Techblog
Cloud vs Data Centres - which to use for smarter data management
Do you know the differences between data centres and the cloud? Read on and determine which solution best suits your company’s needs.
Traditionally, businesses set up their IT infrastructure such as server rooms on-site, generally tucked away in the corner of the office. However, the 21st century has seen the advent of off-site, managed data centres, as well as use of the cloud as an infrastructure service.
These technology solutions offer companies ways to manage capital expenditure, increase the reliability and efficiency of IT requirements, and offload some IT management tasks.
Understanding the differences between data centres and the cloud will help you determine which solution best suits your company’s needs.
What are data centres? And what is the cloud?
Aside from the fact that data is stored on both, the two computing terms mean very different things. Data centres let your company rent a physical space to install the IT equipment required for your business in a highly secure facility. Your company’s data is stored on the systems in these centres. Management of the equipment can either be done by your own IT team or by external staff provided by the data centre.
Compare this to the cloud where data is stored on on-premise or off-premise systems of networked computers, you can define which applications would be hosted on the cloud and scale your computing resources as your business grows for enhanced agility and savings. The cloud providers who also perform necessary software updates and ongoing maintenance will manage all the back end and hardware requirements.
What about security on the cloud versus a data centre?
IT security concerns over cyber-attacks or physical damage through fire, break-ins, or even hardware failure are things to consider when employing either a cloud or data-centre solution. A data centre is physically located on an accessible site, which makes it easier to ensure that only those with company-approved credentials and equipment can access company data, which places security on a data centre solely in your hands. Furthermore, a reliable data centre will offer robust environments with first-rate physical security, highly reliable power supplies and air-conditioning systems with in-built redundancy.
With the cloud, you will be entrusting your data to a third-party provider. While you no longer have to worry about physically securing hardware or hardware failure, you need to make sure that your cloud provider offers up-to-date security certifications and end-to-end security at every level. All data points need to be protected and cloud hardware needs to be located in secure locations. You also need to make sure that they have good back-up redundancies in the event of their own hardware failure and a good Service Level Agreement commitment.
What about employing both?
It’s not out of the question for businesses to run both managed hosting and cloud services. For example, a company might opt to use the cloud purely for backup and disaster recovery (DR), where primary data resides in a data centre but gets backed up to more cost-efficient storage in the cloud.
Businesses should look for managed hosting and managed cloud services from a reputable company with a good track record in service delivery and reliability.
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