You already know the benefits of enterprise automation and you’re ready to get started. You also know that UiPath gives you great platform options for both cloud and self-hosted delivery. So, now comes one of the important questions that impacts your program health: should you start your automation program on-premises or in cloud?
Drawing from similar underlying benefits of any on-premises vs cloud platform conversation, in this blog, I’ll share with you six reasons you should start with automation in cloud.
Lowered total cost of ownership (TCO)
Cost is not the only driver in deciding whether to start your automation program in cloud or on-premises, but it certainly stands as an important one. One of the most important three letter words (after ROI) that most customers care about for their automation program is total cost of ownership (TCO)—cost associated with managing different components.
For on-premises deployments, the TCO comes from the end-to-end lifecycle management of each server for each tenant, including the licensing cost of Windows Server (among other things). For a more accurate comparison, you are going to want to do this for each server-side UiPath product.
Remove barrier to entry for starting automation
Getting started with an on-premises enterprise automation deployment model requires implementation time and budget to prepare the on-premises hardware, installation, and configuration. Sometimes this can present itself as a barrier for entry. If you are looking to scale your automation program, this typically requires more investment to expand your infrastructure footprint.
Alternatively, UiPath Automation Cloud™ makes it incredibly easy to get started with your automation program by shifting responsibilities away from you. And if you are looking to scale your program, growth can be a lot more elastic (especially with the ability to add unlimited tenants for free in cloud). Read more about managing tenants for Automation Cloud.
Accelerate time to value
For programs that need to see ROI faster or need to scale rapidly, Automation Cloud offers the path to get there sooner and without a lot of the friction that’s common with on-premises deployments. The video below shows the speed of adoption for Automation Cloud. It shows the steps necessary to connect your first robot and UiPath Studio to Automation Cloud in minutes.
Shift program focus from maintenance to growth and governance
This is often an underrated part of the benefit to getting to start via Automation Cloud. Over time, your automation program builds a muscle to move with more agility simply because there is less maintenance, server patching, or availability planning to do running your automation program in the cloud. For those reasons, your program team can focus on discovering more impactful automation opportunities, create more value for the business, and focus on upskilling other employees.
Automatic upgrade and new feature adoption experience
Upgrades for any enterprise application require a certain degree of planning, communication, and resources dedicated to the change. That is no different for UiPath enterprise automation platform. UiPath Automation Cloud offers—by virtue of being a software as a service (SaaS)—an alternative to the traditional on-premises model, where you are responsible for planning upgrades.
With Automation Cloud, in addition to automatic upgrades, you can also enjoy the benefit of patches, updates, and feature additions pushed out to your tenant. All of which goes through rigorous quality checks and comes with backwards compatibility as part of the service. You can review a catalog of Automation Cloud release updates throughout the month (for example, this one for January 2022).
Cloud-first mandates
There’s a lot of evidence that the pandemic has accelerated cloud adoption for many organizations. And, according to a recent Gartner press release, more than “85% of organizations will embrace a cloud-first principle by 2025.” If you have the mandate (or expect to receive a cloud-first mandate soon), that’s one more reason this operating model becomes a compelling option for deployment.
UiPath offers flexible deployment options: on-premises, cloud, or even containerized cloud native deployment through Automation Suite. We have a guide to help you explore model-specific coverage for the products you need for your automation program. We recommend that you go through your standard vendor selection process to ensure the deployment model meets your technical, security, business, and regulatory requirements. To do this successfully, we encourage a partnership between IT and business in your organization.
Recommended reading: How to Achieve Business-IT Alignment for Automation Success
Get started today and try Automation Cloud for free.
If you’re already a UiPath customer, your UiPath account team is available to answer any questions you have about Automation Cloud or Automation Suite.