider when looking at various options is to determine whether your applications are required to move large amounts of data quickly or have experienced hiccups when network latency and adequate connectivity are not available. If your compute and or applications suffer from these latency issues, a move to a private cloud or a carrier dense data center may be in order. While public cloud computing and storage are typically a stable platform for next-gen technologies, it may lack certain capabilities for controlled edge computing and IoT data transmission due to network latency and required local processing.

One Size Does Not Fit All

In the end, it all comes down to the particular needs of your business and its IT operation. Organizations of various sizes are finding that one size does not fit all and solutions made up of various services including on-premise, colocation and hybrid/public cloud environments are all appropriate depending on the needs and constraints of each business.

We’ve listed a few factors below worth taking into account when considering cloud repatriation of your data and application resources:

• Do you waste resources on public cloud space or compute resources that are not currently being used?
• Do you experience performance and latency issues when moving data assets?
• Is it accurate to say that you need to fulfill specific compliance and regulatory standards when storing large data sets?
• Is your IT staff large enough to handle various maintenance needs of your workloads?

If your team would like to further the conversation about the specifics of your operation and your desire to optimize the various solutions that are available, contact our team online at RACK59.com/contact-us.