Global
With March Madness upon us, this blog miniseries showcases important modernization topics in a head-to-head matchup style. Installment #2 features Cloud vs. On-Premise.
There’s a likely favorite as we head into our next modernization matchup – cloud vs. on-premise. Undoubtedly, the cloud market is massive and keeps on growing. According to Allied Market Research, the cloud services market was valued at $264.80 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $927.51 billion by 2027. With many advantages, cloud solutions have and continue to be a front-runner for organizations looking to reduce capital expenses and increase the pace of innovation, especially as digital initiatives skyrocket in response to the pandemic.
Learn how the cloud stacks up against on-premise solutions when it comes to cost, speed, scalability, and overall business value.
Cost
There’s typically a high cost for on-premise solutions when it comes to storage, servers, and operations. This not only requires the initial setup investment in hardware, software, and any integrations, but also ongoing maintenance costs and the resources to support operations. On the other hand, the cloud offers a utility-based or consumption-based model, allowing one to pay for what is used and when it is used. This gives organizations significantly more flexibility when it comes to scaling up or down depending on their needs. Making this shift from CapEx to OpEx is a big motivation for many organizations when migrating to the cloud.
Speed & Deployments
The cloud is known for speed and agility. Overall, there’s less provisioning time and deployments are much faster than on-premise since there’s no onsite installation of hardware and software. Everything happens via the internet and the cloud service provider is responsible for the maintenance of their systems. On-premise deployments require much more involvement from an IT perspective whether it’s an implementation or update since these activities happen in-house.
Scalability
No matter the direction – scale up or scale down, the cloud is designed for this type of flexibility based on demand. On-premise simply does not have this versatility when it comes to scaling with a business.
Overall Business Value
It’s not uncommon to hear that on-premise solutions are reaching “end-of-value” and cannot support the organization’s aspirational goals and objectives. In this case, the cost of maintaining exceeds the value derived. Whereas, cloud solutions improve collaboration, accessibility, and give businesses the agility they need for faster time to market.
In this match-up, the cloud is the clear winner in all categories. As many businesses continue to recover from the effects of the pandemic, the cloud will be a significant focal point to execute these digital strategies and modernize legacy platforms.
To learn more about navigating your cloud journey, contact us today.
