Why "Serverless On-Premises" is the Future of Meeting Room Management
Zoltan Arpadffy, CTO
For the past decade, organizations have been forced to choose between two imperfect models for meeting room management: the heavy infrastructure of traditional on-premises servers or the recurring costs and connectivity dependence of the cloud.
This paper explores a third architectural paradigm—Serverless On-Premises—which leverages distributed computing to offer the reliability and security of local hosting with the scalability and simplicity of the cloud. We specifically examine how Tigermeeting utilizes this architecture to eliminate central points of failure, reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and ensure operational continuity independent of external internet connectivity.
To understand the innovation of serverless on-premises, we must first analyze the limitations of the existing dominant models.
Cloud-based solutions (SaaS) have become popular due to their ease of deployment. However, they introduce critical vulnerabilities for enterprise environments:
Latency & Connectivity Dependence: A room panel should not lag because of an ISP outage. In a pure cloud model, if the internet goes down, the entire booking system creates a bottleneck, leaving employees unable to book or check into rooms.
Recurring Operational Expenditure (OpEx): The "rent" never ends. Monthly subscription fees per room accumulate rapidly, often exceeding the cost of hardware within 2-3 years.
Data Sovereignty Risks: storing sensitive meeting data—which often includes internal project code names and attendee lists—on external third-party servers raises compliance issues for high-security industries (Defense, Finance, Healthcare).
Conversely, traditional on-premises solutions offer control but at a high cost:
Hardware Overhead: They require dedicated servers, OS licenses, and constant maintenance (patching, backups, cooling).
Central Point of Failure: If the central scheduling server fails, every meeting room display in the building goes dark.
Complex Scalability: Expanding a system often means upgrading server capacity, load balancing, and complex database management.
Tigermeeting represents a paradigm shift by utilizing a High Watermark Distributed Database technology. This approach removes the need for both a central physical server and a continuous cloud dependency.
In this architecture, the "server" is effectively decentralized and distributed across the display devices (room panels) themselves.
Distributed Intelligence: Configuration data and logic are shared among the devices on the Local Area Network (LAN). There is no central master database to crash.
Zero-Server Footprint: You do not need to provision a Windows/Linux server or a SQL database. The infrastructure consists solely of the endpoint devices (Android panels) you are already installing.
The Admin Node: The administration console – Admin app - is not a permanent server but a transient node. It connects to the network only when you need to push updates or changes, becoming part of the distributed mesh temporarily, then disconnecting without disrupting operations.
1. Extreme Reliability & Fault Tolerance
Because the architecture is decentralized, there is no single point of failure. If one meeting room panel malfunctions, the rest of the network continues to operate seamlessly. The system is self-healing, as surviving nodes retain the configuration integrity.
2. Network Independence & Security
Tigermeeting is designed to function comfortably within a "walled garden."
LAN-First Operation: The core communication happens strictly over the local network. This makes the system incredibly fast (low latency) and immune to internet outages.
Data Privacy: All sensitive configuration and log data stay within your organization's firewall. It never touches a public cloud server, meeting the strictest data sovereignty requirements (GDPR, FZ-152, CCPA, PIPEDA, CDR, etc.).
External Traffic Control: External internet access is only required for specific API calls (e.g., syncing with Office 365/Google Calendar or license validation), minimizing the attack surface.
3. Unmatched Scalability & Simplicity
Scaling a traditional system is a project; scaling Tigermeeting is a plug-and-play task.
Linear Scalability: To add more rooms, you simply add more screens. The distributed database automatically expands to include the new nodes.
Simplified Management: With the central Admin App, updates can be pushed to hundreds of devices simultaneously without visiting each room, despite the lack of a central server.
4. The Economic Argument: Perpetual Licensing
Perhaps the most significant business advantage is the financial model this architecture supports. Because the vendor (Tigermeeting) does not have to maintain expensive cloud compute resources to host your data, they can offer a Perpetual Licensing Model.
One-Time Cost: You pay for the license once. There are no monthly recurring fees per device.
Lowest TCO: Over a 5-year hardware lifecycle, the savings compared to SaaS subscriptions are substantial, often reducing the Total Cost of Ownership by 60-80%.
The debate between "Cloud vs. On-Prem" is outdated. The modern enterprise demands the best of both: the zero-maintenance ease of SaaS with the security and reliability of local hosting.
Tigermeeting delivers this through its unique serverless on-premises architecture. By moving the intelligence to the edge and utilizing a distributed database, it eliminates the central server tax—both in terms of hardware maintenance and monthly cloud fees. For organizations seeking a robust, secure, and cost-effective meeting management solution that works regardless of internet status, this decentralized approach is not just an alternative; it is the logical evolution.
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Download the white paper here