Migration to the public cloud gained significant traction in the mid 2000s. The shift was driven by a desire to enhance efficiencies, reduce costs, move away from the constraints of traditional CAPEX purchases and to enhance agility and innovation.
Outsourcing IT infrastructure to cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) allowed organizations at the time to leverage several key benefits:
- Scalability: Public cloud services offered the ability to scale resources up or down based on demand. Public cloud also offered the possibility of infinite capacity. This flexibility was impossible to match in traditional on-premise infrastructure at the time.
- Speed and Agility: Public Cloud service providers were able to facilitate rapid deployment of applications and services. This agility allowed organisations to adopt to the changing demands of their business without the burden of managing complex infrastructure upgrades and procurement. This was a massive shift in the way IT was able to deal with unpredictable demands of their business.
- Innovation: Public cloud providers were seen as innovative, continually introducing new features and services.
While there were numerous benefits to moving data to the public cloud many of those early adopters didn’t have the foresight or failed to consider the drawbacks.
- Security Concerns: Entrusting sensitive data to third-party providers introduced the risk of data breaches and unauthorised access.
- Compliance Challenges: Industries with strict regulatory requirements faced challenges ensuring that their data in the public cloud complied with changing regulations. As Governments introduced new policies navigating compliance become increasingly more complex and costly.
- Hidden Costs: While storing data in the public cloud was seen as cost effective, hidden costs such as transferring large amounts of data in and out of the cloud significant impacted the overall cost savings.
- Data Location and Sovereignty. Many governments and jurisdictions introduced strict regulations regarding the physical location of data. Storing data in the public cloud subsequently raised concerns about data residency and sovereignty and IT departments struggled with meeting the challenges of identifying where data was located.
Over the past 5 years private or hybrid cloud deployments have become increasingly more popular as organisations have recognized the benefits of moving their data from the Public cloud back on-premise. Enhanced security, greater control over infrastructure and the ability to customize solutions to meet specific business needs have been key drivers. The growing focus on data privacy, compliance with regulations and the need for predictable performance have all contributed to the rising popularity of repatriating workloads in part or in full.
Private on-premise clouds offer the many of the same advantages that attracted organizations to the public cloud providers in the mid 2000s without many of the drawbacks.
- Scalability: Private cloud services offer the ability to scale resources up or down based on demand much like the Public Cloud providers. Flexible terms and low baseline commitments further enhance the Public Cloud like experience.
- Enhanced Security: Private clouds by provide dedicated infrastructure (not multi-tenanted ) which allows for robust security tailored to the deployment and clients requirements. This level of control and isolation enhances data protection and reduces the risk of unauthorised access.
- Compliance Assurance: Private clouds allow organisations to maintain control over data location and implement compliance measures to adhere to industry and government-specific regulations.
- Data Residency and sovereignty: Private clouds allow organizations to specify the physical location of their data thereby addressing concerns related to data residency and sovereignty.
- Cost predictability: Private clouds offer cost predictability in terms of operational expenses. Financial predictability and avoiding “Bill shock” is a primary concern for many organisations and named as the primary reason for repatriating workloads from the Public Cloud.
Private clouds are an increasingly attractive option for organisations seeking a secure, customizable, compliant public cloud like experience tailored to their specific business requirements.
Witten By Theo Hajipavlou
Presales Engineer