Enterprises Eye Cloud Repatriation – But Only for the Right Workloads

Nearly 97% of mid-market organizations plan to shift select workloads away from public cloud environments in the coming year as a strategic realignment. Instead of abandoning the cloud altogether, companies are selectively repatriating workloads that are better suited to private, on-premises, or hybrid infrastructures.

Node4 surveyed 601 senior IT and business leaders from UK-based mid-market organizations. The organizations that participated in the survey spanned six key sectors, including finance, private healthcare, retail, manufacturing, professional services, and construction. The study found that nearly all surveyed companies plan to migrate some workloads from public cloud environments back to private cloud, on-premises, or colocation services.

Key drivers behind workload migration from the public cloud

This shift is driven by various concerns over performance, data sovereignty, and risk management, especially in sectors with strict compliance requirements. Organizations are adopting a “cloud-appropriate” strategy, which involves keeping SaaS for core apps such as ERP while repatriating legacy systems that were poorly suited to the cloud.

According to Node4, many surveyed organizations found that certain applications didn’t perform optimally in the public cloud. The common reasons are latency issues and degraded performance (including speed, reliability, or scalability).

“Organizations that migrated to the public cloud several years ago have realized that while their environments provide many benefits and offer more scalable on-demand performance than other hosting options, they aren’t always the best fit for every application,” explained Node4 CEO Richard Mosely.

The second most common reason for migrating workloads is data sovereignty, particularly in regulated industries. Around 30 percent of the surveyed organizations want to ensure that their data remains within UK borders and under UK legal control.

Moreover, businesses are reassessing the risks associated with public cloud environments, including compliance, control, and long-term data access. The other main reasons behind migration from the public cloud include technical limitations (27%), cost optimization (26%), vendor lock-in (26%), compliance (26%), and security (21%).

The research study also indicates that 92 percent of IT leaders have expressed confidence in their cybersecurity readiness. However, only 36 percent have addressed risks associated with hybrid work. Confidence is highest among on-premises setups (94%) and lowest in fully cloud-based environments (78%). This overconfidence could leave organisations vulnerable to evolving threats like AI-driven attacks and supply chain breaches.

Practical steps to secure and optimise your IT environment

1. Adopt a “cloud-appropriate” strategy

Organisations should evaluate each workload individually to determine the most suitable hosting environment (public cloud, private cloud, or on-premises) based on performance, compliance, and cost. They should invest in application modernisation to take advantage of the full benefits of cloud platforms.

It’s highly recommended to maintain a hybrid infrastructure that balances flexibility, control, and performance. This approach allows businesses to optimise for specific needs rather than sticking to a one-size-fits-all model.

2. Build an integrated cybersecurity posture

Many organisations have not fully addressed key cybersecurity risks, especially those related to hybrid work and cloud environments. It’s important to ensure that business leaders are involved in risk management and strategic planning. Organizations must also invest in skills, automation, and visibility to secure increasingly complex environments.

It’s highly recommended to prioritise Data Loss Prevention (DLP), insider threat mitigation, and secure remote access. Security teams should use ethical hacking, red teaming, or penetration testing in order to test and validate security measures regularly.