According to Statista, IT experts worldwide estimate a nearly 2024/50 split between onsite and cloud-hosted servers in their companies by 50. Due to the huge amounts of data and the increasing use of AI, more and more servers will be needed in the future. At the same time, however, the market for public cloud services is also growing, so companies have to ask themselves where they should invest their IT budget in order to get the best return on their server investments.
Cloud servers offer numerous advantages, including scalability and flexibility through on-demand resources, cost efficiency thanks to the pay-as-you-go model, and high availability, often over 99,9 percent. Maintenance and updates are handled by the providers, which means the infrastructure always remains up to date. However, disadvantages include possible latency and performance issues, limited control and customizability compared to on-premises servers, and potentially increasing ongoing costs and security concerns, as data protection is partly the responsibility of the user.
Cloud Server vs. Physical Server: Advantages and Disadvantages
Physical in-house servers offer full control over hardware and software, predictable performance without dependence on an internet connection, and better compliance with stringent security and compliance requirements, especially in regulated industries. However, they suffer from high upfront and operating costs, low scalability, and additional complexity in administration. Acquisition and maintenance also require regular investment and skilled personnel.
Start with a cost-benefit analysis
Conducting a cost-benefit analysis is critical to determining the optimal resource allocation between cloud-based servers and on-premises servers. This analysis requires IT leaders to consider direct and indirect costs, such as initial capital expenditure (CAPEX), operating costs, scalability, and the potential impact on operations and revenue. Evaluating these factors helps make informed decisions that align with IT budget, operational needs, and long-term goals. The cost-benefit analysis should guide decisions about investing in cloud servers or in-house servers as the company's infrastructure evolves. Striking the right balance ensures that companies reap the benefits of both in-house and cloud-based servers.
Unified Data Protection for cloud and physical server security
Companies that use both cloud-based and physical servers need to protect their data from ransomware, security breaches and other disasters in both cases - regardless of where it is used. Unified Data Protection (UDP) solutions such as Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP) meet these requirements and more. In addition to protection functions against ransomware and other threats, additional layers of protection offer the highest IT reliability and resilience for virtual, physical and cloud infrastructures. The solution includes integrated cloud disaster recovery as well as backups for private and public clouds, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud or Nutanix Objects.
Backup tests ensure recovery
With Assured Recovery, you can test backups to ensure you meet your recovery time and recovery point objectives (RTOs/RPOs) and SLAs, and orchestrated recovery enables you to recover any workload, anywhere, at any time.
UDP solutions also help companies achieve cost savings for backup and disaster recovery, regardless of whether cloud or physical servers are used. Thanks to global source-side deduplication and data compression, they reduce backup storage space requirements by up to 95 percent.
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About Arcserve Arcserve offers exceptional solutions to protect the valuable digital assets of companies that require complete and comprehensive data protection. Arcserve was founded in 1983 and is the world's most experienced provider of business continuity solutions for securing multigenerational IT infrastructures with applications and systems in any environment, on site and in the cloud. Companies in over 150 countries around the world rely on Arcserve's highly efficient, integrated technologies and expertise to reduce the risk of data loss and prolonged downtime while reducing the cost and complexity of data backup and recovery by up to 50 Reduce percent. Arcserve is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with numerous locations around the world.