Cloud or on-premises: where it runs
A hosting choice with consequences for control, speed and operations.
Both can be secure and compliant. The difference is who operates the infrastructure and how quickly you can begin.
Detailed stack comparison table
| Topic | Cloud | On-premises |
|---|---|---|
| Time to start | Environments are available quickly. | Needs hardware or a private environment prepared first. |
| Data control | Data lives with the provider's regions and your configuration. | Data stays inside your own walls and network. |
| Operations | The provider runs the infrastructure. | Your team, or a partner, runs it. |
| Scaling | Capacity grows and shrinks with demand. | Capacity is planned and provisioned in advance. |
| Cost pattern | Usage-based and operational. | Up-front investment with a more predictable running pattern. |
| Compliance | Shared responsibility with the provider. | Responsibility sits with you, with full visibility. |
Data protection duties, including those under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, apply wherever you host. The hosting choice changes who operates the controls, not whether they are needed.
Choose cloud when
- You need to start in weeks.
- Demand varies through the year.
- You prefer the provider to run the infrastructure.
Choose on-premises when
- Data must stay inside your own network.
- You have existing data-centre capacity.
- Your policies require full operational control.
Compare your priorities
Select the factors that matter to your initiative. The recommendation adapts live.
Select one or more priorities above to compare approaches against your project goals.
A starting point. We finalise the approach together.
How we decide
Some organisations choose both: sensitive data stays inside their walls while applications run in the cloud. Our Sovereign AI work runs entirely inside the client's perimeter for this reason.