https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/09/37signals_cloud_repatriation_storage_savings/ # # Sign in / up The Register # # # Topics Security Security All SecurityCyber-crimePatchesResearchCSO (X) Off-Prem Off-Prem All Off-PremEdge + IoTChannelPaaS + IaaSSaaS (X) On-Prem On-Prem All On-PremSystemsStorageNetworksHPCPersonal TechCxOPublic Sector (X) Software Software All SoftwareAI + MLApplicationsDatabasesDevOpsOSesVirtualization (X) Offbeat Offbeat All OffbeatDebatesColumnistsScienceGeek's GuideBOFHLegalBootnotesSite NewsAbout Us (X) Special Features Special Features All Special Features AI Infrastructure Month Spotlight on RSAC AI Software Development Week Disaster Recovery Week Nvidia GTC Ransomware in Focus The Future of the Datacenter Cybersecurity Month VMware Explore Cloud Infrastructure Month Vendor Voice Vendor Voice Vendor Voice All Vendor Voice The BigQuery Difference AWS Global Partner Security Initiative RapidScale - AWS Security & Compliance SourceFuse Amazon Web Services (AWS) New Horizon in Cloud Computing Klika Tech HERE and AWS GE Vernova with AWS Google Gemini (X) Resources Resources Whitepapers Webinars & Events Newsletters [paasiaas] PaaS + IaaS 133 comment bubble on white 37signals is completing its on-prem move, deleting its AWS account to save millions 133 comment bubble on white Industry 'pulled a fast one convincing everyone cloud is the only way' says CTO David Heinemeier Hansson icon Simon Sharwood Fri 9 May 2025 // 06:39 UTC # Web software biz 37signals has started to migrate its data out of the cloud and onto on-prem storage - and expects to save a further $1.3 million (PS980,000) a year after completing its high-profile cloud repatriation project and getting off AWS once and for all. We'll delete our entire AWS account and finally say goodbye to our ~$1.5m/year S3 hosting bill 37signals operates the project management tool Basecamp and a calendaring service called HEY. In 2022 the biz's CTO David Heinemeier Hansson (who created Ruby on Rails) started to quit AWS after being horrified by an annual spend exceeding $3.2 million (PS2.4 million). Hansson compared the cost of running workloads in the public cloud to the sums required to acquire and operate some hefty Dell servers, concluded enormous savings would be possible, and decided to make the move. In 2024 he shared the results of the compute repatriation project: after spending $700,000 (PS530,000) on some Dell boxes that run workloads once hosted in AWS, cloud bills fell by some $2 million (PS1.5 million) a year. After that success, Hansson decided to also migrate 37signals' data from Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3) to on-prem arrays provided by Pure Storage. On Wednesday he used LinkedIn to reveal data migration is "about to start." That effort is off to a good start because AWS has waived $250,000 in egress fees - the cloud giant's charge for downloading data. "It took a while to get it approved, but in the end we got it," Hansson wrote. [paasiaas] "This means we'll be able to delete our entire AWS account this summer when the data is out. That'll be cause for quite some celebration when we finally say goodbye to our ~$1.5m/year S3 hosting bill!" he added. * Cloud repatriation officially a trend... for specific workloads * AWS claims customers are packing bags and heading back on-prem * Basecamp details 'obscene' $3.2 million bill that caused it to quit the cloud * Time to ditch US tech for homegrown options, says Dutch parliament 37signals spent $1.5 million on 18 petabytes worth of Pure Storage kit that Hansson wrote will cost less than $200,000 a year to operate - a savings of $1.3 million a year in operating costs. He predicted those savings will "rack up pretty quick" once Chicago-based 37signals amortizes the cost of the arrays. "Much easier to swallow than $1.5m/year!" he wrote, before adding that his company's overall yearly infrastructure bill will drop from a cloudy $3.2 million "to well under a million" on-prem - without having to add extra