On-Premises vs. Cloud: Which File Transfer Method is Best for You?

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If your organization is debating between on-premises and cloud deployment for your business-critical file transfer needs, there are a few considerations around compliance, resources, and infrastructure to help you determine which option makes the most sense for your organization.

 “If you’re already using an on-premises solution, any discussion of a potential migration to cloud file transfer should first address your unique security and compliance requirements around data and take into consideration any prior substantial investment in infrastructure,” said Chris Bailey, Senior Product Manager, Fortra SFT. It can seem like a no-brainer to automatically go with the more recent or ‘modern’ option. However, not all organizations need to make this switch, nor should they. Read on for details on the advantages and potential disadvantages of either option.

Related Reading: Considerations for Cloud File Transfers

On-Premises File Transfer

There are organizations that still prefer on-premises software deployment, whether because they have already invested heavily in their infrastructure and servers, or because they run legacy applications and want their file transfer solution integrated with those.

On-premises advantages include:

• Control: Organizations can benefit from the ultimate control and security of keeping data within their own network. Many free file transfer options lack some controls, such as built-in access control.
• Compliance: For industries such as healthcare, government, or finance, there are requirements to maintain tight control of data within internal networks and an on-premises deployment of software makes meeting this requirement secure and efficient.
• Speed: As data is not sent online, organizations can realize faster transfer speeds, a big plus for industries such as broadcasting.
• Clustering and high availability: Organizations can realize greater high availability with true active-active support, and load balancing by allowing workloads to be distributed across multiple systems.

Potential Concerns for On-Premises MFT Deployment

While this traditional in-house management of the file transfer process offers plenty of advantages, there are a few scenarios where cloud deployment may be the better answer for you, depending on your answers to the following questions:

• Are you prepared to cover ongoing costs such as maintenance, backups, upgrades and server replacements?
• Do you anticipate needing to scale up with growing business and data transfer needs? A rapid scale up of infrastructure can be unwieldly for most organizations with on-premises deployment.
• Does your IT staff have the capacity to manage upgrades and maintenance?
• Are you confident your infrastructure is reliable and well-maintained?

Cloud File Transfer

More and more organizations are pointing their critical business processes cloud-wise, including solutions for securely exchanging data for a seamless, turn-key approach. According to this article, about half of corporate data is already managed and stored in the cloud, and by 2025, about 50 percent of all worldwide data will be in the cloud vs. on-premises.

“Even though moving to the cloud can free up your IT staff and ease any scalability plans, organizations that want to take that leap from more traditional, in-house file transfer processes should still prepare to dedicate staff time and resources to the migration process to keep their business rolling uninterrupted,” said Bailey.

Cloud-based file transfer offers these advantages over on-premises deployment:

• Less strain on IT and infrastructure resources: The cloud provider manages all infrastructure, as well as backups and upgrades. And, with data stored on a vendor-owned server, there are no fixed operating or maintenance costs.
• Scalability: Unlike on-premises deployment, file transfer in the cloud lets you easily scale up or down as your needs expand and contract. A ramp-up in increased data loads can more easily be accelerated, as you will not be relying heavily on your internal IT team. An on-premises solution could require purchasing additional hardware and set up times.
• Reliable technology: Forget about the routine maintenance of infrastructure in-house, your cloud service provider handles those on your behalf.
• Automated updates: You will always be assured the latest security updates are installed, if you are up to date with your software version.
• Collaboration: With dispersed workforces, the ability to collaborate and track and revise documents is key. Solutions such as GoAnywhere MFT offers Secure Folders for remote access, Cloud Connectors to integrate with popular web apps, as well as Secure Mail and Enterprise File Sync and Sharing. (EFSS).

Potential Concerns for Cloud-based MFT Deployment

One disadvantage, however, is that overall costs are more variable than those of an on-premises solution, especially as the need to scale up comes into play. There are a few questions to consider:

• Do you fall under industry compliance requirements for on-premises storing and handling of your data?
• Is high-speed or high-volume file transfer important to your business? Transfer speeds can be slower with cloud deployment if not using a solution that incorporates accelerated file transfer, especially in areas with limited or unreliable bandwidth.
• Do you need to integrate with custom applications or legacy systems? Cloud deployment can pose more challenges when integrating with a cloud solution, requiring more IT involvement. Solutions that include Cloud Connectors can help resolve that issue, however.
• Concerned about potential downtime? If connectivity is interrupted or spotty, there go those business-critical file transfers, unless you use a solution that has automatic retries. On-premises deployment, with disaster recovery, high-availability and clustering options helps avoid that situation.

Secure File Transfer Solutions Offer Deployment Flexibility

A secure file transfer solution can offer organizations multiple deployment options: on-site, in the cloud, as a SaaS solution, or as a hybrid solution for ultimate flexibility. For this discussion, we’ll narrow those options to two often-debated ones – on-premises and cloud.

“Our customers that keep their file transfer processes on-premises typically do so for a variety of reasons, such as they exchange top-secret government data, or have a need to exchange sensitive intellectual property that does not need to be shared externally,” said Bailey. “They may also already have the infrastructure bandwidth and team to support an on-premises install or have applications on-prem that need high-speed access to files and want to avoid additional file transfers to bring those files back in house.

 “We encourage those organizations that fall under specific compliance requirements, such as customers in healthcare, government, or finance to ensure they make their solution decision with a strong nod to their compliance needs for built-in security measures, as well as requirements of their outside partners,” added Bailey.

Solutions such as Fortra’s GoAnywhere MFT’s built-in security features include auditing and reporting to help meet compliance, authentication and encryption, certificate management, as well as user access controls.

Whether on-premises or in the cloud, deploying a secure, robust file transfer solution offers the security, automation, and business-critical functionality organizations need to manage their valuable data. Bailey offers up this final piece of advice, if on the fence as to which deployment is best for you, “Where are your critical applications hosted? It is good practice for most organizations to keep their data close to their applications."