Cloud Repatriation: What CISOs Need to Know
TechTarget, Tuesday, October 20th, 2026
Cost, sovereignty and AI are driving selective cloud repatriation; CISOs must plan security for workloads moving back on-premises.
Cloud repatriation is a deliberate reassessment of workload placement rather than a mass exodus.
A Cloudian and Centiment survey of 212 IT decision-makers found three-quarters had moved some workloads back from public cloud in the past two years, with data sovereignty cited by 81.7%, budget overruns from egress and residency pricing by 84%, and AI latency needs by 85.1%.
Nearly 30% of those repatriating also expanded their cloud footprint.
The article covers which workloads are moving, including data-intensive, business-critical, AI and latency-sensitive apps, and the security and compliance considerations CISOs face in the shift.