. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Sep 25.

Published in final edited form as: Proc IEEE Inst Electr Electron Eng. 2019;107:10.1109/JPROC.2019.2905423. doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2019.2905423

TABLE II:

Feature comparison between IT infrastructure options

	On-premises	Cloud (X as a Service)
	On-premises	Infrastructure (IaaS)	Platform (PaaS)	Service (SaaS)
Virtualization	Network appliances	+ Compute and storage	+ Software API	+ Software (good-to-go)
Planner	Plant IT team	Third-party cloud solution providers and network operators
Services	End-to-end	Metal (MaaS), IaaS	PaaS	SaaS
Openness	Low	Medium	High	High
CapEx	High	Low (activation fee)	Low (activation fee)	Low/none
OpEx	Medium (utility + system updates)	Variable (subscription fee + pay-per-use)
Capacity/Elasticity	Bounded	Flexible
Scalability	Limited	Demand-specific
Data exposure	System capacity	Site layout and shift	Traffic pattern	Information interest
Exemplary usage	Proprietary IT infrastructure	“Plug-n-play” radio access networks (RAN)	Mobile Apps	Online data subscription (e.g., air quality, utility market price)