---
published: true
layout: post
title: On-Premise Before Cloud As API Virtue Signal
date: 2025-05-02T09:00:00.000Z
tags:
  - On-Premise
  - Cloud
  - Priorities
  - Virtues
  - Investment
image: https://kinlane-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com/algorotoscope-master/yellow-journalism-castle-clouds-green-lawn.jpg
---
I am advising a company who operates outside the United States on the development of suite of enterprise-grade API solutions. One question I had while learning about their offering was whether or not this would be available in the cloud or on-premise. Their product manager confidently responded that they were initially deploying as an on-premise solution because that was what customers and people they were talking to were asking for, and that a cloud version would emerge on the road map when the need arose. This conversation is the opposite of the conversations I’ve been having with API startups over the last decade that emerged from within the US technology echo chamber.

The majority of API solutions I have advised over the years begin as a cloud offering and then move to a VPN or on-premise solution as a premium feature, if offered at all. Consulting with mainstream international customers who are further away from the Silicon Valley echo chamber helps reveal just how far we’ve strayed in the API space from what our customers need. Silicon Valley funded API startups customers are Silicon Valley venture capital and not the enterprises they pretend to be selling their solutions to. It is been going on so long that when I talk with startup leadership they think I am crazy and out of touch with reality, and we have normali zed business exploitation via the cloud.

I have been evaluating the API plans pages of API startups for over a decade, reading the tea leaves, and offering on-premise, VPN, and FedRamp approved solutions has always been a strong signal I look for. But I think I will be elevating it as a virtue signal to understand more of the intent behind each business selling their API warez, while also teaching international readers to look for and reward on-premise, open-source, and other things that emphasize their agency as an API producer. Our priorities have gotten so out of whack that API startups are straight up hustling or so twisted around and they don’t know which way is up, and the way a startup prioritizes and talks about the cloud vs. on-premise will signal much of what you need to know is going on behind the scenes.