The Pros & Cons Of On-Premise Vs. Cloud Call Recording

Once upon a time, call recording was so expensive that the only companies that adopted call recording were the ones that had the money to invest and could not afford to not record calls due to possible lawsuits, compliance issues, and the like. But those times are long gone — partly due to the impact that Cloud Computing has had on technology and Unified Communications (UC). 

However, while many organizations clearly understand the benefits of cloud computing in general, the adoption of hosted call recording wasn't instantaneous.

In fact, in 2017, 78% of call recording solutions were still run on-premise. Deloitte surveyed 135 contact centers at the end of 2020 for its 2021 Global Contact Center Study, and 32% of them said that they had moved to the cloud. The author of the study remarked, however, that he believes that number will double in the next two years (by the end of 2022).

But does that mean you are missing out by not moving to the cloud? The short answer is: No, not necessarily. There are benefits and challenges with each approach, and organizations have to pick which deployment option is right for them. 

To make your decision easier, we took a closer look at the pros and cons of on-premise vs cloud call recording from different perspectives including compliance, deployment, scalability, flexibility, and cost. Let's get started.

1. Deployment 

Summary: Cloud is often easier and faster, but some organizations prefer on-premise for more control. 

Deployment timelines greatly depend on the call recording solution you are implementing and whether the solution is on-prem or in the cloud, so it is hard to say how long each takes in particular. For example, implementing and deploying an on-premise call recording solution can take anywhere from three to six months. However, if you deploy a MiaRec solution, you can be up and running within 24 hours regardless of whether you choose our on-premise or cloud deployment option. 

But, generally speaking, both deployment methods will require technical support and onboarding as you will need to integrate them into your existing hardware infrastructure and your business communication systems, e.g., Avaya, Cisco, and Microsoft Teams. In addition, you will also require some professional services and training.

Cloud-Hosted Call Recording Considerations

As with other cloud-based platforms, setting up a cloud-based call recording solution is much less labor-intensive because the application itself is managed by the provider, and providers tend to be very experienced with and knowledgeable of their own solutions.

Another advantage is that there is no need for additional in-house hardware. This lowers the initial costs. ​For example, MiaRec Call Recording can be installed on Amazon AWS utilizing either a basic or an advanced high-availability architecture depending on the number of users. In addition, these solutions can be easily and quickly connected to global multi-tenant networks, which means a much further reach. 

On the flip side, this gives the organization less control over its call recording architecture, which tends to be a deal-breaker for highly security-sensitive industries (see above). 

On-Premise Call Recording Considerations

One advantage, from a deployment point of view, of hosting your call recording solution on-site is that, in contrast to cloud-hosted solutions, you have full control of the technology stack. This means that you control the architecture in terms of scalability, security, and resiliency (fallback systems that activate in the event of a hardware failure of the primary server) and you are responsible for maintenance. 

However, for many, this is actually a disadvantage! With cloud-solution service level agreements close to 100% availability, organizations often are more secure, can scale faster, and are more resilient compared to some on-premise deployments. 

With an on-premise deployment, the hardware installation can be labor-intensive, costly, and lengthy depending on the vendor's professional service and technical support resource requirements. (Note: This isn't the case with MiaRec's on-premise option as you are up and running in just 24 hours!) Also, because you don't enjoy the economy of scale that a hosted service provider has, on-premise installations in multi-tenant environments quickly incur higher costs because of the additional hardware and maintenance required. 

2. Compliance Regulations

Summary: For some, compliance has to be the only deciding factor.

While the number of contact centers taking advantage of cloud-hosted call recording solutions is significantly higher than it was only a few years ago, the cloud is not as widely adopted in contact center solutions as it is in other Unified Communications categories, such as productivity and collaboration software for example.

This is partly due to compliance and regulatory restrictions, but also to insecurity regarding whether or not it is worth the cost of adoption in a particular situation. 

Cloud-Hosted Call Recording Considerations

Despite what many people think about the cloud, cloud-hosted call recording solutions are very compliant and secure. For example, in the cloud, you can safely store your call recordings using highly secure data encryption. Cloud solutions also offer you automatic enforcement of enterprise security policies and software upgrades, user authentication, built-in data backups, and timely recovery as well as a near-zero risk of downtimes. However, there are some compliance regulations that could prevent you from moving to the cloud entirely.

It is important to understand that you share the responsibility for security and compliance with your cloud vendor. How large your share is depends on which cloud service model (e.g., Infrastructure-as-a-Service [IaaS], Platform-as-a-Service [PaaS], or SaaS) you are using. For example, in the case of IaaS (lowest level), the service provider is liable for the storage, the networking, and the computing, which means anything from the hypervisor and OS and below. This does allow you to offload some of the risks related to compliance and security.

On-Premise Call Recording Considerations

For some organizations, compliance is the only deciding factor. Their goal of having complete visibility and control over their data and/or having customizable hardware built to serve a specific purpose overrides all cloud benefits. In addition to preference, some compliance regulations require that all data must be in the organization's own private, on-premise data center. This allows them to conform to their unique compliance and data sovereignty requirements, or to the requirements for healthcare (e.g., HIPAA) and financial services (e.g., PCI-DSS requirements).

