On-premises vs cloud: the hidden cost of “own infrastructure”

Many companies opt for on-premises infrastructure due to the perceived benefits of control over their servers and data. However, this decision can lead to significant hidden costs, including rising energy and cooling expenses, hardware degradation, and unplanned downtime. Moreover, on-premises infrastructure depends heavily on a single location, exposing businesses to risks from power outages, building incidents, and network failures.

📊 A simplified example. A company runs:

• 2 physical hosts
• ~15 virtual machines
• Local backup storage
• 3–5 year lifecycle

On-premises infrastructure (3 years): approximately 195,000 PLN
Cloud services (3 years): approximately 150,000–165,000 PLN

The key difference between on-premises and cloud infrastructure is the distribution of risk. While on-premises infrastructure leaves the business and its IT partner to absorb operational, financial, and availability risks, cloud services distribute, automate, and include these risks in the service cost.

For many companies, the choice of cloud services goes beyond cost-saving and has become a crucial decision for managing long-term risks.