Cloud vs. Data Center: Important Factors to Consider

A data center has limited capacity. If a company needs to expand the storage and workload of the data center, they are responsible for purchasing and installing new equipment and technology

Fremont, CA: When it comes to storing and accessing massive amounts of data by your company or organization, cloud data services are a cost-effective alternative to setting up and running a data center.

A cloud data service is essentially a remote version of a data center – located somewhere other than a company's physical premises – that allows one to access one's data via the internet. The cloud provider performs ongoing maintenance and updates and many times owns multiple data centers in different geographic locations to protect one's data during outages and other failures.

A data center is traditionally defined as server hardware on a company's premises that is used to store and access data via one's local network. An in-house IT department typically maintains it on the payroll of one's company.

If one is debating whether to use a cloud service or build one's own data center, here are three considerations to help you make the best decision for one's business.

Security

A company will be entrusting its data to a third party when using a cloud vendor. The cloud provider's responsibility is to ensure that it has the most recent security certifications. If a company's cloud is housed in multiple data centers across the country, each one will require the appropriate security measures.

Anyone with the necessary credentials can access a company's cloud data from any location with an internet connection. This is convenient, but it also opens up a slew of new access points, all of which must be secured to ensure the security of data transmitted through them.

Customizable

A data center is ideal for businesses that require a dedicated system that gives them complete control over their data and the hardware. Because the company only uses this hardware infrastructure, a data center is better suited for an organization that needs to run a variety of applications and complex workloads.

A data center, on the other hand, has limited capacity. If a company needs to expand the storage and workload of the data center, one is responsible for purchasing and installing new equipment and technology.

Based on a vendor's offerings and service plans, a cloud data system has potentially infinite capacity. Because the cloud vendor owns and manages the data center system, one does not control the remotely located hardware. Moreover, unless one pays for a private cloud within the vendor's network, one's organization will share hardware resources with other cloud users.