Data Center vs Cloud: Difference Between Cloud and Data Center?

In this article, we will look into the difference between storing data in the data Center vs cloud. Most organizations rely heavily on data for their respective day-to-day operations, irrespective of the industry or nature of the data. This data can have a wide range of applications ranging from making business decisions, identifying patterns for either improving the services provided or analyzing weak links in the workflow, and much more.

The fact that virtual data Centers in the cloud can be provisioned or scaled down with just a few mouse clicks is part of the reason for moving to the cloud. In the modern data Center, software-defined networking (SDN) manages traffic flows via software. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) from public and private clouds spins up whole systems on-demand. When new applications are needed, Platform as a Service (PaaS) and container technologies are available in an instant.

While many organizations have already made the jump to the cloud, others are less certain. The cloud provides a number of advantages, but many companies are concerned about the cost and the lack of visibility, accountability, and transparency of public cloud infrastructure.

What Is an On-Premises Data Center?

A Datacenter can be described as a facility/space of networked computers and associated components(like telecommunications and storage) which helps business and organisations to function a large amount of data. These Data Centers allow the data to organise, processed, stored and disseminate upon the application used by businesses. (Data Center vs Cloud)

Types of Data Center: Businesses use different types of data Centers which include :

Telecom Data Center: It is a type of data Center which are operated by telecommunications or service providers. It requires high-speed connectivity to function.
Enterprise Data Center: It is a type of data Center which is built and owned by a company that may or may not be onsite.
Colocation Data Center: It is a type of data Center that consists of one data Center owner place which provides cooling to multiple enterprises and hyper-scales their customers.
Hyperscale Data Center: It is a type of data Center which are owned by and operated by the company itself.

Historically, all organizations used on-premises data Centers. An on-prem data Center simply means that the organization maintains all of the IT infrastructure needed by the business on-site.

An on-prem data Center includes everything from the servers that support web and email to the networking hardware connecting them to support infrastructure equipment like uninterruptible power supplies (UPS). Depending on the organization, this can range from a server closest to a massive, dedicated private data Center like those operated by large tech corporations. (Data Center vs Cloud)

What is a Cloud Data Center?

A cloud can be described as a term used to describe a group of services either a global or individual network of servers, which possesses a unique function. Cloud is not a physical entity, but they are a group or network of remote servers which are arched together to operate as a single entity for an assigned task. (Data Center vs Cloud)

In a nutshell, the cloud is a building with lots of computer systems. We access the cloud via the internet because cloud Providers provide the cloud as a service. (Data Center vs Cloud)

One of the many confusions that we have is whether the cloud is the same as cloud compute? The answer is no. Cloud services like compute run in the cloud. The Compute service offered by cloud lets users to ‘rent’ computer systems in data center on the internet. Another example of cloud service is storage. Now, what exactly is cloud computing? AWS says, “Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources over the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing. Instead of buying, owning, and maintaining physical data Centers and servers, you can access technology services, such as computing power, storage, and databases, on an as-needed basis from a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services (AWS).” (Data Center vs Cloud)

Types of Cloud: Businesses use different methods of cloud resources, mainly there are four of them :

Public Cloud: It is a cloud methodology that is open to all with the Internet on the pay-per-usage method.
Private Cloud: It is a cloud methodology used by organizations to build their data centers that are accessible only with the permission of the organization.
Hybrid Cloud: It is a cloud methodology that is a combination of public and private clouds. It serves the different needs of an organization for its services.
Community Cloud: It is a cloud methodology that provides services to a group of people in an organization or a single community. (Data Center vs Cloud)

Over time, organizations have increasingly moved away from the on-premises data Center. Instead, they have adopted cloud data Centers.

