Understanding Cloud Repatriation and How to Avoid It

In recent years, cloud adoption has surged as organizations look to harness the agility and scalability of cloud environments. However, not all cloud journeys have smooth sailing, and an increasing number of businesses are pulling their applications and data back to on-premises infrastructure—a process known as cloud repatriation. In this post, we will dive into cloud repatriation: what it is, why it happens, and, most importantly, how to avoid it.

What Is Cloud Repatriation?

Cloud repatriation occurs when organizations migrate workloads and applications from the cloud back to their on-premises data centers. This reversal happens when the cloud doesn’t meet performance expectations, costs spiral out of control, or other issues make staying in the cloud unviable. While moving to the cloud often promises improved flexibility and cost savings, many organizations find that cloud costs and performance don’t align with their expectations, pushing them to consider moving back.

Why Are Organizations Repatriating?

ESG recently surveyed IT and data professionals about their cloud experiences, and the results were eye-opening. A full 54% of organizations admitted to moving applications back on-prem after migrating them to the cloud. The reasons behind this decision vary but often revolve around a few key challenges:

• Higher-than-expected costs: Cloud costs can be unpredictable, especially when factoring in overprovisioning and scaling.
• Performance issues: Applications often struggle to meet the required performance levels, particularly when resource requirements grow.
• Availability concerns: Cloud services sometimes fail to deliver the uptime and resilience expected.
• Scalability limitations: The cloud’s promise of limitless scalability doesn’t always translate into reality for some organizations.
• Unmet expectations with utility computing: Organizations may find that cloud’s pay-as-you-go model doesn’t fit their needs or expectations.

The Complexity of Repatriation

Repatriating applications and data is a difficult and costly decision. Moving to the cloud requires extensive planning, time, and resources. When those efforts fail to yield the expected benefits, reversing course can be demoralizing. Companies face questions about technology choices, staff expertise, and the overall direction of their cloud strategy.

At Silk, we often hear from clients considering repatriation due to performance challenges. One fundamental lesson we’ve learned is that cloud performance is intrinsically linked to cost. When performance issues arise, costs can escalate quickly, leading organizations to question whether the cloud is worth it.

How to Avoid Cloud Repatriation

Fortunately, cloud repatriation can often be avoided with the right planning and strategies. Here’s how organizations can mitigate the common pitfalls:

1. Plan for the Cloud—and Beyond 

While cloud migration requires careful planning, organizations must also plan for the possibility of moving back. This includes assessing how to extract workloads from the cloud if needed, but more importantly, ensuring that workloads are optimized for cloud environments from the outset. Proper data placement and workload management are critical. Rationalize which data must reside on the highest-tier storage and calculate the potential costs of scaling.

2. Proof of Concept (POC) with Real Workloads

To avoid surprises, organizations should conduct robust proof of concept (POC) testing using real workloads rather than synthetic data. This approach gives a more accurate picture of how cloud costs and performance will behave as data and usage scale. Overprovisioning by as much as 30% is a common issue, and this inflates costs upstream, impacting vCPU counts and database licensing.

3. Leverage Non-Cloud-Native Platforms

One common misconception is that the cloud requires organizations to rely solely on cloud-native solutions. However, many businesses find success by partnering with non-cloud-native platforms that can provide the control and performance they need, such as Silk’s cloud platform. By disaggregating control and data planes, companies can optimize storage performance and reduce costs without sacrificing agility.

4. Optimize for Agility and Control

Cloud offers significant flexibility, but this can come at the expense of control. Overprovisioning storage resources, for instance, can lead to excessive costs and underutilized infrastructure. By optimizing storage resources independently from other cloud resources, organizations can maintain control while keeping costs in check.

Tackling Cloud Challenges with Silk

At Silk, we specialize in helping businesses avoid cloud repatriation by delivering top-tier performance and cost-efficiency. Our platform allows clients to scale dynamically based on real-time needs, such as increasing resources for peak traffic events like Black Friday and scaling back when demand decreases. By sitting on the IaaS stack, Silk provides up to 10x more performance than native cloud solutions, which helps clients maintain a consistent cost profile while meeting performance requirements.

Real-World Customer Story: Sentara Health

Sentara Health, a large not-for-profit hospital system, struggled with performance when migrating their Electronic Health Record (EHR) system to the cloud. Silk partnered with Sentara to overcome these performance hurdles, allowing them to move their entire hospital system’s data to the cloud while maintaining agility and keeping costs under control. Sentara now benefits from seamless ETL processes and instant, thin clones that streamline operations.

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Cloud repatriation is a tough and costly decision, but it’s often avoidable with the right strategies. By focusing on real-world POC testing, avoiding overprovisioning, and partnering with non-cloud-native platforms like Silk, businesses can overcome common cloud challenges. Before making the decision to move back on-prem, organizations should carefully evaluate their cloud environment, optimize costs and performance, and explore platforms that return control and agility to their operations.