On-Premise Vs Cloud
It is easier for people to get information through the internet today. More and more people understand the importance of a company having a system. A system that not only aims to be able to store data in an integrated manner between one part and another, but also a system that is able to help users to perform analysis.
However, the system cannot run alone. There must be good and reliable infrastructure support so that the system can run smoothly.
And now, more and more people have heard of the term "Cloud", but still few have heard of the term "On-Premise".
What Is On-Premise?
In terms of infrastructure / hardware, the notion of "On-Premise" or often shortened to "On-Prem" is a term to state that the company has a physical server, where the server can be placed in one location / building. Whether it's in one of the company's office buildings or placed in a data center (Co-Location).
Meanwhile, when viewed from the perspective of the system, the notion of "On-Premise" is a term to state that a system belongs to the company. In the case of an SAP Business One license, an On-Premise license means that the company purchases and has a license for the SAP Business One system to be used for operational activities.
What Is Cloud?
Meanwhile for "Cloud" (some call it "Cloud Computing") in infrastructure, it refers to the infrastructure provided by third parties using virtualization technology and online. So, companies need an internet to access the infrastructure.
Now, almost everyone must have actually used cloud services. Cloud services that are most widely used today by people around the world are email. Email (for example Gmail) is one form of cloud use in everyday life.
We as users do not know where the location of the Gmail server, where our email data is stored. What we know for sure, we can access our email or data online and realtime.
In general, third-party cloud infrastructure service providers are also known as Cloud Service Providers. Several international scale vendors that provide this cloud infrastructure include:
- Microsoft known with Azure
- Amazon known with AWS (Amazon Web Service)
- Google known with GCP (Google Cloud Platform)
- Huawei known with Huawei Cloud
- Alibaba known with Alibaba Cloud (also called as Ali Cloud)
Key Differences
There are several things that are the main key differences between on-premise and cloud, which should be considered in determining what model we want to use in the company.
On Cloud |
On Premise |
|
|---|---|---|
| Placement | The server is within the the company's internal network. | Servers hosted by Cloud Service Providers using the latest virtualization technology. |
| Cost | Paid in full up front. | Paid monthly |
| Ownership | Own | Rent |
| Control and Security | Data is stored and fully controlled by company in its own server. | The data is stored in the resources of the Cloud Service Provider. |
| Scaleability | It takes time and look for hardware availability to upgrade. | Upgrades can be done quickly and easily. Resources can also set lower to reduce cost. |
| Maintenance | Need special attention for maintenance on the hardware & infrastructure side. | Hardware & infrastructure maintenance is carried out by cloud service providers. |
| Access | Internet connection is only needed if you need to access data from outside the network. | An internet network is a must to access the data on the server. |
The decision to choose to use on-premise or cloud is returned to the needs and policies of each company. Usually the main determining factors are scalability, internet network availability (access) and the costs that must be incurred by the company in deciding to use the on-premise or cloud model.
