Cloud Based Software vs on premise software

A significant IT problem most companies facing today is to consider the type of software solution required to choose in case of migrating their main business solutions to the next level. Several companies are relying on their tried-and-true legacy of on-premise applications and software to do business and hesitating to switch to the cloud solution. The path that is correct for your enterprise depends entirely on your needs and what it is you’re looking for in a solution.

There are several fundamental differences between an on-premises and a cloud based environment.

In the case of deployment, in an on-premises environment, resources are deployed in-house and within an enterprise’s IT infrastructure. The enterprise is responsible for maintaining the solution and all its related processes. There are different forms of cloud computing e.g public cloud, private cloud. In a public cloud computing environment, resources are hosted on the premises of the service provider but enterprises can access those and use them as they want at any given time.

On the cost front, enterprises that deploy software on-premise, are responsible for the ongoing costs of the server hardware, space, and power consumption while using a cloud computing model only requires payment for the resources that are being used, with none of the maintenance and upkeep costs. The price adjusts itself depending on how much is consumed.

In an on-premises environment, enterprises take charge of all their data and are fully in control of what happens to it, for better or worse.  With highly regulated industries with more privacy concerns are likely to hesitate to move into the cloud before others for this reason.  While in a cloud computing environment, the ownership of data resides within the third-party provider, so if the unexpected happens and there is downtime, the data will be unable for accessing.

Security concerns remain the number one barrier to a cloud computing deployment. An on-premise environment has a certain level of security and privacy. Companies that have extra sensitive information, such as government and banking industries drift more towards an on-premises environment. Whether a company places its applications in the cloud or whether it decides to keep them on-premises, data security will always be significant.

There is no right or wrong answer to the cloud vs on-premise software dilemma. Every customer is different and has respective requirements that will influence the choice of the deployment strategy.