FEATURE
TO CHOOSE
BETWEEN AN
ON-PREMISES
SOLUTION, OR
A CLOUD OR
HYBRID OPTION
HOSTED IN A
DATA CENTRE
FACILITY, A
BUSINESS NEEDS
TO CONSIDER
ITS CURRENT
BUSINESS
CAPABILITIES
AND FUTURE
AIMS,
REQUIREMENTS,
GROWTH
PROSPECTS
AND STRATEGIC
ROADMAP.
I
These are fairly obvious, straightforward
factors, however, when faced with
different options i.e. on premises, cloud or
hybrid, making the right decision for what
your business needs becomes a bit more
complicated. With so many investment
choices, what’s a business to do and, once
the choice is made, how best to evaluate
the benefits of that investment?
Look before you leap
To choose between an on-premises
solution, or a cloud or hybrid option
hosted in a data centre facility, a
business needs to consider its current
business capabilities and future aims,
requirements, growth prospects and
strategic roadmap. How the business
wants to manage and use data gathered
will also play a decisive factor and of
course consideration must be given to
rising threat levels to data security.
It’s vital to fully ascertain what is involved
in each of the options offered by vendors
and service providers. Part of this involves
doing a cost comparison and taking into
account risk assessments – in this way
an organisation can compare apples with
apples in terms of working out an ROI for
investing in a data centre compared to an
on-premises solution, for example.
n recent years, the increasing
influence of IoT (Internet of Things)
and the fourth industrial revolution,
characterised by interconnectivity,
automation, Machine Learning and real-
time data, have been the catalysts for
attracting strong investment in the data
centre industry. Additionally, a balance also needs to be
struck between storage capacity and
personnel needs, and system reliability.
Now, with the adoption of cloud-based
services going mainstream, investment
in this industry is even higher, with
a predicted growth of 9.1% this year
according to Research and Markets, up
from last year’s 8.5% growth rate. Generally speaking, on-premises solutions
are physically located at an organisation’s
office site or in a hosting location of their
choice. The application in use and all the
data associated with it is stored on a
server or a private cloud in this location,
enabling full control over security and
access to the data and application.
For many businesses having to meet
increased demand for storage capacity as
well as more stringent data compliance
regulations, and making information
accessible in new ways, investing in data
www.intelligentdatacentres.com
centres is driven by cost, performance and
high availability.
Here’s a short overview of the three best-
known options:
On-premises
This also means, however, that the
company is responsible for maintaining
the hardware the application is being
Issue 07
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