Cloud Storage Versus On-Premises: A Sales Primer
BY IT GLUE | August 20, 2018
How comfortable are your clients with the cloud? It probably depends on what industry they’re in, but there are definitely some verticals that are more comfortable with technological innovation than others. If you’re seeing objections to storing information in the cloud, you’re not alone. But those objections can be overcome by highlighting how the cloud compares to on-premises storage.
Let’s take a look at how the cloud stacks up to on-premises.
Security
We all know people who perceive that the cloud is less safe than on-premises, but that’s simply not the case. On-premises storage is perceived to be safe because you have control – but illusion of control is a cognitive bias. The largest cloud providers – Amazon and Google – invest incredible amounts of money into security. Check to see that your cloud provider is SOC 2 certified – chances are pretty good that they will be. IT Glue is, and so is our cloud provider AWS. With on-premises you are far more likely to have just one layer of security – a password, compared with cloud providers who have multiple layers of security.
Backup and recovery
Cloud providers have built their platforms for redundancy and resiliency, so backup is much easier than with on-premises hardware. For some folks, that’s counterintuitive, because with on-premises they can see the equipment, and this gives them a greater sense of control. But the reality is that if your site is damaged, your hardware is likely going to be damaged with it. Cloud comes with redundancy and failover, two things that cost a lot of money for on-premises storage. Anything you have in the cloud will be right there at your fingertips the minute you turn the lights back on.
Efficiency
One of the biggest benefits of migrating data storage to the cloud is in the time savings. The less time you spend worrying about patching, maintaining, and replacing hardware, the more time you have to work on your business. In other words, the stuff that actually makes you money. Let the cloud provider sweat the infrastructure; they do it at scale.
Just plain better
Cloud solutions offer superior performance to hardware in many respects. They scale on demand, which means you can, too. Cloud will never impede your ability to grow rapidly, as the capacity you need is available on demand. Cloud solutions are usually cheaper, too. Think about all the hidden costs of on-premises storage: electricity, bandwidth, ongoing maintenance, replacement every 3-5 years, all of which cost money. For example, the cost of operating a single server has been estimated to be $730 per year by the US Energy Information Administration, just for electricity.
The fact that infrastructure is managed at scale, and the lower cost of development for cloud-based solutions, allows these solutions to come to you at a lower cost, improving your margins.
There’s also integrations and updates, which are rolled out in real time – no delays, no convoluted installations, no mailing out updates to your customers on hard drives, just new features available instantly. If you’re delivering solutions that are always up to date, and your competitors are not, you have the advantage.
For more details on IT Glue’s security, download our Security Whitepaper. To learn more about how IT Glue can help position your MSP for growth, contact us for a free demo:
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