I feel like it just depends on what you’re trying to do.

* data driven website with some internal api integration, maybe some client-side application or tooling? Put a server rack in a closet and get a fiber line.

* trying to serve the general public in a bursty, not-cacheable way? Probably going to have to carry a lot of machines that usually don’t do much, cloud might make more sense

* lots of ingress or DNS rules? A hybrid approach could make sense.

In general once you start thinking about scaling data to larger capacities is when you start considering the cloud, because just the storage solution ends up on a long amortization schedule if you need it to be resilient, let alone the servers you’re racking to drive the DB.