Should I Keep My Data On Premise or In the Cloud?

In recent years, cloud hosting has drastically increased – according to a cloud adoption study, global cloud adoption by businesses reached 81% in 2018. Although cloud hosting is generally a go-to for most companies, sometimes it isn’t the best fit for everyone. With this in mind, it’s always a great idea to take a look at all of your option if you’re considering cloud hosting or on premise hosting.

What Is On Premise Hosting?

When a business keeps its operating systems, server hardware, applications and firewalls in house, they’re hosting on premise. In this scenario, the business usually as an IT team and handles all maintenance, software license installations, upgrades, integrations and backups.

What Is Cloud Hosting?

In a cloud setting, a 3^rd-party hosting provider offers off-site data hosting on shared server farms or private dedicated servers. Cloud hosting providers can specialize in hosting specific products, like Sage 100 or another software. In most cases, the hosting provider is responsible for all server and hardware maintenance, as well as general hardware expenses. When businesses move to the cloud, they’re able to pay for services as needed rather than invest time and money into IT and hardware, and they have the ability to scale resources according to their needs.

Within the last decade, cloud hosting has become a preferred option to on premise hosting for a number of reasons. A few of the points as to why cloud hosting might be a good fit for you, include: 1. Increased remote accessibility, 2. Server redundancy, 3. Business scalability, 4. Disaster recovery, and 5. Enhanced security.

Benefits of Cloud Hosting Over On Premise

There are numerous perks you’ll experience when you begin cloud hosting. Find five of the most popular reasons why businesses migrate their data into the cloud below.

1. Remote access: Cloud hosting increases remote accessibility of software, thereby giving users the ability to work from wherever, whenever.
2. Server redundancy: Most hosting providers have redundant servers within their data center – this means that if one fails, another is available to pick up the load so users can still access their data.
3. Business scalability: Hosting enables customers to focus more time and resources toward expanding their businesses. Also, when you choose a hosting provider that specifically provides dedicated server hosting, you’ll be able to add the exact resources you need to your server and you’ll never share resources with other companies.
4. Disaster recovery: Data in the cloud is kept in secure data centers with different levels of security, power backups, data backups and (typically) redundant servers. So, in this environment, you won’t have to worry about losing your data or hardware due to external disasters, like flooding.
5. Security: According to a study by Cloud Security Alliance, 73% of companies said data security is the biggest concern holding back cloud adoption for businesses. However, security in the cloud can actually be better than on premise. In a cloud hosting setting, security tools are interconnected and use APIs, can be automated to scale resources accordingly and are handled by engineers. Keep in mind that every cloud provider offers different types and levels of security – for example, a trusted partner of ours, Summit Hosting, uses 256-bit Encrypted Secure Login, is PCI compliant and SSAE 18 certified.

Ready To Learn More?

You may still be asking yourself “is cloud hosting or on premise hosting better?”. At the end of the day, it really depends on the unique needs and goals of your company. If you’d like to learn more or to see if the cloud is the right solution for your business, contact our team today: 262-797-0400