This article covers the basics of on-prem, also known as on-premises Infrastructure. It addresses all your questions, including What is the meaning of on-prem? How does it vary from a cloud or SAAS solution? Are our private cloud and on-premises the same? How can I determine if an on-premises configuration or a cloud based software or service is best for my business?
What is the Meaning of On-Premises Software?
On-premises software is a software delivery mechanism installed and operated on a client’s in-house server and computing equipment. It employs the native computing resources of the company and requires just a licensed or paid copy of the software from a third-party software provider. On-premises software is also directed to as shrink wrap.
On-premises software is among the most prevalent and conventional approaches to deploying commercial and consumer applications. Typically, on-premises software requires a license for each server and end-user. The customer is responsible for the software’s security, availability, and overall management. However, the seller also offers integration and support services following the sale.
On-premises software is more costly than on-demand or cloud software since it requires on-site server gear, capital investment in software licenses, on-site IT support personnel, and longer integration periods. However, on-premises software is regarded as more secure because the complete instance of the software remains in the business’s facilities. Why Choose On-Premises? Why Is It Necessary to Establish On-Premises Infrastructure?
Security is the primary reason businesses choose on-premises Infrastructure versus SaaS to host their services. When businesses use a cloud-based service provided by a third party, the organization’s data is shared with the third-party provider. This opens the door to the possibility of a data breach, which is vital to the firm’s survival, particularly if it provides financial, military, or health care services.
In addition to security, there are additional factors, such as customization. There are situations in which a firm needs a customized solution that a cloud-based Software as a Service does not provide.
A Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider offers general solutions that meet the requirements of the majority of enterprises, but your needs may differ from those instances. The answer is an on-premises installation.
Another frequent occurrence is vendor lock-in. Many cloud-based hosting firms provide their own specialized, high-performance solutions that execute your code. Potential disadvantages include vendor lock-in.
To interface our code with these services, we must build a substantial, bespoke code for a specific SaaS solution if we require a scalable, high-performance NoSQL solution and choose Google Datastore as our database. We must create code that is compatible with Google Cloud Datastore. Conforming to its intent.
Suppose in the future we wish to switch to an open-source solution, such as MongoDB. We must rewrite our code for the persistence layer of our application. Since we are already committed to Cloud Datastore.
Real-World Examples of On-Premises
Slack is the industry’s most popular employee communication application. It is utilized as software as a Service by organizations. Everyone is satisfied as long as the data is not sensitive, such as financial, military, or medical information. However, how would teams developing FinTech applications communicate?
This requires using an on-premises, open-source chat application, such as Mattermost. What exactly is it? I’ve published an extensive article on the topic.
In a second case, Uber developed its internal workplace communication platform utilizing Mattermost to meet its enormous scalability requirements.
Therefore, it is now evident why on-premises systems are preferable to cloud-based SaaS solutions.
What Open-source cloud Solution can you run On-Premises
Open Stack is an open-source cloud computing software platform. It operates optimally as Infrastructure as a service IaaS and is favored by businesses to manage their on-premises data centers.
Open Stack manages data center hardware, many servers, storage, networking, and everything else. It was a Rackspace and NASA collaboration designed to meet the needs of public and private clouds of any scale.
Summery
On-premises software is a software delivery mechanism installed and operated on a client’s in-house server. It employs the native computing resources of the company and requires just a licensed copy of the software from a third party. On-premise software is regarded as more secure because the complete instance remains in the business’s facilities. On-premises systems are preferable to cloud-based SaaS solutions. Slack is the industry’s most popular employee communication application.
Uber developed its internal workplace communication platform utilizing Mattermost. Open Stack manages data center hardware, many servers, storage, networking, and everything else.