The Benefits of Cloud Compared to On-Premises

Starting at the turn of the century, there has been a steady move to the cloud across industries. It started slowly at first but has evolved into a paradigm shift for many businesses.

Security-conscious players – bricks-and-mortar financial institutions, healthcare providers, retailers and utilities – have been slower than others in adopting the cloud. New digital-first FinTechs, however, have been much more aggressive in their strategies. In many cases, these businesses would not exist if it were not for the cloud.

Overwhelmingly, we see that businesses operating in the cloud enjoy much greater flexibility, allowing them to compete in a fierce market and adapt to customer demands quickly. Without the shackles of legacy applications and the need to support a slow-changing culture of manual checks and balances, they have expanded quickly. According to Foundry’s Cloud Computing Study 2022, “just 27% of companies in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region currently have most or all of their IT environment in the cloud, compared to 41% globally – but they expect that to double to 53% in the next 18 months.” While APAC still has a way to go, it is positioned well to become a world leader in the cloud.

The companies that have been making investments in cloud, mobile computing, security, and big data are reporting higher growth than those that are predominantly on-premises based. Tech-aware companies and industry leaders are leveraging the advantages of the cloud-computing trend to modernize their operations. A paradigm shift is taking place, from individual investments to collaborative (cloud) investment. Companies are using cloud technology to operate their businesses differently, helping them to identify prospects, improve customer service, and, in turn, generate greater ROI.

Cloud computing is a practical solution for small and large businesses alike. A small business can use as much instantaneous computing power as a large business, which previously would have been impossible if they had to invest in the on-premises hardware and infrastructure.

The Benefits of Cloud

Cloud offers a wide range of benefits for many applications. Take, for example, the strategic use of data. Creating a cloud data platform gives organizations the ability to store, access, and analyze data without being held back by legacy technologies. Consider what these benefits can unleash when they’re applied to data.

1. No investment in on-premises hardware – It frees up limited financial CapEx so organizations can innovate and keep up with customers/competitors.
2. Genuinely highly resilient storage – Theoretically indestructible limitless storage for anything digital enables them to scale projects as needed.
3. The ability to locate compute near the point of consumption – While on-premises solutions tend to be in a limited number of data centers, cloud’s dispersed resources help users operate with more agility.
4. Robust security – Once thought of as risky, cloud security now provides as good or significantly better protection than on-premises security.
5. The option to pay as you go – Rather than pay a flat fee, organizations can scale usage and payments up and down seamlessly, avoiding unnecessary costs.

Taken together, all these benefits have enabled organizations to take advantage of the data revolution. Cloud data platforms give them the ability to process data quickly, scale their data usage as necessary, simplify their budgets and conduct deeper analyses of a wide range of data stores. The cloud paradigm shift has taken place – and it’s exerting its impact on the world of data.

About Keith Bolam

With near forty years as a practicing Data-Oli gist I have worked with many operating systems, Database Management, and application solutions. Databases have been central to my career since 1985 when I created my first Data Application and Hierarchical Database. Now I am still Working on the Ingres technology, with a primary focus on the x100 capability and use cases that it can be the best solution for. During my career as a software engineer, I have lived and worked in the Middle East and India delivering on unique bespoke solutions for data. Looking back, all the projects I have worked on since the mid-eighties have been about Insight and Analysis of Data.