Before Cloud Computing

Before we had cloud computing we had two options: on-site and time-sharing.

On Premise Computing

With on-premise solutions, all of the computer equipment is located at your office, and all equipment is owned by you. Since it is owned by you, you need to purchase the equipment up-front and depreciate it appropriately in your accounting records. You need to install the equipment, maintain it, and be prepared for downtime with a redundancy solution. You need specialized skills to maintain this hardware and software.

Time-Sharing

A colocation centre is a data centre location where the owner of the facility rents out space to external customers. The facility owner provides power, cooling, and physical security for their customer’s servers, storage, and network equipment. The Service Level Agreement (SLA) will specify the details. Typically the customer owns all of the equipment, which can be a large capital expenditure. Colo providers offer multiple network connectivity options through a choice of network service providers. They may offer redundant network connectivity. The connection between your offices and your computers are your network service provider’s responsibility.