Cloud repatriation: What you need to know

The new trend towards cloud repatriation has been driven by companies experiencing less-than-anticipated cost savings, increased compliance issues, and more after migrating to the cloud. While there are some advantages to moving data and applications out of the cloud, there are several things to consider before making that move.

In recent years, many organizations have migrated their data and applications to the cloud to take advantage of the scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness it touts. Today however, there is a growing trend toward cloud repatriation, in which businesses have begun pulling workloads (either partly or fully) out of the cloud, back into their on-premises infrastructure.

As with any major IT infrastructure decision, it’s essential to carefully weigh the pros and cons of cloud repatriation before committing to do it. Let’s look at what you need to know about cloud repatriation to help you make an informed decision, and the best practices to follow if you choose to move forward.

Why are companies considering repatriation?

Moving cloud-based workloads from the public cloud back to a company’s own on-premises environment involves migrating applications, workloads, and data that have been hosted in the public cloud to an on-premises data center (corporate data center or colocation facility). Repatriation can be a one-time move (a “lift-and-shift”) or a gradual process allocated across months or years, depending on the company’s needs.

Often, companies turn to cloud repatriation because they didn’t achieve the level of cost savings they were expecting, anticipated ROI was less than expected, or (in regulated industries) maintaining compliance was challenging:

1. Disappointing cost savings – Taking the incorrect approach or rushing into a cloud implementation can result in a company receiving almost none of the cost benefits touted as a selling point for moving to the cloud
2. Diminished ROI – When organizations take a “lift-and-shift” migration approach, which is just the first step to cloud-native, the benefits of cloud migration are often lost because the process was stopped before completing all of the steps required to achieve complete transformation
3. Compliance issues – In heavily regulated industries, organizations can find it very difficult to remain on top of compliance issues due to lack of control over their information in the cloud

Other reasons organizations might consider repatriation include having more control over security, performance, data, and their workloads. Companies may also choose to repatriate cloud workloads over concerns about vendor lock-in and service disruptions:

• Vendor lock-in occurs when a customer is unable to switch to a different cloud service provider or technology due to contractual obligations or because of technical challenges related to switching vendors.
• Service disruptions happen when the vendor’s service goes down or is disrupted, making a significant impact on the uptime and availability of an application or service.

For those currently moving to the cloud and wanting to reduce or eliminate the need for repatriation in the future, IT research firm Gartner offers three recommendations:

1. Fully develop your strategy before you move to the cloud.
2. Ensure that your strategy aligns with the goals of your company’s business strategy.
3. Allow for continuous evaluation and revision of your cloud strategy in your plan as industry trends and your business objectives evolve.

Best practices for cloud repatriation

It is important to consider the costs, risks, and potential benefits of cloud repatriation before making your decision. According to a recent article in CIO, migrating back from the cloud can be a challenge for any organization:

Cloud repatriation is generally a last-ditch effort to optimize the cost structure of a business, observes Sumit Malhotra, CIO of Time Internet in India. But pulling off such a transition requires a deep technical understanding of the applications, skills in multiple technologies, and executive sponsorship of possible negative impact on user experience at the time of this transition. The journey is not for the faint hearted.

A successful cloud repatriation initiative hinges on upfront discovery and careful planning. Our top best practices for cloud repatriation are:

1. Thinking about the basics – When it comes to the cloud, every business has unique priorities around cost, scalability, security, agility, and innovation; establish what your key needs are, and use that to inform whether a full (or partial) repatriation is right for you.
2. Identifying systems to be repatriated – Prioritize systems for repatriation based upon workload security needs, systems that require continuous storage upgrades, business-critical databases that need specialized support (along with their associated tools), sensitive information with complex compliance requirements, and legacy systems with low resource requirements.
3. Auditing your on-premises infrastructure – Examine your current infrastructure to make sure it will support the workloads targeted for repatriation.
4. Considering the destination – Will your move be to a colocation site, private cloud, or other alternative? The destination you choose will help shape your repatriation strategy.
5. Deciding on a deployment model – Think about how you would approach a private or public cloud vs. a hybrid deployment–especially when it comes to security and data governance.
6. Building a plan – Create a detailed plan around migration and security, as well as a roadmap for infrastructure maintenance, and a timeline for the repatriation process to help track milestones and identify red flags so you can resolve them before they impact the process.
7. Enable workload mobility – Consider using a workload automation solution that integrates with major cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and IBM Cloud to build connections that will streamline repatriation. If you’re moving a large volume of data, it may be in your best interests to use offline media for the move to avoid network capacity limitations.

Making an informed move

Cloud repatriation can deliver numerous benefits, like improved performance, cost savings, better security, easier compliance, and more control over workloads. Repatriation may come with increased needs around the setup and maintenance of on-premise infrastructure though, so before making the decision to repatriate, make sure you weigh the pros and cons carefully. By implementing best practices for cloud repatriation, your workloads can be moved to your on-premises infrastructure safely and securely.