Cloud vs. On-PremCloud vs. On-Prem

In this corner, weighing 800 pounds…

There have been some excellent nojitter posts recently that help frame the ongoing debate of cloud vs. premises communication technology solutions. Two recent ones that come to mind are Eric Krapf's "When does Cloud Win?" and Robin Gareiss' "Evaluating Cloud UC Costs." I'd like to expand on the discussion.

The Mayweather/Pacquiao boxing match on May 2, is a classic example of two terrific competitors going at it to determine the better fighter. I find it to be a useful analogy that can be used to help with the ongoing discussion of cloud vs. premises. In the boxer's example, each contender brings unique skills to the match, such as punching power, foot work, hand speed, and stamina. Which of these elements are the most important? Nobody knows until the match is fought (Mayweather won in a unanimous decision).

In the same way, each technology architecture and integration partner brings unique elements to the table such as features, costs, reliability, support, risk, and agility. The procurement process can be considered to be the comparison to the boxing contest. Each boxing match is unique just as are each enterprise communications technology needs.

So let's 'handicap' the cloud vs. premises contest. When I start a consulting engagement with an enterprise client, we interview leadership in the line of businesses as well as IT. From this, we can determine the requirements and get an idea of the relative importance of each. Examples are included in the tables below:

Example 1:

Example 2:

As you can see, the two simple examples above use some different criteria and weightings. Example one might very well lead to a premises-based solution, while example two appears to favor a cloud approach. In my consulting practice, each enterprise procurement is 'contested' by several vendors via an RFP or similar procurement process. Who wins is determined by the set of unique factors. I wholeheartedly agree with Eric Krapf's conclusion that cloud solutions are one of several available to enterprises. There is no obvious 800 pound gorilla at this point in time for communication technologies.

Can my opinion change? Absolutely. Looking backwards, the premises-based solutions of the 1980s demonstrated that a superior solution (on-premises PBX) was able to dominate the market. This solution had significant advantages such as a rich feature set and relatively low TCO (as compared to Centrex). Looking forward, I'm not sure I see an 800 pound gorilla dominating the market in the next five years. I suspect that there will be at least two major contenders:

Looking forward to the contest!

"SCTC Perspectives" is written by members of the Society of Communications Technology Consultants, an international organization of independent information and communication technology professionals serving clients in all business sectors and government worldwide.