In the current business scenario, organizations prefer to move their digital assets – data, systems, applications, and IT processes to a private, public, or hybrid IT solution. This process is called cloud migration. It is definitely an undisputed choice for scalability and flexibility.
The public cloud market saw end-user spending of about 561 billion U.S. dollars in 2023 and is expected to grow to approximately 825 billion U.S. dollars by 2025.
However, the truth is that cloud adoption is not necessarily successful. Numerous organizations have struggled with cloud infrastructure. As a result, there is a rising trend of migrating off the cloud – reverse cloud migration.
What is reverse cloud migration?
Reverse cloud migration, also called cloud repatriations, is a process of relocating data, applications, and other elements from the hyperscale cloud environment to the local data center or an on-site infrastructure.
What drives reverse cloud migration?
Reverse cloud migration has gained a lot of attention in recent years. There are numerous reasons why organizations are moving workloads back from cloud-based environments to on-premises infrastructure. Let’s look at some major factors:
Cost savings:
One of the most compelling reasons for reverse cloud migration is the high cost of these cloud environments. The cloud is usually associated with cost savings because the initial costs are low due to low usage. However, this is not the most economical option for certain workloads. Cloud computing works on a ‘pay as you go’ model, which later can result in ‘surprise bills’, especially if resource utilization fluctuates significantly. As enterprises scale, it becomes increasingly cost-effective to manage the workloads on-site, allowing them to predict the cost and prevent any ‘bill shock.’
Data Security:
While the cloud provides robust security, its shared nature can still leave some businesses skeptical, especially for organizations in highly regulated industries like finance, government, and healthcare. Multiple users sharing the cloud and with distributed configuration management can indebt security risks. On the other hand, having an on-premise solution has consolidated management, which defines the security parameters and offers greater control over your data.
Better Performance:
Public cloud services provide extensive geographic reach but can sometimes cause performance issues. Data transfer rates to and from the cloud can vary depending on the bandwidth of the WAN, causing latency issues. However, the close proximity of a local data center can effectively address this issue.
Avoiding Vendor Lock-in:
Vendor lock-in occurs when companies become overly dependent on a single cloud provider’s infrastructure and services. When your entire system is developed using tools from a single provider, your options are limited if the provider starts charging more for the same services.
However, reverse cloud migration is challenging and requires careful consideration and strategic exit planning.
Some of these challenges are:
- Increased security risks: During migration, the server might not be correctly configured, leading to security risks and data breach possibilities.
- Data loss: Data loss is highly possible during reverse migration due to corruption, configuration errors, or inadequate backup.
- Business disruption: The business operation can be disrupted as the data and applications are processed during migration. Service interruptions, slow performance, and program incompatibility can cause decreased productivity and customer dissatisfaction.
Remember that migration isn’t something that companies do very often. Addressing all the challenges and planning a strategic cloud exit is critically important.