Cloud computing has long been touted as the solution to modern IT challenges, promising organizations enhanced scalability, flexibility, and cost savings. However, recent trends suggest that IT managers now find that a hybrid approach, that incorporates on-prem infrastructure, often better suits their needs. According to new research highlighted in IDC’s Cloud Pulse 4Q 2023 survey, organizations are increasingly choosing to bring certain workloads back to on-premises environments – a process known as “cloud repatriation.”
Organizations cite multiple objectives in making a move to hybrid:
Security and Compliance Hurdles
Despite advanced cloud security measures, organizations – especially in heavily regulated industries like finance and healthcare – continue to grapple with data security and compliance concerns. This has made production data and backup/disaster recovery processes prime candidates for repatriation.
Data Sovereignty
Around the globe, we today see expanding regulations that govern data location. Sensitive data such as PII, medical records, and financial records must be physically stored within specific geographic boundaries.
Performance Challenges
While cloud infrastructure is robust, not all workloads perform optimally in cloud environments. Technical and AI-related applications, in particular, often face performance bottlenecks that can impact business operations.
Unexpected Costs
Nearly half of cloud buyers reported spending more than anticipated on cloud services in 2023, with 59% expecting similar overruns in 2024, according to IDC. These budget overages are often driven by:
- Complex environment management
- Rising third-party service costs
- New technology investments (like GenAI)
Understanding the Repatriation Trend
Cloud repatriation isn’t about abandoning cloud computing. Instead, it’s part of a more nuanced approach to IT infrastructure. IDC’s Server and Storage Workloads Survey reveals that while only 8-9% of companies plan full workload repatriation, many are selectively moving specific workloads back on-premises.
Who’s Leading the Charge?
Larger enterprises are at the forefront of this trend, leveraging their resources and complex IT environments to optimize workload placement. Their comprehensive strategies often involve maintaining a mix of:
- Public cloud services
- Private cloud infrastructure
- On-premises solutions
Looking Ahead: The Hybrid Future
The repatriation trend doesn’t signal the end of cloud computing. Instead, it points to a more mature understanding of how to best leverage different infrastructure options. Organizations are learning that success lies in finding the right balance between cloud and on-premises solutions, based on their specific needs, workload requirements, and business objectives.
Cloudian offers unparalleled hybrid cloud support
Cloudian’s HyperStore delivers seamless hybrid cloud functionality by providing a unified storage environment that spans both on-premises and public cloud infrastructure. With native S3 API compatibility, HyperStore enables consistent data management and access across environments, allowing organizations to place workloads and data wherever it makes the most sense.
Full cloud integration
Cloudian HyperStore enables automated, policy-based data tiering between on-premises storage and AWS S3 cloud storage, providing cost-effective data lifecycle management. Tiering capability is also available with Google GCP and Microsoft Azure clouds. With this, organizations can automatically migrate less frequently accessed data to cloud storage tiers, while keeping hot data local for optimal performance. Data remains fully searchable regardless of location, and built-in versioning ensures data consistency across both environments. This flexible tiering capability helps organizations optimize storage costs while maintaining seamless data access.
AWS Hybrid Edge support
For AWS Hybrid Edge users, Cloudian offers integration with AWS Outposts and Local Zones, bringing the same S3-compatible storage to edge locations while ensuring consistent performance and management.
On AWS Marketplace, Cloudian offers two hybrid options:
- Cloudian HyperStore for AWS Outposts Servers: An S3-compatible, fully-managed local storage offering, deployed alongside AWS Outposts Servers at any on-premises or edge location.
- Cloudian HyperStore for AWS Hybrid Edge: S3-compatible storage software, deployed in the customers resident location beside AWS Outposts or Local Zones.
These offerings help organizations meet low-latency requirements for their applications while leveraging public cloud elasticity, maintaining data sovereignty and optimizing costs through intelligent data placement.
The hybrid journey is just beginning
As we move forward, the key to success will be developing sophisticated strategies that optimize workload placement across all available environments. This hybrid approach allows organizations to maximize the benefits of both cloud and on-premises infrastructure while minimizing their respective drawbacks.
Learn more at cloudian.com.
This analysis is based on findings from IDC’s Cloud Pulse 4Q 2023 survey and Server and Storage Workloads Survey, which examine cloud computing trends and enterprise infrastructure preferences. Read the IDC article on this topic here.
