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Beyond hardware and licensing, day-to-day management requirements often shape the true experience of running server environments.
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| Topic | On Premises | Cloud (Microsoft Azure) |
|---|---|---|
| Role | You may have an IT team or an MSP who manage the security, firmware, antivirus, monitoring and backups. Therefore, you need to make sure you have someone either in your team or an MSP who can understand and safely manage the physical and logical elements of the infrastructure. Someone who can safely replace a PSU, configure cabling correctly or test a UPS. | Things like physical infrastructure, the data center, networking connections, cooling and cabling become part of the service you consume from Microsoft. This can free your IT team or MSP from the need to manage these services and focus on higher-value priorities. |
| Skillset | If you’re employing a virtualized solution like Hyper-V or VMware, you need people with skills in this technology (which continues to evolve and requires regular patching and updates). It can be challenging to ascertain if the MSP is good at this particular activity and how many qualified engineers they have in each area. For example, they may have several Microsoft engineers, but how many understand what to do when a Dell storage array has a firmware update required to resolve a critical security bug? |
Unlike on-premises or data centers, Microsoft manages the “platform” element, so there’s no need for customers to update or patch the Hyper-V or VMware-type part of their stack. That’s on Microsoft. There’s still a need to manage some elements of the environment – that’s what either your IT team, an MSP or ideally a CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) will do for you. They make sure your cloud environment is running smoothly, control costs and security, and make sure you’re getting the most out of the cloud rather than simply replicating an on-premises environment. |
| Responsibility | Most people backup to a cloud service. However, in the past, cases full of backup tapes were often transported around. This might be something you’re doing and therefore carry ownership of. | Microsoft manages these services itself. If there’s a bug or a security issue, they resolve it. You just get to utilize the resources. |
Maintaining on-premises infrastructure requires ongoing attention:
Cloud platforms alter this dynamic by reducing reliance on physical components and centralizing many operational responsibilities within the platform itself.
For organizations, this can translate into:
The comparison is rarely about eliminating responsibility entirely; it's about simplifying how environments are supported.
Next, we’ll explore resilience and continuity considerations.
About the author: Liam Freeman is the Infrastructure Director at Klipboard. Klipboard Managed Services, formerly known as Excenta, helps organizations migrate to, optimize and manage Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 environments – on your own terms. Whether you want full end-to-end management or a co-managed model alongside your IT team, our Microsoft-accredited team delivers a secure, high-performance cloud infrastructure that’s tailor-made to fit your business.
Klipboard Managed Services also specializes in managing the cloud environments for companies in the merchant sector, in particular, users of Epicor – BisTrack and Intact IQ application software. Klipboard Managed Services is engaged with more than 50% of Epicor’s UK BisTrack user base, and a growing number of North American BisTrack users. We have extensive experience in providing and managing Microsoft Azure cloud environments.
Find out more here: Klipboard Managed Services
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