Cloud Repatriation – Cloud it is not a cost saving exercise (IaaS)

Hosted cloud computing is a growing trend, especially with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings, but what happens when it’s not working for your organisation or hosting costs are becoming an issue? The answer could be cloud repatriation.

It may be more cost effective to bring these resources back into an on-premises private cloud. "

What is Cloud Repatriation?

Simply put, cloud repatriation is moving cloud-based IaaS resources or data back to a private cloud or on prem.

This could be an IaaS based offering such as file storage or servers running in Azure or Amazon Web Services where the associated monthly costs have grown significantly over time.  It may be more cost effective to bring these resources back into an on-premises private cloud. Many options are now available for continuing to pay for this infrastructure on a monthly basis as with cloud services, but without the unpredictable and fluctuating costs often associated with IaaS.

Why are organisations going down the path of Cloud Repatriation?

There can be many reasons for going through a cloud repatriation exercise, the primary of which are cost, performance, security and flexibility.

IaaS based offerings can be great in principle, but in reality, for some organisations they can end up costing more than expected. This can be due to many factors such as inaccurate initial sizing and growth. This may lead to poor performance and user frustration. The cost of the IaaS based service will increase over time as more storage and compute resources are required, often making it difficult to budget for the unpredictable costs. It is important however to continue to be open to all options. Just because an organisation moves to an IaaS provider does not always mean you are locked in forever.

The cost of the IaaS based service will increase over time as more storage and compute resources are required, often making it difficult to budget for the unpredictable costs."

What is involved in Cloud Repatriation?

The first thing to consider is what is best for the business and its users. A well-planned project to identify the most appropriate infrastructure and architecture for the business is the first step.

This will provide the business with a clear picture of the migration process and impact to users, along with a predictable cost for the 3-5 year life span on the infrastructure.

Conclusion

The rush to the cloud and adopting a cloud first strategy often misses what should be most important and that is what is best for the business and its end users. Each IaaS offering or cloud resource consumed should be considered as to what benefits it will bring the business and its end users.

Whilst evaluating if a cloud repatriation exercise is best for the business a lot of factors need to be considered such as the cost of the infrastructure, support, and maintenance.

It’s also important to recognise that cloud repatriation is not seen as going backwards, but making a change based on business requirements and costs.

VInet can assist with an evaluation of your cloud services and options for repatriation, so contact us for a discussion.