Cloud repatriation may be nipping at hyperscaler market share, but it’s a boon for VMware

Cloud repatriation presents an opportunity for VMware, according to company executives, amid reports that hyperscalers are feeling the heat from enterprises moving workloads back to private setups.

VMware is actively targeting repatriated workloads to shift them onto the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform, Broadcom’s UK&I managing director Tamar Brooks told press at VMware Explore 2024.

“We would definitely be trying to make sure we capture those and put them on the VCF private cloud, definitely,” Brooks said.

Broadcom’s EMEA CTO Joe Baguley echoed a similar sentiment, telling ITPro it’s the firm’s job to remind users of private cloud’s necessity and its continued role as a critical aspect of enterprise IT infrastructure.

“You're going to be running stuff that's your infrastructure, your platform. You're going to be doing that. So you might as well do it properly,” Baguley told ITPro.

“We've not got to go after a market - the market’s ours already, we're just making sure that people recognize that it's there,” he added.

This comes after AWS claimed it was facing competition from cloud repatriation to on-prem environments. The firm argued this point as part of a Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation into UK cloud competition.

AWS disagreed with the idea that cloud customers never return on-prem, saying that it now competes with on-prem IT infrastructure.

Recent research from IDC aligns with this claim, revealing that rising costs have contributed to a sense of missed expectations for customers in the cloud.

This puts VMware in a strong position, as customers can run workloads repatriated from the cloud in private environments. If the trend continues, it represents a huge opportunity for VMware.

As to why, Brooks puts it down to cost - cloud costs have spiraled, she said, with the emergence of unforeseen costs and issues surrounding egress fees creating a lack of control over spending. Recent research documenting a struggle in cloud spending predictions backs this up.

“Cost has been the biggest driver that I've seen to repatriate,” Brooks said.

Tech firm 37 signals reportedly saved $2 million a year, according to comments from the firm’s CTO recently, with predictions that it will ultimately save $10 million over five years.

Cloud repatriation is rising, but there’s a catch 

While IDC’s research put cloud repatriation efforts on the up, it also noted that only between 8% and 9% of firms are considering full workload repatriations. Most are only moving specific workloads off the cloud.

Similarly, when AWS claimed it was facing competition from on-prem repatriation, Civo CEO Mark Boost told ITPro it was overstating the extent of this trend.

VMware isn’t putting all its eggs in the cloud repatriation basket, though. Luigi Freguia, president of EMEA sales at Broadcom, told the press it’s important for VMware to cater to both public and private cloud environments.

“We are extending the opportunity for clients to still run workloads where they want,” Freguia said.

Reports of cloud repatriation don’t mean customers are going to do everything outside of the public cloud, Freguia said, but it is a growing area. In his view, VMware must support both options.