Teramind Cloud, On-Premises and Private Cloud deployment

Three ways to host Teramind

Every Teramind deployment has the same agent and dashboard. What changes is where the server runs and who looks after it. This summary follows Teramind's own comparison:

Licensing is per monitored user in every case, so the hosting choice changes your infrastructure and administration costs rather than the way licences are counted. See Teramind pricing and plans.

Teramind Cloud

Teramind Cloud is the quickest route. There is no server to build: you install agents and start configuring. Teramind runs the platform on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure in tier 3 data centres, gives each customer a dedicated instance and isolated database, and handles updates, backups and scaling itself. Agents can be set to update automatically.

It suits organisations that would rather not run another server. The trade-offs are that you choose a region rather than the infrastructure (the United States or the European Union in Germany by default, with other Oracle Cloud regions on request), retention follows Teramind's standard policy, the network monitoring channel is available on request rather than by default, and the data sits in Teramind's environment, which you need to cover in your data protection paperwork (see below).

Teramind On-Premises

Teramind On-Premises comes as a self-contained, pre-configured Linux virtual machine that you deploy on your existing VMware, Hyper-V or Nutanix AHV platform. You run it like any other appliance: you apply Teramind's update files through the dashboard, look after the operating system's security updates, take backups and provide storage for recordings, which can sit on attached volumes or network storage.

What you gain is control and scale. Teramind documents:

• Multi-node deployments: separate application, database and BI servers, plus nodes that add capacity as you grow.
• High availability: either an active cluster that keeps working with nodes down, using your own load balancer, PostgreSQL database and storage, or an active and passive standby pair across two data centres with a manual switchover.
• End-to-end encryption: Teramind's E2EE option, which it lists for on-premises deployments, encrypts data at its origin with keys you hold.
• Your own certificates: self-signed or third-party SSL certificates for the dashboard and agent connections.

On-premises suits organisations that must keep monitoring data inside their own network, have strict data residency rules, or are large enough to need multi-node scale. It needs people who can run Linux virtual machines, storage and backups.

Teramind Private Cloud on AWS or Azure

Private Cloud sits between the two. Teramind supplies a Linux image (an AMI for AWS or a VHD for Azure), and you run it in your own virtual private cloud. You pick the region, use the provider's compute, storage and database services, and handle backups through the AWS or Azure console. Scaling can be vertical or horizontal, with optional auto scaling.

It suits organisations that already run workloads in AWS or Azure and want the control of on-premises without buying hardware. Teramind's Enterprise plan adds availability in AWS GovCloud and Azure Government.

Data location and UK GDPR

Wherever Teramind is hosted, you are the controller of the monitoring data. A provider that hosts or processes it for you, such as Teramind for Teramind Cloud, is usually a processor. The ICO's guidance on monitoring workers says you must have a contract in place with a processor, and that you should not assume packages you purchase are compliant with data protection law.

Hosting location matters because of international transfers. The ICO's guidance gives the example of a UK company using a US-based monitoring application that hosts the data in the US: that is a restricted transfer, which must be covered by appropriate safeguards. In practice:

• Teramind Cloud: Teramind offers the United States or the European Union (Germany) by default. The EEA is covered by UK adequacy regulations; a US instance needs the transfer documented and covered. Other Oracle Cloud regions can be requested, and Teramind says it will try to provision them.
• Private Cloud: you choose the AWS or Azure region, including UK regions.
• On-Premises: the data stays in the data centre you run.

Location is only part of the picture. You also need a retention period for recordings, access restricted to people who need it, and security for the server. Our ICO monitoring workers guidance page walks through these duties. This is general information, not legal advice.

Which deployment option suits you

As a rough guide:

• Choose Teramind Cloud if you want to start quickly, have no appetite for running a server, and are content with Teramind managing the platform.
• Choose Private Cloud if you already use AWS or Azure, want to pick the region and hold the data in your own account, and have people who can manage cloud workloads.
• Choose On-Premises if monitoring data must stay inside your own network, you need multi-node scale or high availability, or you want end-to-end encryption with your own keys.

Teramind documents how to switch agents between cloud and on-premises servers, so a later move is possible, but moving historical data takes planning. It is better to choose deliberately at the start.

Agent and server updates

Teramind's software lifecycle policy applies to agents and, for self-hosted deployments, to the server software too. A version is fully supported for up to 12 months after it is superseded, gets critical security patches only from 12 to 18 months, and reaches end of life after 18 months, when its agents stop reporting to the server.

On Teramind Cloud, agents set to auto-update stay current. On-premises and private cloud, you update both the server and the agents. We can help you plan updates so they fit your change control, and the Teramind agent page covers roll-out methods.

How we help with deployment

We help you choose and build the right option:

1. Size it: number of users, screens and recording settings drive storage and server size, so we work these through first.
2. Prepare the environment: virtual machine or cloud image, storage for recordings, certificates and the network ports agents use to reach the server.
3. Connect your directory: Active Directory or Microsoft Entra ID, so monitoring profiles follow your groups.
4. Pilot, then roll out: a small group first, then the wider agent deployment.
5. Hand over: documented settings, and support with updates, changes and renewals.

Contact us to talk through which deployment suits your organisation.