Decisions on whether to upgrade hardware or move to the cloud are accelerated by various considerations. You might need to make a decision to facilitate your organisation’s digital transformation strategy or for another strategic reason. There might also be technical issues that are forcing your hand, from reliability and performance issues to growing compatibility challenges.
In this blog, we are going to give an overview of the cost considerations that are applicable when deciding on whether to upgrade hardware or move your users to the cloud.
Capital Expense
Upgrading Hardware
In most situations, there is a significant upfront capital cost to upgrade hardware in your organisation.
Moving to the Cloud
Cloud solutions typically operate on a subscription basis, so the initial capital expense is minimal.
That said, it’s also important to consider wider cost implications, including lifecycle costs as, unlike a physical piece of hardware, you will never own the cloud service, i.e., you will need to continue paying your subscription to use it. All things considered, it may still come out as the most cost-effective option, particularly when you factor in risk mitigation, but it’s worth considering all the wider financial ramifications of your decision.
Maintenance
Upgrading Hardware
By upgrading hardware, your technical teams will remain responsible for maintenance. This results in management, resource availability, and skills availability considerations.
Moving to the Cloud
Most of the maintenance work currently performed on your on-premises hardware will be taken over by your cloud provider as part of the service, greatly reducing the strain on your internal technical resources and IT partners.
Equipment Lifecycle Management
Upgrading Hardware
By upgrading your hardware, you will retain responsibility for keeping the new machines and equipment updated with security, performance, and functionality updates. You will also be responsible for cybersecurity, as well as end-of-life and disposal processes when the hardware-vs-moving-to-the-cloud cycle comes around again.
Moving to the Cloud
Maintaining equipment over its lifecycle is part of what you pay for in your cloud subscriptions, so it will no longer be a burden.
Overprovisioning
Upgrading Hardware
It can be difficult to get the balance exactly right when provisioning hardware during a physical upgrade, not least because different users can have different performance requirements. You also have to factor in anticipated future performance requirements to ensure your upgraded equipment doesn’t become rapidly obsolete. As a result, overprovisioning is common when upgrading hardware.
Moving to the Cloud
You will have greater control at a user level when you move to the cloud, so will be able to provision virtual machines according to individual user requirements. One of the main downsides is when you are provisioning for power users as cloud solutions can’t match the levels of performance required by power users that can be achieved by physical equipment.
Under Provisioning
Upgrading Hardware
While it is common for physical equipment to be overprovisioned, there are also situations where organisations deliberately under-provision equipment to cut costs.
Moving to the Cloud
As with the overprovisioning point above, it is easier to mitigate the problem of under-provisioning with cloud solutions because you will have an increased level of control.
Power and Cooling
Upgrading Hardware
Power and cooling will be your responsibility if you choose to upgrade hardware. This has performance as well as sustainability implications.
Moving to the Cloud
The responsibility for power and cooling moves to your provider when you move to the cloud. Many organisations will still want an understanding of their provider’s sustainability achievements and credentials, but responsibility for the sustainability improvement drive remains with the provider.
Physical Space
Upgrading Hardware
The physical environment for many businesses has changed dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic, with many employees continuing to work from home for all or part of the week. This has led to a re-evaluation of how physical space is managed as many employees no longer work from a single location.
By upgrading hardware, you may have a continuing need for on-premises server space, and you might have to continue with the process of getting physical equipment to user locations as well as retrieving that equipment when the user is no longer an employee.
Moving to the Cloud
A key benefit of moving to the cloud is that users can access their desktops from anywhere, so the physical space issue becomes much less relevant.
The Importance of Careful Planning
Whatever option you decide, upgrading hardware or moving to the cloud, cost is only one consideration that should influence your thought process. You also need to carefully plan the migration to get user buy-in, prevent technical challenges, and ensure minimal disruption to the user experience.
Take application packaging, testing, and deployment as an example. You could spend a lot of time deciding on hardware upgrade vs the cloud, but your project will run into significant challenges if you don’t also consider the implications of your decision on application management and how you will ensure users continue to have access to the applications they need post-implementation.
Our team at Access IT Automation has extensive experience with large-scale IT projects, including hardware upgrades and cloud migrations. Our specialist area is application management, but we can also bring a broad range of relevant expertise. Get in touch today to learn more.
