Lack of a holistic cloud strategy is causing a cloud boomerang effect amongst some applications

The study canvassed the opinions of 400 senior IT professionals regarding their approach to cloud technology. Respondents were from organizations with at least 250 employees in the U.S., Canada and UK across industries including financial services, technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, public education and the commercial sector. It found the majority (86%) of respondents say their organization has adopted a hybrid or multi-cloud approach to cloud deployment. 

Most also recognized many of the benefits cloud delivers for their organizations, with the majority agreeing it has delivered on expected efficiencies (90%). Respondents also cited the rate of cloud transformation in their organization has had a positive impact on the following areas: 

Innovation (71%)  

Operational efficiency (71%) 

Workforce mobility and enablement (63%) 

IT expenditure (63%) 

Customer experience (63%) 

Indeed, when presented with 12 application categories, respondents said cloud is the preferred hosting option for all of them, compared to just two out of nine categories in Aptum’s first Cloud Impact Study in 2021. However, despite recognizing the benefits of cloud, not all workloads are destined for cloud platforms, and some organizations are experiencing a ‘cloud boomerang effect’ amongst specific applications. Almost half (47%) of respondents anticipate an increase in their organization’s use of traditional (non-cloud-based) infrastructure over the next 18-24 months, up from just under a quarter (23%) in 2021.  

The study identifies one of the causes of the shift back to legacy infrastructure to be rooted in a lack of strategy. Only 20% of respondents said they have a holistic cloud computing strategy. Additionally, integration of cloud with on-premises systems was cited as the top challenge an organization would face when operating in cloud environments, tied first with data privacy and security challenges. 

“When the pandemic hit, many organizations reacted hastily to move applications to the cloud and neglected some workload considerations that have since become apparent. So, while organizations see benefits from the cloud, they could have been more successful in their endeavours when the shift first took place if the requirements of each application were carefully evaluated,” explains Chris David, Aptum’s Senior Cloud Product Leader. “Contrary to popular belief, the cloud boomerang effect isn’t simply about moving workloads from cloud platforms back to traditional infrastructure. More accurately, the boomerang is the movement of applications between development and operations teams.” 

The primary focus of development teams is on the creation of new versions of applications, meaning limited time can be spent on administrative duties required to refactor workloads for cloud. Due to this, the onus often shifts back to the operations teams to manage this, and they often lack the necessary skills or resources. If the operations teams lack skills, tools, cloud governance policies, or operational practices to enforce operational standards, these workloads will often come back to legacy platforms. 

“To overcome these challenges, organizations need to have a holistic cloud strategy guided by an experienced Managed Service Provider (MSP),” says David. “They can help businesses understand the characteristics that need to be assessed when deciding where each application should be hosted and help them avoid the mistakes that lead to cloud boomerang.” 

The survey results call for organizations to look at ecosystems, with business objectives and optimization in mind, to avoid placing workloads in inappropriate locations. To save time, money and resources and to increase interoperability, businesses should look to hybrid and multi-cloud specialist providers, with the skills and experience to assist in those decisions.