Should I go Cloud or Stay as On-Premise?

A question that clients love to ask without quite understanding the ramifications behind it. I usually respond with a casual “Where are you going?”, which is often met with a confused look. The point is that the answer is often linked to the direction that a business is choosing to follow. Technology like any other strategic decision should fit the business. So whilst it might be viable for another organization within the same sector to embark on a project to implement one of these options, it doesn’t mean that you have to as well. For our discussion, let’s think of the cloud as an external server that holds the software that you wish to use and on-premise as the local server that does the same thing. When deciding which option best suits your organization, business owners should always take some of the following into consideration:

Staff – Do I have the requisite in-house IT staff to deploy the solutions that will get the business where it should be. Choosing the way of on-premise is committing the business to maintaining and being responsible for its solutions, and its environment. Choosing to go the way of the cloud is shifting the responsibility of maintenance and upkeep to the service provider. Additions and expansions need only be communicated to the provider for changes to occur.
Control – A friend of mine humorously liked to remark that “there are limits on friendship”. Similarly, with cloud solutions, there tends to be a limit to what you can influence. Case in point, whilst it may be your data on social media, you have no control (other than to opt out) over their policies on privacy or even when they choose to interrupt service. If control is paramount to your business, then you may be more suited to an on-premise solution that offers greater control over security.
Cost – The classic dilemma of do I buy or do I rent. Part of the attraction of cloud solutions is the cost. Usually, your business just pays for what it needs or uses, and all other maintenance and upkeep costs form part of a subscription. On-premise deployments require investment in hardware, software and people (training and skills upgrades). However, the thing here to remember is that time is the ultimate equalizer. So in comparing the two, it is always useful to determine how long does one take to surpass the other? In other words, how long would it take for the cost of the cloud solution to surpass the cost of the on-premise solution? If the period is relatively short then the advantage could be lost, as most on-premise solutions now try to offer similar terms with cheaper licensing fees than their cloud competitors
Laws and Compliance – Always make sure to understand the legal environment in which you operate. Some laws prevent certain data from being held on foreign servers or outside the borders of a country. Always make sure to check that your business is not restricted in this manner.

If you wish to further discuss your choice of one of these options, drop me a note.

Here are a couple of the solutions that we offer here at Personalized Quality Systems Limited.