Breaking Up — Is Cloud Repatriation Real?

Not everything belongs in the cloud. (A visual take on the growing shift toward repatriation.)

Cloud isn’t dying, but for many companies, having everything in the public cloud has simply stopped making sense.

What started as a flexible, on-demand way to scale infrastructure has become complex and costly, especially for stable, long-running workloads.

Now, many organizations are rethinking their approach and selectively moving predictable, storage-heavy, or cost-sensitive workloads out of the cloud. Some are pursuing a hybrid cloud strategy, while others are looking to exit public cloud platforms entirely. Here's why:

1. The Cost Equation Changed

Let’s say a company is spending:

• $4,000/month on object storage

• $7,000/month on compute

• $3,000/month in data egress and retrieval fees

That’s $14,000/month, or $168,000/year, to run infrastructure that doesn’t change much month to month.

In well-documented public examples:

• 37signals (maker of Basecamp and HEY email) moved off AWS to their own hardware and projects saving $1.5M/year.

• Dropbox shifted 90% of their workloads off the cloud and reported $75M in savings over two years, a move that redefined their public cloud cost strategy.

  
  

These aren’t isolated cases. For companies with predictable compute and storage needs, public cloud often becomes the most expensive option — not the most efficient.

2. Lock-In Creates Long-Term Drag

Many teams moved to the cloud for agility, but now find themselves locked into specific services, APIs, and platforms. Cloud-native services are powerful… but they also make it harder to migrate, optimize, or even compare costs. Repatriation, or even hybrid repurposing, can give organizations:

• Greater control over infrastructure

• Easier workload portability

• Predictable long-term costs

  
  

Platforms like Proxmox, Hyper-V, Nutanix, or VMware — paired with S3-compatible storage like MinIO or Cloudian, or hyperconverged platforms like Scale Computing — offer greater flexibility and fewer barriers to exit than proprietary public cloud platforms. While no solution is entirely free of commitment, these platforms reduce long-term lock-in by supporting open standards, portable infrastructure models, and serving as compelling alternatives to AWS and Azure.

3. Performance and Compliance Still Matter

Another common driver: performance bottlenecks and compliance needs.

We’ve seen teams struggle with:

• Throttled IOPS on cloud block storage

• Inconsistent backup performance across zones

• Recovery SLAs impacted by cross-region latency

• Egress costs eating into DR testing or compliance workflows

  
  

Repatriating these workloads closer to the source (on-prem or colocation) often results in:

• 3x+ backup performance improvement

• Lower restore times

• Full control over compliance posture and retention

So Why Doesn’t Everyone Do This?

Because cloud is easy to get into — and much harder to get out of.

There’s the fear of downtime, complexity of replatforming, lack of internal experience, and the assumption that the cloud must be cheaper “because it’s the cloud.”

But we’re now seeing that many companies didn’t overbuild — they just never optimized or revisited the assumptions that drove cloud adoption in the first place.

How ArcShift Helps

ArcShift helps teams move data and workloads out of the public cloud — securely and efficiently. Using our proprietary in-house tools, we handle the heavy lifting of cloud repatriation with as minimal disruption to your business as possible.

We’ve built our methodology to support teams that want to:

• Move off AWS, Azure, or GCP

• Take back control of infrastructure

• Cut costs without sacrificing performance

  
  

And we do it without locking you into any stack because we don't sell any products and therefore vendor-agnostic.

Ready to explore what a smarter cloud strategy could look like for your team?

Whether you're considering a full public cloud exit, a hybrid approach, or just want a fresh perspective on your current cloud environment — we can help.

Curious whether a cloud exit or hybrid model could work for you?

Book a Free Strategy Call Today

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is cloud repatriation? Cloud repatriation (also called a cloud exit) is the process of migrating data and workloads from public cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud back to on-premises, private cloud, or colocation environments.

Why are companies leaving the public cloud? Many organizations are moving off the cloud due to rising costs, surprise egress fees, shared performance limits, and concerns around data security, sovereignty, and compliance.

How do I know if cloud repatriation is right for my business? If you're struggling with unpredictable bills, latency, or lack of control over your infrastructure, cloud repatriation could offer cost savings, better performance, and more flexibility.

How can ArcShift help with repatriation? ArcShift specializes in cloud repatriation services, helping businesses plan and execute smooth migrations from AWS, Azure, or GCP to optimized on-prem infrastructure—without vendor lock-in.