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Should my RMM be On-Prem or SaaS?

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A highly debated question that almost all MSPs have asked themselves at one point or another: “Should my RMM be On-Prem or in the Cloud???”

So, before we get into the pros and cons of each instance, let’s talk about what it means to be “On-Prem” V.S “SaaS”

On-Premise: Or “On-Prem”, refers to software that is installed on a company’s own servers and kept up internally by the host.

SaaS: Or “Software as a Service” is when a software is hosted remotely over the internet, typically licensed on a subscription basis and kept up by a 3rd party.

To further illustrate On-Prem V.S SaaS, let’s use homeowners and renters as an example. In this case, owning a home will be the equivalent of an On-Prem RMM instance while renting a home will be the SaaS counterpart.

When owning a home, you enjoy the benefits of sitting back and thinking “I would like a more open floor plan” and then have the luxury to knock out the kitchen walls to satisfy your vision. It goes without saying but if you were renting that same house and decided to implement that same vision you would immediately lose your security deposit if not more.

RMMs are similar.

For example, let’s say that the “wall” we talked about in the above paragraph represents the database in your RMM tool. If you were On-Prem, you would be able to manipulate/customize in any way you seem fit just as you were to do with the wall in your own house. On the other hand, if you were on a SaaS model, you would not be able to touch the database restricting your ability for any further customization.

With that being said there are also many benefits of “renting a home”, that you would lose when you own your own home. Say your AC was to break, or your instance needed the latest security update you would simply call your landlord and have it immediately replaced or updated by the 3rd party. If the same was needed for your On-prem instance/ house, you would need the expertise and time to do it yourself.

Lastly, when it comes to price there are also many similarities in the upfront cost of owning a home (on-prem) vs renting (SaaS). On-prem has a large upfront cost (owning/building a home) while SaaS tends to be cheaper upfront but more expensive in the long run (renting).

So now that we have a basic understanding of on-Prem and SaaS models let’s have a look at the pros and cons of each below.

On-Premise V.S SaaS

 Implementation and Access:

On-Prem SaaS
  • Startup costs tend to be more expensive and require planning.
  • Pretty straightforward, users can start right away with relatively low startup costs and little planning.

Maintenance and Support:

On-Prem SaaS
  • Requires a moderately skilled Admin to stay on top of server maintenance/updates.
  • The vendor will be responsible for most application maintenance and all server maintenance.

Scalability:

On-Prem SaaS
  • Extensive planning is required. Must be prepared to scale the application’s hardware when needed.
  • Scaling tends to be easier, add additional licenses, bandwidth, or storage at a moment’s notice.

Security and Compliance:

On-Prem SaaS
  • You are responsible for security and compliance.
  • The vendor is responsible for security and compliance in general, SaaS vendors apply top-level technologies to protect their clients.

 Customization:

On-Prem SaaS
  • Access to the database.
  • Limited Access to the database.

Looking for more? ProVal works day in and day out in both On-Prem as well as SaaS instances and would love to help answer any questions you still may have. Feel free to shoot us your questions here: and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

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Greg White

Greg White works on the business development team here at ProVal Tech. He graduated with a marketing degree from the University of Central Florida and is passionate about finding new ways to grow ProVal and the technology industry as a whole.

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