The (total) cloud (solution) looms over Oklahoma City, leading many to worry about the future of Hardware as a Service in Oklahoma City. With everyone migrating to the cloud, do old-fashioned methods of IT services stand a chance? Will they become extinct soon?
Hardware as a Service vs Total Cloud
In managed services, Hardware as a Service or () is when hardware is provided to clients for a monthly fee. It's known for the following traits:
• Lower upfront prices for more expensive hardware, since the cost is being covered over time.
• The burden of managing and maintaining hardware is on the MSP, not the client.
• Replacing broken hardware or upgrading obsolete hardware is the MSP's responsibility, usually at little to no cost to the client.
• Most of the hardware is on-site, and should perform optimally regardless of Internet speeds. However, on-site hardware can still be damaged, but only in very rare circumstances that it results in the business having no tech to drive their business.
Meanwhile, the total cloud solution differs in many ways:
• Total cloud uses some on-site hardware, but is based on powerful external servers with a lot of data storage.
• Management and hardware are the cloud provider's concern, not the client's.
• The cloud offers location independence with some applications, allowing access from all over.
• Due to being based in external servers, having a faulty Internet connection or damaging the router can result in a full outage until connectivity is restored. In addition, quality of service can suffer on low-bandwidth connections. Finally, while a power outage won't hurt your data, your access to the Internet will still be cut and you'll be left to the mercy of backup generators or the power company before you're back in business.
Why People Think The Cloud Is Taking Over
People think the cloud is taking over because it's the hot, new thing. And, let's face it: it does offer a lot of good features. The cost of cloud implementations have dropped recently, and in some ways it can be easier to manage than traditional solutions.
However...
Why It Isn't
Even the best cloud solution is vulnerable to issues that Hardware as a Service in Oklahoma City never needs to worry about. On-site hardware isn't bottlenecked by network speed, and on-site servers and networking will always be much faster than routing everything through external cloud servers. In addition, many businesses simply don't want to take all of their precious business-vital data and put it out onto the cloud, where they can't see it and they can't directly manage it.
The cloud is a platform with its own benefits, but the benefits of on-site hardware are the same as they've always been: better performance, higher levels of reliability, more customization and, sometimes, even better security than anything offered by an external server that you know nothing about.
You Can Learn More
To learn more about Hardware as a Service in Oklahoma City and other IT support-related topics, feel free to read our blog! Here at EMSCO Solutions, we want to help you understand as much as possible about managed services and other IT concerns, and using our blog, you can do that. If you'd like our help managing your business in Oklahoma City, contact us for a consultation!
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