In today's business environment, organizations of all shapes and sizes are working to optimize the use of their resources, minimize costs, and boost revenues. Where technology is concerned, this means looking for alternatives to traditional IT solutions. One such alternative is cloud computing. Cloud-based solutions are a cost effective alternative to traditional on premise solutions, especially for small to medium sized businesses that often lack the buying power to establish, manage and maintain the required infrastructure for traditional IT solutions.
In this article, we aim to compare cloud-based deployment with on premise deployment to help your organization make an informed decision when it comes to the choosing the right solution for you.
Cloud Deployment
Cloud deployment is not a new concept, but not until more recently has it begun to grow in popularity. Although there are many concepts which fall under the term, cloud deployment generally refers to the deployment of software on a server outside an organization. This external server gives the organization the flexibility to access it anytime, anywhere and cuts down on hardware costs. Some pros and cons of cloud deployment include:
Pros
- Low Investment: The price for cloud-based solutions is significantly less than other options. Despite the lower cost, organizations still get a very wide and diverse array of functionalities, such as automatic integration, backup and recovery and easy access to information. Compared to the combined prices of hardware and licensing, cloud deployment is a very viable option.
- Unlimited Storage Space: Cloud deployment provides virtually unlimited storage space, which allows organizations to go beyond the call of duty without having to worry about running out of storage space.
- Quick Deployment: Organizations can have the whole system up and running in a matter of minutes. The speed of the whole process depends on the platform and the technology used. Having said that, you can access the uploaded information whenever you want, wherever you want. All you need is an Internet connection to be able to access the cloud.
- Easy Backup and Restore: Organizations do not need to worry about backup and restoration when you undergo cloud deployment. It is exactly like carrying out these processes on physical storage, without worrying about the storage space.
- Automatic Integration: Incremental software development usually requires a great deal of attention to integration. With cloud-based solutions, organizations don't need to give as much attention to integration since software integration occurs automatically in the cloud. As a result, there is greater flexibility over the deployed software, allowing you to easily select the options you need and omit those you do not need.
Cons
There are very few cons to cloud deployment, and any perceived cons can be eliminated if properly handled:
- Security: With cloud deployment all your information including some sensitive data, is being handled by third party vendors. This mandates that you ensure proper security measures while migrating business critical data or only move non-crucial data to the cloud to mitigate the risk.
- Cost Multiplies: Cloud Deployment becomes somewhat expensive as the amount of data grows. As your business will grow, the amount of data will grow proportionally, which will require a higher bandwidth, resulting in increase in the fees. Selective selection of data and ongoing review of what is important and should be moved to Cloud can save this cost to a great extent.
On-Premise deployment
On-premise deployment refers to the deployment and availability of the software on the premises of an organization. Although cloud deployment is taking the industry by storm, on premise deployment is still being used by many organizations.
Pros
- One Time Investment: The payment you make for on premise installation is one time cost and with the one-time investment, you get complete ownership of the infrastructure.
- Reduced Risk: On-premise deployments allow companies to control and maintain systems on the network. They can implement certain restrictions and even monitor user activity during software usage. Moreover, it allows organizations to manage corporate data internally.
- High Investment: On-premise deployment involves very costly hardware, which is required to host the software on premise. Commonly, the licensing costs for the software are too high for startups and small businesses to handle.
- Dedicated Staff: On-premise solutions demand hiring a dedicated IT staff for software deployment and maintenance, which can put a strain on the company's budget.
Cons
By weighing the pros and cons of cloud deployment vs. on premise deployment, it is apparent that while on premise deployment offers a number of good features, cloud deployment addresses the majority organizations' needs at a lower cost and with less hassle.. The cloud is a promising alternative for ensuring higher ROI on an organization's technology investment.
The information in this article was provided by the team at silicus.com
