Why On-Prem Storage Doesn’t Stand the Test of Time

Across the world, data centers are quickly evolving as forward-thinking tech teams like ours press CEOs towards a more secure, more efficient, and more flexible future. Together, as an IT industry, we’ve been screaming it from the rooftops: “It’s time to migrate data to the cloud!”. All because we’ve known for years that cloud storage is the best move for our teams, particularly for those of us that can’t afford a room full of arrays or technicians to babysit them. Bottom line: The Cloud and, in particular, cloud storage is the future. Full stop.

Within the industry, we have all likely encountered similar experiences concerning data storage. Does your business keep a small collection of racks and servers in one cramped and sweltering closet or room? (Oof. I’ve been there. It’s time to migrate!) Are you obsessed with efficiency, humidity, cooling devices and rack space? (Yup, I am too – you should migrate!) Has it been difficult to find great tech support who can confidently handle your existing on-prem storage? (Totally agree – migrate!)

So what’s wrong with on-prem? Faced with the expanding universe of data needs, leveraging on-premise storage alone is simply inefficient. It’s bulky, it’s expensive, and it’s risky – it’s like running your own small power plant when you could easily connect to the power infrastructure outside. It’s exciting to watch the commoditization of data storage and the exponential growth in cloud services as IaaS companies master their domain. On-prem storage is going the way of on-prem power plants and buggy whips in the early 1900’s. The roles of Storage Administrators are quickly becoming Cloud Architects.

The nature of IT professionals makes us risk-averse. We want to be efficient but never at the cost of reliability or security. We know the imperative, the impact, and the importance of the data we serve. So we often over-design redundancies in exchange for true cost efficiency.

Enter the cloud. A more efficient, more flexible, and much more easily scalable solution than traditional, on-premise storage models. Not to mention, less expensive and less risky! Until recently, however, leasing data from a private cloud service was cost prohibitive for most of us and felt less secure.

What can we do, you ask? If you’re weighing the costs v. benefits of a large IaaS company like Amazon, Google, or Microsoft, here’s what you need to know: on-premise storage is a dinosaur, and the big three cloud companies are like a mission to Mars. Sure, they’ll save you from the asteroid, but they’re going to cost you a leg and a tail. Let me show you why.

PRODUCTIVITY

On-prem storage means perpetual maintenance. Don’t waste your time and energy managing software releases, patches, and bug fixes. Don’t worry about capacity and performance planning, or technology refresh cycles. Cloud storage means a tremendous reduction in maintenance workload for your IT team. When you migrate to the cloud, you’re free to focus on your core business and look forward, instead of just looking around.

EFFICIENCY

Cloud storage means you’ll never need more office space for data storage, you’ll never need to rack and stack more hardware, pull power cords, add cooling or raised floor space. Use IT team members to drive business objectives instead of babysitting equipment, and you’ll never have to buy another piece of immediately-obsolete data center hardware.

COST

Choose the right cloud, and you could cut your storage cost by more than 80% this year. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are expensive. Tiered payment plans are anachronistic, and hidden charges prevent you from accurately predicting cloud expenses. Luckily, there are Reserved Capacity options as well as Pay-as-you-go plans for utmost flexibility and an extreme reduction in IT cost.

SCALABILITY

Cloud storage allows for unlimited capacity and performance that scales with it. The cloud is elastic which means that when you need to scale up, you can do it on-demand, and you can scale down to fit your business needs., You can’t do this with on-prem storage. Sure, you can scale up and down, but you’re still paying the same price!

SAFETY

When your data is stored in the cloud, it doesn’t matter where you are or what’s going on in your area. If Mother-Nature strikes, pandemics or states of emergency keep your team away from the office, they can work safely from home because they have access to their data that’s in the cloud.

SECURITY

Cyber attacks and office break-ins are increasingly common. Don’t let your company be the next big news! Cloud storage protects sensitive and personal information for your team and for your customers with multiple layers of physical and digital security protocols. Plus, security information such as surveillance video can’t be destroyed or taken with the bad guys when they try to cover their tracks.

So which cloud company is actually the best? I did the research for you! (You can thank me later.)

Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage is 1/5th the price and faster than the competition like Amazon S3, Google and Microsoft. Wasabi offers two pricing models, either Pay-as-you-go or Reserved Capacity Storage, and their cloud storage is the single best option for cost-efficient and high performance cloud storage.

The last question I’ll answer is what to do with your old storage assets if you’ve already invested in on-prem. Truthfully your enterprise has invested tremendous energy and capital in its on-prem data center, from servers and racks to battery backups, generators and UPS equipment. If you’re still married to your Storage arrays, on-premise storage equipment can still play a role in your business’ data strategy. This “hybrid” model employs the use of local and cloud storage to get the best of both: the quick access that on-prem storage offers plus the infinite scalability and low TCO of the cloud!

At the end of the day, only you know what works best for your team. My suggestion is to use Wasabi for high-reliability items and keep your most sensitive functions on-prem. Minimize latency by keeping your VDI servers and network in-house, then start looking forward to all the new tasks you have time for! With all that time and energy on your hands, you might even write me a thank you card.