Cloud vs server veterinary software: an honest comparison

What do cloud and server software actually mean?

Server software, also called on premise, runs on a computer your clinic owns. It usually lives in a closet, and every workstation talks to it over the clinic network. You or your IT contractor install the updates, run the backups and replace the box when it gets old.

Cloud software runs in a provider's data centres, and you reach it through a browser or an app. The provider looks after the servers, the database and the backups. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security describes cloud services as flexible, on demand, scalable and self service. It also stresses that security in the cloud is shared: your organization still has to secure its own part.

Moving to the cloud moves the server work to a provider. It doesn't move your accountability for client data.

Cloud vs server veterinary software, side by side

Here's how the two compare on the points practice owners ask about most. Your contract and your IT setup can shift any row, so use this as a starting list for your own review, not a verdict.

Which costs should you compare?

Compare the full cost of each model over the same number of years, not the sticker price. A server looks cheap once it's paid off. The work around it is still a cost, though, and it tends to hide in your IT contractor's invoices and in the odd lost afternoon at the front desk.

Put all of this on one sheet:

• Server hardware and how often you replace it, plus a backup drive or an offsite backup service.
• Software licences and yearly support or maintenance fees.
• Your IT contractor's hours for updates, backups, restore tests and fixes.
• Remote access tools, if your vets want to chart from home.
• What a full day without records costs you when the server dies.
• For cloud, the subscription per user or per vet, the data migration and any paid add-ons.

For PetGrid's own numbers, see the pricing page. Only vets are paid seats; other staff roles are included.

Is cloud or server software more secure?

Either one can be secure, and either one can be unsafe. What matters is whether the basic controls actually get done. The Cyber Centre's baseline controls for small and medium organizations spell those out, and they apply to the server in your closet just as much as to a provider:

1. Turn on automatic patching for all software and hardware, and have a set process for devices that can't update themselves.
2. Back up the systems that hold essential business information, encrypt those backups, keep long term copies offline, and check regularly that restores work.
3. Use two-factor authentication on admin accounts for cloud services, kept separate from your internal admin accounts.
4. Encrypt sensitive data that's stored outside your premises.
5. Ask providers for proof. The baseline controls suggest requiring a SOC 3 report from cloud providers, and looking elsewhere if one can't supply it.

Be honest with yourself about the first two. If nobody has tested a restore in a year, that server isn't giving you the control it seems to.

What does Canadian privacy law expect when you move to the cloud?

Under PIPEDA and substantially similar provincial laws, your clinic stays accountable for client information it hands to a cloud provider. That holds whatever your size, and even when the contract is take it or leave it. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner's guide for small businesses suggests you check:

• Where the data may be stored or backed up, since data held in another country is subject to that country's laws.
• That access is limited to the people who need it, logged, and protected by strong authentication.
• What the provider may do with the data, including subcontracting or secondary use.
• When the provider has to tell you about a security incident.
• That you can get your data back, and that it's securely deleted when the contract ends.

Before you sign, read the export and deletion terms. They decide how easily you can leave.

Uptime and access: which fails less often?

They fail in different ways rather than one failing more. A server rides out an internet outage but stops cold when its disk, power supply or network switch gives up, and getting back depends on your last good backup. Cloud software doesn't care if a workstation dies or a laptop gets stolen, but it does need a connection. That's why many clinics on cloud software keep a mobile hotspot in a drawer, so the desk can carry on.

Access is where the cloud usually pulls ahead. A vet can finish notes at the kitchen table, a manager can check tomorrow's schedule from the second location, and owners can book and message through an app tied to the same records. No VPN to babysit.

How PetGrid handles the cloud side

PetGrid is cloud software. Each clinic's records are walled off in the database, admins use two-step sign-in, changes leave an audit trail, and backups run nightly and are encrypted. The security page has the details. Your data stays yours, too: every report downloads as a CSV and the whole clinic exports as one ZIP, as the import and export page sets out.

Leaning toward a move? The switching guide explains how your clients, pets, visits and vaccines come across from an old system.

Questions people ask

Read the clinic questions and answers

The short version

If you've got reliable IT help and a backup routine you trust, a server can serve you well. If you'd rather hand that work to someone else and want your records from anywhere, cloud makes more sense. Either way, the Canadian guidance asks the same things of you: patch, back up, test restores, use two-factor sign-in and read the contract.

Want to see how a cloud system handles records, backups and exports for a clinic like yours? Book a short demo with the PetGrid team.