On-premises or cloud or __? Make informed decisions on where to run your applications

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Mark Simpkins explains why on-premises compute has swung back in favor to bring control and balance back to business IT.

You probably know where your business applications are running, but how did they get there, and are they in the right places? Did you make a planned deployment to optimize your business needs, or, as the fast-moving world often prods us into, did things “just happen” quickly and stick? Let’s talk about this a bit and see where you are and where you might want to make changes.

On-premises and cloud computing defined

An on-premises data center is a group of servers that you privately own and control. Traditional cloud computing (as opposed to hybrid or private cloud computing models) involves leasing data center resources from a third-party service provider. While a longer-established company may have started out with a big investment in on-premises infrastructure and kept to that path, a newer business might have jumped straight to cloud from the start-up stage. For most small and mid-sized businesses, a less binary solution is hybrid cloud, and making sure the right applications and workloads run in the optimal infrastructure requires some consideration.

Many questions

In a previous blog, I discussed 10 questions to help you decide where to run your applications. I won’t reiterate each of them, but top of mind for many small businesses are security, cost, and manageability.

Cloud security breaches get many of the headlines, but there are also security considerations for on-premises. Security is always a concern. A cloud provider security flaw can expose many companies’ data, but a server in one’s own datacenter can also be at risk through infected firmware or even a disgruntled employee with a password and a USB drive.

Cost is in the eye of the beholder, so to speak. One company may appreciate the subscription-like payment model of the cloud, while another company in a highly regulated industry such as healthcare may prefer certain workloads to be run on-premises only and thus be accustomed to that style of IT budgeting.

Manageability is another component to consider. Cloud models may seem simpler to spin-up and run, but on-premises can provide more direct control. Did you know that HPE can even make management of on-premises compute “cloud-like” with tools such as iLO and InfoSight?

In the end, though, there is no end

Finding your right mix of on-premises and cloud infrastructure is not something you do once and call it done. It's part of a best practice to revisit periodically as your company grows and your business goals change. On-premises and the public cloud are constantly evolving, too. Prices and deals change as the major providers jockey for position in their market. What worked for you one year may not be optimal the next.

At HPE, we want to help you succeed with solutions designed for your needs. Our secure and agile servers, storage, networking, management, and services provide a consistent experience and economic control across hybrid cloud data center infrastructure. Cloud services, cloud software and infrastructure solutions can also delivered as a service to help you successfully implement a cloud experience for all your workloads.

On-premises or cloud, your enterprise is our business.

Learn more about how businesses have been maximizing their investment in public cloud as well as on-premises in this knowledge brief from Aberdeen “The Myth of the 100% Cloud World.”

Mark Simpkins
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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