Cloud versus On-Premise Deployment

Reviewing your Software environment can result in many questions. Which is the best option? How would it change the way we manage our systems? Can the cloud environment be managed by an internal IT team?

Both environments have benefits, therefore the best question to find an answer to is “Which solution suits us best?”.
The following topics will guide you through a list of items to consider before choosing:

The acquiring, configuration and setup of a Cloud-based environment reduce the time and cost spent when comparing to on-premise. Typically the cloud environment is provisioned by the vendor shortly after contract signing. From a business perspective, a cloud-based environment is the fastest solution to begin implementation. The vendor will be responsible for all updates and maintenance of the environment.

The cloud provides the benefit of storage and scalability based on needs, which is managed by the vendor on a pay-as-needed setup.

Consider your company’s IT infrastructure security requirements. A third party vendor host data on the cloud. Before considering the best suitable solution, define a comprehensive list of all data sources required for your project. For each data source identify the security controls and risk. Next, identify if these are addressed by each environment.

Cloud vendors cater for highly secure operations and often have audit controls to ensure all data is protected. Depending on internal regulatory and security obligations, a solution like on-premise would be the ideal solution if data security is of critical nature and sensitivity of your data being hosted by a third party cloud vendor is identified as a risk.

In addition, at any point in time if an organisation outgrows the “pay as you go” solution they could revert back or move to an on-premise solution. IBM Planning Analytics customers can start on-premises or cloud and move back and forth among the multiple deployment options if the need arises.

The ideal deployment takes into account factors such as urgency, cost, stage of maturity and overall strategy.

If you do choose cloud, what model should you choose?

A cloud computing offering in which a vendor provides users access to computing resources such as servers, storage and networking. Organizations use their own platforms and applications within a service provider’s infrastructure.

A cloud computing offering that provides users with a cloud environment in which they can develop, manage and deliver applications. In addition to storage and other computing resources, users can use a suite of prebuilt tools to develop, customize and test their own applications.

A cloud computing offering that provides users with access to a vendor’s cloud-based software. Users do not install applications on their local devices. Instead, the applications reside on a remote cloud network accessed through the web or an API. Through the application, users can store and analyze data and collaborate on projects.

With the additional environment information, let’s continue with the Upgrade TM1 to Planning Analytics journey.