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Crossing the Cloud bridge for better agility and control

As data repatriation gains momentum, businesses are rethinking strategies to balance performance, security, and cost with hybrid Cloud models.

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Voice&Data Bureau
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As businesses navigate the rapidly evolving technological landscape of 2025, the focus is shifting toward optimisation in Cloud strategies. The growing adoption of hybrid and multi-Cloud models, alongside advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven automation and edge computing, is reshaping IT infrastructures. Among these trends, data repatriation—the strategic movement of workloads from public Cloud environments back to on-premises systems—is gaining traction as organisations aim to optimise costs, enhance control, and ensure regulatory compliance. This pivotal shift underscores the critical role of data portability in enabling business agility and resilience.

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Several businesses are expected to return workloads from the public Cloud to on-premise data centres to manage rising costs and improve operational efficiencies. A core enabler to this is data portability, or the ability to move and store data wherever businesses need it, with no vendor lock-in. In fact, Gartner forecasts that 50% of critical enterprise applications will reside outside centralised public cloud locations through 2027. This shift will require businesses to rethink their Cloud adoption strategies. The Cloud industry will need to adapt to the changing market needs, and companies will need the agility to move quickly.

The Shift Toward Hybrid Models

Organisations that previously shifted to the public Cloud have understood how a hybrid approach has helped them achieve better Cloud economics. This aligns with Gartner’s finding, which reports that many companies are re-evaluating their data strategies after seeing the full implications of shifting workloads, leading to a renewed interest in hybrid and multi-Cloud models.

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While the public Cloud has its own benefits, local infrastructure can offer superior control and performance in certain instances, such as resource-intensive applications that need to remain closer to the edge. Businesses can now also consume and operate on-premise infrastructure with the same tooling and level of automation previously restricted to the public Cloud.

Factors such as market uncertainty, evolving licensing structures, and regulatory considerations have also influenced this shift, as businesses seek data strategies that are adaptable while optimising access anddata sovereignty.

Organisations that previously shifted to the public Cloud have understood how a hybrid approach has helped them achieve better Cloud economics.

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While data repatriation offers benefits such as enhanced control, security, and potential cost savings, it also presents significant challenges, including data loss or corruption, which drive businesses to seek specialised solutions for secure data transfer. One of the biggest hurdles is the technical complexity of migrating large volumes of data from the Cloud to on-premise systems, which requires careful planning to avoid downtime or service disruptions. Additionally, maintaining on-premise infrastructure such as hardware, power, and cooling can result in substantial investment, especially compared to the Cloud’s pay-per-use model.

Rather than abandoning the Cloud, a hybrid approach allows organisations to keep sensitive or mission-critical workloads on-premise while non-essential services remain in the Cloud. This flexibility lets businesses enjoy the best of both worlds, leveraging the Cloud for scalability and cost efficiency while retaining control over their core systems for better security and compliance.

Charting India’s Way Forward

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As Cloud adoption continues to grow in India, the future will likely see a hybrid model emerge as the dominant IT infrastructure strategy due to its flexibility. However, the key to enabling agility for businesses adopting a hybrid Cloud will be their ability to leverage data portability for their workloads. Those with an entrenched environment may experience significant challenges moving their data for their needs and face extensive resource costs in time to implement such a migration, staffing available to them, and the financial costs in doing so.

However, businesses that have taken a data resilience approach incorporating data portability most likely have in place an easy and resource-effective means to use their backups to migrate data. This would resemble the similar and often automated process of restoring data, such as during an outage or disruption. With the best practice in place of regularly testing and verifying data recovery mechanisms, businesses could easily complete a migration or stand up a proof of concept to validate what hybrid Cloud split would be the most appropriate for them.

In conclusion, optimisation emerges as the linchpin for success as organisations grapple with the complexities of data repatriation and hybrid Cloud adoption. Businesses prioritising data portability and incorporating it into their data resilience strategies will be well-positioned to balance cost efficiency, performance, and security. By leveraging optimisation-driven approaches, organisations can not only navigate the challenges of a hybrid Cloud model but also unlock greater agility, ensuring they remain competitive in the rapidly evolving digital landscape of 2025.

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By Sandeep Bhambure

The author is the VP and MD of Veeam for the India & SAARC region.

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