Once you’ve decided that an intranet solution is right for your business, a core question is whether to go for something cloud-based, or a platform that is built on your company’s network. As either option has both advantages and disadvantages, it pays to consider which solution will be the most practical for your business. To help you make the best hosting decision, let’s consider the pros and cons of both options. Once you understand the benefits and potential pitfalls, you’ll be able to move forward with a firm idea of what matters most for your company.
Get Your Head In The Clouds
Always Looking At The Same Sky
Not only geographical advantageous, but a cloud-based intranet also has accessibility advantages when it comes to what might be happening in your office. If the power goes out, your servers overheat, or your internal network goes down for any reason, the intranet will still be accessible via laptops and phones if it is hosted in the cloud. Not to mention that fickle mistress Mother Nature, who can deliver weather emergencies that make it hard to get into the office; despite everything, a cloud-based service will still be ticking along and taking care of business.
Getting Things Going – And Quickly!
The sky is the limit when it comes to cloud-based intranet too. Instead of having to buy additional servers, you can easily expand your intranet offering as your business grows. The ideal technology solution will be future-proofed to fit your increasing needs and having your intranet on the cloud means that additions and changes are as easy (or even easier) than the initial implementation. When it comes to retaining total control, however, an in-house system enables you to decide how and when upgrades happen. You are also able to put a new system out to trial with key employees before pushing it live to everyone, which can help you troubleshoot potential problems before they become big issues.
A Hand To Hold If Things Go Wrong
A cloud-based intranet solution, on the other hand, will likely come with a service contract, meaning it’s up to an external organization to ensure that everything continues to run smoothly. While they will have familiarity with the system, and likely will be working with multiple intranets, they don’t always have the proximity to your system or your business to immediately flag when problems do arise. Likely you will also be reliant on phone support when there are blips. The other benefit of using an external organization? You get to pull from the whole organization’s knowledge – not just your single IT person.
What It Comes Down To The Pros And Cons
Cloud-Based Intranet
Pros:
Lower up-front costs- No need to hire or train IT personnel; the system can easily be run by existing employees within the company
- Employees can easily access the intranet from anywhere
- Access remains regardless of what is happening in your office
- It’s easy to make changes and scale the size of your intranet without the requirement of buying more equipment
- Cloud-based systems can be implemented faster, as can changes and upgrades in an existing system
- Your external provider will be experts in the system; they’ll know exactly how to solve issues
Cons:
- Someone else owns your intranet solution, and you don’t have full control over how and when upgrades are released
- You have to pay each month to keep your system up and running. Over time, this can add up to a much higher expense than the initial output to create an in-house system
- You won’t have an in-house IT provider or maintenance resource
Internally Hosted Intranet
Pros:
- Your system is yours to use as you will; it can be designed to your needs and you have full control over any changes
- There’s no long-term cost adding to your budget in an ongoing way, i.e., monthly payments to keep it up and running
- You’ll have an in-house IT team to deal with anything that goes wrong and problem-solve in person easily
Cons:
- There’s a much higher up-front cost involved in the implementation
- If your network goes down, everyone loses access to the intranet as well
- You will have to hire and train an in-house team to handle maintenance and upkeep
- You need skills to help you to design your intranet
- An in-house intranet is slow to scale, often requiring new equipment to be purchased as your business and its needs grow.
If you’re still unsure what the best option is for your company, why not ask the experts? Get in touch with MyHub to find out whether a cloud-based intranet would work for you.
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