I believe it was 2023 when the term “autarky” was mentioned during my conversations with several customers, who maintained their own data centers and private clouds. Interestingly, this word popped up again recently at work, but I only knew it from photovoltaic systems. And it kept my mind busy for several weeks.

What is autarky?

To understand autarky in the IT world and its implications for private clouds, an analogy from the photovoltaic (solar power) system world offers a clear parallel. Just as autarky in IT means a private cloud that is fully self-sufficient, autarky in photovoltaics refers to an “off-grid” solar setup that powers a home or facility without relying on the external electrical grid or outside suppliers.

Imagine a homeowner aiming for total energy independence – an autarkic photovoltaic system. Here is what it looks like:

• Solar Panels: The homeowner installs panels to capture sunlight and generate electricity.
• Battery: Excess power is stored in batteries (e.g., lithium-ion) for use at night or on cloudy days.
• Inverter: A device converts solar DC power to usable AC power for appliances.
• Self-Maintenance: The homeowner repairs panels, replaces batteries, and manages the system without calling a utility company or buying parts. 

This setup cuts ties with the power grid – no monthly bills, no reliance on power plants. It is a self-contained energy ecosystem, much like an autarkic private cloud aims to be a self-contained digital ecosystem.

Question: Which partner (installation company) has enough spare parts and how many homeowners can repair the whole system by themselves?

Let’s align this with autarky in IT:

• Solar Panels = Servers and Hardware: Just as panels generate power, servers (compute, storage, networking) generate the cloud’s processing capability. Theoretically, an autarkic private cloud requires the organization to build its own servers, similar to crafting custom solar panels instead of buying from any vendor.
• Battery = Spares and Redundancy: Batteries store energy for later; spare hardware (e.g., extra servers, drives, networking equipment) keeps the cloud running when parts fail. 
• Inverter = Software Stack: The inverter transforms raw power into usable energy, like how a software stack (OS, hypervisor) turns hardware into a functional cloud.
• Self-Maintenance = Internal Operations: Fixing a solar system solo parallels maintaining a cloud without vendor support – both need in-house expertise to troubleshoot and repair everything.

Let me repeat it: both need in-house expertise to troubleshoot and repair everything. Everything.

The goal is self-sufficiency and independence. So, what are companies doing?

An autarkic private cloud might stockpile Dell servers or Nvidia GPUs upfront, but that first purchase ties you to external vendors. True autarky would mean mining silicon and forging chips yourself – impractical, just like growing your own silicon crystals for panels.

The problem

In practice, autarky for private clouds sounds like an extreme goal. It promises maximum control. Ideal for scenarios like military secrecy, regulatory isolation, or distrust of global supply chains but clashes with the realities of modern IT:

• Once the last spare dies, you are done. No new tech without breaking autarky.
• Autarky trades resilience for stagnation. Your cloud stays alive but grows irrelevant.
• Autarky’s price tag limits it to tiny, niche clouds – not hyperscale rivals.
• Future workloads are a guessing game. Stockpile too few servers, and you can’t expand. Too many, and you have wasted millions. A 2027 AI boom or quantum shift could make your equipment useless.

But where is this idea of self-sufficiency or sovereign operations coming from? Nowadays? Geopolitical resilience.

Sanctions or trade wars will not starve your cloud. A private (hyperscale) cloud that answers to no one, free from external risks or influence. That is the whole idea.

What is the probability of such sanctions? Who knows… but this is a number that has to be defined for each case depending on the location/country, internal and external customers, and requirements.

If it happens, is it foreseeable, and what does it force you to do? Does it trigger a cloud-exit scenario?

I just know that if there are sanctions, any hyperscaler in your country has the same problems. No matter if it is a public or dedicated region. That is the blast radius. It is not only about you and your infrastructure anymore.

What about private disconnected hyperscale clouds?

When hosting workloads in the public clouds, organizations care more about data residency, regulations, the US Cloud Act, and less about autarky.

Hyperscale clouds like Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) are built to deliver massive scale, flexibility, and performance but they rely on complex ecosystems that make full autarky impossible. Oracle offers solutions like OCI Dedicated Region and Oracle Alloy to address sovereignty needs, giving customers more control over their data and operations. However, even these solutions fall short of true autarky and absolute sovereign operations due to practical, technical, and economic realities.

A short explanation from Microsoft gives us a hint why that is the case:

Additionally, some operational sovereignty requirements, like Autarky (for example, being able to run independently of external networks and systems) are infeasible in hyperscale cloud-computing platforms like Azure, which rely on regular platform updates to keep systems in an optimal state.

So, what are customers asking for when they are interested in hosting their own dedicated cloud region in their data centers? Disconnected hyperscale clouds.

But hosting an OCI Dedicated Region in your data center does not change the underlying architecture of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Nor does it change the upgrade or patching process, or the whole operating model.

Hyperscale clouds do not exist in a vacuum. They lean on a web of external and internal dependencies to work:

• Hardware Suppliers. For example, most public clouds use Nvidia’s GPUs for AI workloads. Without these vendors, hyperscalers could not keep up with the demand.
• Global Internet Infrastructure. Hyperscalers need massive bandwidth to connect users worldwide. They rely on telecom giants and undersea cables for internet backbone, plus partnerships with content delivery networks (CDNs) like Akamai to speed things up.
• Software Ecosystems. Open-source tools like Linux and Kubernetes are part of the backbone of hyperscale operations.
• Operations. Think about telemetry data and external health monitoring.

Innovation depends on ecosystems

The tech world moves fast. Open-source software and industry standards let hyperscalers innovate without reinventing the wheel. OCI’s adoption of Linux or Azure’s use of Kubernetes shows they thrive by tapping into shared knowledge, not isolating themselves. Going it alone would skyrocket costs. Designing custom chips, giving away or sharing operational control or skipping partnerships would drain billions – money better spent on new features, services or lower prices.

Hyperscale clouds are global by nature, this includes Oracle Dedicated Region and Alloy. In return you get:

• Innovation
• Scalability
• Cybersecurity
• Agility
• Reliability
• Integration and Partnerships

Again, by nature and design, hyperscale clouds – even those hosted in your data center as private Clouds (OCI Dedicated Region and Alloy) – are still tied to a hyperscaler’s software repositories, third-party hardware, operations personnel, and global infrastructure.

Sovereignty is real, autarky is a dream

Autarky sounds appealing: a hyperscale cloud that answers to no one, free from external risks or influence. Imagine OCI Dedicated Region or Oracle Alloy as self-contained kingdoms, untouchable by global chaos.

Autarky sacrifices expertise for control, and the result would be a weaker, slower and probably less secure cloud. Self-sufficiency is not cheap. Hyperscalers spend billions of dollars yearly on infrastructure, leaning on economies of scale and vendor deals. Tech moves at lightning speed. New GPUs drop yearly, software patches roll out daily (think about 1’000 updates/patches a month). Autarky means falling behind. It would turn your hyperscale cloud into a relic.

Please note, there are other solutions like air-gapped isolated cloud regions, but those are for a specific industry and set of customers.