Cloud vs on-premises energy monitoring. Which one fits your plant?

The short answer

Cloud monitoring suits sites with steady Internet, no concern about data leaving the site, and a wish to start fast. On-premises suits plants where the Internet drops, where owners want production data to stay inside, and where an alert must arrive every time. For most factories, the deciding questions are how reliable the Internet is and who should hold the data.

What each one means

Cloud. A gateway in the panel reads the meters and sends every reading over the Internet to the vendor’s servers. The dashboard, history, alerts and reports all run there, and you open them through a website or an app.

On-premises. The gateway reads the meters and keeps the history inside the plant. The dashboard opens on the plant network. For access from outside, an encrypted link reaches the gateway, and the data itself stays inside.

Hybrid. The full history stays on site, and a copy or summary also goes to a cloud. It works locally and gives a cloud copy, with two places to secure.

The meters, CTs and RS-485 cable are the same in all three. What changes is where the software runs and where the history is kept. See what is an energy monitoring system for the parts.

Side by side

Which is cheaper?

It depends on how far ahead you look. Cloud often costs less on day one, because there is nothing to set up on site beyond the gateway. Over five years, a fee per meter, user or site adds up, and the Internet link the system depends on becomes a cost of its own.

On-premises used to mean a server PC, a database licence and someone to look after them. That is what made it expensive. A gateway that stores its own history removes the server, so the running cost is mostly support and updates.

When you compare quotes, put the same items side by side, over the same five years:

• Hardware: gateways, any new meters and CTs, and cabling.
• Installation and setup.
• The subscription or licence, and what it covers.
• The Internet link, if the system needs one to work.
• A server PC and its upkeep, if one is needed.
• The cost of leaving: getting your full history out in a form you can use.

This page gives no prices, because every plant’s quote is different. The buying guide lists what moves the cost.

Which is more secure?

Security is about who can reach the data, and how.

• Cloud: the data sits on servers that also hold other customers’ data, reached over the Internet. The vendor secures them, so you depend on the vendor’s practices and on your users’ passwords.
• On-premises: the data sits inside your plant network. The risk to manage is remote access. It must not need open ports on your router, and only approved devices should connect.
• Both: logins with roles, encrypted links, and software updates that fix security issues.

An on-premises system reached through an open router port is less safe than a well-run cloud. Ask exactly how remote access works before you choose.

When the Internet goes down

This is where the two differ most in a factory. Take an illustrative day: the plant’s Internet drops at 10:40 and comes back at 13:10. At 11:52, two compressors and a furnace start together, and demand climbs towards Contract Demand.

• Cloud: the gateway may hold the readings and upload them later, so the history can be complete. But the warning needed the servers, so it never went out. The penalty shows up on the bill.
• On-premises: the warning is raised on site at 11:52, while someone can still hold back a load.

Ask any vendor: how long does the gateway hold readings, do alerts work with no Internet, and does the dashboard open on the plant network? See MD penalty for what one missed interval costs.

Data ownership, and leaving a vendor

Energy data shows more than energy. It shows shift patterns, running hours, when the plant is busy and when it is idle. Many owners treat that as business information. Before you choose, ask:

• Can you export all of the history at full detail, not just summaries?
• What happens to the history if you stop paying?
• What does the contract say about the vendor using your data?

With on-premises, the history is already in your plant, whatever happens to the contract.

Remote access without the cloud

On-premises does not mean you can only look at it from inside the plant. An encrypted private network links approved phones and laptops to the gateway, with no ports opened on the router. Owners and plant heads can watch live readings, Maximum Demand and alerts from anywhere. The history still never leaves the plant.

Hybrid setups

Some buyers want both: each plant keeps working on its own, and head office gets one combined view. There are two ways to get that:

• On-premises with a cloud copy. Each plant sends a copy or summary to a cloud. Simple to view, but the copy is off site and needs securing too.
• On-premises plants joined in one dashboard. Each plant keeps its own history, and the dashboard brings them together over encrypted links, with no cloud copy.

Either way, ask where each copy lives and who secures it.

Which one should you choose?

Questions to ask either kind of vendor

1. Where exactly is my history stored, and who can see it?
2. What works, and what stops, with no Internet for a day?
3. How does remote access work? Are any router ports opened?
4. Can I export all of my history at full detail?
5. What happens to my data if I stop paying, or you close?
6. What do the fees cover over five years, and what is extra?

Where KONDUKTOR® EMS stands

KONDUKTOR® EMS is on-premises. Gateways read the multifunction meters on your panels over Modbus RTU, any brand, up to 10 meters per gateway, and keep the history inside the plant, with an encrypted backup on a plant computer. Nothing is sent to KONDUKTOR or to any cloud, and no server PC is needed.

• It keeps reading, recording and alerting with no Internet.
• Remote access over an encrypted link, with no router ports opened and only approved devices allowed. Admin, Operator and Viewer logins.
• Several plants appear in one dashboard, with one combined energy and bill report, while each plant keeps its own data.
• Excel and CSV export of every meter’s history.
• If the subscription lapses, monitoring pauses and the history stays on the gateway.

For the full detail, see on-premises energy monitoring.