Seven reasons to choose Cloud over On-Premise

Software as a Service (SaaS, aka. "cloud software") is a relatively new kid on the block. True, you may have used cloud services such as Hotmail, Gmail, and Dropbox for years, but the business world has been somewhat more apprehensive about moving all their data to the cloud.  Today, though cloud software has reached a maturity level and many businesses of all sizes are considering SaaS. Below, we give you our top seven reasons why that's a good idea.

Before we start: What does SaaS really mean, anyway?

SaaS is short for Software as a Service. It's basically software that runs in the cloud. It's also a way of owning a license without the commitment. You pay for the service for as long as you're using it, often as a monthly paid lease, and you can opt out easily if you stop using the service. As long as you're a paying customer, you get access to all the updates and improvements that are made to the software.

#1: The investment factor, or rather, the lack thereof

With no big upfront investment, your business has the power to choose which features are required, how much storage is needed and how much you are willing to pay. There's no huge upfront investment in hardware, software licenses and surrounding infrastructure. Funds for a cloud solution can be taken from your monthly spendings - there's zero investment and an easy opt out if you decide at any point that the solution isn't right for you.

#2: Easy to try and buy, leave at any time

We think getting a cloud solution should be a smooth operation. So, like most cloud vendors we let you try before you buy. You can sign up for a 30-day trial and test run absolutely all the features we have on offer. If, after that trial, you decide it's not for you, that's OK. Of course, we would have liked to see you stay, but we won't protest if you choose to go. Should you want to join our family of valued customers, though, it would make us super excited. And you'd be very well taken care of. Because we know that if customers aren't happy about using the solution, they can opt out in an instance. So our promise to you is that we'll do everything we can to make you happy with the solution. We'll help you set it up to best suit your way of working, onboard users and make sure everything works just the way it should. Because that's how using a cloud solution should be.

#3: It grows with you - and on you

Say that your business has been using a DAM in the past and that because you've grown you now need a more powerful solution. With cloud, you won't need to invest in new servers. Simply "upgrade" your subscription to a higher tier or add users or features as required. The new plan is active minutes later, and you've got a more powerful system. Of course, you can also go the other way, for instance, if the user base is reduced.

#4: Cloud solutions are now safer than on-premise ones

When cloud solutions first started emerging, one of the main objections against them was their perceived lack of security. However, the game has changed substantially in this area; while the amount of cybercrime has admittedly skyrocketed in recent years, many of these threats affect on-premise solutions as well since they too are often networked in such a way that the infrastructure eventually goes out onto the internet. Firewalls, DMZs, and other cybercrime countermeasures may well be in place to safeguard your data. Are your internal cybercrime countermeasures equal to, or better than, those of the larger cloud vendors, who have hundreds or thousands of people actively monitoring their cyber defenses? We believe they're hard to equal.

#5: Deployment is an absolute breeze

You won't need IT staff to roll out the latest version of your software every so often. The cloud provider does all that for you, and your users log in with innovative new features when they come to work in the morning. They even get interactive guides that tell them what's changed and what's new. In short, the days of installing software are as good as over. For you, that is.

#6: Platform independence

Rich web applications can run in any browser, on any platform. So hardware platforms, operating systems and other factors that used to limit your choice of software in the past, aren't an issue anymore. Whether you run our cloud solution on Mac OS, under Windows or Linux, it looks and feels precisely the same.

#7: Zero infrastructure

No big, expensive servers to maintain, no storage systems to monitor. Well, that's kind of a lie: the servers are still there. They're just run, maintained and monitored by us. We think that's pretty awesome.

Conclusion

The cloud has drastically changed the way we think about and use software. And as we're seeing big players such as Microsoft now actively pushing for migration to their cloud platforms, and even Office users getting access to their cherished everyday tools via the cloud, it's high time to start thinking about whether the classic on-premise data center line of thought is worth reconsidering.

True. there are pros and cons to both on-premise and cloud solutions, and they may be some very good reasons why precisely your business benefits from running on premises. If that's the case, we'll rest our case (for now), and you can rest assured we're not about to abandon those who choose to run on-prem.

If you are interested in trying FotoWare SaaS you can do so by signing up for a 14-day free trial.