Shift from a cloud-first to a cloud-smart approach: A Case Study in a Leading Real Estate Development Company in KSA

Abstract

Cloud adoption has accelerated in recent years, driven by benefits such as global accessibility, ease of deployment, scalability, faster time to market, and security. These advantages have enabled businesses to navigate rapid changes while maintaining resilience against unforeseen challenges, such as health pandemics, global supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical instability. As a result, many companies have adopted a "Cloud-First" strategy to prioritize cloud-based solutions when developing new processes or modernizing existing ones. However, the rapid expansion of cloud adoption has also introduced challenges such as cost overruns, compliance issues, and data privacy concerns. To address these challenges, the "Cloud Smart" strategy has been developed to optimize cloud adoption, helping businesses manage costs more effectively, enhance security, and deliver faster services. This paper presents a case study of a leading real estate development company in KSA, which strategically repatriated certain workloads from the cloud to on-premises environments, achieving significant cost savings. The study highlights the challenges of inefficient cloud usage, where workloads lacking cloud-native optimizations led to unexpectedly high expenses with limited operational benefits. However, The Company retained its public cloud infrastructure for modern applications, AI capabilities, and disaster recovery (DR), leveraging the cloud’s agility and scalability. This paper explores the rationale, execution, and outcomes of a Cloud Smart approach using a hybrid multi-cloud model, offering valuable insights for organizations seeking to optimize their cloud environments.

[Note: The name of the company and identifying details have been withheld for confidentiality reasons.].

Keywords— Hybrid Multi-Cloud, Cloud Repatriation, Cost Optimization, Cloud-Smart, Cloud-First