The aim of Tally has always been to offer the latest digital technologies that help companies accelerate their business growth. With the hashtag #MakeEveryDaySimple, made popular by TallyPrime, Tally offers the best cost-saving initiatives for companies to help them organise, maintain and update their financial records in real-time. Also, through cloud accounting solutions, Tally has made remote access simpler for businesses. Below, let’s look at what is the best way to store Tally data - on a local server or cloud server - in this Tally On-Premise vs Tally On Cloud article.
1. What is Tally On-Premise?
Tally had always been an on-premise software. Local servers were used by companies to install Tally, which made storing, managing and retrieving company data easy. Also known as an in-house server, purchasing a local (dedicated) server provided the company full-fledged control on how they use/manage their server space.
Pros of Tally On-Premise
- Full Control: Since Tally is installed on an in-house server, you have full control over the system and any problem that arises can be solved quickly by the in-house team. This ensures work productivity is not affected.
- Easy maintenance: The servers are also easily managed by the in-house team, which provides a stable and reliable environment to run the Tally software.
- Enhance security: Since the local servers are maintained by the in-house team, you can be assured of high security. The team will regularly monitor the security of the server, and any security threat will be dealt with on priority, which helps safeguard the Tally data.
Cons of Tally On-Premise
- High-costs: On-premise Tally on local servers incur a high cost in terms of software licensing, set-up, electricity costs, specialised team of IT personnel, environment conditioning, and office space for storage. To eliminate the risk of system failure due to power outages, you also need to invest in UPS service.
- Technical expertise: You need to hire a highly experienced and knowledgeable IT team to maintain the server and tackle issues to ensure your Tally software runs smoothly. This adds to the costs.
- No scalability and manual backup: As your business grows, your current physical server could become obsolete, and you would need to invest additional money to purchase more servers to ensure smooth operations. There is no flexibility to scale your business up and down. Also, backups need to be taken manually.
- Less data security: With the rise in cyber threats and malware, if your IT team doesn’t monitor the server security daily or fails to update to the latest software, your business data can get hacked or stolen.
2. What is Tally on Cloud?
As opposed to purchasing a physical server, with Tally on Cloud, you just need to purchase the virtual server space from a cloud company such as AWS, Google Cloud or Azure. The servers are maintained by the company, and you can scale up or down as your business grows. With the virtual server, there is also no risks of downtime.
Pros of Tally on Cloud
- Cost-effective: Unlike a physical server wherein you need to pay significant money upfront to purchase the server, the upfront costs for Tally on Cloud is less. Tally on Cloud works on an annual subscription model, wherein you can scale up or down incrementally without the need to invest a huge amount.
- Customised Plans: Since it works on a subscription model, you can choose the storage space, what services you need, backup systems, etc for your business data. No matter what your business requirements are, Tally on Cloud customised plans can cater to it. Also, you require only a single Tally license for multiple offices.
- 24*7 Data Accessibility: With Tally on Cloud, you can access your data from anywhere, any time 24*7. It also allows you to access data from all devices. This is made possible since data is stored on a cloud server system. The best part, all data is synchronised in real-time.
- Robust Data Security: Since the virtual server space is run by a cloud company, you can be assured of best-in-class data security. They offer multi-layer data security compared to local servers. Most importantly, they ensure all security features are up-to-date with the latest protocols.
- Automatic Backup and Saves office space: When you use virtual cloud servers, all your business data is backed up automatically. Also, since you don’t need to maintain physical servers on-premise to run Tally, you save a lot of office space that can be used for other purposes.
- Maintenance: No physical server on-premise means ZERO maintenance. All virtual server maintenance-related services are taken care of by the cloud company. So, you don’t need to worry about downtime, crash hard drives, incompatible RAM cards, among others.
Cons of Tally on Cloud
- Adaptability: Moving from a legacy system to a virtual server will require some time for the employees to get adjusted to. But, with the current pandemic, virtual servers make remote access more feasible.
- Stable internet connection: The provider and the user both need a stable internet connection to deliver and access data respectively. Without an internet connection, you wouldn’t be able to access the required data.
#Which is Better - Tally On-Premise vs Tally On Cloud?
Local server vs cloud server; which is better is an ongoing debate. Each has its pros and cons, but cost-wise, feature-wise and security-wise, the Tally server ranks higher compared to the local server. You need to take into consideration all of the above factors before you make a decision.For now, here is a quick summary of Tally On-Premise vs Tally On CloudFeaturesTally On PremiseTally On CloudUptimeLow uptime99.99% uptimeCostsHigh upfront investmentLow upfront investment.Data Integrity and SecurityData integrity & security can be compromised if servers are not monitored by the in-house team diligently100% data integrity & security along with instant data recoveryBack-upManual backupAutomated backupScalabilityNot scalable. Would need to purchase additional servers when the current server becomes obsolete.Fully scalable as per business requirements.MaintenanceNeed a professional IT team in-house to maintain the local serversMaintenance is taken care of by the Cloud companyAccessibilityRestrictive accessibility24*7 accessibility from anywhere, any time and all devicesRemote AccessNot AvailableAvailableLive ChatNot AvailableAvailable
.png)
