[Koha] Cloud-based Koha vs locally hosted Koha

[BWS Johnson]

Salve!

> I have a question about installation of Koha.
> 
> Relative to hosting Koha in the cloud as opposed to on our own local
> servers on our domain (which I assume most people do), what is the thinking
> about the ease of installing and updating if it is hosted "externally"
> versus on our own servers?
> 


    As long as you have access to the command line and can update and change things at will, then there is no difference between the cloud and a physical local server. That latter bit seems to be a big problem with a lot of companies, though. So choose a service provider with great care and after a lot of testing. You not only needs be able to update Koha, but all of Koha's dependencies as well.


>
> Are there any security issues I should be concerned about in either case?

> 


    The only difference I can spot might actually weigh as a positive in favour of cloud based service. When you have a physical server and suffer a local catastrophe, such as an earthquake, fire, sinkhole, et cetera, there goes your data. If you found a cloud based service that allows you to maintain things routinely, there shouldn't be any difference. You're trusting someone else when you select a hosted service, but this would be the same trust you would put in a normal vendor in most cases, anyway. If you hire a new employee for your building and give them a set of keys, you're taking a security risk, too, but in both cases that risk ought be calculated.

    Security issues in general are shared over a specific listserv that's populated by trusted Community members. Bugs on that list are fixed with extreme prejudice.

    My final note is to consider if you're going to actually *need* the data that you collect and keep. A certain naughty Library that shall remain nameless used to keep the Social Security Numbers of all of their Patrons in a note field on a non Koha system that would literally pop up *every* time someone checked out.

Cheers,
Brooke