As the cost and complexity of cloud computing becomes increasingly apparent to many enterprises, there has been a shift towards repatriating applications and data back to traditional systems. This is not necessarily a reflection of a failure on the part of cloud computing, but rather an adjustment based on current economic realities. Many enterprises cite high cloud costs as the primary reason for repatriation, which is often the result of failing to refactor applications and data to optimize cost-efficiencies on the cloud platform.
Despite the time-consuming and expensive nature of refactoring, the pandemic has put many enterprises under tight deadlines to migrate to the cloud. In this scenario, repatriation often becomes a more cost-effective option, even with the hassle and expense of operating one’s own systems in a data center.
In recent years, the prices of hardware components such as hard drive storage and networking hardware have decreased, while cloud computing costs have remained relatively unchanged or increased slightly. This shift has made it more economically feasible to move certain workloads back to traditional data centers. Typically, workloads that involve simple data storage without advanced processing are better suited for repatriation. However, workloads that depend on specialized cloud-based services cannot typically be repatriated as affordable alternatives are unlikely to exist on traditional platforms.
The goal of repatriation is to find the most optimized architecture to support a business, which may or may not involve public cloud computing. It’s important to consider that technology, including cloud computing, evolves over time, and businesses will continue to make adjustments to find the best solution for their needs. 2023 could be the year that enterprises begin repatriating applications and data stores that are more cost-effective to run within their own data centers.
Consult AV5 experts to enable hybrid cloud and reduce public cloud expenses while retaining its benefits.
