Side by side
- Maintenance: on-premise requires your own servers, patches and upgrades; cloud is maintained by the vendor.
- Updates: on-premise upgrades are projects; cloud updates roll out continuously.
- Control: on-premise offers full infrastructure control; cloud relies on the vendor's architecture and contracts.
- Integration: cloud tools built for Microsoft 365 connect natively to Word, Outlook, SharePoint and Teams.
- Cost profile: on-premise shifts cost to hardware and staff; cloud is typically subscription-based.
When on-premise still fits
Organizations with strict requirements to keep all processing on their own infrastructure, or without a cloud productivity suite, may still prefer on-premise. This is becoming less common as most office work moves to Microsoft 365.
What to check in a cloud vendor
- Where are documents stored: in the vendor's storage or in your own tenant?
- How do users authenticate?
- Where is data, including AI processing, handled?
- Which permissions does the app require?
- Is the vendor available through Microsoft Marketplace for procurement?
How Documentaal is deployed
Documentaal runs as SaaS in Microsoft Azure, integrates with Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) for single sign-on and stores documents in SharePoint within your tenant. There are no servers to install. Details for IT teams are on the IT overview and in document security.
For European organizations, see GDPR and document automation.