On-premise storage

What it means

On-premise storage is a server, a network drive or a computer on the company’s own site. The data is physically under the owner’s control, access is fast and does not depend on the internet connection.

The price is that all the care stays in-house: patching, replacing disks, managing access, protection behind a firewall and above all backups. In the cloud those tasks move to the provider.

Files scattered across employees’ laptops are sometimes mistaken for local storage. They have no shared management, no backup and no access rules, so they are really copies without an owner. Local storage in the proper sense is a place where data is brought together and where access management decides who may see what.

How it works in practice

It makes sense where connectivity is poor, where large files are handled, or where a client contract requires it. It often appears in a hybrid setup: production on site, the backup in the cloud.

The sensible minimum: a second copy off the premises, an encrypted disk, separated access rights, and a restore that has been tested. Without those, on-premise storage is one device that can fail along with the company’s entire memory.

With accounting data, remember that documents and records must be kept longer than an ordinary disk lasts. When a client keeps its document archive on its own server, we agree who is responsible for moving it when the hardware is replaced, so that older files and formats can still be opened years later.

What to watch out for

Ransomware encrypts a network drive mapped as a letter in the file explorer too - so a backup sitting there is not a backup. Theft and fire are underrated for the same reason, and both are why a recovery plan assumes a copy somewhere else.

A retired server or disk that ends up at a scrap yard or a second-hand shop often still holds payroll and customer data. If an outsider gets hold of it, that is a personal data breach with all the obligations that follow. Disks are therefore securely wiped or physically destroyed before disposal.