Cloud Migration Explained: How and Why Companies Are Moving Cloud to On-Premises
Organizations consistently evaluate their IT infrastructure plans to achieve alignment with business goals while managing costs and performance needs in today’s changing IT environment. The first surge of digital transformation pushed many organizations to adopt cloud solutions but today several enterprises are exploring on-premises computing options and hybrid deployment models.
Flexera’s 2024 State of the Cloud Report indicates that 87% of enterprises adopt a multi-cloud strategy and 76% of these enterprises use a hybrid model that integrates public and private clouds with on-premises systems. Through this blog we examine the two-way transition between cloud services and on-premises systems while offering practical guidance for organizations managing these shifts.
Introduction
The cloud market in India shows substantial growth with predictions estimating its value to reach $13.5 billion by 2026 as 80% of Indian enterprises adopt cloud services. However, migration isn’t always one-way. Indian businesses are now more frequently moving specific workloads back to their on-premises facilities to enhance their control abilities while meeting compliance requirements and managing costs more effectively.
What Is Cloud Migration from On-Premises?
Organizations transfer their data and applications from their local data centers to cloud environments during the cloud migration process. Most Indian companies make the transition from their local servers to public cloud services such as AWS India, Microsoft Azure India, or Google Cloud India.
Cloud migration involves moving digital business operations to cloud platforms from existing on-premises data centers.
Companies are reversing their cloud strategies and returning workloads to on-premises infrastructures.
Why Are Companies Moving from Cloud to On-Premise?
- Data Sovereignty & Compliance: The Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB) demands that specific data be retained within India.
- Security Concerns: Data security remains the main concern for 68% of Indian CIOs when adopting cloud solutions.
- Cost Management: The unexpected use of cloud services generates significant billing surprises as 30% of Indian firms experienced cloud expenses that exceeded their projections.
- Performance: Latency-sensitive applications achieve superior performance through on-premises solutions, especially in regions where cloud data centers are scarce.
Indian firms are progressively implementing hybrid and reverse migration approaches to handle data sovereignty issues alongside compliance and cost considerations.
How to Move from Cloud to On-Premises
The process of transitioning from cloud services to on-premises infrastructure within India includes several critical steps.
- Assessment: Determine which applications and data sets require repatriation from the cloud and understand the reasons behind this need.
- Planning: Create an in-depth migration strategy that adheres to Indian regulatory standards.
- Data Transfer: Secure data transfer techniques must be used when moving information from cloud services to on-premises servers.
- Testing: Ensure all systems work seamlessly post-migration.
- Optimization: Tune infrastructure for security and compliance.
Indian companies must establish a well-planned migration strategy to maintain business operations and adhere to regulatory standards.
Real-World Example: Migrating from Cloud to On-Premises (Dropbox)
Dropbox transitioned from public cloud infrastructure to a high-performance private cloud based on its own servers to accommodate enterprise customer demands. To improve control over their hardware resources, network bandwidth, and security protocols, Dropbox built their own data centers and adopted a hybrid migration strategy. Dropbox established mirrored sites to securely transfer hundreds of petabytes of data to its new infrastructure while maintaining uninterrupted service.
Dropbox upgraded its public cloud to an on-premises private cloud to handle hundreds of petabytes of data migration while maintaining uninterrupted customer service.
What About AWS? Migrating from Cloud to On-Premises AWS
AWS India supports both migration directions. Although most migration efforts target AWS adoption, companies can transfer workloads from AWS to on-premises environments with tools like AWS Datasync or Storage Gateway when compliance or cost reduction becomes essential.
AWS DataSync enables Indian businesses to transfer data between AWS and their physical storage facilities with efficiency.
Hybrid Cloud: Combining On-Premises and Cloud
Hybrid cloud adoption is accelerating in India. According to sources that more than 50% of Indian enterprises will adopt a hybrid cloud model in the next few years to achieve flexibility between on-premises and cloud resources while meeting compliance standards and optimizing costs.
Indian enterprises prefer the hybrid cloud model to meet regulatory standards while achieving optimal performance and cost management.
On-Premises to Cloud Migration Tools (Reverse Compatibility)
Tools supporting both directions include:
- VMware HCX: VMware HCX enables smooth workload transfers from on-premises infrastructures to cloud environments.
- AWS DataSync: AWS DataSync manages extensive data transfers between AWS services and data centers located in India.
- Azure Migrate: Azure Migrate facilitates transitions from local servers to cloud infrastructure as well as returns from cloud to local servers.
Enterprises need to select migration tools that demonstrate reliable reverse compatibility to maintain operational flexibility.
7 Steps of Cloud Migration (Both Ways)
- Assessment: Audit workloads and dependencies.
- Strategy: Define business and compliance goals.
- Tool Selection: Pick migration tools supporting Indian regulations.
- Planning: Create a detailed migration roadmap.
- Execution: Transfer data/applications securely.
- Testing: Validate performance and compliance.
- Optimization: Monitor and tune for efficiency.
Indian companies that adopt structured migration processes can reduce risks while increasing their return on investment.
Conclusion
Today’s digital landscape allows organizations to move between cloud and on-premises environments in both directions instead of a single direction. Modern organizations implement sophisticated strategies to position workloads in locations that best meet their specific performance needs and cost structures while ensuring security and compliance standards are met.
Techpartners assist you in addressing cloud migration, repatriation, and hybrid deployment as a continuous process, and not a single project. With proper planning, the appropriate tools, and continuous optimization, we guarantee your infrastructure is always optimized to support your business objectives performance, security, and cost-effectiveness.
