Cloud Repatriation

Cloud is not always cheaper. The math decides .

Not anti-cloud — strategic. When your AWS bill has grown faster than your revenue for 12+ months, we audit the numbers, identify which workloads belong on dedicated infrastructure, and move them. We own 1,000+ servers. We are the destination.

Get a Cloud Cost Audit See the Economics
1,000+ dedicated servers We own the destination infra 17 years managing both cloud and dedicated India DCs for DPDP compliance
Running production workloads for
Revolt MotorsPC JewellerRR KabelImpresarioIntentwiseLoomBhimaBGaussMitutoyo
1,000+
Servers Under Management
17 yrs
Infrastructure Operations
2
India DCs (Mumbai + Secondary)
35
Infrastructure Engineers
24/7
Managed Operations

When cloud repatriation makes sense

Repatriation is not for every workload. It is the right choice when specific cost and operational conditions are met. Here is how we evaluate it.

AWS bill audit first

Before recommending repatriation, we audit your AWS spend in full. Right-sizing, Reserved Instances, and architecture cleanup might cut your bill 30–40% without a migration. We do the math honestly.

Workload classification

Not everything repatriates well. Stable, predictable workloads (database servers, batch processing, static-traffic APIs) are good candidates. Burst-heavy workloads (marketing campaigns, variable SaaS traffic) stay in cloud.

Infrastructure we own

We manage 1,000+ dedicated servers in our India DCs. We are not brokering hardware — we provision, configure, and manage the destination infrastructure. Same team runs both cloud and dedicated.

DPDP and data residency

India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act and RBI cloud guidelines create data residency requirements. Our India DCs provide a DPDP-compliant alternative to US-region AWS for sensitive data categories.

Zero-downtime migration

Same migration methodology as cloud-to-cloud: parallel run, replication lag monitoring, cutover window with tested rollback. Going from AWS to bare metal is a migration — we treat it with the same rigor.

Hybrid is often the answer

Many clients end up with a hybrid: burst capacity in AWS, baseline workloads on dedicated, static assets on CloudFront/S3. We manage both sides from one retainer.

Pricing

Repatriation project pricing

Repatriation is a one-time migration project that converts to ongoing managed ops on dedicated infrastructure. Dedicated server hosting is priced separately.

Standard
one-time project

1–10 workloads, straightforward stack

  • AWS bill audit and workload classification
  • Dedicated server provisioning
  • OS and stack configuration
  • Data migration with parallel run
  • DNS cutover with rollback plan
  • AWS resource decommission
  • 30-day post-migration monitoring
Get a Scope Call
Most Common
Complex
one-time project

10–50 workloads, database-heavy or hybrid

  • Full AWS spend audit + TCO analysis
  • Multi-server dedicated provisioning
  • Database migration (MySQL, PostgreSQL)
  • Hybrid architecture: cloud + dedicated
  • Zero-downtime cutover with tested rollback
  • 60-day post-migration support
  • Converts to dedicated managed ops retainer
Get a Scope Call
Enterprise
one-time project

Large estate, compliance-critical

  • Full AWS estate audit and migration plan
  • Multi-server, multi-DC architecture
  • DPDP and RBI compliance setup
  • DR architecture (primary + secondary DC)
  • Dedicated team for cutover
  • 90-day post-migration support
Scope Enterprise

Dedicated server hosting after repatriation starts at ₹10,900/mo ($131). Managed ops on dedicated infrastructure at Managed Apps or Cloud Ops tier pricing. We do not force repatriation — if the audit shows cloud is still the right answer, we tell you.

The honest conversation

We will tell you if cloud is still the right answer.

“It's been 17 years with ZenoCloud. More than a vendor — they've been family. Trustworthy, dependable, and always there when we needed them.”
VG
Vinayak Garg
Founder & CEO, LazyGardener
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is cloud repatriation and who is it for?
Cloud repatriation means moving workloads from public cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure) back to dedicated infrastructure. It is not anti-cloud — it is the recognition that cloud pricing models favor dynamic, unpredictable workloads. For stable, consistent workloads with predictable resource needs, ZenoCloud's dedicated servers often deliver equivalent performance at significantly lower cost. The typical candidate is an Indian SaaS or e-commerce company whose AWS bill has grown consistently faster than revenue for 12+ months.
What does the economics of repatriation actually look like?
To illustrate the math: an r6i.xlarge EC2 instance (4 vCPU, 32GB RAM) costs approximately $1,944/mo on-demand or around $1,200/mo with Reserved Instances. A comparable dedicated server (4 vCPU, 32GB RAM) from our India DC costs approximately ₹15,000–₹20,000/mo ($180–$240). Add our managed ops retainer (from ₹12,000/mo at Starter) and total cost is still roughly 40–60% lower. This math holds for predictable, stable workloads. It does not hold for burst-heavy or geographically distributed workloads — those belong in cloud.
What workloads should stay in AWS and which should repatriate?
Stay in cloud: workloads with variable traffic (marketing campaigns, seasonal e-commerce), applications requiring global CDN edge locations, managed AWS services you cannot replicate easily (SageMaker, Rekognition), and anything with genuine geographic distribution needs. Move to dedicated: database servers with stable query volumes, batch processing jobs with consistent schedules, API servers handling predictable baseline traffic, and data-intensive workloads where AWS egress costs are significant.
Will repatriation affect performance?
For most workloads, bare metal dedicated servers offer equal or better performance than cloud instances — there is no hypervisor overhead. Database workloads in particular often perform better on dedicated hardware with local NVMe SSDs than on EBS-backed RDS instances. Latency to end users depends on DC location: our India DCs are Mumbai-primary, suitable for India-market users. For global user bases, keeping some AWS presence (CloudFront CDN, API Gateway) in the hybrid model is the right approach.
How does repatriation interact with DPDP and RBI compliance?
India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and RBI cloud guidelines impose data localization and sovereignty requirements for specific data categories. Our India DCs provide a clearly India-sovereign infrastructure option. For BFSI clients (NBFCs, fintechs), RBI's cloud guidelines on data localization sometimes favor dedicated India infrastructure over a shared public cloud environment — even AWS Mumbai. We are not compliance advisors, but we can discuss the infrastructure implications with your compliance team.
Do you force us to move everything off AWS?
No, and we actively recommend against full repatriation for most clients. The typical outcome is a hybrid: move the database layer and stable API tier to dedicated, keep CloudFront and S3 for static assets and CDN, and retain a small AWS footprint for burst capacity. We manage both the dedicated and the remaining AWS infrastructure under one retainer.
If we repatriate and then want to go back to cloud, can you help?
Yes. We have done migrations in both directions. If your business grows to the point where cloud economics flip back in your favor (highly variable traffic, global expansion), we manage the migration back. Your infrastructure is yours in either direction — we are not creating lock-in to our servers.
Start with the audit

Let the numbers decide, not the vendor relationship.

Free cloud cost audit for qualifying accounts. We run the repatriation math honestly — including the cases where cloud is still the right answer.

Get Cloud Cost Audit Get Free FinOps Audit
+1 714 242 5683 · +91 99991 08033 · support@zenocloud.io

Related Cloud Operations services

Repatriation is one direction. We also help you move into cloud, optimize on cloud, and manage whatever you end up with.

Cloud Consulting

Architecture audit and FinOps advisory before any migration

Managed AWS Hosting

If cloud is still the right answer — we manage it

AWS Migration

Moving to AWS from on-prem or another cloud

Cloud Migration

Multi-cloud migration in any direction

DevOps as a Service

CI/CD and IaC for your post-repatriation hybrid stack

Cloud Operations

Full Cloud Ops pillar overview