FINAL WORD
Public cloud still offers immense value, particularly for unpredictable workloads or those that benefit from rapid scalability.
Observability is the equivalent of a smart city dashboard. It gives you real-time, comprehensive visibility into traffic flows, energy usage, emergency response times and more. In IT terms, it helps you monitor performance across infrastructure, applications and networks, making it easier to detect anomalies, pinpoint root causes and optimise operations.
In the context of cloud repatriation, observability plays a critical role. It allows teams to validate that workloads are performing better and costing less on-premises, ensures that latency-sensitive applications are meeting user expectations and provides the insights necessary to optimise performance across the hybrid estate. Without it, IT teams are effectively flying blind.
Planning for what comes after
The decision to repatriate should not be made lightly. It requires careful consideration of both the technical and business implications. However, perhaps the bigger challenge lies not in the migration itself but in what comes after. Once workloads are repatriated, businesses must have the tools, talent and processes in place to operate in a hybrid environment. That means investing in observability, ensuring data governance practices extend across all environments and upskilling teams to handle the increased complexity.
Cloud maturity means choice
This wave of repatriation doesn’ t mark the end of cloud computing. If anything, it shows that organisations are getting smarter. They’ re no longer buying into blanket cloud-first narratives. Instead, they’ re evaluating what works best for each workload and that’ s a sign of cloud maturity.
Public cloud still offers immense value, particularly for unpredictable workloads or those that benefit from rapid scalability. But the pendulum is swinging back toward a more balanced model where businesses choose the right mix of cloud, on-prem and edge based on cost, control and performance.
As organisations embrace this new phase of cloud maturity, they’ ll find observability to be the glue that holds everything together. It ensures you’ re not just moving workloads but optimising them. It helps avoid new blind spots as infrastructure spreads out. And it empowers teams to make smarter, faster decisions in an increasingly hybrid world.
Coming back to the bustling city analogy, observability is the emergency response centre, monitoring every district, responding to incidents in real time and keeping the whole system running safely and smoothly. Whether you’ re expanding the cloud suburbs or revitalising on-prem high streets, it is what ensures order amidst the chaos. p
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