Navigating the IT Landscape: Balancing Hybrid Cloud and Cloud Repatriation to Stay in Control of Your Infrastructure

In recent years, the hybrid cloud model has gained ground in enterprise IT infrastructure. By combining two or more computing environments— the most common being integrations between public and private clouds—organizations have gained a number of benefits related to efficiency, access, flexibility, scalability, cost reduction, security, and performance throughout their digital networks. According to a 2022 study by 451 Research and Cisco (blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/why-hybridcloud-brings-benefits-to-enterprises), which surveyed 2,500 IT leaders in 13 countries, 82% of IT teams had already adopted 

hybrid cloud models in their organizations, and nearly half (47%) use between two and three public Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) services. One of the big drivers of hybrid cloud adoption is AI. The expansion of generative AI services, which create text, code, images, videos, and other elements, requires the management of a large volume of data that only a flexible and efficient architecture can handle. Balancing workloads between different clouds, such as an in-house infrastructure combined with a hyperscale provider, is becoming a necessity.

AI is also expected to have a strong impact on Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) services, enabling the automation of processes, responses, and tasks, which will improve productivity and transform communication within enterprises. Along the same lines, the integration of hybrid models with 5G networks and decentralized edge computing systems is one of the keys to optimizing speed and reducing latency, which will enable new and innovative uses of the cloud.

We must not lose sight of the fact that, in certain industries and application areas, such as autonomous vehicles, drones, or hospital devices, the difference between 1 millisecond and 1 second is crucial. In this regard, global spending on edge computing was expected to reach $232 billion in 2024, representing an increase of 15.4% from 2023, according to data from the consulting firm IDC (idc.com/getdoc. jsp?containerId=prUS51960324).

The Rise of Cloud Repatriation

The general hybridization of IT infrastructures is experiencing a surge due to a counter-trend happening simultaneously: cloud repatriation. According to a recent study by Citrix, a business unit of Cloud Software Group (techrseries.com/cloud/research-finds-it-leaders-are-choosing-hybrid-cloud-strategiesdue-to-flexibility-cost-effectiveness-and-security), 42% of organizations surveyed in the U.S. are considering moving—or already have done so—at least half of their cloud-based workloads back to on-prem infrastructures, a phenomenon known as cloud repatriation. The survey, which questioned 350 IT leaders in the U.S. on their current hybrid cloud strategies, showed that 94% of respondents had been involved with a cloud repatriation project within the last 3 years.

Unexpected security issues (41%) and high project expectations (29%) were reported as the top drivers for moving some cloud-based workloads back to on-prem infrastructures. Another major driver was the failure to meet or properly set internal expectations, accounting for 23%. After reflecting on their experience, IT leaders found that the most common reasons for cloud repatriation projects were security concerns, unexpected costs, performance issues, compatibility problems, and service downtime.

Naturally, security is another central aspect in the choice of virtual or on-prem resources. Data breaches are a major concern for companies. In fact, according to an IBM report (newsroom.ibm.com/2023-07-24-IBM-Report-Half-of-Breached-Organizations-Unwilling-to-Increase-Security-Spend-Despite-Soaring-Breach-Costs), the average global cost of data breaches in 2023 was $4.45 million, an increase of 15% in 3 years. The same report indicates that 51% of companies plan to increase their security investments as a result of a breach, including incident planning and response programs, detection tools, and employee training. To secure their data, certain industries have strict regulations regarding data storage, requiring data to be kept in specific geographic locations or under stringent security measures. This is yet another reason for organizations nowadays to switch back to on-prem resources.