You have been asked to research a new business application. You find two solutions, an on-premise solution, and a cloud-based one. Assuming they are functionally equivalent, which would you recommend?

At first, this appears to be a very simple question to answer. However, what the interview was actually looking for is not so much an answer but rather your rationale behind it. Either of these options is appropriate, as long as you can describe why you are recommending the one you choose.

"While both on-premise and cloud-based application hosting have their merits, I prefer to host applications on-premise. The reason behind this is that it provides the administrators with easier access to the applications and also assures a higher level of security due to no data being transmitted outside of the firewall. It is also likely to provide a higher level of performance. The drawbacks of this or that the licensing costs are probably greater and that were something to happen to the local datacenter, the information could be lost. Solutions to these points include negotiating an enterprise license with the vendor and having an effective disaster recovery plan in place."