A cloud data Center moves a traditional on-prem data Center off-site. Instead of personally managing their own infrastructure, an organization leases infrastructure managed by a third-party partner and accesses data Center resources over the Internet. Under this model, the cloud service provider is responsible for maintenance, updates, and meeting service level agreements (SLAs) for the parts of the infrastructure stack under their direct control. (Data Center vs Cloud)

Difference Between Cloud and Data Center

Most organizations rely heavily on data for their respective day-to-day operations, irrespective of the industry or nature of the data. This data can have a wide range of applications ranging from making business decisions, identifying patterns for either improving the services provided or analyzing weak links in the workflow, and much more.

In this article, we will look into the difference between storing data in the cloud versus a physical data Center.

S.No
Cloud
Data Center

1.
Cloud is a virtual resource that helps businesses to store, organize, and operate data efficiently.
Data Center is a physical resource that helps businesses to store, organize, and operate data efficiently.

2.
The scalability of the cloud required less amount of investment.
The scalability of Data Center is huge in investment as compared to the cloud.

3.
The maintenance cost is less than service providers maintain it.
The maintenance cost is high because developers of the organization do maintenance.

4.
Third-Party needs to be trusted for the organization’s data to be stored.
The organization’s developers are trusted for the data stored in data centers.

5.
Performance is huge as compared with investment.
Performance is less than compared to investment.

6.
It requires a plan to customize the cloud.
It is easily customizable without any hard plan.

7.
It requires a stable internet connection to provide the function.
It may and may not require an internet connection.

8.
Cloud is easy to operate and is considered a viable option.
Data Centers require experienced developers to operate and are considered not a viable option.

Shared Responsibility Model

The migration from an on-premises data center to a cloud data center doesn’t mean moving everything to the cloud. Many companies have hybrid cloud data centers which have a mix of on-premises data center components and virtual data centers components. In the figure below we see how as-a-service models are shifting ownership of data center and infrastructure components from a fully owned and operated on-premises facility towards a commodity service model. (Data Center vs Cloud)

With these new models come a sharing of responsibilities between the cloud customer and service provider. Depending on the model selected, an organization may be responsible for maintaining and securing more or less of their infrastructure stack. The breakdown of responsibilities is outlined by the cloud services provider in shared responsibilities models. (Data Center vs Cloud)

On-Premises Data Center vs Cloud Data Centers

Nearly all organizations now have at least some of their infrastructure hosted in the cloud. The reason for this is that cloud data centers offer a number of advantages over maintaining an on-prem data center. Some of the pros and cons of cloud-based vs. on-premises data centers include:

Scalability: In an on-premises data center, resource scalability is limited by the infrastructure that the company has purchased and deployed. In the cloud, additional resources can be quickly and easily spun up as needed.(Data Center vs Cloud)
Flexibility: In an on-premises data center, resource flexibility is limited by the need to acquire, provision, or update appliances. In the cloud, a customer can spin up or take down resources quickly to meet business needs.(Data Center vs Cloud)
Cost: Maintaining an on-prem data center is more expensive than a cloud-based one. On-prem, an organization pays full price for all of their infrastructure. In the cloud, resources can be shared, and cloud service providers can take advantage of economies of scale. (Data Center vs Cloud)
Availability: In an on-premises data center, an organization has complete control over their infrastructure, which can be good or bad. In the cloud, availability is protected by service level agreements, which may provide better guarantees than an organization can in-house. (Data Center vs Cloud)
Security: In the cloud, the cloud service provider is responsible for securing part of an organization’s infrastructure stack and is likely more practiced at doing so. However, some customers may want additional security of their cloud-based data centers that are not natively provided by the cloud service provider.(Data Center vs Cloud)
Accessibility: In an on-prem data center, the organization has complete control over the systems that it deploys and uses. In the cloud, the organization is limited to what is offered by the service provider.

Engage a Trusted Partner to Keep Your Data Safe

On-premises and cloud-based data centers both have their advantages; however, data center security is a concern regardless of the deployment model that an organization chooses. This is why organizations should engage a trusted partner to help ensure security in on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid environments. (Data Center vs Cloud)