[Koha] Cloud-based Koha vs locally hosted Koha

[Mark Tompsett]

Greetings,

On 10 December 2014 7:06:37 am NZDT, BWS Johnson 
<abesottedphoenix at yahoo.com> wrote:
[SNIP]
>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.

Actually another cost consideration is the hardware costs vs. hosting costs. 
Hardware dies over time and needs to be replaced. Budgets get cut, and a 
monthly hosting cost is less likely to be axed compared to a new server cost 
ever 4-5 years. So, in some sense, I think hosting externally and not on 
your own local hardware is better.

And comparing costs, you may be able to find hosting that works well for a 
cost that when amortized over 4-5 years is actually cheaper. That is, 
$20/month (let's say) * 12 months * 4 years = $960 for 4 years. This is 
comparable to some cheaper machines which perfectly suffice, but I know I 
prefer to drool over the $2500+ machines. :)

Sadly, you aren't likely to be continually upgrading components. After 4 
years, a locally owned piece of hardware will have dropped from a middle 
class machine to low end machine, while the hosted environment may have 
progressed, because of hosting provider upgrades. :)

And, you aren't having to do your own backups, if you hosting on the cloud. 
If you have locally hosted machine, you need to figure out how to back up 
elsewhere. A good backup plan has on-site same drive, on-site different 
drive, and off-site backups. A hosting provider tends to have these in 
place. Do you want the hassle of having that yourself? This is related to 
the point that BWS Johnson made.

And what if your local machine dies? Sure you have a backup, but you 
actually have to spend the day rushing around buying a new server. With 
hosting, hardware failures like that are not your worry. No budget stresses, 
because you don't have the cash to go buy it now, and most service level 
agreements give you less than a hour downtime per year.

GPML,
Mark Tompsett