Companies often think of the cloud and an on-premise data center as an “either/or”. Is this true, though?

Data Centers VS The Cloud

To understand why companies think that way, we need to talk about the differences between the cloud and data centers.

Data Centers

A data center is a physical facility that houses servers to store, process, and distribute a company’s data. The whole facility typically includes the hardware itself, the space in which it is housed, the power and backup systems, and anything else needed to keep those servers running. Although colocation—data center space and services leased by a provider—is getting more popular these days, most data centers are dedicated and on-premise. 

There are three major benefits of having an on-premise data center. First, you have complete control over your data and equipment. Next, you can also control exactly what hardware and software you’re using, making customizations much easier without the need to ask for permission from a vendor. Finally, you can set up an environment that wil cater to your legacy systems, ensuring flexibility when it comes to migrating to a newer system.

However, there are disadvantages, too. First, you have to spend some money to build it, including to purchase the hardware. Next, you will also need to hire personnel to configure, customize, manage, maintain, and secure it all. Finally, it offers limited scalability.

The Cloud

Why do people often contrast data centers with the cloud? Cloud computing is a system that also stores, processes, and distributes data but remotely. With the cloud, your data are processed and applications run off-premises; both are accessible through the internet.

The cloud provides you with a number of advantages, including high affordability, accessibility, flexibility, scalability, storage capacity, and data security—benefits you can’t get with a data center. You don’t need up-front costs to purchase hardware and infrastructure and only have to pay for what you use. This leads to the point about scalability. When you need additional space, it’s ready. Likewise, if your data storage needs scale back, your usage costs will be reduced. In addition, in terms of security, providers usually hire highly trained, experienced staff members to make sure that everything is properly configured, constantly maintained, and adequately secured.

Nonetheless, the cloud also comes with drawbacks. Having minimum control of your equipment and letting someone else handle your data can be uncomfortable. Security is also a concern with the cloud-based solution. Although your cloud provider implements their own data security measures, you’re still responsible for protecting it. You might feel that if you’re going to be responsible, then it’s better to be the one to take on the full responsibility. 

With its own benefits and drawbacks, each solution has its own target market. An on-premise data center is good for companies that have a heavy capital investment in IT or need to be excessively cautious about data privacy. On the other hand, due to its flexibility, the cloud is suitable for most companies of any size.

The Hybrid Solution: The Cloud x Data Centers

The differences between the two solutions may make you think you should choose one over the other.

It may be true in many cases. However, with neuCloud, you can create an environment that uses a combination of an on-premise data center and the cloud, private or public: a hybrid cloud x data center solution. For example, you might have infrastructure and access management on-premise, HR applications running on a private cloud, and a public cloud environment for your DevOps team to use for their testing and production environments. 

This environment combines the best aspects of each solution: the scalability and speed of the cloud, with the familiarity and control of existing on-premise data centers. Thus, this arrangement is suitable for businesses with existing IT infrastructure, but who also want to start their cloud journey.

Think this option is what you need? Let neuCloud help you! Contact us now!