Cloud or own server for your notary office?

The question rarely comes up at a quiet moment. Usually it is the server in the cupboard acting up, the supplier proposing a new one, or a colleague asking why working from home is such a struggle. And then someone says: why don't we just move everything to the cloud? A fair question, but most offices answer it under time pressure. This article helps you weigh it up in advance, using one yardstick that seldom makes it onto the table: what does each option really cost over five years?

What "the cloud" actually means for a notary office

Part of your work already runs outside your walls. FEDNOT's services and your notarial software largely work over the internet, whether you like it or not. So the choice is not all or nothing, but about the rest: your files and documents, your e-mail, your workstations and your telephony. For those, there are three models.

• Own server: a physical machine at the office, holding your files, user management and possibly your applications.
• Cloud: no server at the office. Your files and e-mail live in Microsoft 365, your applications run on a hosted server or hosted desktop in a data centre in Europe.
• Hybrid: e-mail and collaboration in the cloud, the heaviest applications or the archive still on site. In practice, this is the model many offices end up with.

The own server: familiar, but not free

The server at the office has real advantages. Your data is literally in the building. If the internet drops for a moment, the office keeps working on local files. You pay once and are set for years. And you know exactly who can physically reach the machine.

What the quote does not show is everything that comes on top in the years that follow:

• Licences for the server operating system and per user, plus backup software.
• A backup outside the office. An external drive in the same cupboard protects against neither fire, theft nor ransomware.
• An uninterruptible power supply, a proper network, electricity and cooling.
• Maintenance, security updates and monitoring. A server nobody watches fails at the worst possible moment.
• The replacement itself, every five to six years. Wait longer and you buy in a hurry after a failure, which is always more expensive.

The cloud: no investment, but a monthly bill

In the cloud you buy no hardware. You pay per user per month, the software is always up to date, and working from a second office or from home is no longer a project but a login. Backup and failover are included, at least if the contract says so.

Here too there are things to know before you decide:

• Your internet connection becomes your lifeline. A single line is no longer an option; a second, independent connection is.
• The monthly cost keeps running, also in year six. Comparing the cloud with a fully depreciated server is unfair. Comparing it with a new one gives a different picture.
• The migration is a project of a few weeks, with a one-off cost and a period in which your staff adjust.
• Your data sits with a third party. For a notary office that means: data centres in the European Union, clear agreements on access and retention, and an orderly exit if you ever want to leave.

The real comparison: total cost over five years

The purchase price of a server and the monthly price of a cloud licence say little. What counts is the total cost of ownership over the life of the solution, typically five years. The table below sets the items side by side for an office with eight workstations. The amounts are indicative and exclude VAT; your situation may differ, which is exactly why we work them out for your office in an audit.

On paper, then, the own server often wins. Yet the table is not the whole story. Three items are missing from it, and they regularly tip the balance:

• Downtime. A day without a server quickly costs an office of eight several thousand euros in lost hours, before we even mention a postponed deed. A well-designed cloud environment has a failover that a local server rarely has.
• Flexibility. A second office, a partnership, a colleague working part-time from home: in the cloud that is a setting, with an own server it is an investment.
• The end of the road. A six-year-old server is a ticking clock. The replacement always comes, and rarely at a convenient time.

When the own server remains the right choice

Do you have one office, little home working, stable staffing and a server no more than three years old? Then keep it, and schedule the replacement instead of waiting for it. Do have the backup and monitoring checked, though. That is where the real risk lies in most offices, not in the server itself.

When the cloud wins

Do you work from two locations, or are you considering a partnership? Do staff regularly work from home? Is the server older than five years, or sitting in a cupboard without cooling? Is the office growing? Then the cloud overtakes the own server, also in the table. The monthly cost is then not a burden but insurance against exactly the things that bring an office to a standstill.

Three questions to ask today

1. How old is our server, and when does the warranty end?
2. What does it cost us if the office cannot work for one day?
3. Where exactly is our data, who can access it, and does that meet the retention obligation and privacy law?

Anyone with a clear answer to these three questions can make the choice between cloud and own server calmly. Anyone who cannot answer them straight away knows where to start.