On-Premises vs. Cloud: What's the Difference?

In today's IT world, small to midsize companies must consider many factors to determine if an on-premises or cloud infrastructure is right for them.

But what are on-premises and cloud infrastructure? 

There's no doubt you've heard of "the cloud" and how it will change businesses. A cloud computing environment allows a company to host all its applications and data offsite through a third party. This enables companies to scale up and down effectively and pay as needed based on overall usage. 

On-premises infrastructure is on-site hosting using a company's own servers and behind its firewall. So instead of hosting your application and data through a third party, you can host it internally or outsource to a specialized IT company with their own data center, like Black Line IT.

So how does a business choose between an on-premises and cloud infrastructure? The option best suited for your business depends on your needs and the features you want in a solution.

What are some differences between these solutions?

Deployment

• Cloud
  A third-party host and maintains the environment on its server, but a business can still access those hosted resources at any given time.
  
• On-Premises
  The business or their managed service provider deploys the environment in-house and is responsible for the maintenance and all related processes.
  

Control

• Cloud
  The third party that host your environment have your data and encryption keys; therefore, if there is any downtime, you may be unable to access your data.
• On-Premises
  The business or their managed service provider deploys the environment in-house and is responsible for the maintenance and all related processes.

Not every business needs a clear-cut on-premises or cloud infrastructure environment. There are many cases where companies will benefit most from a hybrid or combination of the two based on their needs.

Black Line can help you make the right hosting decision for your business, both for now and the foreseeable future. To begin the decision-making process, Black Line assesses a business to understand:

• What are your business objectives?
• What speed does your business needs to implement a solution?
• How much computing power does your business need?
• What performance level is needed for your business applications and information systems to run efficiently?

Once the assessment is complete, Black Line can provide a well-thought-out hosting solution that meets your business needs and avoids features you don't need.

Your business is unique and has its own set of needs. Connect with Black Line to learn more about how we can identify and implement a solution to help you transform your business.