The 7 Key Challenges When Comparing Cloud Computing and Storage to On-premise Solutions

One of the themes at the 2025 NAB Show in Las Vegas seemed to be a reaction against the cloud; a question about whether we’ve moved too much data to the cloud. Several my interview guests  talked about data repatriation, meaning to move cloud data to local storage. I wondered whether this was an isolated example or a trend?

Here’s what I heard during my interviews:

Mike Cavanagh, CEO, Key Code Media: I would say it’s a trend. And really when you look at it and everything, you know, my background is economics, business. If you look and say, we’re going to have 100TB in the cloud, that is effectively $96,000 a year, while you flip that around, you can buy 384 terabyte facilities or SARS for $72,000. So you’re getting more than three x amount of storage at less than one year’s usage cost of using that technology in the cloud.

Sam Bogoch, CEO, Axle AI: Repatriation is not just about privacy. It’s also about cost, because the promise of the cloud was that you would hand all your data over to someone else, and that magically, it would cost less to house and manage and maintain there than it did in your facility. That has not turned out to be the case because there’s a built in markup.

Cloud providers have to essentially buy the same hardware that you would buy, service it and manage it, and then put your stuff on top of it and charge you for it. So it’s the opposite of getting rid of the middleman. You’ve introduced a new middleman, and they’re your cloud vendor.

Tara Montford, Co-founder, EditShare: I gave you example earlier when we spoke about Germany, the certain laws and regulations, they want to know where that media is and, you cannot guarantee on some of the very large cloud providers where that where some of the media is or some of the metadata is the media may be held in a, a cloud center, if you like, that could be in Germany. But the invoice in etc. may come from another center that could be in Virginia. And, that technically does not meet the criteria of the law that they have in their lands.

Phillippe Neron compiled the guide below on how to compare cloud vs. local storage from several sources:

• ISO/IEC 27001- Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection — Information security management systems )
• My own experiences and queries fed into ChatGPT on data repatriation –> best backups and compliance frameworks from other industries, audit and reporting challenges, cloud compliant challenges .
• Best practices on backup (see veeam’s What is the 3-2-1 backup rule?)
• SOC 2 U.S.-based framework created by the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public
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The 7 Key Challenges When Comparing
Cloud Computing and Storage to On-premise Solutions

1. Data Residency and Jurisdiction

• Cloud providers store data across multiple global data centers, and you may not always know where your data physically resides. This is critical because: Laws like the GDPR (EU) or CCPA (California) require data to be stored or processed within specific regions.
• Cross-border data transfers may violate local regulations.

2. Lack of Visibility and Control

• Organizations often don’t have direct control over the infrastructure.
• Monitoring access, changes, or data flows can be harder than in on-prem environments. This makes it difficult to ensure and prove compliance.

3. Shared Responsibility Model

• Cloud providers and customers share security and compliance responsibilities:
  Providers secure the infrastructure.
• Customers must configure access controls, encryption, and data policies. Many compliance failures stem from misconfigured settings, not provider faults.

4. Complex and Evolving Regulations

• Compliance rules are not static; they evolve rapidly, and vary across industries and regions.
• Ensuring your cloud services continuously comply with frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, etc., is complex and resource-intensive.

5. Data Lifecycle Management

• Proper data retention, archiving, and deletion policies are harder to enforce in dynamic cloud environments.
• Inconsistent backups, snapshots, or data duplication across services may violate retention policies.

6. Third-Party and Shadow IT Risks

• Cloud environments make it easy for teams to spin up services or use unauthorized SaaS tools.
• This “shadow IT” can introduce unmonitored data flows that are non-compliant.

7. Audit and Reporting Challenges

• Compliance often requires detailed logs, traceability, and audit trails.
• Cloud providers may not offer all the data or access needed for a full audit, or may charge extra for it.