The cloud computing market grew by almost 30% in the first six months of 2017, reducing the use of on-site data centers significantly. Even so, on premises solutions still have an important role to play. 41% of applications have moved from the cloud to on-site infrastructure for several reasons:

  • Colocation is more economical over the long term.
  • The cloud creates latency challenges.
  • Some businesses still see colocation as more secure.
  • Heavily regulated businesses find it easier to comply through colocation.

Even Apple and Dropbox have shifted away from public cloud hosting, which offers sluggish network and disk speeds as well as underwhelming CPU performance for their demands. Those who made the move found colocation to be more stable, with 40% more CPU power.

Cloud vs Colocation

Colocation is weighed down by high capital expenditure, but the years generally make up for its upfront costs through reduced operating expenses. It allows enterprises to tailor their experience precisely. Dedicated servers offer full customization of hardware, which is high on the list for some CIOs.

The problem with jumping on any tech trend without looking before you leap is failing to analyze where your unique enterprise will land. The other problem is that even when you do look, you don’t always know where the trend is going, only where it’s projected to go. Disruptions happen. For some, the cloud is still the preferred solution for data processing because it still offers:

  • Enhanced backups.
  • Cheaper data storage over the short term.
  • Increased functionality.

Yet many enterprises have returned to colocation after having moved into the cloud because their migration wasn’t as economical as they’d imagined. They also found costs to be too unpredictable.

As the meme says, why not have both? Businesses adopting a hybrid strategy warrant a mention. Shrinking rather than eliminating on-site hardware represents the best of both worlds for businesses who have done exhaustive homework and determined both strategies apply to their needs. At the end of the day, it’s about cutting costs — the bottom line for increasing operational efficiency, bolstering network reliability, and scaling effectively. The answer may or may not be in the clouds.

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