Why Choose between Cloud OR On-Prem? “And” is Better!

Have you seen those new Ford Fusion TV ads? The ones where, in a world without “and,” you’d be forced to choose between sweet OR sour chicken, nuts OR bolts or (my personal favorite) large OR in charge? The point of these ads is that you shouldn’t have to pick between bottom-line benefits when selecting a product or solution. I couldn’t agree more.

The thing is, that’s pretty much what some vendors in our space are asking of their customers. So much so, in fact, that the CEO of one of those companies announced onstage at a developer event last summer that he wanted his company’s cloud-only file-sharing solution to “replace” users’ hard drives. Sounds like a sexy, big idea, and it got attention - but think it through. How realistic is this approach, especially when it comes to businesses?Fact is, a new report from analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group exposes what businesses really want when it comes to file sharing. They want an online file sharing solution that includes cloud AND on-prem; specifically, ESG found that more than two-thirds (69%) of surveyed respondents who had used an online file-sharing solution for at least six months said they were now very interested in the ability to store some or all of their data in their on-premise storage resources.

Our customer deployments echo these findings with 7 out of 10 customers moving to our hybrid model within the first 90 days of deployment. Also, more than 2/3 of all customer inquiries and pilots demand hybrid as a part of their file-sharing deployment model, and more than three-fourths of our partners naming hybrid as one of their top three solution focus areas this year.

According to the report, the top three reasons why current online file-sharing users want to keep some of their data on-premises include: the ability and flexibility to control where data is stored (54%); the option to leverage existing on-premises infrastructure investments (41%); and the belief that they can control data better than third-party services (38%). You can find a full report overview here.We think the cloud is a great option for much of a company’s data, but not ALL of its data in EVERY case. Some files are simply too sensitive – or too big – to go into the cloud. That’s why we offer the choice with an online file-sharing solution that can meet ALL of a company’s file sharing needs using the methods best suited to their size, complexity, industry and user requirements. When it comes to online file sharing, turns out “AND” is better!