On-premises hardware, and leasing or financing it
Buy or lease the machines and run them in your own building or a colocation site.
Definition, not a sourced statistic
What it is
On-premises means you own or lease the servers and run them in your own building or a colocation site. You buy from a system maker or reseller, or lease through a finance company, and you handle installation, power, cooling, operation and support contracts. Some chip makers also place their systems on a customer’s site.
Who it suits
- Organisations with steady, long-running demand and staff to run hardware.
- Data that must not leave your own premises.
- Buyers who want full control of the stack.
Common contract shapes
- Outright purchase. Buy the hardware and support contract.
- Lease or finance. Pay for the hardware over a term, with options at the end.
- Vendor-placed system. A maker installs and may manage its systems on your site.
Providers use their own names for these shapes, so compare what is promised, not what it is called. The contract shapes guide explains each one.
What to ask
- Egress and data transfer. Not a cloud charge here, but check the cost of the network links you need.
- Service levels. What does the hardware support contract promise for parts and response, and for how long?
- Data residency and access. The data stays where you put it; check any remote support access the vendor needs.
- Security certifications. Do your site and processes meet the certifications your customers ask for?
- Export controls and sanctions. Does the purchase need an export licence or end-use statement, and does it limit resale or moving the hardware?
- Exit. What is the resale or return route at the end of the lease, and how are disks wiped?
- What lead time does the vendor give for delivery, and is there power and cooling ready for it?
The full list is on the printable buyer's checklist. For rules on chips and where they can go, see export controls and compute thresholds.
On this site
Entries listed here because their own summary or checked facts on this site fit this type. An entry can fit more than one type, and a provider missing here may still offer it. This is a list, not a ranking, and in name order. We link to providers for prices.
Providers
- Cerebras: A maker of wafer-scale AI systems that also sells cloud inference, dedicated capacity and on-premises systems.
- Denvr Dataworks: An AI cloud that describes itself as Canadian, offering on-demand and reserved GPU compute, managed inference and shared NVMe storage, with data centres in Canada and the US.
- SambaNova: An AI hardware and inference company that runs its own RDU chips, sold as racks and offered as a cloud inference service.
Gap This site does not yet list leasing or financing companies. System makers appear in the supply chain section.
Related
- Glossary: IT load, Facility load, Liquid cooling, Accelerator.
- Guide: Can I build a data centre in X?
- Supply chain: chips and systems
- Tools
- Compare offer types
Other offer types: Hyperscale cloud instances · GPU clouds and bare metal · Marketplaces and aggregators · Decentralised and community networks · Regional and sovereign clouds · Managed inference and serverless GPU · Chip-maker and accelerator clouds · National and institutional HPC, and free or funded programmes · Colocation, wholesale, powered shell and build-to-suit · Capacity brokers, reserved contracts, secondary and spot markets · Edge and telecom sites, and converted sites
Definitions and questions written in our own words, checked on 3 October 2026 and due for review by 3 January 2027. Sourced facts stay on the provider, programme and policy pages this page links to. This is general information to help you ask better questions. It is not legal, tax or procurement advice. For export controls, sanctions and contracts, check the primary rules and talk to a qualified adviser. Something wrong? Tell us.