Stepwise Guide to Strike Perfect Balance between Cloud and On-Premise IT

Stepwise Guide to Strike Perfect Balance between Cloud and On-Premise IT

Regardless of the hype of cloud computing in the modern IT world, it can save significant costs for the enterprises that rely on this technology. However, it may invite unnecessary troubles regarding data exposition and security or regarding higher expenditure than expected, in case the cloud hosting solutions are not chosen carefully.

Keeping the above in mind, it is wiser to not ignore the traditional IT infrastructure altogether. Here is a stepwise guide that explains how companies can gain the most from both cloud and on-premises IT by striking a perfect balance between them.

1. Adopting the hybrid strategy

While moving applications to cloud delivers high performance, scalability, flexibility and agility, it is important to comprehend that all this can be optimized by making optimum use of both on-premises IT and cloud technologies. The hybrid strategy works the best because many other operational factors, such as data sensitivity, confidentiality, access and maintenance, affect the usability of cloud and on-premises IT infrastructure.

2. Achieving higher business value

Every business has mission-critical applications that may require maintaining confidentiality. There may also be compliance matters to deal with. In such restrictive cases, it is better to use secure on-site servers instead of moving the data to the cloud. However, most of the back office data and non-critical applications can easily be moved to the cloud to benefit from mobility, scalability, and maintenance and cost savings. This offers better value to a business.

3. Making it economical

Cost is a major factor that drives enterprises toward cloud computing technologies. However, it is important to keep a check on the cold data stored in the cloud. A company may be paying for such unstructured data that may be obsolete but occupying space in the cloud. Thus, what should have been economical becomes expensive for them. Whether it is for data mining or backup purposes, such data can better be stored on-site. The redundant data can be eliminated to free up space in the cloud. This achieves the economic balance.

4. Ensuring data security

A critical factor to consider while balancing the use of cloud and on-premises IT infrastructure is the security of data of varied types. Even though many cloud hosting service providers ensure round-the-clock server maintenance and built-in security systems, there are incidents of data loss or theft. Thus, very sensitive data stays safe on the well-maintained, on-site servers. It provides protection against malicious attacks, ransomware, and even some human errors.

5. Checking on accessibility

Finally, enterprises need to keep their data, which requires quick access, on premises. There may be service disruptions at the cloud vendor’s end, resulting in data inaccessibility. As against this, some emergencies or fire or flood incidents may make a company facility inaccessible. At that time, data can be recovered quickly from the cloud.

Thus, an enterprise should have skilled IT personnel to take calculated decisions at every step of balancing the use of their on-site IT setup and cloud.