diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/api/common/LocalCloudUtilAdobeMock.java b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/api/common/LocalCloudUtilAdobeMock.java
index 95cdb1c..1aefadf 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/api/common/LocalCloudUtilAdobeMock.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/api/common/LocalCloudUtilAdobeMock.java
@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@
             } catch (Exception ex) {
                 // do nothing
             }
+            s3Mock = null;
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/AbstractCloudIOManager.java b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/AbstractCloudIOManager.java
index e4224f2..3e5622e 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/AbstractCloudIOManager.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/AbstractCloudIOManager.java
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@
     protected final IOManager localIoManager;
     protected final INamespacePathResolver nsPathResolver;
     private final List<FileStore> drivePaths;
+    private final String storageScheme;
 
     public AbstractCloudIOManager(IOManager ioManager, CloudProperties cloudProperties,
             INamespacePathResolver nsPathResolver, ICloudGuardian guardian) throws HyracksDataException {
@@ -102,6 +103,7 @@
         partitionPaths = new ArrayList<>();
         this.localIoManager = ioManager;
         drivePaths = PhysicalDrive.getDrivePaths(ioDevices);
+        storageScheme = cloudProperties.getStorageScheme();
     }
 
     /*
@@ -143,6 +145,11 @@
             partitionPaths.add(resolve(STORAGE_ROOT_DIR_NAME + File.separator + partitionDir));
         }
 
+        if (CloudClientProvider.NONE.equals(storageScheme)) {
+            LOGGER.info("Cloud storage scheme is '{}', nothing to reconcile / download", storageScheme);
+            return;
+        }
+
         LOGGER.info("Initializing cloud manager with ({}) storage partitions: {}", partitions.size(), partitions);
         if (!currentOnDiskPartitions.isEmpty()) {
             deleteUnkeptPartitionDirs(currentOnDiskPartitions);
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/CloudResettableInputStream.java b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/CloudResettableInputStream.java
index 9b832a2..ab8c6c4 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/CloudResettableInputStream.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/CloudResettableInputStream.java
@@ -71,11 +71,6 @@
      */
 
     @Override
-    public int write(ByteBuffer header, ByteBuffer page) throws HyracksDataException {
-        return write(header) + write(page);
-    }
-
-    @Override
     public int write(ByteBuffer page) throws HyracksDataException {
         open();
         return write(page.array(), page.position(), page.remaining());
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/CloudClientProvider.java b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/CloudClientProvider.java
index c98c6b4..03a5b46 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/CloudClientProvider.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/CloudClientProvider.java
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
     public static final String S3 = "s3";
     public static final String GCS = "gs";
     public static final String AZ_BLOB = "azblob";
+    public static final String NONE = "none";
 
     private CloudClientProvider() {
         throw new AssertionError("do not instantiate");
@@ -41,19 +42,13 @@
     public static ICloudClient getClient(CloudProperties cloudProperties, ICloudGuardian guardian)
             throws HyracksDataException {
         String storageScheme = cloudProperties.getStorageScheme();
-        ICloudClient cloudClient;
-        if (S3.equalsIgnoreCase(storageScheme)) {
-            S3ClientConfig config = S3ClientConfig.of(cloudProperties);
-            cloudClient = new S3CloudClient(config, guardian);
-        } else if (GCS.equalsIgnoreCase(storageScheme)) {
-            GCSClientConfig config = GCSClientConfig.of(cloudProperties);
-            cloudClient = new GCSCloudClient(config, guardian);
-        } else if (AZ_BLOB.equalsIgnoreCase(storageScheme)) {
-            AzBlobStorageClientConfig config = AzBlobStorageClientConfig.of(cloudProperties);
-            cloudClient = new AzBlobStorageCloudClient(config, guardian);
-        } else {
-            throw new IllegalStateException("unsupported cloud storage scheme: " + storageScheme);
-        }
+        ICloudClient cloudClient = switch (storageScheme.toLowerCase()) {
+            case S3 -> new S3CloudClient(S3ClientConfig.of(cloudProperties), guardian);
+            case GCS -> new GCSCloudClient(GCSClientConfig.of(cloudProperties), guardian);
+            case AZ_BLOB -> new AzBlobStorageCloudClient(AzBlobStorageClientConfig.of(cloudProperties), guardian);
+            case NONE -> NoopCloudClient.INSTANCE;
+            default -> throw new IllegalStateException("unsupported cloud storage scheme: " + storageScheme);
+        };
 
         return UNSTABLE ? new UnstableCloudClient(cloudClient) : cloudClient;
     }
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/ICloudWriter.java b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/ICloudWriter.java
index 920be9c..5299b5d 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/ICloudWriter.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/ICloudWriter.java
@@ -33,7 +33,9 @@
      * @param page   to write
      * @return written bytes
      */
-    int write(ByteBuffer header, ByteBuffer page) throws HyracksDataException;
+    default int write(ByteBuffer header, ByteBuffer page) throws HyracksDataException {
+        return write(header) + write(page);
+    }
 
