If you’ve talked to a software vendor in the past decade or so, you’ve probably heard a pretty consistent pitch for the cloud: your access will be seamless, you’ll have nothing to maintain, there’s no limit to what you can do! Unfortunately, this isn’t necessarily the case. If either your business or the cloud provider experiences an outage, for instance, all these benefits evaporate. Your business is, for all intents and purposes, closed until the problem is solved.
Enter the local database, a practical and efficient way to overcome this weakness.
Wholly Relying on The Cloud Has Its Drawbacks
Make no mistake, this is not a hit piece on cloud computing. They absolutely serve a beneficial role in today’s business operations, but that doesn’t cancel out the very real risk you run of putting all your metaphorical eggs in a digital basket.
Think about it: whenever you use the cloud, you’re trusting a data request to successfully travel across the web to a remote server, process itself, and then return with the proper response. If any part of this process slows down, your operations do, too.
Now, consider what this could mean:
- Productivity losses - Consider the scale of your operations. Sure, a database query taking four extra seconds is no big deal if it happens once, but it will happen multiple times a day for each member of your workforce. It adds up fast.
- Cessation of operations - If you rely on the Internet to accomplish everything in your business, no Internet connection means no accomplishments. Total downtime is never something to take lightly.
- Growing costs - As an industry standard, your cloud provider’s scalable pricing will cover storage costs, API traffic, and bandwidth needs. The more you use, the higher your monthly fees will grow.
Again, we're not discouraging you from using the cloud. We’re just saying that you should make sure all your bases are covered.
A Local Database Helps Cover Your Bases
For clarification, a local database keeps a copy of your operational data on an in-house server, tied directly to your network. This addition is a smart investment in your business’ future for a few reasons.
These reasons are as follows:
Low-Latency Performance
Which sounds faster: data sent over meters of cabling, or data sent over miles of cabling? This isn’t a trick question.
Local area networks are inherently faster because their infrastructure’s closer to your endpoints, giving your team faster application connectivity. With faster tools, your team can accomplish more in the same amount of time.
Business Continuity Benefits
Similarly, which sounds more reliable: a direct connection to a database, or a wireless connection dependent on external infrastructure? A local database lets you keep operating to some degree if you lose Internet connectivity, avoiding some degree of downtime.
Granular Security and Compliance Controls
It is critical to know where your data is stored and what is in place to protect it, from backups and access controls to regular security maintenance. Maintaining your own servers not only gives you this information; it effectively requires you to have it. On-site storage also helps minimize exposure to third-party breaches, supporting some of the stricter compliance regulations a business may face.
Expense Predictability
The cloud is well known for cost predictability, but even it isn't perfectly stable. Your vendor may increase their prices or charge overage fees if you exceed your available bandwidth. By contrast, local hardware often requires a significant upfront investment, but once it is in place, operational costs are relatively low.
Every Business Has Its Own Ideal Balance… Often, Somewhere in the Middle
As is often the case, a compromise will likely be best for most businesses. When selecting between on-premises and cloud databases, a hybrid model will likely be ideal for your needs. You could host your core tools—the ones you rely on the most often—on-site for the speed and reliability boosts, while your more secondary functions could easily be managed in the cloud
To determine whether or not your current strategy is serving you effectively, consider how you use your technology each day. Which applications are indispensable to your operations, and how well do they operate without the Internet? Take a few minutes and calculate what a two-hour network outage would cost in terms of sales and payroll expenses. If losing the Internet completely petrifies your business, you may want to reconsider how much or what you’re relying on the cloud for.
Build an Infrastructure You Can Rely On
We’re here to help! NetSolutionsPro is in the business of designing and maintaining IT systems that enable you to accomplish your goals with minimal disruptions. Find out how we can help your business by calling us at (574) 453-3323.
