When looking at the CAFM market in the DACH region, a curious picture often emerges: brochures show drones flying through virtual BIM models, algorithms predict the wear and tear of chillers down to the minute, and all of this, of course, happens “in the cloud.” But when you find yourself in the heating room of a public building, with no mobile network and an on-site ERP system that only accepts CSV files from the late 90s, reality quickly catches up.
As someone who has seen pretty much everything in the CAFM industry for over 20 years, from development through sales to management, I know this: Software architecture significantly determines the intended use, the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and – in the DACH region, the measure of all things – GEFMA compliance.
The decision between cloud (SaaS) and on-premise is no longer a philosophical fundamental question. It is a hard, business-economic calculation. Let's look at how the market will develop by 2032, which industries are betting on which horse, and what that ultimately means for your IT budget.
The CAFM Market: An Industry in Transition
The global market for CAFM software and facility management services is growing dynamically. We are talking about a software industry estimated at around 4.2 billion US dollars in 2025, and expected to grow to over 6.5 billion US dollars by 2032 (and yes, sorry, there aren't any better-substantiated figures available here; it's likely that a not insignificant portion of non-specific FM services is included without clean separation – but so be it). This growth is primarily driven by cloud technologies, IoT data integration, and increasing ESG requirements (keyword: EU Taxonomy)
What's interesting is the shift in deployment models. Cloud-based CAFM solutions dominate new business and already held a market share of a good 72% in 2025. But before we rip out all the servers from the basements: the remaining 28% are not nostalgics. They are highly critical infrastructures where on-premise remains the only valid answer. Or where data protection takes precedence over flexibility.
On-Premise: The Bastion of Critical Infrastructure
Anyone who still demands on-premise today is often smiled at condescendingly by younger colleagues in consulting. Completely unjustified, in my opinion. On-premise solutions are holding their ground extremely strongly in the DACH region, especially with customers who demand absolute data sovereignty.
Primarily, the public sector (ministries, correctional facilities) uses this “outdated” model, but also banks, clinics, and highly specialized manufacturing companies. If you manage the floor plan of a high-security laboratory or the maintenance schedules for the emergency power generators of a data center, you might not want this data residing on an AWS server in Frankfurt – even if it has a “Made in Germany” sticker on it (you know, at least the official US agencies have access to this data at all times; and you won't even notice it...).
The biggest advantage is full control. You have sovereignty over the databases, can easily integrate the system into local firewalls, and connect older ERP or building management systems without them ever having to see the internet. Furthermore, there is no vendor lock-in for data storage. Classic heavyweights like RIB FM or Waveware have their roots in this world and play to their full strengths here.
The flip side of the coin is painful. High initial costs (CapEx) for license purchase, immense internal IT effort for server maintenance, SQL licenses, backups, and patch management. Release changes are often lengthy IT projects involving weeks of testing. And the biggest problem today: connecting external service providers. If the external maintenance technician is supposed to confirm the job via an app on-site, this often fails with on-premise systems due to complex VPN tunnels and rigid firewall rules.
Cloud (SaaS): The De Facto Standard for New Business
On the other hand, there is the cloud. It is the growth engine and, as mentioned, dominates new business with over 72% market share. And: virtually everyone else uses the cloud. From retail with multi-site management to logistics providers and modern office real estate operators. When speed, scalability, and cross-location benchmarking are required, there is no way around SaaS.
The strengths are obvious: a smooth rollout (all you need is a browser), native mobile apps for technicians on-site, and – which is becoming extremely important in the age of IoT and BIM – an API-first architecture. Modern cloud systems can be connected to energy monitoring tools or sensors via REST API in minutes. Automatic updates ensure that you are always using the latest version. International players like Planon or extremely mobile, cloud-native solutions like PlanRadar are leading the way here.
But the cloud is not a panacea either. You trade CapEx for OpEx – you rent the software as long as you need it. This means ongoing subscription costs that can quickly explode with a growing number of users. You are completely dependent on the provider's availability. If the data center is down, you can no longer dispatch work orders. Furthermore, cloud solutions require extremely strict checks for GDPR compliance in the DACH region. The server location Germany is usually a hard knockout criterion here.
Industry-Specific Requirements in Detail
It's fascinating to see how differently various industries use CAFM. The software is often the same, but the application areas couldn't be more different.
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Manufacturing: Here, the focus is entirely on predictive maintenance and IoT sensor technology. The goal is to minimize downtime for production facilities. One hour of downtime on the assembly line costs more than a CAFM license for ten years.
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Retail: The keyword here is multi-site management. It's about standardization across hundreds of branches and quick benchmarking. Who changes light bulbs where most affordably?
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Education & Municipalities: Here, everything revolves around space and floor management, as well as efficient maintenance with extremely high, cyclical usage. Often combined with rigid budgets.
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Healthcare: The focus is on hard services and 24/7 operational reliability. Additionally, there's asset tracking for expensive medical devices and compliance with extremely strict hygiene and maintenance cycles.
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Hospitality & Chemicals: Here, energy management is increasingly coming into focus. The systematic reduction of the carbon footprint and reporting according to ISO standards (ISO 50001) are the drivers. Without clean CAFM data, there are no reliable ESG reports.
The Hybrid DACH Reality and GEFMA
What we are observing very strongly in the DACH market in 2025/2026 is the desire for the 'best of both worlds'. Customers demand the agility and mobile apps of a cloud solution but want the data to reside in a private cloud or with a certified German hoster.
Another extremely important point: certification. In the DACH region, GEFMA certification (e.g., according to GEFMA 444) is often the deciding factor. International cloud providers sometimes have fantastic, state-of-the-art interfaces but fail spectacularly when it comes to German specifics regarding operator responsibility or detailed requirements for MEP maintenance plans according to local standards. Established providers from Germany traditionally have these requirements deeply embedded in their DNA.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): The 5-Year Comparison
Let's get to the most important part for your budget planning. When we compare on-premise with cloud, we are often comparing apples and oranges. On-premise appears cheaper after the first year but consumes hidden resources. The cloud initially seems inexpensive but cheerfully scales up in costs over the years.
Here is an exemplary, but realistic, TCO comparison over 5 years for a medium-sized company (approx. 50 concurrent users, 200 mobile technicians).
Conclusion on TCO
If you honestly factor in the internal personnel costs for server administration, on-premise is almost always more expensive than a SaaS solution today. The 'break-even' point, after which the on-premise perpetual license supposedly becomes cheaper than the cloud subscription, is constantly being pushed further back (often to year 6 or 7) as the complexity of IT security (ransomware protection, backups) increases massively on-site.
Conclusion: Buy Cheap, Buy Twice
Choosing the right CAFM solution is not purely an IT project. It is the decision about the central nervous system of your building operations.
Without clear, measurable goals, software selection becomes a patchwork. Those who thoroughly test metadata, exports (especially with BIM), and mobile workflows against real use cases during the selection phase avoid the typical integration errors before going live. Insist on verifiable artifacts in tenders – not glossy promises. Only demonstrated exports and functioning mobile tests under poor network conditions make CAFM software truly usable for facility management.
At the end of the day, the question of 'cloud or on-premise' doesn't determine success. What determines success is whether the colleague in the boiler room, with dirty hands and without glasses, can intuitively complete the maintenance order on their tablet. If that doesn't work, the best data center in the world won't help you.
