On-Premise Cloud vs Public Cloud – Total Cost of Ownership Comparison

What Are the Economics of On-Premise Cloud vs Hosted Cloud?

Hosted cloud: near-zero upfront cost, predictable monthly cost per user (see current pricing), hardware refresh handled by the provider, scales instantly. Best for organisations where flexibility and no upfront investment matter more than per-unit cost optimisation.

On-premise cloud: significant upfront cost (hardware Rs. 5–25 lakh depending on scale), lower per-unit operating cost at larger scales, hardware lifecycle of 5–7 years before refresh. Management cost (M A Global Network's managed service) is relatively fixed regardless of user count above a certain threshold. Best for organisations with 30+ users, high internal bandwidth requirements, or specific compliance needs.

At What Scale Does On-Premise Become More Cost-Effective?

The crossover point depends on workload intensity and current hosted cloud costs. As a rough guideline: for a 30-user organisation running accounting software and business applications, on-premise cloud typically reaches TCO parity with hosted cloud within 2–3 years. For 50+ users, on-premise is often cheaper within 18–24 months despite the higher upfront cost.

The non-cost factors — data sovereignty, bandwidth, compliance — may justify on-premise before the cost crossover in some organisations.

M A Global Network can produce a specific TCO comparison for your organisation after understanding your current setup and requirements. Request a TCO analysis from our team.