The key difference lies in where the technology lives and who manages it.
A cloud contact center is hosted and managed by a third-party provider and accessed over the internet. It operates on a subscription model and includes features like remote access, automatic updates, and off-site maintenance.
An on-premises contact center is built and maintained in-house. It requires physical hardware, upfront capital investment, and internal IT teams to handle updates, maintenance, and system management.
In a nutshell: Cloud contact centers are externally managed and accessed online, while on-premises systems are owned, operated, and maintained within your organization.