Why on-prem?

Traditionally, the term "on-prem" (or "on-premises") has referred to a software deployment style in which a vendor packages their software and deploys it to the customer’s private datacenter (e.g. a colocation facility). This approach gives customers direct control over the security of the software they are using and the data it processes.

The popularity of public clouds, however, has led to a more modern style of on-prem deployment. Modern on-prem involves the deployment of software and infrastructure, traditionally hosted in a company's private data center, directly into the customer’s public cloud account in Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure.

This approach enables customers to retain control and ownership over their computing resources while leveraging the benefits of the cloud, such as scalability, without compromising on security or control.

Benefits

“For many use-cases, it is more secure, faster and cheaper to transmit code rather than data.”

Security and control

With software being deployed in customer's cloud, customer data never needs to leave their control, eliminating the risk of data leak by the vendor. Software vendors with an on-prem offering can cater to a wider range of customers, gaining an edge over competition.

Latency

With an on-prem deployment, the vendor’s software is co-located with the rest of the customer's software and infrastructure. The result can be significant latency savings - which can be critical for realtime use-cases, including: chat-bots, voice, and video.

Bandwidth costs

On-prem deployments process data in the customer's cloud where it resides. Deploying code into the customer's cloud is often faster, less expensive, and far more practical than transferring customer data to the vendor's cloud.