Before talking about tools and solutions, ask yourself some grey-zone questions about whether to use the cloud or not for a certain use case.

Fifteen years ago, everybody screamed “cloud!” and started moving their applications from on-premise to the cloud.

Today, amid the uncertainty surrounding digital sovereignty, a reverse trend is taking place: People are looking to “bring home” their applications again.

Spoiler: If you’re not a superpower, you can’t kill the cloud entirely. And even if you were, not even superpowers can kill the cloud. At the same time, you still have options to keep your tech stack under control.

In contrast to many other articles, this article is not about solutions and tools. It’s about asking some fundamental questions first, being fully aware that there aren’t any right or wrong answers to those questions.

Just like Hamlet in his monologue on life, death, and suicide, questioning whether it is nobler to endure life’s pain or to end it.

Question 1: Do You Really Need 24/7 Availability?

The cloud is always available. Cloud applications operate from data centers that proudly boast availabilities of 99.9% and more. That’s great, and it’s needed for certain use cases.

But think of your own use case: Do you really need 24/7 availability? Speaking for myself, I’m getting 6+ hours of sleep each day. And when I’m done with work for the day, sitting on the couch with my wife and drinking a glass of wine, I don’t need push notifications from a far-flung cloud server.

Question 2: Do You Really Need Global Availability?

Thanks to the internet, cloud applications are available globally (that is, almost globally, with the exceptions of some countries that block their citizens’ access to certain internet services). That’s great, as they allow you to access your data from anywhere. That is, as long as the cloud application provider grants you access. We took this for granted in the peaceful, quiet years, but it no longer is amid all those geopolitical turbulences we’ve been experiencing recently.

Even if you still have global access to your cloud data, think of your own use case again: Do you really need global availability? Or is it enough to access your data from your laptop and carry your laptop with you? 

Even if you think about backups now, there are plenty of good options to back up your data on your laptop without relying on a cloud service. And by the way, do you regularly back up all your cloud data in case your always-on cloud should suddenly become unavailable?

Question 3: Do You Really Need Access from Your Phone?

Let’s take the availability argument one step further. I would argue that global availability isn’t the killer argument for the cloud for most people, but availability from your mobile phone is. Isn’t it convenient to check your emails at the bus stop, manage the charging level of your electric vehicle during a boring online meeting, or check the webcams in your favorite holiday destination from the toilet seat?

And here comes the inconvenient question again: Do you really need to access every single application from your mobile phone? Do you want to sacrifice full control over your data for apparent convenience, even if many cloud applications are way too complex to be useful on a 5-inch screen?

Conclusion: A Prototype Solution

To be clear, I’m not advocating to stop using Microsoft 365 or other widespread cloud services needed to collaborate efficiently. But I invite you to think closely about which services you really need in the cloud, and which services you could also run locally to avoid full dependency on the cloud.

In the old days, office workers would shut down their computers at the end of their workdays, only to restart them the next morning. It was completely normal that you wouldn’t reply to work email late at night, or from the bus during your morning commute.

Nowadays, people manage their solar batteries through their phones using a cloud application, not thinking about what would happen to their energy system if that cloud service became unavailable, or their internet connectivity were impaired. They also use cloud automation tools to automate their month-end tasks that are due only once per month.

Isn’t there a better way?

I’d argue that there is. There are plenty of possibilities to run software locally on your computer. Speaking for myself, I use Docker to run some tools that were originally designed for the cloud on my local machine. I even run a small AI model locally.

Does this solve all cloud dependencies? No, it doesn’t, and it’s not intended to do so. But it keeps some sensitive data under my full control, and it allows me to shut down my computer when I’m done with my work — just like in the good old days.