Australian businesses are operating in an era where digital transformation is no longer optional. With evolving demands, many are facing a fundamental infrastructure decision: should we move to the public cloud or maintain an on-premises setup?
Both models offer unique advantages, but the best fit depends on a blend of strategic, regulatory, operational, and financial factors that are specific to each organisation.
Understanding the Landscape
Public cloud adoption in Australia has grown significantly in recent years, driven by the promise of scalability, faster time to market, and cost efficiency. Major providers like Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud offer extensive services tailored to a wide range of industries.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, nearly 60% of Australian businesses used paid cloud computing services in 2023, up from 42% in 2021. Yet, many organisations – particularly in government, healthcare, legal, and financial services – continue to run critical workloads in private data centres or hybrid environments due to legacy infrastructure, regulatory obligations, or performance needs.
Public Cloud: Agility and Scale
The public cloud provides unmatched flexibility. It enables organisations to scale resources dynamically, pay only for what they use, and rapidly adopt emerging technologies like AI, data analytics, and DevOps platforms.
Key advantages include:
- Reduced capital expenditure (CapEx): No need for upfront investment in hardware or infrastructure upgrades.
- Rapid provisioning: Faster setup of environments for development, testing, or expansion.
- Built-in resilience: High availability and geo-redundancy are standard features of most public cloud platforms.
- Access to modern tools: Tap into technologies such as machine learning, serverless computing, and low-code platforms.
However, the public cloud is not without its challenges. Without proper governance, cloud costs can spiral quickly. Misconfigurations can introduce security risks, and data sovereignty concerns remain a major issue – especially under Australia’s Privacy Act 1988 and industry-specific regulations.
On-Premises: Control and Predictability
Certain workloads are best kept on-premises for reasons of control, compliance, or performance. High-volume transactional systems, latency-sensitive applications, and heavily regulated workloads often fall into this category.
Key advantages include:
- Full infrastructure control: Organisations retain complete oversight of security, patching, and change management.
- Regulatory compliance: Data remains onshore, helping meet strict data residency and governance requirements.
- Predictable costs and performance: For stable workloads, on-premises environments offer better cost forecasting and performance optimisation.
- Integration with legacy systems: Many mission-critical apps are deeply embedded in on-prem environments, and re-architecting can be costly or impractical.
However, maintaining on-prem infrastructure requires continuous investment in hardware, software licences, skilled personnel, and facility upkeep – all of which contribute to ongoing operational complexity.
The Hybrid Middle Ground
For most Australian enterprises, a hybrid model offers the best of both worlds. Sensitive or high-performance workloads remain on-premises, while scalable or non-sensitive workloads are moved to the cloud to take advantage of flexibility and innovation.
In fact, 82% of Australian IT leaders said they are already using or plan to adopt a hybrid cloud strategy, according to a 2023 survey by Nutanix.
Hybrid cloud benefits include:
- Cloud bursting for peak demand periods
- Enhanced disaster recovery options
- Greater flexibility in aligning workloads with compliance and business priorities
- The ability to modernise gradually, without disrupting core operations
Managed service providers (MSPs) increasingly help businesses build cloud-ready architectures that support workload portability, containerisation, and cloud-based disaster recovery.
Choosing What’s Right: A Strategic Approach
Rather than asking “cloud or on-prem?”, Australian enterprises should be asking more strategic questions:
- What are our compliance and data residency requirements?
- Which workloads require rapid scaling or modernisation?
- Are we prioritising capital expenses (CapEx) or operational expenses (OpEx)?
- Do we have the skills in-house to manage cloud or on-prem infrastructure?
- Can our current infrastructure support our business continuity and disaster recovery goals?
There is no one-size-fits-all solution – and that’s precisely the point. The right choice depends on your organisation’s business goals, risk profile, compliance obligations, and operational maturity.
As a trusted MSP, we support Australian organisations in assessing their current infrastructure, identifying optimal workload placements, and implementing strategies that enhance performance, security, and return on investment – whether that’s on-premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid of both.
Ready to Explore the Best Fit for Your Business?
Whether you’re looking to modernise, manage costs, or improve resilience, our cloud and infrastructure specialists are here to help.
Let’s have a conversation about what’s right for your organisation.
Contact us today to get started with a tailored cloud readiness or infrastructure assessment.
References
- Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2023). Business Use of Information Technology, 2021–22. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/technology-and-innovation/business-use-information-technology/latest-release
- (2023). Enterprise Cloud Index Report: Australia and New Zealand Findings. https://www.nutanix.com/enterprise-cloud-index
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. (2024). Privacy Act 1988. https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-act
