The Comparison Indian Businesses Are Getting Wrong
The most consistent mistake: businesses calculate only the server hardware purchase price. The hardware is the smallest line item. A 5-user local Tally setup that appears to cost ₹1.2 lakh upfront actually costs ₹4.8 to ₹10.4 lakh over 3 years when every real ongoing cost is counted — IT support, power, maintenance, patching, emergency repair, and the cost of every downtime event.
Tally on Cloud from M A Global Network at ₹700/user/month for a 5-user team costs ₹1,26,000 over 3 years. All-inclusive. Zero hardware. Zero maintenance. Remote access and daily off-site backups built in. This guide covers all the numbers honestly.
3-Year Total Cost — Local Server vs Cloud
| Cost Component | Local Server (5-user) | Tally on Cloud (5-user) |
|---|---|---|
| Server hardware, UPS, stabiliser | ₹1,00,000 – ₹1,80,000 | ₹0 |
| Windows Server 2022 licence + CALs | ₹36,000 – ₹60,000 | ₹0 (included) |
| Initial IT setup by consultant | ₹8,000 – ₹20,000 | ₹0 (included) |
| IT support (₹6k–15k/month × 36) | ₹2,16,000 – ₹5,40,000 | ₹0 (included) |
| Annual hardware maintenance × 3 | ₹45,000 – ₹75,000 | ₹0 (included) |
| Power 24/7 × 36 months | ₹43,200 – ₹64,800 | ₹0 |
| Emergency repair / data recovery | ₹20,000 – ₹2,00,000 | ₹0 (covered) |
| Productivity lost during downtime | ₹25,000 – ₹1,50,000 | Minimal — 99.9% SLA |
| Cloud hosting ₹3,500/month × 36 | ₹0 | ₹1,26,000 |
| 3-Year Total (conservative) | ₹4.8 – ₹10.4 lakh | ₹1,26,000 |
Choosing cloud over a local server saves between ₹3.5 and ₹9.2 lakh over 3 years — while delivering faster performance (NVMe vs typical office server), built-in remote access, and stronger data security with daily off-site backups.
Performance Comparison: NVMe Cloud vs Typical Office Server
For a single user on a dedicated machine, local Tally can be fast. The comparison changes completely when multiple users need simultaneous access under deadline pressure.
| Operation | Local Server (SATA SSD, 4+ Users) | M A Global Network Cloud (NVMe) |
|---|---|---|
| Tally application startup | 12 – 20 seconds | 2 – 4 seconds |
| Opening large company file (3+ years data) | 18 – 35 seconds | 4 – 8 seconds |
| Balance sheet generation (full year) | 25 – 60 seconds | 5 – 12 seconds |
| GST return report (high-volume, 1 year) | 45 – 120 seconds | 8 – 20 seconds |
| Voucher entry — keystroke response | 0.5 – 2 seconds lag | Instant (under 50ms) |
| Performance at 5 users vs 1 user | Degrades 40–70% | Less than 5% degradation |
Remote Access: Cloud vs VPN to Local Server
| Capability | Local Server + VPN | Tally on Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Remote access setup | Requires IT professional | Built-in, no setup needed |
| Works if office internet fails | ✗ All remote access stops | ✓ Data centre unaffected |
| Works from hotel/client firewalls | Often blocked by firewalls | RDP rarely blocked |
| Works on 4G/5G mobile data | Unreliable VPN over mobile | Fully functional |
| Monthly maintenance required | Yes — certificates, user management | No — fully managed |
Data Security: Cloud Managed vs Self-Managed
The most common Tally data loss events for Indian SMEs, in order of frequency:
- Hard drive failure on a local server with inadequate or untested backup — HDDs fail at 1–4% per year; office servers often run in heat and humidity that accelerates this.
- Accidental file deletion with no point-in-time restoration available.
- Power surge or extended power cut causing hardware damage or data corruption — especially acute during monsoon season.
- Ransomware — increasingly targeting Windows servers exposed to the internet without IP-whitelisted firewalls.
Tally on Cloud addresses all four simultaneously: NVMe SSD has no moving parts. Daily automated backups with 7-day retention make accidental deletion recoverable. Data centre power infrastructure eliminates power-related corruption. The IP-whitelisted firewall eliminates automated internet attacks.
When Local Infrastructure Still Makes Sense
The cloud economics are compelling in most scenarios. One situation where local or on-premise infrastructure may still be the correct choice: a large organisation with 25+ concurrent users, an existing in-house IT team paid regardless of server count, and no remote access requirements.
For businesses with fewer than 20 concurrent users, the 3-year cloud economics are superior in every scenario we have modelled across hundreds of customer migrations.
The Migration Process — What to Expect
- Friday: Assessment call — confirm concurrent users, plan server specification, schedule migration date
- Saturday morning: Windows Server 2022 provisioned, NVMe storage configured, firewall rules set for your IPs
- Saturday afternoon: All Tally data migrated — company files, TDL customisations, user configurations transferred and tested
- Saturday evening: Full testing and verification — all companies accessible, all TDLs functioning
- Monday morning: Your team connects via RDP — same Tally interface, same data, same TDLs — but faster, accessible from anywhere
Frequently Asked Questions
On pure capex vs recurring (ignoring IT support), the break-even for a ₹1.5 lakh local server against ₹3,500/month cloud is approximately 43 months — about 3.5 years — before accounting for hardware maintenance, power, or software licences. When IT support is included (the honest calculation), cloud is almost always less expensive from month one.
Your complete Tally data — all company files, all historical vouchers, all master data, all TDL customisations — is migrated to the cloud server by M A Global Network's team as part of the free migration. Nothing is deleted from the local server until you confirm everything is working correctly on cloud. The local server data remains intact as a backup until you choose to decommission it.
For most operations on a 10 Mbps+ connection, the RDP session is indistinguishable from local Tally. The interface is rendered on the server and transmitted as a display stream — keystrokes and clicks are transmitted with sub-50ms latency from Indian data centres. Many users report cloud feeling faster because NVMe server storage dramatically outperforms the SATA SSD or HDD in a typical office server.
With cloud: your office internet failure affects only staff in that specific office. Everyone working from home, another branch, or a client site continues accessing Tally uninterrupted — their connection goes directly to the data centre, completely bypassing your office. With a local server: all remote access stops when office internet fails.
See the Numbers for Your Specific Setup
Tell us your user count and current server + IT costs. We will produce a personalised 3-year comparison for your exact situation — same business day, no obligation.