     /**
      * Write a page
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/NoopCloudClient.java b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/NoopCloudClient.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb83aa9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/NoopCloudClient.java
@@ -0,0 +1,183 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.asterix.cloud.clients;
+
+import java.io.FilenameFilter;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
+import java.util.Collection;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Set;
+
+import org.apache.asterix.cloud.IWriteBufferProvider;
+import org.apache.asterix.cloud.clients.profiler.IRequestProfilerLimiter;
+import org.apache.asterix.cloud.clients.profiler.NoOpRequestProfilerLimiter;
+import org.apache.hyracks.api.exceptions.HyracksDataException;
+import org.apache.hyracks.api.io.FileReference;
+import org.apache.hyracks.control.nc.io.IOManager;
+
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
+
+public class NoopCloudClient implements ICloudClient {
+
+    public static final ICloudClient INSTANCE = new NoopCloudClient();
+    private static final ObjectMapper OBJECT_MAPPER = new ObjectMapper();
+
+    private NoopCloudClient() {
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void close() throws HyracksDataException {
+        // no-op
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int getWriteBufferSize() {
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public IRequestProfilerLimiter getProfilerLimiter() {
+        return NoOpRequestProfilerLimiter.INSTANCE;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public ICloudWriter createWriter(String bucket, String path, IWriteBufferProvider bufferProvider) {
+        return new NoOpCloudWriter();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Set<CloudFile> listObjects(String bucket, String path, FilenameFilter filter) {
+        return Set.of();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int read(String bucket, String path, long offset, ByteBuffer buffer) throws HyracksDataException {
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public byte[] readAllBytes(String bucket, String path) throws HyracksDataException {
+        return new byte[0];
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public InputStream getObjectStream(String bucket, String path, long offset, long length) {
+        return InputStream.nullInputStream();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void write(String bucket, String path, byte[] data) {
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void copy(String bucket, String srcPath, FileReference destPath) {
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void deleteObjects(String bucket, Collection<String> paths) throws HyracksDataException {
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public long getObjectSize(String bucket, String path) throws HyracksDataException {
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public boolean exists(String bucket, String path) throws HyracksDataException {
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public boolean isEmptyPrefix(String bucket, String path) throws HyracksDataException {
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public IParallelDownloader createParallelDownloader(String bucket, IOManager ioManager)
+            throws HyracksDataException {
+        return NoOpParallelDownloader.INSTANCE;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public JsonNode listAsJson(ObjectMapper objectMapper, String bucket) {
+        return OBJECT_MAPPER.createArrayNode();
+    }
+
+    private static class NoOpCloudWriter implements ICloudWriter {
+
+        long position = 0L;
+
+        public NoOpCloudWriter() {
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void abort() throws HyracksDataException {
+            position = 0L;
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public int write(ByteBuffer page) throws HyracksDataException {
+            int written = page.remaining();
+            position += written;
+            page.position(page.limit());
+            return written;
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void write(int b) throws HyracksDataException {
+            position++;
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public int write(byte[] b, int off, int len) throws HyracksDataException {
+            position += len;
+            return len;
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public long position() {
+            return position;
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void finish() throws HyracksDataException {
+            position = 0;
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static class NoOpParallelDownloader implements IParallelDownloader {
+        private static final NoOpParallelDownloader INSTANCE = new NoOpParallelDownloader();
+
+        @Override
+        public void close() throws HyracksDataException {
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void downloadFiles(Collection<FileReference> toDownload) throws HyracksDataException {
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public Collection<FileReference> downloadDirectories(Collection<FileReference> toDownload)
+                throws HyracksDataException {
+            return List.of();
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/UnstableCloudClient.java b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/UnstableCloudClient.java
index 1b39251..cb24650 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/UnstableCloudClient.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/UnstableCloudClient.java
@@ -170,11 +170,6 @@
         }
 
         @Override
-        public int write(ByteBuffer header, ByteBuffer page) throws HyracksDataException {
-            return write(header) + write(page);
-        }
-
-        @Override
         public int write(ByteBuffer page) throws HyracksDataException {
             if (position() == 0) {
                 fail();
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/google/gcs/GCSWriter.java b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/google/gcs/GCSWriter.java
index 3a83786..04b2de1 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/google/gcs/GCSWriter.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-cloud/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/cloud/clients/google/gcs/GCSWriter.java
@@ -58,11 +58,6 @@
     }
 
     @Override
-    public int write(ByteBuffer header, ByteBuffer page) throws HyracksDataException {
-        return write(header) + write(page);
-    }
-
-    @Override
     public int write(ByteBuffer page) throws HyracksDataException {
         guardian.checkIsolatedWriteAccess(bucket, path);
         // The GCS library triggers a new upload when its internal buffer is full, not on each call to writer.write().