3. Flexibility & Scalability

Summary: Cloud deploys easier while on-prem maximizes control.

One thing we all have learned over the last few years is that we need to be able to adapt much faster, scale up or down based on demand, and be more flexible in our Modern Workplace setup.

Flexibility is increasingly crucial for contact centers. Many contact centers aren't rushing to go back to a brick-and-mortar work environment anytime soon but will continue to work in a hybrid or fully-remote model for a while. A recent survey found that 56% of the 700 contact centers asked saw improvement in their managers' perspectives during the pandemic on the viability of working remotely. 

But this means having the ability to support a variety of devices, optimize bandwidth/network configurations, tighten security and compliance policies, and manage/train employees remotely. 

The cloud is clearly the winner over on-site installations in this category as the combination of flexibility, mobility, and scalability is the fundamental premise of cloud solutions. However, cloud-hosted call recording does not offer the level of control that some heavily regulated industries require from their call recording solutions. 

Cloud-Hosted Call Recording Considerations

Usually, cloud call recording solutions are highly flexible and can connect to all kinds of devices, whereas on-premise solutions often rely on PBX extensions. Cloud-hosted solutions are also frequently (and automatically) updated so that security and productivity upgrades take effect immediately. In most cases, you can also instantly scale up and down the number of agents you need. 

In some cases, these solutions are hosted on a global data center network with a local Content Delivery Network (CDN) and provide excellent service quality. 

On-Premise Call Recording Considerations

Because an on-premise solution is often engineered to fit the specific needs of an organization, deployment may be well worth it to a company despite any scaling and device limitations. 

On-premise call recording platforms also allow for closed security systems that protect stored data. While the debate continues regarding whether cloud or on-site security is superior, for companies adhering to necessary data sovereignty laws, on-premise call recording may be a must. You’ll have to decide whether ease of deployment or level of control is your primary concern when choosing which kind of deployment suits your company.

4. Cost

Summary: Cloud often wins, but not always.

Call recording and other contact center solutions, such as speech analytics, require significant hardware and storage capacity, which can be expensive depending on the solution. In addition, there are costs that must be considered for constant maintenance and upkeep, in-house security precautions, and many other items.

Therefore, the cost is a huge determining factor for many organizations as they decide between cloud-hosted and on-premise solutions for their Workforce & Customer Engagement platforms.

However, the cloud is not a cure-all for cost-cutting. Some organizations wind up with higher costs when the total expenses for migration, infrastructure, and training are tallied. This is especially true of organizations that are spread over multiple locations and brick-and-mortar sites that use their PBXs for their security systems and building infrastructure like elevator alarms. 

Cloud-Hosted Call Recording Considerations

In general, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) options offer no up-front costs and low-cost, fixed monthly or annual subscription-based pricing which often makes SaaS more attractive for companies as budgeting and forecasting are completely predictable. This advantage led to the very rapid adoption of SaaS in many different software categories. Also, for compliance call recording, it is highly cost-effective.

Because cloud-hosted call recording solutions have strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with hundreds or even thousands of clients, hardware performance, storage capacity, security measures, and other service quality factors are constantly monitored. All the occurring costs are folded into the monthly/annual/pay-as-you-go subscription price. 

One other factor to mention here (although it also relates to flexibility as well) is that a cloud-hosted solution often grows with your needs. You can often turn on and off additional features as needed (e.g., advanced reporting, added security, additional seats) without having to add new expensive hardware or 3rd-party software. 

On-Premise Call Recording Considerations

To ensure reliability for compliance, you will need Advanced High Availability (automatic failover and Master-Master Server configurations) and secure storage. These will need to not only be maintained but also expanded and renewed over time. However, there is a silver lining. On-prem hardware has been streamlined and is easier to deploy than ever. Additionally, many companies have already deployed secure, redundant storage that meets stringent compliance standards, and having call data stored on-site ensures availability in a timely fashion. 

Depending on your preferences and compliance regulations, you will need to store call recordings for a while. As you scale up, you will need to account for additional hardware and, in some cases, a re-architecture of your systems to account for the new scale. This is where some companies hybridize their call recording setups, deploying recording hardware on prem and storing call data to the cloud. If data sovereignty is not a concern, this may present a best-of-both-worlds solution to your organization. 

Conclusion

For many organizations, cloud-hosted call recording and analytics is the way to go when it comes to ease-of-deployment, scalability, flexibility, security, and costs. They are much more cost-effective than most on-site deployments, often provide a better quality of service, and are more secure and reliant. Due to their flexibility, they also allow organizations to realize maximum return on their investment. 

However, for some organizations that are bound by compliance regulations or that need to have full control over their call recording hardware, on-premise solutions are a clear choice and may even remain more cost-effective than migrating to the cloud. Compliance and migration costs stand out as the critical factors when choosing which deployment model will work best.