A recent study by Citrix found that 25% of organizations in the UK have already moved, or are considering moving, at least half of their cloud-based workloads back to on-premises infrastructure. This trend, known as cloud repatriation, is becoming increasingly common among IT leaders.
The study, which surveyed 350 IT leaders about their current hybrid cloud strategies, revealed that 93% of respondents have been involved in a cloud repatriation project within the past three years.
Reasons Behind Cloud Repatriation
Security concerns and high project expectations were the top reasons for moving workloads back to on-premises infrastructure, with 33% of respondents citing these as key drivers. Another major factor, at 24%, was the failure to meet or properly set internal expectations. IT leaders identified security risks, unexpected costs, performance issues, compatibility problems, and service downtime as the most common challenges they faced during cloud repatriation projects.
When it comes to the cost of cloud migration, over 43% of IT leaders found moving projects to the cloud was more expensive than they anticipated. However, 54% of respondents reported that their cloud costs were predictable. The financial outcomes of cloud versus on-premises infrastructure depend heavily on the specific organization.
Despite some cloud projects falling short of expectations, 67% of IT leaders are still open to initiating new projects in the future. Rather than adopting a fully cloud-based model, most IT leaders prefer a hybrid approach, recommending a combination of mostly cloud with some on-premises infrastructure to their CIOs.
Hybrid Cloud and Security Concerns
One of the main challenges when considering a hybrid cloud strategy is security. The survey found that 33% of IT leaders experienced the same number of cyberattacks, regardless of whether their data and applications were hosted on-premises or in a hybrid environment. Some organizations reported fewer security issues on-premises, while others experienced more.
Security remains a top priority, with 77% of IT leaders believing that cloud technologies can help prevent cybersecurity incidents. However, moving workloads and implementing cloud repatriation projects also carry the risk of making organizations more vulnerable to cyberattacks. As a result, 35% of IT leaders are managing projects across both cloud and on-premises environments.
Finding the Right Balance
As IT leaders continue to weigh the benefits of both cloud and on-premises infrastructures, they are still seeking the right balance. According to Calvin Hsu, Vice President of Product Management at Citrix, hybrid cloud models offer the best of both worlds by allowing organizations to optimize costs, integrate systems seamlessly, and explore innovation without sacrificing flexibility or agility.
Enterprises need a scalable solution that adapts to evolving demands while maintaining security, compliance, and performance. The ongoing challenge for IT leaders is finding a strategy that balances these needs effectively.
The study was conducted by OnePoll and commissioned by Citrix, surveying 1,200 business and IT leaders across the UK, US, France, and Germany, all from companies with revenue over $500 million. The results referenced here come from a subset of 350 UK-based business and IT leaders.
