Comparing On-Premise and AWS Setup: Terminology and Key Concepts

Setting up infrastructure on-premise versus using AWS involves understanding different terminologies and components. On-premise setups require significant investment in physical hardware and resources for maintenance, whereas AWS offers scalable, flexible, and managed solutions that reduce the overhead of managing physical infrastructure. By understanding these key terms and concepts, businesses can make more informed decisions about their IT infrastructure strategy, whether they choose on-premise, AWS, or a hybrid approach.

Disclosure: The content of this article is purely informational and aims to provide a comprehensive comparison between on-premise setups and AWS infrastructure. The author of this article has no affiliation with Amazon Web Services (AWS) or any other cloud service provider. All opinions expressed are based on personal knowledge and industry experience, without any influence from AWS or related entities. The information presented is intended to help readers make informed decisions about their IT infrastructure options.

Let’s do a terminology comparison between On-Premise and AWS for the key concepts.

1. Physical Servers vs. EC2 Instances

On-Permise

Physical Servers: These are the actual hardware servers located within a data center or server room on the company’s premises. They require physical space, power, cooling, and ongoing maintenance.

AWS

EC2 Instances: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances are virtual servers that run on AWS’s physical hardware. They can be quickly provisioned, resized, and terminated as needed, providing flexibility and scalability without the physical maintenance. https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/

2. Networking and Security Zones

On-Premise

• Far DMZ (Demilitarized Zone): This is an isolated subnetwork that sits between an organization’s internal network and external public networks. It typically hosts public-facing services like web servers.
• Near DMZ: This is closer to the internal network, often used for services that require higher security but still need to interact with the public-facing DMZ.

AWS

• VPC (Virtual Private Cloud): A logically isolated section of the AWS cloud where you can launch AWS resources in a virtual network. You can define IP address ranges, subnets, route tables, and network gateways. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/what-is-amazon-vpc.html
• Public Subnet: Equivalent to the Far DMZ, it’s a subnet within the VPC that has direct access to the internet, typically used for public-facing resources. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/configure-subnets.html
• Private Subnet: Similar to the Near DMZ, it’s a subnet with no direct internet access, used for more secure resources that do not need to be publicly accessible. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/vpc-example-private-subnets-nat.html

3. Storage Solutions

On-Premise

SAN (Storage Area Network) and NAS (Network-Attached Storage): Physical storage solutions providing centralized storage accessible over the network. SAN is often used for high-performance, block-level storage, while NAS offers file-level storage.

AWS

• EBS (Elastic Block Store): Provides persistent block storage volumes for use with EC2 instances. EBS is similar to SAN in terms of providing high-performance storage. https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/
• EFS (Elastic File System): A scalable file storage service for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources, similar to NAS in providing file-level storage. https://aws.amazon.com/efs/
• S3 (Simple Storage Service): An object storage service that offers industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. https://aws.amazon.com/s3/

4. Database Management

On-Premise

Traditional Database Servers: Physical or virtual servers running database management systems (DBMS) like SQL Server, Oracle, or MySQL. These require setup, tuning, and ongoing maintenance.

AWS

• RDS (Relational Database Service): A managed relational database service that simplifies the setup, operation, and scaling of databases. It supports several DBMS options including MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, and SQL Server. https://aws.amazon.com/rds/
• Aurora: A MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the cloud, combining the performance and availability of high-end commercial databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open-source databases. https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/

5. Load Balancing

On-Premise

Hardware Load Balancers: Physical devices used to distribute network or application traffic across multiple servers to ensure no single server becomes overwhelmed.

AWS

Elastic Load Balancer (ELB): A managed service that automatically distributes incoming application or network traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances, containers, and IP addresses, in one or more availability zones. https://aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/

6. Monitoring and Management

On-Premise

• SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol): Commonly used protocol for network management and monitoring devices on IP networks.
• Nagios/Zabbix: Popular open-source monitoring tools used to track system performance, uptime, and network traffic.

AWS

• CloudWatch: A monitoring and management service built for developers, system operators, site reliability engineers (SRE), and IT managers. Provides data and actionable insights to monitor applications, respond to system-wide performance changes, and optimize resource utilization. https://aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/
• CloudTrail: Provides event history of AWS account activity, including actions taken through the AWS Management Console, AWS SDKs, command-line tools, and other AWS services. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-user-guide.html

7. Backup and Recovery

On-Premise

• Tape Backup/Local Disk Backup: Traditional methods involving physical media or local storage for backing up data.
• DR (Disaster Recovery) Sites: Secondary data centers set up to take over operations in case the primary site fails.

AWS

• S3 Glacier: A low-cost cloud storage service for data archiving and long-term backup. https://aws.amazon.com/s3/storage-classes/glacier/
• AWS Backup: A fully managed service to centralize and automate data protection across AWS services. https://aws.amazon.com/backup/
• AWS Disaster Recovery: Solutions that allow quick recovery of IT infrastructure and data, such as Amazon RDS for database failover and AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS). https://aws.amazon.com/disaster-recovery/

Choosing between on-premise and AWS infrastructure is a critical decision for businesses, influenced by various factors such as cost, scalability, security, and management. On-premise setups offer greater control and customization but come with higher upfront costs and ongoing maintenance requirements. On the other hand, AWS provides a scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solution with reduced physical maintenance overhead.

For many organizations, a hybrid approach that combines on-premise and cloud solutions can offer the best of both worlds, allowing for greater flexibility and optimization of resources. Ultimately, the choice depends on the specific needs and goals of the business, including regulatory requirements, capacity for IT infrastructure management, and the need for rapid scalability and innovation.