These days, within the IT realm, the question of on-premises versus cloud environments often comes up. Which type of computing solution will work the best for different kinds of companies? Cloud adoption is ticking upward at an ever-increasing rate, and businesses are taking advantage of the benefits that storing data and applications in off-premises environments can provide. In fact, according to recent research from Aberdeen Group, 70 percent of U.S. companies have invested in private cloud solutions, MSPMentor reported. In addition, RightScale’s State of the Cloud 2015 report found that 82 percent of businesses have a hybrid cloud strategy.
However, there are some companies that still prefer to deploy their software solutions on-premises as opposed to the cloud. Both approaches offer their own unique advantages, but it may not be easy to distinguish which would be the best for certain types of organizations without the proper consideration.
Let’s take a look at five key things to consider when choosing between on-premises and cloud solutions:
1. Where the solutions are housed
This is the main difference between on-premises and cloud-based applications. With the former, physical servers and applications are all stored on-site, whereas with the latter, the solutions are housed in cloud infrastructure at a different company’s data center. This basically means that server management responsibility either remains with the business itself or with an outsourced provider. Maintenance, system upgrades, cooling equipment and power delivery tools are all on the shoulders of the company where the servers themselves are housed.
2. Cloud environments foster collaboration and better application delivery
There are many benefits of cloud infrastructure over on-premises services. According to the Aberdeen Group study, 71 percent of those businesses that implemented cloud solutions have experienced easier application management, and 45 percent of them are enjoying faster application deployment. Enterprises and other larger organizations are likely to benefit the most from cloud environments due to their size and the number of applications they have running at once.
3. Electricity costs are something to consider
According to BetaNews contributor Derrick Wlodarz, companies should factor in the amount of electricity it takes to power on-premises environments. Even though today’s servers are much more energy-efficient than they were in the past, they still eat up a lot of electricity. Teena Hammond of ZDNet calculated that the average cost per year of one in-house server is $731.94, and that doesn’t include maintenance fees and general upkeep expenses. For larger companies with rooms of servers, this can get quite expensive.
4. Think about bandwidth, as well
Wlodarz noted that with the cloud, some businesses may find that they don’t have enough bandwidth to support the number of applications and amount of data moving through the computing environment. The way to solve this issue is to invest more in the cloud and increase the size and capacity of the cloud solutions. However, some companies may find that when it’s time to upgrade their systems, it’s easier to simply add servers – virtual or otherwise – to their on-premises network and increase the bandwidth they receive from their Internet service provider. This, however, comes with added operational costs.
Deep Freeze is available both on-premises and in the cloud
When it comes to making sure systems are safe from malware that could alter business-critical configurations, Faronics offers both on-premises and cloud-based solutions. Deep Freeze Cloud follows the reboot to restore software guidelines while also remaining within a virtual environment that IT managers can easily deploy. This solution offers all the benefits of the cloud while providing a way for managers to automatically install updates and reconfigure systems across the entire computing fleet.
Contact Faronics today to find out how we can help you protect your IT environment from malware and hackers by implementing a Deep Freeze solution – whether it’s on-premises or in the cloud.
