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Balancing the Rising Costs of Public Cloud

Ahsan Siddiqui
Arcserve

The spiraling cost of energy is forcing public cloud providers to raise their prices significantly. A recent report by Canalys predicted that public cloud prices will jump by around 20% in the US and more than 30% in Europe in 2023. These steep price increases will test the conventional wisdom that moving to the cloud is a cheap computing alternative.

Indeed, many organizations are already looking at their higher cloud bills and assessing whether it still makes sense to keep moving their infrastructure to the cloud. They do have alternatives.

For instance, for solutions used regularly and persistently, it might make financial sense to bring those in-house rather than host them in the cloud. Owning the infrastructure and managing it yourself could be more cost-effective in the long run.

On the other hand, more complex technologies, and solutions with a high entry cost, such as artificial intelligence, remain good candidates for cloud hosting because they require so much infrastructure and personnel to run in-house. The cloud also remains an excellent option for specific services and solutions where more elasticity is required. This includes technologies that need to be scaled up quickly for a defined period, such as the last few days of each month or quarter when closing the books, then scaled back down.

These are just some issues that organizations should assess when determining if they should keep their data and infrastructure in the cloud. Moving them back on-premises or transitioning to a hybrid infrastructure entails keeping some data and applications in the cloud while returning others to an on-premises infrastructure. From now on, all organizations must take a step back and assess what will work best for them to find the right balance.

The Benefits of Hybrid Cloud

A hybrid cloud has a lot of advantages. Organizations adopting a hybrid cloud approach can more easily control costs and manage their data wherever it resides — on-premises, in a public or private cloud. Many organizations now face a range of emerging trends and threats that impact how they run their business and find the flexibility of a hybrid cloud essential.

A hybrid data center is adaptable. It's a viable and practical system that enables companies to meet the growing threat of ransomware attacks while taking on today's evolving business demands — all in real time. A hybrid data center provides strong security, efficient performance, reliability, scalability, agility, and cost-efficiency.

But a hybrid data center requires work. Implementing and operating one presents several IT-management challenges. Yes, a hybrid data center allows a business to efficiently store and shift workloads according to need and better protect its sensitive data. But a hybrid data center brings more complexity to managing servers, networks, storage, and software across the IT landscape.

For instance, organizations running a hybrid cloud must secure their data and applications both on-premises and in the cloud. They also must be able to recover data and applications on-premises or in the cloud, wherever the company initially hosted the data and applications. And they must handle backup and recovery across a hybrid environment. To do all this, they must have a data management and storage solution that meets the needs of a hybrid data center.

The Rise of Data Repatriation

As the cost of the cloud continues to balloon, many companies will take the dramatic step of "repatriating" workloads to preserve precious IT budgets. Already, rising energy prices are forcing organizations to rethink their cloud strategy and start repatriating their data from the cloud to on-premises.

Indeed, market intelligence firm IDC research shows that most organizations are now shifting workloads from the cloud back to on-premises data centers. In the IDC survey, 71% of respondents said they plan to move some or all of the workloads they're now running in public clouds back to on-premises environments in the next two years. A mere 13% said they plan to run all their workloads in the cloud.

There are many reasons why companies are repatriating their workloads from the cloud to on-premises. These include security, performance, regulatory compliance, and a desire for better control of the IT infrastructure. Another reason is cost, which can rise quickly and unexpectedly. Workloads often start small and demand a manageable expenditure, but when workloads jump — which they frequently do — so does the spending, which a company may not have anticipated.

Data volumes in the cloud have increased to a point where they're often not manageable. Moving some of this data back on premises can bring benefits beyond lower costs, such as better security and enhanced performance.

But as companies move their data back on-premises, they face several challenges. They need a data-storage solution that can protect their data wherever it resides — on-premises, offsite, or in the cloud. They also need a storage solution that ensures their data is available 24/7/365, even in unforeseen circumstances.

Ideally, they also need a storage solution that provides analytics that can rapidly decide what sets of data are critical to operations and what sets are not. With these analytics, organizations can efficiently determine which datasets they can place in the cloud, which can be stored locally, and which they should bring back on-premises. Analytics also enables companies to decide which data they must back up and which doesn't. With this, organizations can maintain an intelligent, tiered data architecture that ensures quick access to critical data and saves costs by identifying data they can store in less expensive, less readily accessible media.

Your To-Do List for Cloud Deployment in 2023

As cloud costs rise, organizations must reexamine their data storage systems. They must implement solutions that enable them to manage their workloads cost-effectively and, at the same time, ensure that their data is always accessible and secure.

Ahsan Siddiqui is Director of Product Management at Arcserve

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Balancing the Rising Costs of Public Cloud

Ahsan Siddiqui
Arcserve

The spiraling cost of energy is forcing public cloud providers to raise their prices significantly. A recent report by Canalys predicted that public cloud prices will jump by around 20% in the US and more than 30% in Europe in 2023. These steep price increases will test the conventional wisdom that moving to the cloud is a cheap computing alternative.

Indeed, many organizations are already looking at their higher cloud bills and assessing whether it still makes sense to keep moving their infrastructure to the cloud. They do have alternatives.

