Date:
30 Dec 2024
Author:
PREO AG
On-Premise vs. Cloud
Why the combination of public cloud and on-premise operation convinces many
The majority of companies with at least 50 employees are now adopting a hybrid cloud architecture. This aligns not only with daily observations but also with findings from the KPMG Cloud Monitor 2024. Total-cloud strategies are being reconsidered and tailored to actual requirements. It is no surprise that organisations with high data protection and compliance needs, such as critical infrastructure sectors or public administrations, prefer to process and store sensitive data within their own data centres.
For example, in France’s healthcare sector, hospital corporations are prohibited from migrating data to the cloud to avoid dependencies on major cloud providers and to enhance data security and availability.
Rising costs for cloud services have significantly influenced this shift. Many larger organisations are feeling the budget constraints resulting from these expenses. Recently, Microsoft announced another wave of price increases for numerous 365 products in the US, putting IT managers in Europe on alert. This follows a Europe-wide price hike in spring 2023, which saw an average increase of 11%.
In light of these factors, we’ve examined the benefits of hybrid cloud architectures more closely and highlighted how integrating pre-owned software can help businesses sustainably reduce licensing costs without compromising performance.
5 Benefits of a Hybrid Cloud Architecture
As many IT decision-makers don't want to forgo the benefits of on-premise operations or cloud services, hybrid cloud architectures are becoming increasingly popular. Despite the often complex requirements in security, interfaces, and license management, combining the best of both worlds usually proves worthwhile. These five reasons make a hybrid solution an attractive option
1. Flexibility and Control over Sensitive Data
With a hybrid cloud architecture, especially sensitive data such as customer, patient, or financial information, as well as business-critical data, can be stored locally in a private cloud or on-premises environment. In addition, through cloud repatriation, workloads that were once moved to the cloud can be brought back to on-premises infrastructure. Meanwhile, less critical applications and processes can be managed in the public cloud, leveraging its scalability.
Benefits: This approach enables companies to retain full control over compliance-related and mission-critical data while meeting industry-specific, national, and international legal requirements, such as the European GDPR.
2. Cost Optimization through Demand-Based Resource Utilization
A hybrid architecture allows for active, demand-based management of both operations and costs. Cloud resources, for example, are used during peak periods, for mobile work, or for temporary project-based applications, while permanent, predictable workloads are managed locally. This approach proves to be much more cost-effective in the medium and long term, especially when using used software licenses, such as Windows or Office, which can provide discounts of up to 70% compared to new versions.
Benefit: Achieving a permanent reduction in overall costs by optimizing infrastructure and licensing expenses without sacrificing the benefits of the Public Cloud.
3. Increased reliability and business continuity
Accidentally severed fibre-optic cables, sabotaged cross-border deep-sea connections, or increased cyberattacks—risks of outages remain, despite significant investments in the security and availability of cloud services. In a hybrid architecture, redundant systems can be operated both locally and in the cloud. If cloud services become unavailable, critical areas can be maintained through local systems. Conversely, in the event of a local system failure, the public cloud can be used as a backup or failover solution.
Benefits: Enhanced availability and reliability of IT systems, along with minimised downtime, are not just advantageous but essential, particularly for mission-critical applications.
4. Future-proofing and Scalability
A hybrid solution offers the ability to gradually migrate workflows to the cloud without completely abandoning existing investments in on-premise infrastructure. This allows businesses to be flexible in responding to changing business requirements and quickly adapt their IT strategy.
Benefits: The demand-based scalability ensures that companies can respond quickly to market changes or business growth without building excess capacity and incurring significant upfront investments in hardware or infrastructure.
5. Performance Optimization
Certain applications or data can be run where they achieve the best performance—either locally, bringing them closer to the users, or in the cloud, for example, for location-independent accessibility or particularly data-intensive processes. Data can also be pre-processed locally, with only relevant parts uploaded to the cloud.
Benefits: The IT infrastructure is used more efficiently, and end users benefit from improved performance and reduced latency.
Hybrid Cloud Architecture: Cost Benefits through the Integration of Used Software
In times of economic pressure with stagnating or even declining IT budgets, efficiency becomes a focal point for many businesses. More than ever, company decision-makers are seeking smart, needs-based solutions to reduce ongoing software license costs without sacrificing performance. One such solution is the clever combination of cloud software with used volume licenses in a hybrid scenario.
A prime example is a specialized machinery manufacturer with 10 IT locations globally and 2,200 seats. In this case, the company needed to procure Microsoft licenses according to actual demand. The solution combined an Office 365 E1 plan with used licenses for Office 2016 and Windows 2016 Server CAL. This configuration provided the functionality of an E3 plan but without Office ProPlus.
The result? The company achieved a significant reduction in licensing costs, saving in the upper six figures, with the investment paying off in the second year.
Interested? You can download the full customer case study here.
Hybrid-Cloud Architecture – We Calculate Your Potential Savings for Free
Without concrete numbers, it is usually difficult to make decisions or lead actions within a company. The PREO licensing experts are happy to assist you by calculating what you could save when integrating used software licenses into a hybrid scenario, based on various scenarios.
With PREO, you rely on an experienced and reputable B2B provider
PREO offers businesses, organizations, and public administrations a wide selection of used licenses for on-premise operations or integration into hybrid cloud architectures. This includes both current and older versions of widely used standard software from market-leading providers, such as Microsoft or Adobe. Whatever the need may be, with PREO, customers benefit from:
- Significant savings of up to 70% on ongoing license costs compared to the new version.
- 100% legally compliant and audit-safe license acquisition, with full transparency in all processing steps, including complete documentation in the PREO license portal “Easy Compliance”.
- Personal consultation on all matters related to license transactions or the integration of used software licenses into traditional network structures or hybrid cloud models.
- Existing capacities for software license management in large IT infrastructure projects with thousands of workplaces and cross-border locations.
- Increased sustainability in IT by promoting a circular economy and reducing the corporate carbon footprint. Speaking of sustainability: PREO is the only used software dealer with a current scorecard from EcoVadis, the world’s largest sustainability ratings provider.
- Expertise from numerous reference projects successfully executed for well-known companies across various industries and sectors.
