Google ADs
Introduction
The terms “Data Center” and “Cloud” are frequently used terms in IT discussions. Though understood to perform the same task of storing data and provide centralized applications/compute, both differ significantly.
While a Data Center is essentially a part of on premise IT infrastructure of an organization, Cloud is an off-premise resource for data storage that is accessed over internet.
Data Center vs Cloud
Detailed differentiation between Traditional Data Center and Cloud Data Center is shared in the below table –
Google ADs
PARAMETER | DATA CENTER | CLOUD |
| Infrastructure & Applications | Dedicated to one customer or organization | Shared across customers |
| Services model | Dedicated team of the customer/organization | Shared services across customers |
| Location | The physical location of data center can be within or outside the organisation’s premises | Cloud Data center is located off-premise in service provider location |
| Accessed via | Dedicated and reliable WAN links like MPLS, P2P connections. | Primarily accessed over unreliable Internet |
| Security | More secured and better security can be implemented based on respective companies IT policy | Less Secured than traditional Data Center |
| Setup and upgrade time | Data Center takes much longer to be provisioned and high on operational cost | Almost available immediately based on subscription/payment by respective customer. Cloud systems can be built within moments and can be de-commissioned instantly. |
| Implementation and operating cost | High since dedicated servers and supporting infrastructure needs to be provisioned. | Low since shared applications and servers are provisioned which multiple customers leverage. Hence the cost is shared across customers. |
| Scalability | Low on scalability. Capacity expansion of Data center requires to spend the significant amount of money to match increasing workloads | Cloud facility is highly scalable and quickly adapts to your business needs. Cloud offers unlimited capacity expansion based on vendor’s products and service plans. |
| Reliability | Data Centers are generally less reliable than Cloud Data Centers | Cloud servers use multiple data centers in different geographical locations with appropriate backup. This provides safety from unwarranted downtime |
| Performance | Traditional Data Centers are built to handle various types of simple and complex application workloads. Hence high on application performance | Cloud environment is generally a best effort based service and may not offer the performance equivalent to traditional data Center |
| Control | High control since owned and managed by company IT team or under strict control of 3rd party. | Very limited control because it is owned and managed by 3rd party |
| Management | Completely performed by internal IT team. | Managed and provisioned by cloud service provider |
 | ||
Download the comparison table: Data Center vs Cloud
Continue Reading:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Founder of AAR TECHNOSOLUTIONS, Rashmi is an evangelist for IT and technology. With more than 12 years in the IT ecosystem, she has been supporting multi domain functions across IT & consultancy services, in addition to Technical content making.
You can learn more about her on her linkedin profile – Rashmi Bhardwaj
