On-Premise vs Cloud Data Warehouse
The need to house and analyze data is nothing new — the concept of data warehousing has been around since the 1980s and the practice existed in some form even before that. What has changed is the sheer amount of data, which has grown at almost unimaginable rates. Research firm IDC predicts there will be 55.9 billion connected devices by 2025, with 79.4 zettabytes (ZB) of data created by connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices alone.
These volumes of data have placed new demands on data warehouses, with many providers looking to the cloud to handle some of those demands. However, on-premise data warehouses remain viable options as well, leaving many wondering which model is best for their businesses when it comes to housing and managing data.
The On-Premise Option
While tech industry marketing might have you believe that the cloud is the only answer — and it doesn’t even matter what the question is — the truth is that some models are better suited to an on-premise storage option. Particularly for companies already set up to maintain data on-premise, there are reasons a move to the cloud might not make much sense.
Cost. Cost savings is often touted as a cloud benefit, but if your servers are already set up to do the job, why move? It’s important to thoroughly understand your organization’s needs when making this decision. What kind of processing power do you need, how much data do you typically store and process, and what kind of bandwidth does processing that data require? If your on-premise solution has been built to meet these needs, then your ongoing costs are largely in space, power consumption and maintenance, so weigh those against the cost of cloud storage to fully understand the financial part of the equation.
Third-party risk. No matter how good the cloud provider’s security is, and no matter how high the service level, the fact remains that your data is hosted with a third party. We’ll assume that you’re not hosting your valuable data with “Bob’s Cloud Storage and Stuff,” but even if you’re hosting with Amazon Redshift or Microsoft Azure, third party is third party — someone besides you has the ultimate control over your data. While security is often touted as a benefit of the cloud, cloud providers cannot completely protect your data. In both cases, your IT department must have a strong security focus, but when it comes to on-premise, there’s no one else in control.
Speed and complexity. An on-premise warehouse is typically going to offer much more speed than one in the cloud, simply because of proximity and lack of latency issues. Cloud servers can be deployed all over the globe, so if your business intelligence (BI) software is sending out queries, there may be a delay in response time. On-premise solutions, of course, are generally not subject to these issues, so querying data is a simpler task.
Contracts. Cloud contracts often come with high fees for early termination, leaving users locked into a particular vendor for a long time. Meanwhile, contract terms can change, and often a renewal clause requires notice prior to the expiration date, which users can miss. And what happens when the economy takes a turn for the worse, business is tight, and it’s hard to make payments? What becomes of your data? The on-premise option, of course, avoids all these issues.
The Cloud Option
There are a number of advantages to the cloud, of course. Like everything else, it depends on your company’s unique situation and needs, so it’s worth weighing both sides.
Up-front costs. If you’re starting from scratch, a cloud-based data warehouse is a much more inexpensive option up-front, as there is no hardware to purchase or space requirements to house it in. While it might also mean fewer on-site IT staff and resources, that depends on your specific needs – and it’s important to remember that your organization must still be responsible for your data’s security when it is housed in the cloud.
Reliability. It is most likely that your cloud provider’s service agreement guarantees a certain degree of uptime, while an on-premise warehouse is strictly in the hands of your IT department. So again, if you do not have a large IT budget or department, cloud can be a more cost-effective choice — but keep in mind the security caveat listed above.
Scalability. One of the greatest benefits of the cloud is the ability to scale up or down as needed. As your business needs grow or change, it is possible to scale the size of your data warehouse accordingly, ensuring you’re running as lean as possible to keep things efficient.
DashboardFox’s software is self-hosted, so either option will work with our BI software. Install it locally with on-premise data or install it in the cloud with your cloud-hosted data. It’s your choice.
How DashboardFox Can Help on On-Premise vs Cloud Data Warehouse
As mentioned above, DashboardFox can work on either on-premise or cloud data warehouse setups. It is well-equipped to support either data warehouse setups, which makes it a great BI software to be used for your business.
Here are some of the other things why DashboardFox is the one for you.
It is self-hosted. DashboardFox is self-hosted, which means it can help you finish the job and get the job done right there and then, whatever data warehouse setup you have. You do not need to worry about the security of your data in terms of privacy protection because the fact that DashboardFox is self-hosted can already seal the deal on that aspect.
It is affordable. No matter what your data warehouse setup is, you still need BI software that can work well for your company. The catch is: you must spend a fortune looking for the best BI software for your business. Or at least that’s how it works, according to the status quo.
DashboardFox wants to show you that you do not need to spend a fortune in order to het the best quality of service that you need for your business.
With DashboardFox, YOPO: you only pay once.
That means the first time we charge you for DashboardFox will be the last time we will deduct you of your funds. Isn’t that cool? No need to maintain a balance on your cards for monthly, quarterly, or annual subscriptions, or to pay for add-ons for a separate fee. You would have to pay only once, and that’s it*.
*Full transparency note, after the 1st year we do hope you renew priority support and upgrades, but it’s on us to keep giving you excellent support and new features to entice you to do that.
Our team will work for you, and with you. Remember how BI software is usually priced exorbitantly, only to encounter hassle upon hassle in filing tickets whenever something goes wrong? It is one side of the industry that no one wants to see, but it still happens. With DashboardFox, you will receive a response from us without having to file follow-up tickets upon tickets just to resolve one single problem.
Our team will be dedicated to help you with everything you should know about using DashboardFox, and we will offer swift resolutions in the form of remote screen sharing and other ways of assistance, with whatever problem you need. When you purchase DashboardFox, you get to have a remote team of experts at your beck and call -- sans the salary.
If you want to be more convinced about what we can do, we invite you to schedule a free demo with the same team you’ll be working with soon.