The Cloud: A Shift in Thinking?
The cloud has dominated enterprise technology provision for over a decade, offering a compelling value proposition with its huge capacity, commitments to security, and assurances that the latest and greatest technologies are running underneath. However, a new survey suggests evidence of a movement away from public provision.
Survey Finds Majority of Companies Moving Away from Public Cloud
Close to seven in 10 companies (69%) have moved at least some apps off the cloud and back to on-premise systems or private clouds, according to a survey of 1,420 IT executives from Rackspace. Reasons given for this retrenchment back to on-premise environments include data security and compliance concerns, cited by 50%, better integration with existing on-premise systems, mentioned by 48%, and cost savings and budget constraints, cited by 44%.
Industry Experts Share Insights
Industry experts and business leaders recognize a reconsideration of the value of public clouds. "Enterprises are just spending too much on public cloud services, given applications they may have migrated to the cloud years ago," said David Linthicum, a leading consultant, author, and former CTO with Deloitte.
Technical Debt and Security Concerns
Technical debt may be the root of many moves back to on-premise environments. "Normally this is a self-inflicted thing," Linthicum said. "They didn’t refactor the applications to make them more efficient in running on the public cloud providers. So the public cloud providers, much like if we’re pulling too much electricity off the grid, just hit them with huge bills to support the computational and storage needs of those under-optimized applications."
Refactoring Applications for Cloud-Native Capabilities
Rather than spending more money to optimize or refactor applications, these same enterprises put them back on-premise, said Linthicum. Security and compliance are also an issue. Enterprises "realize that it’s too expensive to remain compliant in the cloud, with data and sovereignty rules. So, they just make a decision to push it back on-premise."
Conclusion
The perceived high costs of cloud operations often stem from lift-and-shift migrations that in some cases didn’t optimize applications for cloud environments. However, the solution to this problem isn’t necessarily repatriation to on-premises infrastructure. Most performance, security, and cost challenges can be addressed through cloud-native refactoring – redesigning applications to fully utilize cloud capabilities like auto-scaling, containerization, and serverless architectures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What are some of the reasons companies are moving away from public cloud?
A: Data security and compliance concerns, better integration with existing on-premise systems, and cost savings and budget constraints are some of the reasons companies are moving away from public cloud.
Q: What is the impact of technical debt on cloud migrations?
A: Technical debt can be a significant challenge for companies migrating to the cloud, leading to high costs and difficulties in optimizing applications for cloud environments.
Q: How can companies optimize their cloud operations?
A: Companies can optimize their cloud operations by refactoring applications for cloud-native capabilities, utilizing cloud providers’ managed services, and implementing cost-effective security and compliance strategies.
Q: What are the benefits of on-premise systems?
A: On-premise systems offer greater control, security, and cost efficiency, making them a popular choice for companies with sensitive data or strict compliance requirements.