For instance, for solutions used regularly and persistently, it might make financial sense to bring those in-house rather than host them in the cloud. Owning the infrastructure and managing it yourself could be more cost-effective in the long run.

On the other hand, more complex technologies, and solutions with a high entry cost, such as artificial intelligence, remain good candidates for cloud hosting because they require so much infrastructure and personnel to run in-house. The cloud also remains an excellent option for specific services and solutions where more elasticity is required. This includes technologies that need to be scaled up quickly for a defined period, such as the last few days of each month or quarter when closing the books, then scaled back down.

These are just some issues that organizations should assess when determining if they should keep their data and infrastructure in the cloud. Moving them back on-premises or transitioning to a hybrid infrastructure entails keeping some data and applications in the cloud while returning others to an on-premises infrastructure. From now on, all organizations must take a step back and assess what will work best for them to find the right balance.

The Benefits of Hybrid Cloud

A hybrid cloud has a lot of advantages. Organizations adopting a hybrid cloud approach can more easily control costs and manage their data wherever it resides — on-premises, in a public or private cloud. Many organizations now face a range of emerging trends and threats that impact how they run their business and find the flexibility of a hybrid cloud essential.

A hybrid data center is adaptable. It's a viable and practical system that enables companies to meet the growing threat of ransomware attacks while taking on today's evolving business demands — all in real time. A hybrid data center provides strong security, efficient performance, reliability, scalability, agility, and cost-efficiency.

But a hybrid data center requires work. Implementing and operating one presents several IT-management challenges. Yes, a hybrid data center allows a business to efficiently store and shift workloads according to need and better protect its sensitive data. But a hybrid data center brings more complexity to managing servers, networks, storage, and software across the IT landscape.

For instance, organizations running a hybrid cloud must secure their data and applications both on-premises and in the cloud. They also must be able to recover data and applications on-premises or in the cloud, wherever the company initially hosted the data and applications. And they must handle backup and recovery across a hybrid environment. To do all this, they must have a data management and storage solution that meets the needs of a hybrid data center.

The Rise of Data Repatriation

As the cost of the cloud continues to balloon, many companies will take the dramatic step of "repatriating" workloads to preserve precious IT budgets. Already, rising energy prices are forcing organizations to rethink their cloud strategy and start repatriating their data from the cloud to on-premises.

Indeed, market intelligence firm IDC research shows that most organizations are now shifting workloads from the cloud back to on-premises data centers. In the IDC survey, 71% of respondents said they plan to move some or all of the workloads they're now running in public clouds back to on-premises environments in the next two years. A mere 13% said they plan to run all their workloads in the cloud.

There are many reasons why companies are repatriating their workloads from the cloud to on-premises. These include security, performance, regulatory compliance, and a desire for better control of the IT infrastructure. Another reason is cost, which can rise quickly and unexpectedly. Workloads often start small and demand a manageable expenditure, but when workloads jump — which they frequently do — so does the spending, which a company may not have anticipated.

Data volumes in the cloud have increased to a point where they're often not manageable. Moving some of this data back on premises can bring benefits beyond lower costs, such as better security and enhanced performance.

But as companies move their data back on-premises, they face several challenges. They need a data-storage solution that can protect their data wherever it resides — on-premises, offsite, or in the cloud. They also need a storage solution that ensures their data is available 24/7/365, even in unforeseen circumstances.

Ideally, they also need a storage solution that provides analytics that can rapidly decide what sets of data are critical to operations and what sets are not. With these analytics, organizations can efficiently determine which datasets they can place in the cloud, which can be stored locally, and which they should bring back on-premises. Analytics also enables companies to decide which data they must back up and which doesn't. With this, organizations can maintain an intelligent, tiered data architecture that ensures quick access to critical data and saves costs by identifying data they can store in less expensive, less readily accessible media.

Your To-Do List for Cloud Deployment in 2023

As cloud costs rise, organizations must reexamine their data storage systems. They must implement solutions that enable them to manage their workloads cost-effectively and, at the same time, ensure that their data is always accessible and secure.

Ahsan Siddiqui is Director of Product Management at Arcserve

Hot Topics

The Latest

Overall outage frequency and the general level of reported severity continue to decline, according to the Outage Analysis 2025 from Uptime Institute. However, cyber security incidents are on the rise and often have severe, lasting impacts ...

In March, New Relic published the State of Observability for Media and Entertainment Report to share insights, data, and analysis into the adoption and business value of observability across the media and entertainment industry. Here are six key takeaways from the report ...

Regardless of their scale, business decisions often take time, effort, and a lot of back-and-forth discussion to reach any sort of actionable conclusion ... Any means of streamlining this process and getting from complex problems to optimal solutions more efficiently and reliably is key. How can organizations optimize their decision-making to save time and reduce excess effort from those involved? ...

As enterprises accelerate their cloud adoption strategies, CIOs are routinely exceeding their cloud budgets — a concern that's about to face additional pressure from an unexpected direction: uncertainty over semiconductor tariffs. The CIO Cloud Trends Survey & Report from Azul reveals the extent continued cloud investment despite cost overruns, and how organizations are attempting to bring spending under control ...

Image
Azul

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...