The cloud was meant to set you free.
It didn’t.
The uncomfortable truth
The modern cloud isn’t neutral infrastructure. It’s a business model designed to keep you inside.
Costs drift upward
Pricing becomes harder to predict, harder to explain, and easier to accept by default.
Choices narrow
Systems quietly depend on proprietary services that are difficult to replace.
Exits get expensive
The longer you stay, the more leaving feels like risk you can’t afford.
Lock-in isn’t a bug. It’s the product.
Why organisations are rethinking the cloud
This isn’t nostalgia for servers in cupboards. It’s a rational response to pressure.
- Unpredictable spend that’s difficult to defend long-term
- Outages and policy changes outside your control
- Compliance and data access requirements tightening
- Regulators paying attention as cloud becomes critical infrastructure
In the UK, Ofcom’s expanding powers to examine major cloud services reflects a wider shift: “cloud-hosted” is no longer assumed to be “someone else’s problem”.
Self-hosting isn’t going backwards
Done properly, self-hosted infrastructure is boring, stable, and predictable — which is exactly what most organisations need.
- Known costs with defensible forecasts
- Clear boundaries around data and access
- Visibility into how systems behave
- An exit path that actually exists
Most importantly: you decide what happens next.
Executive summary
The cloud, self-hosted, and hybrid models are not right or wrong — they represent different trade-offs. What matters is whether those trade-offs are understood, documented, and chosen deliberately. The next step is not reaction, but clarity: knowing which systems require flexibility, which require stability, and how easily decisions can be reversed if circumstances change.
Where RefugeX comes in
Leaving the cloud doesn’t have to be dramatic. We build a calm bridge from “where you are” to “what you own”.
Assess
We map dependencies, costs, and risk — honestly.
Plan
We design a staged exit with rollback paths and safety nets.
Migrate
We move incrementally, validating continuously, avoiding “big bang” cutovers.
Support
We leave you with systems you can run confidently — without us.
What makes RefugeX different
No platform
We don’t sell hosting or proprietary tooling.
No replacement lock-in
We design for handover — so you can operate without us.
No panic migrations
We prioritise reversibility, validation, and calm execution.
RefugeX exists to remove itself from the equation. If you need us forever, we’ve failed.
Who this isn’t for → · Questions to ask your cloud provider →
Thinking about leaving the cloud?
RefugeX helps organisations escape cloud lock-in and regain control of their systems, data, and costs — without disruption, downtime, or panic.You don’t need to commit to anything. You just need clarity.
Start a conversationVendor-neutral. Open-source first. Designed for clean handover.