Ask HN: Are OnPrem solutions dying out? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are OnPrem solutions dying out?

6 pointsPhilipA9 comments

Cloud has been the hype for 15+ years, and all providers are moving to a cloud-only solution. The benefits are clear both for the creator (easier updates) and the consumer (faster time to value).

But with all that being said, are there still types of products where OnPrem solutions are preferred?

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There is a strong push for hybrid cloud solutions where your data is on-prem but compute is in the cloud. Physical storage is cheap as hell unlike physical compute.

In the long term, on-prem first solutions are dead.

You don't really want to rent GPUs long term in the cloud, TCO is lower to run yourself turns out. Use the cloud when you need extra for a short time or just small bursts

One anecdote - I work in an org that makes enterprise software for compliance/regulatory mgmt/risk mgmt .. most of our customers, even in sensitive industries, are perfectly fine with moving to the cloud.

There are some situations where there is a genuine need for data to be air-gapped, i.e. defence, highly sesnsitive secrets, etc. I've encountered this a few times and a once or twice I felt it was truly justified as opposed to being overly paranoid.

However these days I see a hybrid model in which the truly sensitive stuff is in an on-site datacenter and there is a one-way "data diode" style transfer from the low security zone to the higher security zone.

Any industry where compliance is regulated by law, i.e. healthcare, finance, military, etc.

Yep. If you don’t have an on premises solution for those industries, you end up making or using an industry specific cloud (see Microsoft, Amazon, and others serving cloud solutions for DOD where there’s enough money to force this).

None of those require on-prem solutions, like at all. I work with those on a daily basis. A basic cloud solution is more secure than most on-prem solutions held together by shitty in-house duct tape made by resume engineers.

Navy ships do.

Are you really giving navy ships as an example that shows that 'on premises solutions' are not dying out? That would be like saying that plenty of large businesses don't use the power grid because a military ship is self contained. It has no relevance to the current context.

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