Any company can have an enterprise-grade chatbot built on a powerful platform and deployed as a solution to improve business process efficiency and ROI. However, the challenge comes while deciding whether to choose on-premises or cloud. No doubt that cloud technology has become more popular in the recent years, although there are many reasons why one should go for on-premises chatbot deployment.
Check out the reasons to choose on-premises chatbot deployment:
Gain better data control
A chatbot handles almost all types of confidential business information such as employees’ social security numbers, customer contact details, accounting and invoices, supply chain management, logistics, and other business intelligence that represents significant value to outside parties. When you deploy your chatbot on-premises, you have overall control on security measures used for physical access control. So, there will be no risk as the workstation isn’t connected outside the network to the cloud, and no fear of your confidential data getting leaked by a cloud provider.
Also, if you want your IP back from cloud vendors that stores data in proprietary formats it can be a prolonged and expensive affair, whereas you will have no such hassle with on-premises chatbot deployment.
Data security
A lot of companies purchase servers and infrastructure up-front to host their chatbot solutions on the cloud. These type of investments not only come with maintenance costs, but they also allow the cloud providers to have direct control over their servers and security systems. This means that your data may not be secure in the cloud and may encounter cyber attacks, security breaches, government intrusion, lack of standardization and more. One of the major security lapse instances is the Heartbleed bug.
On the other hand, chatbot hosted on-premises aren’t completely invulnerable, yet companies can at least decide whom to allow access and whom to restrict.
Decreases on-going costs
The direct cost is more with an on-premises chatbot, but the on the whole cost of ownership may end up lesser, compared to the costs you incur with on-going subscription and support services on the cloud. For an on-premises chatbot solution, you eliminate the direct costs out of the way, and the only ongoing costs are expenses like energy and IT maintenance. While choosing chatbot solutions for your business, focus on the total cost of ownership instead of holding over on the upfront costs.
Greater ability to customize
Cloud solutions are good at integrating with popular third-party applications and software, but they aren’t that good at providing you with the flexibility needed for your own customized solutions. You will not have to discard your useful applications tailored to your business, because an on-premises system offers you with customization options for working these apps into existing workflows.
Insights
Less dependency on the vendor
Cloud technology is often appreciated for its high flexibility, but your chatbot deployed on the cloud gets locked into multiple technology decisions that are solely made by the vendor. Any enterprise would build and deploy chatbot solutions keeping a long-term business plan in mind. And, if the vendor goes out of business, you will have nothing but a lot of struggle to do in order to implement a new chatbot solution in the cloud. Hence, on-premises chatbot won’t make you too dependent on the vendor, so you can alter diverse aspects of the system as and when needed.
The final say
Whether you deploy your chatbot on-premises or on the cloud, it is not as simple and clear as it seems. A lot of factors need thorough consideration like security level, customization, vendor dependency, and more. Chatbot solutions really have all that to make your business operate efficiently and productively, saving a lot of costs. Talk to our experts to know how chatbot deployment on-premises will be advantageous to your business.
