For years now, many enterprises have been under the misapprehension that Public Cloud services are easily able to solve all their IT problems. It’s this mismatch between reality and expectation that has led to an increase in public cloud repatriation.
The Challenge with the Lift and Shift Approach
Early adopters of the Public Cloud, those who led the charge with a “cloud first” approach, bought into the belief that cloud services would deliver everything the enterprise needed – and more. There was room for cost savings. The business gained increased responsiveness as procurement and IT were no longer holding things up. A greater level of productivity, performance, and security could be achieved.
The bottom line, though, is that this was not what many experienced. Public Cloud services aren’t going to deliver these benefits without enterprises refactoring their applications. In the vast majority of cases, lifted-and-shifted applications don’t benefit from native features such as auto-scaling, security, or storage management that make workloads run efficiently in the Public Cloud. As a result, the desire to move to the Public Cloud often diverted attention from the time commitment, planning, and costs associated with these refactoring efforts. Cost savings were not achieved and for many, as time goes on, the costs continue to rise.
Repatriation is a Reliable Compromise
However, getting stuck on the shortcomings of not refactoring applications for cloud performance during migration is not productive. The truth is that refactoring can be both time-consuming and expensive, and with the added pressure of the pandemic, many enterprises were forced to migrate to the cloud – under huge pressure, with tight deadlines.
Furthermore, for those who did not optimize their systems for migration, it may not be financially viable to refactor these workloads. In such cases, repatriation is a compromise which allows CIOs to reclaim apps or workloads and move them elsewhere.
It is crucial to bear in mind though, that certain workloads rely on cloud-based services that are specialized – such workloads cannot be repatriated as affordable analogs are not going to run on traditional platforms.
The key is to find the solution that supports your specific needs. Repatriate where it makes strategic, financial, and security sense while ensuring that the public cloud is still engaged where it makes the most impact for your enterprise.
At CenterGrid we don’t take an all-or-nothing approach. Our goal is to guide you to find the best and most cost-effective solution to support your business.
Make 2023 the year to adjust your technology solution to ensure your operation is resilient during difficult economic times. Get managed IT services at the right level and scope.
