PMS tech decoded: Understanding different types of cloud solutions
Cloud-hosted, cloud-enabled, cloud-based and cloud-native — what’s the difference? The ability to tell various versions of ‘cloud’ apart is crucial for choosing the right technology for your business. Tessaract clarifies these terms to help law firms reviewing their digital strategy pick the right option to future-proof the firm
Terms like cloud-hosted, cloud-enabled, cloud-based and cloud-native are sometimes used interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings. Here’s a breakdown to help clarify the differences.
Cloud-native
Definition: Cloud-hosted refers to software or services that are stored and run on virtual servers in the cloud, rather than on-premise hardware.
Example: A traditional software application that was originally designed for on-premise use but is now hosted on a cloud provider’s infrastructure like AWS or Azure.
Key difference: While hosted in the cloud, the software will not be fully optimised for the cloud and its inherent security and scaling advantages.
Cloud-enabled
Definition: Cloud-enabled software is an application that was originally built for on-premise environments but has been modified or adapted to work in the cloud. Example: An older legal case management system (CMS) that has been updated to run on cloud servers with some added cloud features, like remote access.
Key difference: Cloud-enabled software benefits from some cloud advantages but is not fully designed for the cloud from the ground up.
Cloud-based
Definition: Cloud-based applications are primarily designed to be accessed and operated via the internet. They rely on cloud infrastructure but may still depend on some non-cloud technologies.
Example: Most SaaS platforms that provide web-based services, such as Office 365 or Google Workspace, but can have some local dependencies.
Key difference: Cloud-based services primarily operate from the cloud but may not fully leverage all the capabilities of cloud architecture.
Cloud-native
Definition: Cloud-native applications are built from the ground up specifically for the cloud environment. They are designed to take full advantage of the cloud’s scalability, flexibility and efficiency, often using microservices, containers and serverless architectures.
Example: A modern app designed using tools like Kubernetes and Docker that scale automatically in the cloud, such as Netflix’s streaming service.
Key difference: Cloud-native applications are fully optimised for cloud computing, built for dynamic scaling, high availability and leveraging cloud-native technologies.
Conclusion
In practice, cloud-native applications generally enjoy greater flexibility and faster development cycles, meaning that implementation for any given law firm will typically be faster, cheaper and offer more customisability than non-cloud-native counterparts.
It used to be common for law firms with significant customisation requirements to have to retain a team of developers or external consultants to build these customisations, and then maintain them against potential ‘breakage’ by patches/updates, and new development work. This kind of approach would not be required with a more modern system like Tessaract.
Understanding the differences between the various versions of ‘cloud’ is crucial for choosing the right technology for your business. Cloud-native applications offer the most flexibility and scalability, while cloud-hosted and cloud-enabled solutions provide ways to move traditional software into the cloud. Cloud-based sits somewhere in between, offering a strong cloud presence but not always optimised for cloud-native environments.
Increasingly, law firms which are reviewing their digital strategy will employ only cloud-native tools, as anything else may fail to adequately future-proof the firm and help to set them up for many years of success.
