AWS, Azure and Google Cloud rent compute, and they also rent managed databases, object storage, queues, and a network you did not build. Proxmox VE publishes its source under the GNU AGPL, version 3. That is a hypervisor and a cluster manager. It is the right recommendation when the workload is virtual machines on hardware the client can operate. It is the wrong recommendation when the workload is a vendor's managed service.
What can actually move?
Virtual machines, and the storage and network those machines use, onto hardware in a rack the client rents or owns. What cannot move unchanged is a Lambda function, a proprietary managed database, or a multi-region network product. Those get rewritten or they stay.
What does operating hardware cost?
Power, a place to put the machine, parts, and a person who can replace a disk. The cloud bill hides that person inside the invoice. Leaving the cloud puts the person back on the org chart. Count them before you celebrate the invoice.
When should the cloud stay?
When the product is the managed service, or when the team cannot staff a host. Own the machines that run the systems of record. Leave the bursty, global, or exotic services where the team already knows how to run them.
What do we hand over?
We select the system, deploy it on infrastructure you control, connect it to the tools you keep, and write the runbook so your own team can operate it. Support after handover is optional. The rest of the map is in software you can stop renting; the engagement behind it is open-source business systems.
Name one process that still needs a person. We will tell you what a one-time build takes.
Contact us today