Cloud Software

Costs

• Converts Capex to Opex
• Low upfront costs
• Reduced overhead costs related to hardware, real estate, utilities, etc.
• Maintenance and support are generally included

On-Premises Software

Costs

• Higher Capex
• Overhead costs
• Maintenance and support fees can add more expense

Flexibility

• Add-ons and 3rd-party tools may be available

Flexibility

• Customization takes time and may add expense
• Customization may lead to problems when upgrades occur

Deployment

• Usually requires only minutes
• Usually requires very little effort

Deployment

• Deployment may take weeks or months
• Customer needs to provision hardware and ensure that it will support the application

Security

• Vendors have large teams of security experts
• Vendors deploy state-of-the-art security

Security

• Customer may not have as much security expertise as the vendor

Compliance

• Some vendors have services that meet industry-specific compliance requirements
• Vendors are liable for out of compliance issues

Compliance

• Customer has complete control over compliance
• Customer is liable for out of compliance issues

Management

• Vendor handles most hardware and software management tasks

Management

• Requires customer to have staff to handle hardware and software management

Accessibility

• Usually accessible from anywhere, anytime, any device
• Vendor handles disaster recovery
• Vendors generally have high availability

Accessibility

• May not be accessible from mobile devices
• Customer is responsible for availability and DR

Scalability

• Highly scalable

Scalability

• Less scalable

Upgrades

• Vendor handles upgrades
• New features are available immediately
• Generally not disruptive

Upgrades

• Customer has to wait for access to new features
• Upgrades are often disruptive and may require downtime
• Potential security vulnerabilities