Cloud vs. on-premise email archiving: what’s the right choice for your Swiss SME?

7 essential decision criteria

1. Deployment time

On-Premise: 2-4 months
(Purchase → Installation → Configuration → Testing → Migration)

Cloud: 3-7 days
(Subscription → Configuration → Training → Production)

💡 Crucial if: imminent audit or urgent compliance obligation.

2. Maintenance and updates

On-Premise :

• ❌ 5-10 hours IT per week
• ❌ Cost: CHF 18’000-36’000/year
• ❌ Risk of missed patch = vulnerability

Cloud :

• ✅ 0 hours required (fully automatic)
• ✅ Cost: included in subscription
• ✅ 99.9% availability guaranteed

3. Scalability

Scenario: you grow from 50 to 80 employees.

On-Premise :

• ❌ Purchase of equipment: CHF 15’000-25’000
• ❌ Lead time: 4-8 weeks
• ❌ Mandatory oversizing

Cloud :

• ✅ Add 30 licenses in 5 minutes
• ✅ Cost: additional CHF 540/month
• ✅ Instantaneous scalability (up AND down)

4. Data security

On-Premise :

• Total responsibility (physical + logical)
• Costs: initial CHF 10’000-30’000 + CHF 5’000-15’000/year
• Risk of fire, theft or breakdown without adequate recovery plan

Cloud :

• Datacenters certified ISO 27001, SOC 2, Tier III
• AES-256 encryption, 24/7 monitoring
• Automatic geographic redundancy
• Cost: included

💡 Reality check: a professional cloud provider invests millions in security. No SMB can compete on its own.

5. Accessibility and mobility

On-Premise :

• ⚠️ VPN required for remote access
• ⚠️ Complex for non-technical users
• ❌ Degraded teleworking experience

Cloud :

• ✅ Accessible from anywhere via browser
• ✅ Mobile applications (iOS, Android)
• ✅ Same office/teleworking experience

💡 Post-COVID: Telecommuting is the norm. On-premise penalizes productivity.

6. Disaster Recovery Plan(DRP)

On-Premise :

• Emergency site required: CHF 30’000-60’000/year
• RTO: 24-72h in the event of a major incident
• Reality: very few SMEs have a real DRP

Cloud :

• ✅ Replication on 3+ remote datacenters
• ✅ Automatic switching
• ✅ RTO < 4h, included at no extra cost

⚠️ Risk: fire destroys servers AND local backups = definitive total loss.

7. Swiss legal compliance

Requirements:

• Filing 10 years (Swiss Code of Obligations)
• Guaranteed integrity (Olico)
• Data protection (nLPD)

On-Premise :

• ❌ Total responsibility for proof
• ❌ Time-stamping/WORM complexity
• ❌ Difficult audits

Cloud (Proofpoint Archive):

• ✅ Automatic CO/nLPD compliance
• ✅ Certified WORM storage
• ✅ Certifications SEC 17a-4, FINRA (finance)
• ✅ Standardized exports for audits

When to choose what?

☁️ The Cloud is recommended for :

✅ SME 10-250 employees

• No dedicated IT team (< 5 people)
• Limited budget (< CHF 50,000 available)
• Need for rapid compliance (< 3 months)
• Rapid growth or seasonality
• Teleworking/mobility teams

Customer case study – Fiduciary, 25 employees, Geneva

“Proofpoint Archive deployed in 5 days. FINMA audit passed without remark. CHF 450/month vs CHF 35,000 estimated on-premise investment.”

🏢 On-Premise can be justified if:

⚠️ Only 20% of SMEs

• 500+ employees with amortized existing datacenter
• 5+ IT team with infrastructure expertise
• Ultra-regulated sector (secret-défense)
• No reliable Internet connection
• New infrastructure already paid for

Customer story – Industry, 800 employees, Zurich

“Existing datacenter for our ERP. Adding email archiving on existing infrastructure cheaper than cloud subscription for 800 users.”

5-question decision guide

1. Which size?

• < 250 employees → ☁️ Cloud
• > 250 with mature IT → 🏢 or ☁️

2. Dedicated IT team ?

• < 3 people → ☁️ Cloud required
• > 5 with expertise → 🏢 possible

3. Budget available?

• < CHF 20,000 → ☁️ Cloud (OPEX)
• > CHF 50’000 + maintenance → 🏢 possible

4. Compliance deadline?

• < 3 months → ☁️ Cloud only option
• > 6 months → ☁️ or 🏢

5. Regulated sector?

• Finance → ☁️ Cloud certified (Proofpoint)
• Secret-defense → 🏢 On-premise mandatory

5 mistakes to avoid

❌ Error 1: Compare only server price vs. subscription
→ Calculate full TCO over 5 years

❌ Mistake 2: Neglecting the Disaster Recovery Plan
→ DRP required or choose cloud with redundancy

❌ Error 3: Cloud hosted in the USA
→ Require Swiss/EU hosting

❌ Error 4: No reversibility clause
→ Guarantee free data export

❌ Error 5: Delay until audit
→ Act now, fines up to CHF 250,000

Proofpoint Archive: the cloud solution for Swiss SMEs

Why use Proofpoint Archive?

Guaranteed conformity

• ✅ Automatic compliance 10 years (CO)
• ✅ nLPD compliant
• ✅ Certifications SEC 17a-4, FINRA (finance)

Performance

• ✅ Search <3 sec on millions of emails
• ✅ Real-time indexing + OCR of attachments
• ✅ Intuitive web interface

Security

• ✅ Datacenters Europe certified ISO 27001
• ✅ AES-256 encryption
• ✅ SLA 99.9% availability

Transparent pricing

• ✅ From CHF 18/user/month
• ✅ Unlimited storage included
• ✅ 24/7 support included

Conclusion: the cloud is essential for SMEs

The 3 key lessons

1. Cloud costs 50% less over 5 years
Average TCO : CHF 71,000 (cloud) vs CHF 145,000 (on-premise) for 50 employees.

2. 10x faster deployment
Cloud: 5 days / On-premise: 3 months. Crucial for urgent compliance.

3. Enterprise-level security and disaster recovery included
99.9% availability, geographical redundancy, certifications. Impossible to match for SMBs.

Our recommendation

For 80% of Swiss SMEs (10-250 employees): the cloud is the optimal choice.

✅ Substantial savings (50%+ TCO)
✅ Immediate deployment (compliance in 1 week)
✅ Zero IT maintenance
✅ Unlimited scalability