Migrating UK Cloud workloads back to the UK protects your sovereignty—but without the right partner, the financial, technical, and resource risks are overwhelming for many businesses
We’ve written previously about ‘Data Residency Illusion’—the dangerous misconception that a hyperscaler’s GPS coordinates in London protect you from the US CLOUD Act. In 2026, the ‘London Region’ of a US hyperscaler is no longer a safe harbour. UK Cloud Repatriation is now a critical strategy for protecting your sovereignty, but with a trusted partner by your side, it’s not as daunting as it first might seem.
With over two decades of experience behind us, there’s not a lot that we haven’t seen in cloud hosting and managed services. This is another challenge we are prepared for and ready to support businesses navigate with a calm and steady hand.
2026 is the year Cloud Repatriation goes mainstream, and at speed
The volatility of current US Transatlantic politics is causing multiple concerns for countries, people, and businesses. According to the latest industry intelligence from Pulsant, this trend has accelerated significantly in the first month of 2026, with 87% of UK businesses now planning to repatriate a percentage, if not all, of their workloads over the coming two years (i.e. 2026–2027).
For the CTOs and Technical Directors tasked with this move, the decision to repatriate brings sleepless nights. Moving data out of the public cloud isn’t just a ‘reverse migration’—it is a minefield of non-trivial technical, organisational, and financial challenges.
If you are planning a move of your business data back to UK sovereignty, here are the three ‘Hidden Dragons’ you need to slay—and how Digital Craftsmen helps you do it without the stress.
1. The Financial Shock Dragon: Egress, Dual-Running, and the ‘Departure Tax’
The Challenge: The Public Cloud is easy to enter but expensive to leave. Hyperscalers charge significant data egress fees for moving large datasets (TB/PB scale) out of their platforms.
Furthermore, a safe migration requires dual-running—keeping your old US cloud active while spinning up your new UK environment. This temporary ‘double bubble’ of IT spend is often hard to explain to a board putting pressure on costs to be efficiently managed.
The Digital Craftsmen Solution: We don’t just host; we architect your exit to protect and optimise your budget.
- Commercial Optimisation: Our Cloud Migration Services team plans the most cost-effective data transfer routes to minimise egress shocks.
- Rapid Cutover: We use our ‘Seamless Migration Methodology’ to reduce the dual-running window, ensuring you aren’t paying for two environments a moment longer than necessary.
2. The Technical Debt Dragon: Re-Architecting for Reality
The Challenge: Many UK organisations have become dependent on proprietary cloud-native services (like AWS RDS or Azure Functions). Moving these back to a private environment often requires re-platforming or refactoring applications. Without the ‘infinite’ capacity of a hyperscaler, you also face the need for rigorous capacity planning. You cannot simply ‘lift and shift’ a messy cloud estate into a private cloud without risking performance latency or application breaks.
The Digital Craftsmen Solution: We act as your technical safety net.
- Discovery & Planning: Our Consultancy Services conduct a deep-dive audit of your dependencies before we move a single byte. We identify exactly which databases need re-platforming and handle the transition for you.
- The ‘Lift & Improve’: We don’t just move your problems; we fix them. We re-architect your integrations and data flows to thrive in our Managed Private Cloud, often improving performance and stability in the process.
3. The Skills Gap Dragon: Who Runs the New Ship?
The Challenge: Perhaps the biggest risk is human. Running a sovereign private cloud requires deep expertise in networking, virtualisation, and backup operations—skills that are in critically short supply in the UK market. When you leave the automated tooling of a cloud hyperscaler, your security posture can weaken if your internal team don’t have the time or tools to recreate those monitoring and patching processes manually.
The Digital Craftsmen Solution: We fill your skills gap fast.
- Extension of Your Team: With our Managed Services, you don’t need to be an expert in virtualisation or networking. Our team becomes your Ops department.
- DORA-Ready Security: You don’t lose security by leaving the big cloud; you gain it.
- Our team provides rapid access to 24/7 Managed Security Services (SOC), and our FSQS, Cyber Essentials Plus, ISO27001 certified Managed Services that meet the strict DORA and NIS2 requirements, ensuring your ‘repatriated’ environment is more secure than the one you left.
- All this adds up to you being ready for business without delays and with the right legal compliance regulations in place, ready to start operating under UK and EU jurisdiction.
The Verdict on UK Cloud Repatriation: Sovereignty Without the Stress
Repatriation is critical for data sovereignty, but it doesn’t have to break your team or your business budgets.
We provide the ‘White Glove’ experience, taking the burden of planning, the risk of migration, and the complexity of operation off your desk.
You really don’t have to face the ‘Departure Tax’ alone.
Contact our Migration Architects today for a no-obligation Repatriation Assessment. Let us map out a cost-effective, low-risk route home for your data.
In our next blog post, we explain why DORA is important for UK businesses. Despite being an EU legislation, not having DORA compliant means not being open for business in Europe.
Email the Craftsmen directly or call us on 0203 745 7706 to talk through your UK Cloud Repatriation Plans.