staff. [paasiaas] "Cloud can be a good choice in certain circumstances, but the industry pulled a fast one convincing everyone it's the only way," he concluded. "No wonder you see cloud vendors and ads and PR everywhere. There's so much money in convincing everyone that owning your own hardware is impossible or that operating Linux servers is too hard!" (r) Get our Tech Resources # Share More about * AWS * Cloud Computing * S3 More like these x More about * AWS * Cloud Computing * S3 Narrower topics * Amazon Bedrock * AWS Graviton * Azure * Cloud Migration * Cloud native * Content delivery network * Digital Ocean * EC2 * Edge Computing * FinOps * Google Cloud Platform * G Suite * Hybrid Cloud * IaaS * iCloud * Kubernetes * Multicloud * OpenStack * Paas * Private Cloud * Public Cloud * Serverless * Systems Approach * Virtualization * vSphere Broader topics * Amazon * Jeff Bezos More about # Share 133 comment bubble on white COMMENTS More about * AWS * Cloud Computing * S3 More like these x More about * AWS * Cloud Computing * S3 Narrower topics * Amazon Bedrock * AWS Graviton * Azure * Cloud Migration * Cloud native * Content delivery network * Digital Ocean * EC2 * Edge Computing * FinOps * Google Cloud Platform * G Suite * Hybrid Cloud * IaaS * iCloud * Kubernetes * Multicloud * OpenStack * Paas * Private Cloud * Public Cloud * Serverless * Systems Approach * Virtualization * vSphere Broader topics * Amazon * Jeff Bezos TIP US OFF Send us news --------------------------------------------------------------------- Other stories you might like AWS creates EC2 instance types tailored for demanding on-prem workloads What? Why? It's an update to its Outposts racks hybrid cloud rigs aimed at bankers and telcos On-Prem30 Apr 2025 | 2 European biz calls for Euro tech for local people 'Europe Stand Tall' campaign kicks off amid fear, uncertainty and doubt about Trump administration PaaS + IaaS23 Apr 2025 | 69 Human error and power glitches to blame for most outages Blackouts less frequent in 2024, still a PITA when the datacenter downtime demons visit AI Infrastructure Month7 May 2025 | 7 AI revolution driving datacenter network investment surge Why more companies are recognizing the need to make infrastructure fit for purpose in the brave new world of AI Sponsored Feature [paasiaas] China's Loongson gets OpenStack boost from Inspur on its MIPS-y silicon State-backed chip slinger inches closer to cloud-scale relevance PaaS + IaaS6 May 2025 | 8 Relax, AWS reassessing colo lease talks is just 'routine capacity management' Hyperscaler says there's no decrease in demand, it's just looking for good deals Systems22 Apr 2025 | 4 AWS claims 50% of Azure workloads would jump ship if licensing costs allowed Bezos' biz and Google tell regulator higher cost of running Windows Server in their clouds isn't fair Software16 Apr 2025 | 37 Google, AWS say it's too hard for customers to use Linux to swerve Azure Re-writing applications takes years, is expensive, in-house expertise needed PaaS + IaaS17 Apr 2025 | 64 Europe's cloud customers eyeing exit from US hyperscalers 'It's amazing how fast the change has been' PaaS + IaaS17 Apr 2025 | 119 Delta Lake and Iceberg communities collide - in a good way Table format loved by Apple and Netflix gets boost after Databricks merger Databases15 Apr 2025 | Microsoft OneDrive file sync apps for Windows, Mac broken for 10 months Updated Users, unsurprisingly, are not pleased and feel forgotten amid Redmond's Copilot frenzy OSes14 Apr 2025 | 68 Bezos cost Amazon more than Jassy did in 2024 compensation stakes Exec pay outlined in Proxy Statement, and things did not go well for either workforce or calls for climate transparency reports PaaS + IaaS11 Apr 2025 | 7 The Register icon Biting the hand that feeds IT About Us* * Contact us * Advertise with us * Who we are Our Websites* * The Next Platform * DevClass * Blocks and Files Your Privacy* * Cookies Policy * Privacy Policy * Ts & Cs * Do not sell my personal information Situation Publishing Copyright. All rights reserved (c) 1998-2025 no-js