Cloud computing has been the most talked about technology hype in today’s business world. Cloud solutions are accessed via the internet, and typically hosted by a third-party vendor.
Cloud based services are becoming more and more attractive to small and medium size businesses (SMBs) which are seeking to reduce licensing costs, avoid recruiting IT staff and focus fully on their core responsibilities i.e. growing the business.
It appears SMBs are assuming cloud as the way of the future but this may not be entirely true. You must have a stable internet line – no internet – no work.
On premises solutions are just that, on premises which is installed on users’ computer that make it easy for you to have meaningful conversations with customers by giving you an organized view of everyone you do business with. There are many differences between cloud and on-premise solutions. Some of them are listed below.
Cost
On-premises software is more expensive compared to cloud software because it requires in-house server hardware and IT staffs, capital investments in software licenses and longer integration periods. The initial cost is thus very high. Cloud solutions need no hardware and capital investments on professional IT staff. Thus the initial cost is very low but you may find it more expensive in the long run.
Security
Security is the most concerned topic in cloud. In cloud solution, you could be sharing your services and space with your competitors. The custom databases of customer information may not always be migrated to the cloud and it’s not guaranteed your data is always available. Though rare but there have been reports showing outage with cloud solutions. The outages are even with on premise vendors but still they are more secure since all the software is within the premises.
Customisation
There is a high customisation facility to the users of cloud if they are willing to pay a premium. Cloud offerings are generally platform neutral that helps clients to scale resources both up and down as needed. The built in configuration oriented method in cloud is usually configurable easily by an implementation-trained system user, but not requiring programming customization skills. On Premise vendor may be completely tailored to a specific client’s business processes to even the source code level. Source code and object-oriented architecture lend to easy integration with other similarly-architected solutions. Robust community of experienced development companies can complete and maintain sophisticated links to mission-critical business applications or data sources.
System performance and accessibility
While talking about system performance and accessibility, cloud vendors often deliver better performance than on-premise solutions. The whole architecture of cloud is designed from the ground up for maximum network performance that offers optimized performance that can adapt to your needs. If your business spikes up then cloud automatically adjusts and dynamically provides additional resources to handle the surge. Also, the cloud based solution provides real-time data anywhere at any time via internet connection. Your employees at your company can easily access information on their laptops or desktop without needing to do extra set up. Hence the cost is also minimized.
Depending upon your com
pany’s requirement and scenario, you can choose which vendor will be more beneficial in deciding between Shared cloud versus on-premise.
Take your business into the future and flourish in the current techno-hype marketplace with your smart decision.