8 TECH OUTLOOKDECEMBER - 2018IN MY OPINIONhe convergence of several factors recently helped us integrate a larger infrastructure presence in "the cloud" into our IT strategy. This year we recruited two nationally recognized Genomics researchers and their teams. At their previous institution, they were utilizing local hardware which was not providing the needed flexibility and performance. Even before they arrived we agreed that we needed a deep dive into available cloud offerings. Our current Genomics researchers were already doing some projects in the cloud, so we were not complete strangers to the technology. We had also been using IaaS and SaaS solutions for some time. As part of our institution's strategic plan, we were also planning to build a new data center. We compared the top cloud players, consulted experts and had the vendors come in and show us their wares. We completed total cost of ownership calculations, including on-premise data center costs for one, three, five and 15 years. We compared the cloud vendors with a flexible on-premise solution where we would just pay for the compute and storage we were using. This is the hardware vendor's way to compete with the on-demand cloud pricing. The on-premise pricing was very compelling and based on the information we have today, had a lower total cost of ownership. However, by eliminating the on-premise option from the data center we were able to reduce the data center footprint considerably, shaving about $10 million from our construction estimate.We busted the myth in our organization about the cloud being significantly cheaper. In many cases it is not cheaper than on-premise solutions. It may be cheaper if you don't already have a Data Center and an IT staff. But if you have all of those things, it is going to be more expensive than what you can do on-premise. If I was starting a new firm, I would run it all in the cloud. Since we have existing infrastructure assets and our healthcare business requires certain on-premise solutions, our solution will be a hybrid one.Ushering the Cloud EraEven though we are "in the cloud" already, I learned a few things as we look to build a large infrastructure presence. There is a whole new set of marketplaces. You can purchase a plethora of cloud tools to help you manage your cloud assets, By Denise Zabawski, CIO, Nationwide Children's HospitalOn-Premise versus Cloud: The Better OptionT
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