There is currently no shortage of articles talking about how more and more companies are moving back to on prem, citing that the cloud has failed to deliver the cost savings as promised. I've even had several conversations with close friends about their personal experiences with the cloud just not living up to their expectations. I believe that these arguments are failing to look at the whole picture, and compare all of the services provided.
Cloud providers offer a wide array of features and services that often go unnoticed but significantly contribute to their value. Their platform itself is arguably the biggest underappreciated service. A cloud platform is a tremendously useful tool, allowing you to leverage orchestration automation, inventory management, configuration management, and streamlined deployment pipelines. All of this from a centralized, API-driven environment. You also get to utilize their state of the art, highly efficient n