06/05/2018
WHAT TO CHOOSE? ON-PREM? OR CLOUD?
Will on-prem solutions diminish soon?
Nowadays, if you are considering a MIS system for your business applications, you have two main choices : Should you use a cloud-hosted service? Or deploy a locally-hosted solution?
With the rise of cloud-hosted services, an additional fear comes into play, are on-prem solutions going to be obsolete?
There are many contradictions regarding this topic on the global aspect. Both approaches has their advantages and disadvantages. But, depending on your organizational needs, the key governing factors may be somewhat different.
FACTORS TO CONSIDER
1. CAPEX vs OPEX
If you choose on-prem, you will need a huge capital layout of cash to purchase hardware and software, and skilled professionals.
For on-prem solutions, you will need to invest huge sums of money for below :
- purchase various compute, storage, and network devices
- purchase software licenses
- develop custom-made solution or acquire existing solutions and deploy in your firm
- prepare facilities (space, cooling, power backup, etc) for the infrastructure to run 24/7/365.
- appoint enough skilled resources to operate and manage the facility
If you are going to use cloud solution, you will need to prepare below :
- subscribe the cloud services as per your requirements (monthly or yearly)
- arrange to have enough bandwidth for the cloud apps
Therefore, for on-prem solutions, initial investment will be huge (Capital Expenditure), whilst for cloud solutions, the cost will be dispersed evenly over the use time (Operational Expenditure).
2. TIME FOR IMPLEMENTATION
It will take some time and effort to purchase, and implement on-prem solutions. Sometimes, the period will be as long as one year.
If you are going to utilize cloud solutions, then, you can start your work immediately.
In modern-day operations, time is money, and saving time means saving money, and it also means you can start your operations faster and go ahead over competitors.
3. BACKUP AND DISASTER RECOVERY
In your on-prem solution, What if :
Your server motherboard fails? HDDS crushed? OS not starting? App servers rebooting?
Many nightmare conditions can happen in your on-prem environment, and those usually happen when you are least prepared for disaster. Of course, you can prevent those disasters from happening, but that will need a lot of money, expertise, careful planning, and ex*****on. If you don’t know, or don’t care about disaster recovery, and disasters happen, then, all your organizations’ operation will be halted.
All the reliable cloud solution providers take care of backup and disaster recovery, so, for cloud solutions, you will not have I.T disaster nightmares.
Nowadays, even one hour’s lost of operation will cost the organization huge lost, in terms of money, reputation, and competitiveness.
4. SECURITY
Of course, security is the most talked-over topic nowadays. Therefore, the question arises : how secure will be your cloud apps? How secure will be your on-prem data center?
Generally, from the physical aspects, on-prem data centers are more secure, if you consider only the servers and storage. But, how about the staff in charge of the infrastructure? How about the staff using the applications?
Since on-prem solutions have to provide their services either in the local network, or over the cloud through the VPN, the security of the data is the responsibility of the users using the applications and services. To be 100% secure, all the people using the on-prim facilities must be properly trained on data security awareness.
On the other hand, if you consider the cloud solutions, the data are also in the hands of the persons using the applications and services.
Therefore, on both scenarios, the security of data relies mainly on the workforce using the application services, and whether you use on-prem or cloud is less significant.
5. MOBILITY and ACCESSIBILITY
Today is the age of mobile workers. Yesterdays where employees come to the main office, connect to the LAN, and access the data and apps are long gone. Today, all the workforce have to be dispersed all over the world, they need to access the data and apps 24/7, and access should be from different endpoints (laptops/smart phones/tablets).
If you want mobility and accessibility from your on-prem facility, then, you will definitely have to invest much more on telecommunication infrastructure, such as public IP, DMZ, app firewalls, MPLS, etc, etc. Not only money, but also manpower is needed for your on-prem apps to become available from anywhere anytime.
On the other hand, since the cloud solutions are natively designed to be accessible all the time, anywhere, this requirement is already fulfilled.
6. LEGAL POINT OF VIEW
From the legal aspects, in case of wrong doings occurring in your data applications, either in civil or criminal aspects, on-prem solutions have a clear definition from the point of Judicial precedence. Evidence is also available more in on-prem.
In cloud solutions, since cloud servers are hosted all over the world, unless there is a clearly defined laws over electronic and data security, if any dispute happens on the cloud app, it will be quite confusing and difficult to take legal actions.
CONCLUSION : MOVE TO CLOUD? Or REMAIN ON-PREM?
Below are some rules of thumb, regarding what to choose for your organization.
Choose on-prem, if your organization is either :
- Large enterprise
- Most of the app users are working in corporate offices
- Have enough resources (financial/workforce/knowhow/management)
- Your business model is for the long run
- If you want to make one-time capital investment instead of lease-model
- Internet access is expensive or not available
Choose cloud, if your organization is either :
- Small to medium
- There are travelling users and home users
- Resources are scarce
- If you want to reduce capital investment, and instead disperse expenses over the usage period
- You need flexibility in your business model
- Internet access is cheap
