Cloud First is Better than Cloud Only

Even if you believe all the promises of cloud computing, it's good to have options to run software on your computer and in your data center. Most of my clients have embraced the cloud, either officially through policies geared toward making new acquisitions of computing capability, or unofficially through preferences of cloud services when they are more capable or less expensive than the alternatives which run on premises.

My clients have some business goals and preferences that have lead them to a hybrid cloud model, with some services running in the cloud and others remaining on premises.

Here are some of the scenarios where they appreciate the on premises option:

1. Development servers. In most computing scenarios, you can predict resource utilization based on profiling your users and extrapolating the number of transactions and storage that will be needed using long term trends. This is because for enterprise systems with a large number of end users the averages win out and the variability of resource utilization among users is not great. This approach does not work for developers, because their resource utilization is difficult to predict and varies depending on the projects on which they are working. I could have three developers working on a single system or three developers working on ten systems at once, with large data sets and high server utilization. Development also requires multiple environments which multiply the number of virtual servers needed. All this means that moving your development environments to the cloud can lead to unpleasant surprises on your monthly bill from your cloud provider.
2. Mandatory upgrades. While most would agree on the virtues of software upgrades to eliminate defects and introduce new features, organizations prefer to introduce the upgrades on their own schedule and not be forced to upgrade when the cloud vendor chooses. Some enterprises require their own extensive testing of new versions before they are released, and they need to check whether their customizations or integrations are affected by the new version. Training and document must be updated which can be a costly effort. My clients have even gone so far as to skip versions in the past when they had control over when to upgrade.
3. Vendor stability. While cloud computing is not going away, many cloud providers will disappear due to mergers or their failure to achieve profitability or other funding. For cloud infrastructure this may not be a large risk because you can move virtual servers and other resources to a new provider. Business software is a riskier proposition because it is less portable and ends up embodying your organization's business rules. On premises software means that you can keep going at least for a time even if your software provider goes away. Some of my clients insist on code escrow agreements for this reason.

All deployment models have their strengths and weaknesses, and this applies to cloud infrastructure and business solutions as well. Some providers still offer both cloud and on premises options which enhance the value of their offerings.