Guide · IT infrastructure

Cloud or your own server? The calculation over five years

The question usually comes up when the old server is getting on in years. And it is almost always calculated wrongly – because items are missing on both sides that only become apparent later.

By Dipl.-Ing. Mohamed Khater, Founder and Managing Director, since 1992 · 19 May 2026 · 9 min read

Why the comparison usually goes wrong

The typical comparison sets the purchase price of a server against a cloud provider's monthly bill. That is like comparing the price of a car with a lease payment and forgetting insurance, servicing and fuel on both sides.

Both sides have blind spots, and they are not the same ones. With your own server, the running costs are underestimated; with the cloud, it is the one-off costs and those that arise alongside the provider's bill.

Five years is the right period because that is roughly the service life of a server. Calculate over three years and you put your own server at a disadvantage; calculate over eight and you ignore the fact that the hardware would have had to be replaced long before.

Blind spot 1

What is regularly missing for your own server

The purchase is in every quote. These items rarely appear next to it.

Manufacturer maintenance. Without a valid contract, there is no next-business-day replacement part when something fails, and no firmware updates. It usually runs for three years and then has to be renewed.
Client access licences. Windows servers need additional licences per device or per user – a cost that grows as your workforce grows.
Power and cooling. A server runs around the clock, and so does the UPS. In a room without cooling, the failure rate also goes up.
The second backup. A backup in the same building is worthless in a fire or a ransomware attack. The off-site copy costs storage and bandwidth.
Replacement after five years. At the end of the period, the next purchase is due. Leave that out and you are comparing a finite calculation with an open-ended one.

Blind spot 2

What is regularly missing for the cloud

The provider's monthly bill is the visible part. These items are not on it.

The switchover. Migration, adapting line-of-business applications, training. The biggest single item in the first year and the one most often underestimated.
Your own backup. The provider backs up its infrastructure, not your data against your own mistakes. A deleted file is gone once the recycle bin period has expired.
The internet connection. What used to run in-house now runs over the line. You often need more bandwidth and a second line as a fallback – otherwise, without internet, your whole business stops.
Ongoing management. Cloud does not mean nobody maintains permissions, monitors costs or checks security settings any more. The effort shifts; it does not disappear.
The way back. Downloading large volumes of data again takes time and sometimes incurs fees. Ask about this before you switch, not afterwards.

Tool

Calculate with your own figures

We deliberately do not fill in any example prices here – any default would be wrong for your business. Take the quotes you have and fill in what you know.

Own server

Hardware, one-offServer, storage, UPS, network Licences, one-offOperating system, virtualisation, client access licences Setup, one-offInstallation, migration, training Maintenance, per yearVendor support, management, updates Operation, per yearPower, cooling, space, insurance Backup, per yearStorage, second location

Cloud

Migration, one-offMigration, adaptation, training Running costs, per monthServers, storage, services – total of all items Licences, per yearUnless included in the running costs Backup, per yearYour own backup – the provider’s is rarely enough Internet line, per yearUpgrade or second line as a fallback Management, per yearAdministration, permissions, monitoring

Costs over five years

Enter your figures. It is enough to fill in the items you know.

The calculation runs in your browser. Nothing is transmitted and nothing is stored. One-off items count once, annual items five times, monthly items sixty times – without discounting, so that you can check every step yourself.

Experience

When each option pays off in practice

The numbers rarely decide on their own. These are patterns we have seen for years.

Arguments for your own server

Large volumes of data that are constantly being moved. Line-of-business applications that depend on low latency. A slow or unreliable internet connection. Requirements where the data must demonstrably stay on your premises.

CAD, video, image archives
Older line-of-business applications
Poor connection at the site

Arguments for the cloud

Distributed sites and a lot of work on the move. Strongly fluctuating demand. No suitable server room. And the situation where a new purchase would be due anyway – then the switch costs nothing extra.

Home office and field staff
Multiple sites
No server room available

Often the right answer: both

In practice, it often comes down to a hybrid solution. Email and collaboration in the cloud, the line-of-business application with the large data volumes in-house. That is not a compromise born of indecision but usually the cheapest and most robust solution.

Mail and files in the cloud
Line-of-business application stays in-house
Backups always in two locations

Frequently asked questions

What we are often asked about this

Is the cloud more secure than your own server?

The infrastructure of the large providers is better protected than a small or medium-sized business could ever manage. But most damage does not happen there; it comes from wrongly set permissions, compromised accounts and deleted data – and the provider does not protect you against those. In the end, what is more secure is whatever is properly looked after.

Will our data stay in Germany?

That depends on the provider and the location you choose, and it must be set out in the contract. For many applications you can choose a data centre in Germany or the EU. Also check where support is based and who has access during maintenance – that is often in the small print.

What happens if the internet goes down?

With a pure cloud solution, your business comes to a standstill. That is why serious use requires a second line, in the simplest case via mobile data. These costs belong in the cloud column of the calculation – and they are almost always forgotten.

Can we simply keep the old server running?

As long as it receives security updates and the maintenance contract is active: yes. Without both, it becomes a risk, however reliably it still works. The question is then no longer cloud or server, but when the failure will happen.

So what do you recommend?

Without your figures and your applications, any recommendation would be guesswork. What we can say from experience: for small businesses with little data and a lot of mobile working, the cloud usually wins. With large data volumes and older line-of-business applications, your own server usually does. In between lies the hybrid solution – and it is right more often than either camp admits.

Dipl.-Ing. Mohamed Khater

Dipl.-Ing. Mohamed Khater founded INFONET Computer GmbH in Cologne in 1992. Since then, INFONET has built both – server rooms as well as moves to the cloud – and has also reversed course in both directions when a decision turned out to be wrong.

We will work through the numbers with you.

We look at your applications, data volumes and connections and draw up both calculations with real figures – even if the result is that you should not change anything.

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