VIRTUAL REALITIES How Partners Can Help Navigate Repatriation Word is spreading about the potential cost-saving benefits that can be achieved by shifting workloads back-on premises. In one high profile example, 37signals has already saved $1 million through repatriation, with CTO David Heinemeier Hansson predicting savings will eventually reach $10 million. As a result, channel partners need to be ready to advise customers about repatriation and help them make intelligent decisions about migrations. “Cloud-native companies bringing some applications and data on-premises will need help from resellers acquiring the hardware infrastructure and management software to build out their data centers,” Walkey continued. “Similarly, both mature organizations and cloud-native companies will need help from GSIs as they navigate integrations in their hybrid multi-cloud infrastructures.” What’s more, many mature organizations redeployed data center staff as part of their cloud journeys, and many cloud-native companies simply never had them in the first place, Walkey continued. “In both cases, there’s a talent and skills gap that MSPs can help fill,” he said. Above all else, it’s important to approach customers from a consultative and vendor-agnostic position. As Bouchedid explained, the repatriation trend started from companies migrating quickly into the cloud without fully understanding their own workloads. Bouchedid recommends partners spend time conducting comprehensive workload assessments, and right sizing solutions that make sense for customers and their needs. “Sit down with your customers from a consultative standpoint,” said Bouchedid. “Don’t start pushing products and acronyms. Instead, it’s better to conduct deep IT assessments. If you do not know how, or that’s not your core expertise, there’s companies you can partner with.” Walkey also recommends partners be discerning when moving applications and data back on-premises. “The most important thing is to carefully consider what applications and data are better suited for the cloud, and which are better for an on-premises data center,” Walkey said. “Drivers for one or the other often include performance, cost, security and compliance requirements. Help your customers be deliberate with any cloud repatriation they decide to do by carefully planning and executing the move. You and they should fully understand, document and monitor the objectives and timelines plus compatibility, resource, security and compliance requirements.” Partners should also be mindful that repatriation can be risky, and things can go wrong. As such, Walkey advises taking steps to protect client workloads. “No matter where your customers’ applications and data are, you should be guiding them to use the 3-2-1 backup rule,” Walkey explained. “Have at least three copies on at least two different media with at least one on air-gapped immutable storage.” If clients do this, Walkey says, data loss during cloud repatriation will not be as much of a threat. “Security vulnerabilities and regulatory compliance are also concerning no matter where applications and data reside,” Walkey concluded. “Mature companies repatriating applications and data they previously moved to the cloud are hopefully already equipped to keep both their cloud and on-premises data secure and compliant, but cloudnative companies moving applications and data onsite for the first time can make their new hybrid multi-cloud infrastructures just as secure and compliant. This is yet another opportunity for channel partners.” o Source: Uptime Institute; 2022 In the past 12 months, has your organization moved (i.e., permanently terminated) any of it’s production applications from a public cloud provider to a colocation facility or to your own data center(s) Source: Uptime Institute, 2022 Source: Uptime Institute, 2022 What if anything do you consider the most vulnerable vectors for ransomware attacks? (Tick up to two) Source: Delinea, survey of security and IT professionals Cyberthreats are now too advanced for the organization to deal with on their own Yes (to our own data center/s) Yes (to a colocation facility) No Cloud Applications Email Privileged access Endpoints I don’t consider anything to be a most vulnerable vector 25% 8% 65% 44% 39% 37% 36% 35% 1% 42% 27% 52% 29% 16% 6% 2023 2022 Less than $10 million 41% 22 CHANNELVISION | MARCH - APRIL 2024
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