Cloud Computing | 5 min read

Should you keep your servers in-house or move to the cloud? The answer isn’t as simple as vendors want you to believe. Here’s an objective breakdown of what each option actually means for your business.

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1. Cost: The Real Numbers

On-Premise

  • Capital expenditure (CapEx): Large upfront investment in hardware, software licenses, and infrastructure. A decent server setup starts at £10-15k.
  • Ongoing costs: Maintenance, upgrades, electricity (£200-400/month), cooling, and potentially dedicated IT staff.
  • Predictability: Fixed costs can be easier to budget, but you often end up overprovisioning “just in case.”

Cloud

  • Operational expenditure (OpEx): Pay-as-you-go model based on actual usage. No upfront capital required.
  • Scalability: Scale up during busy periods, scale down when quiet. Only pay for what you use.
  • No hardware costs: No servers to buy, no warranties to track, no end-of-life replacements.

The reality: Cloud isn’t automatically cheaper. Predictable 24/7 workloads can cost more in cloud. Variable workloads usually save money. Most businesses find cloud works out similar or slightly cheaper when you factor in hidden on-prem costs like electricity, maintenance time, and risk.

2. Scalability and Flexibility

On-Premise

  • Limited scalability: Need more capacity? Buy more hardware. Wait 4-6 weeks for delivery. Find space for it.
  • Infrastructure constraints: Limited by physical space, power capacity, and cooling.

Cloud

  • Instant scalability: Add resources in minutes, not months. Remove them just as quickly.
  • Global reach: Deploy services in multiple regions for redundancy or to serve international clients.

3. Security and Compliance

On-Premise

  • Physical control: You control who walks into the server room.
  • Customisation: Tailor security exactly to your requirements.
  • Your responsibility: Patching, monitoring, incident response. All on you.

Cloud

  • Enterprise security: Providers like Microsoft invest billions in security. More than you ever could.
  • Compliance certifications: ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR compliance built in.
  • Shared responsibility: They secure the platform. You secure your configuration. Misconfigured cloud is still your problem.

The reality: Properly configured cloud is typically more secure than most on-premise setups. The key word is “properly configured.”

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4. Maintenance and Updates

On-Premise

  • Manual updates: Your IT team patches servers, updates software, manages backups.
  • Downtime risk: Updates often require scheduled downtime. Miss a patch and you’re vulnerable.

Cloud

  • Automatic updates: Platform updates handled by the provider, often with zero downtime.
  • Continuous monitoring: 24/7 monitoring for issues and threats. Not reliant on someone remembering to check.

5. Accessibility and Remote Work

On-Premise

  • Network limitations: Access typically limited to the office network.
  • VPN dependency: Remote access requires VPNs, which can be slow and frustrating.

Cloud

  • Work from anywhere: Access resources from any location with internet.
  • Collaboration built in: Real-time collaboration tools, shared documents, Teams integration.

The Honest Answer: It Depends

Anyone who tells you cloud is always better (or always worse) is selling something.

Cloud makes sense when:

  • You need remote access
  • Workloads are variable
  • You want to avoid capital expenditure
  • You don’t have dedicated IT staff
  • Disaster recovery matters

On-premise makes sense when:

  • You have specific compliance requirements
  • Workloads are predictable 24/7
  • You already own hardware with years of life left
  • Internet connectivity is unreliable
  • You have IT staff who can manage it properly

Hybrid (the reality for most): Keep some things local, move some to cloud. Email and collaboration in Microsoft 365. Line-of-business apps wherever makes sense. Backup to cloud for disaster recovery.

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We help North West businesses figure out the right mix of cloud and on-premise. No agenda, just honest advice based on what actually makes sense for your situation.

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