I think you should keep using the cloud but I'll respond to your points anyway. 1- you still need staff to deal with aws. I would argue that you need more. 2

I think you should keep using the cloud but I'll respond to your points anyway. 1- you still need staff to deal with aws. I would argue that you need more. 2- HA is the same; DR is different. Use AWS for your DR ;) 3- What about them? there is literally no difference 4- see 3 5- a lot, I'm sure. Enough to justify owned physical equipment that you aren't sharing and doesn't get "retired" every other week 6- whatever I want, including putting them on glacier or sending them to my data center's cheap tape storage 7- it's a trivial part of the cost, why worry about it? or rent half a rack if you don't mind taking on a little extra cord-pulling risk