The small business has been really hit hard recently and has been doing some hand wringing about their future IT investments. One of the major considerations is: do you keep your computing resources onsite or do you look to the cloud? Today, we will take a look at this very question.
On-Premise Solutions
On-premise computing solutions are the traditional way businesses have handled their IT. They rolled out servers, hosted them in the office, and had them managed and maintained by technicians of their choosing.
The primary benefit of hosting your own hardware onsite is the complete control your business has over it. You can use your servers any way you choose. This control extends to the redundancy of the data as well. Not having to rely on outside technicians and service agreements can come with a pretty steep price tag, but it can also be the most reliable strategy to keep your data and infrastructure managed and secure to your specifications.
Cloud Solutions
Computing solutions in the cloud have become more popular as they have become more secure. When the first business-grade cloud accounts were offered there were a lot of questions surrounding the security of cloud computing, but with nearly 90 percent of businesses now trusting at least one part of their computing infrastructure to be hosted in the cloud, you are beginning to see businesses start to expand their cloud usage.
The primary benefit of cloud computing is the ability to control cost. Firstly, companies don’t have to make the huge capital commitment that they would if they were to host their own IT. Secondly, a company can pay for the computing resources they need, which provides them with a predictable number to work with every month. Thirdly, because cloud computing is managed and maintained by the provider, the costs that come with the management of the IT are eliminated. Of course, the costs are baked into the solution so you may not see an actual price reduction, but because the cloud allows for the shift from capital to operational cost, companies have more financial flexibility if they can make cloud computing work.
Which is Right for You?
Of course, there are drawbacks to each model of computing, and companies can host their own cloud computing platform that will provide the added benefits of anytime/anywhere access while having complete control over the system, but these come with substantial hardware and management costs.
Many businesses have chosen to roll out cloud-hosted resources while keeping some of their more important IT on their in-house servers. Some have created a hybrid cloud solution that outfits cloud-hosted resources and internally hosted infrastructure with a control layer that allows for seamless integration of resources. This is substantially more expensive but gives businesses all the benefits of both.
If you would like to talk to one of our knowledgeable IT professionals about your hardware considerations, give us a call at 978-798-6805 today.
