Choosing the right networking solution for your organization can be daunting. Cloud-based solutions and on-premises solutions both have advantages, and there are a variety of factors to consider before making a decision.
On-Prem vs. Cloud: Which is Right for Me?
The biggest difference between on-prem and cloud solutions is the level of control you have over your network. For organizations that require extremely granular control and can’t tolerate even a few hours of downtime each year (such as financial organizations or healthcare settings), an on-premises solution could be the way to go.
Cloud-based solutions are better suited for organizations willing to trade that granular control for the freedom and benefits of not having to manage their networking infrastructure themselves.
Cloud-based solutions are incredibly easy to set up:
Step 1: purchase your annual subscription
Step 2: buy your access points and plug them in
Boom: you’ve got a brand-new cloud-based Wi-Fi network.
Now that you are all set up, your network partner will handle the rest, leaving you and your team to focus on your other initiatives. Ongoing support and maintenance costs are shouldered by the service provider, which means you don’t need to allocate team members or resources to maintaining your Wi-Fi solution.
Cloud-based solutions are also great for organizations that need to provide Wi-Fi to several small disparate sites since these solutions don’t require VPNs or MPLS.
The Cost Factor
On-prem solutions require organizations to purchase expensive networking equipment outright and shoulder the cost of maintenance and upgrades. Depending on the size of your budget, investing in an on-prem solution may be a cost-prohibitive option.
Cloud-based Wi-Fi solutions turn this one-time capital expense into an operational expense, replacing a large, costly one-time investment with smaller, more manageable payments in the form of annual fees.
Main Factors to Consider
When choosing between a cloud-based or on-prem solution, there are a few factors to consider:
- The size and layout of your space
- The complexity of your network
- The number of different sites or locations you need to power with Wi-Fi
- Whether or not your team has the skills to manage your network in-house
- Your level of comfort with the cloud, including your organization’s tolerance for even a small amount of downtime
Whichever option you choose, the friendly experts at Mirazon are here to help. We’ll help you pinpoint your networking needs and then create a custom solution to ensure your team can access the tools they need and stay connected
Our Process: Creating the Right Cloud Wi-Fi Solution to Suit Your Needs
Our team begins by completing a comprehensive predictive survey of your site. This information is critical for determining where your access points should be placed to ensure optimal coverage. Your floorplan and the building’s materials can impact access point functionality and must be carefully considered during the planning phase.
Next, we sit down with your team to discuss your network’s capacity (how many users and devices it needs to be able to comfortably support) to ensure we can size your solution properly.
Common Cloud Challenges & Limitations to Consider
One of the biggest drawbacks of choosing a cloud solution is that 100% uptime is never guaranteed. Depending on the nature of your organization, even a few hours of downtime a year may not be an option.
Cloud solutions also tend to lag behind their on-prem counterparts when it comes to feature parity. As such, organizations with complex needs that require a large number of specific features may find that an on-prem solution is better suited for their environment.
Why Should I Choose Mirazon?
Without our customers, Mirazon wouldn’t exist. That’s why we value customer service above all else. Our goal is to share our knowledge and expertise freely so that we can best serve our customers. As your friendly neighborhood IT professionals, we are here to help any way we can, from custom solutions to sound advice and ongoing support.
We know our customers are counting on us, which is why we only partner with organizations that share our core values. We’ve been working with the Ruckus team (now a part of CommScope) for a long time, and we admire their commitment to their customers as well as their industry-leading knowledge. Their solutions offer a great total cost of ownership, are easy to manage, are expertly engineered, and offer a robust set of feature sets to meet our customers’ needs. CommScope and Ruckus’ extensive hands-on experience creating wired and wireless solutions for a wide variety of different environments and use cases show they have the skills and knowledge necessary to get the job done right.
Ruckus’ cloud Wi-Fi solutions eliminate unnecessary complexity and risk, greatly reducing management time. You can easily deploy new sites or access points; their solutions provide you with a single pane of glass view of all your Wi-Fi networks, so you are never left out of the loop.
What People are Saying About Us
We’ve been helping our customers get the most out of their networks since 2000, and we like to think we’ve made a pretty good impression.
“We’ve trusted them with all of our major upgrades for years and have never been disappointed. They are always looking to find the solution that will work best for you, not what’s most expensive or best sponsored.” – IT coordinator, United Food and Commercial Workers 227
For more information about cloud vs. on-prem solutions or to get started designing a wireless solution to suit your needs, please contact our friendly team today.