Big tech cloud exit checklist¶
Phase 1: Reality check¶
☐ Audit your current cloud usage
Inventory services, dependencies, regions, and lurking Lambda functions.
Identify critical workloads vs vanity projects.
☐ Estimate total cloud cost
Include hidden gremlins: egress fees, storage tiers, and zombie VMs.
Compare with realistic on-prem or hybrid costs (include staff, power, hardware).
☐ Check for vendor lock-in
Look for managed services with no easy exit (e.g., proprietary databases, serverless traps).
Document migration blockers (formats, APIs, service contracts).
☐ Assess compliance risk
Are you GDPR-compliant or just spiritually so?
Know where your data physically lives and under which jurisdiction.
Phase 2: Plan your escape¶
☐ Choose your model
Cloud-on-prem: full local hosting with cloud-like tools.
Hybrid: local core + hyperscale for bursts or AI training.
Multicloud: diversify, but be ready to juggle.
☐ Select your toolkit
Orchestration: Kubernetes, Nomad, or a stiff gin.
IaaS replacement: OpenStack, Proxmox, Harvester.
CI/CD + secrets: GitLab, ArgoCD, HashiCorp Vault.
☐ Pick a European provider (if applicable)
Hetzner for power-efficient, no-nonsense infra.
UpCloud for low-latency EU edge.
Greenhost or 1984.is if you fancy civil liberties with your compute.
☐ Pilot and test
Start with dev/test environments.
Benchmark latency, throughput, and your team’s morale.
Phase 3: Migrate like a professional¶
☐ Move core workloads
Prioritise data sovereignty: HR, healthcare, legal, anything that screams “breach me”.
Document every step—future you will be grateful.
☐ Refactor or replace cloud-native services
Replace proprietary functions (e.g., AWS Lambda) with open equivalents.
Use containers, not Stockholm Syndrome.
☐ Set up proper monitoring and alerting
Grafana > guessing.
Avoid outages caused by a silent disk filling up since last Christmas.
☐ Implement backup & disaster recovery
Test restores, not just backups.
Store backups somewhere Uncle Sam doesn’t have keys.
Phase 4: Post-migration hygiene¶
☐ Decommission responsibly
Delete unused cloud resources (don’t just think you did).
Watch final invoices like a hawk with trust issues.
☐ Update policies and documentation
New infrastructure = new responsibilities.
Train staff. Resist eye-rolls.
☐ Monitor for regression
Don’t slide back into “just this one AWS S3 bucket…”
Build cloud repatriation into your tech strategy.
☐ Celebrate with your team
Cake, if budget allows.
Stickers for the sysadmins.
Inner peace from no longer funding data surveillance.
Phase 5: Tell your compliance officer¶
They’ll sleep better knowing your backups don’t reside under the CLOUD Act.
And you might just avoid explaining your infrastructure to a Data Protection Authority with a grudge.