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Choosing a Deployment Option

Learn how to choose the right deployment option for your NPL application based on your requirements, infrastructure preferences, and operational needs.

Prerequisites

This guide has no prerequisites.

You will need:

  • A basic understanding of your project's requirements (security, compliance, scalability)
  • Knowledge of your organization's infrastructure capabilities

Overview

NPL applications can be deployed in three different environments, each suited to different use cases and requirements:

Deployment Option Best For Managed By License
Local Development Individual development and testing You NPL Runtime Developer
NOUMENA Cloud Production and shared development environments NOUMENA NOUMENA Cloud
On-Premise / Client Cloud Production self-hosted deployments You NPL Runtime On-Premise

Deployment Options

Local Development

Use case: Development, testing, and non-commercial demonstrations.

Local development is ideal when you are:

  • Learning NPL and exploring the platform
  • Developing and testing new features
  • Running automated tests in CI/CD pipelines
  • Demonstrating applications in non-production settings

Key characteristics:

  • Runs on your local machine or development infrastructure
  • Can use DEV_MODE with an embedded OIDC provider for simplified setup
  • Alternatively, configure with an external IAM provider for production-like environments
  • Free under the NPL Runtime Developer license
  • Not suitable for production or commercial use

Get started: Follow the Developing NPL on your own machine track.

NOUMENA Cloud

Use case: Production deployments and shared development environments with managed infrastructure.

NOUMENA Cloud is ideal when you:

  • Want a fully managed cloud platform
  • Prefer to focus on application development rather than infrastructure
  • Need quick time-to-production
  • Want built-in features like Inspector, Blockchain Connector, HTTP Bridge, Email Connector
  • Require optional SLA support
  • Need shared development environments for team collaboration
  • Want dedicated environments for feature branches or sequential development stages

Key characteristics:

  • Fully managed by NOUMENA
  • Includes NPL Engine, Read Model, History, and Inspector
  • Built-in Identity and Access Management (Keycloak-based)
  • Deploy using npl cloud deploy commands, the VS Code extension or the NOUMENA Cloud Portal
  • Subscription-based pricing with optional SLA

Get started: Follow the Deploying NPL to NOUMENA Cloud track.

On-Premise / Client Cloud

Use case: Production deployments with full infrastructure control.

On-premise or client cloud deployment is ideal when you:

  • Have strict data residency or compliance requirements
  • Need full control over your infrastructure
  • Want to integrate with existing enterprise systems
  • Have specific security or network isolation requirements
  • Prefer to manage your own cloud provider (AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.)

Key characteristics:

  • Self-managed deployment on your infrastructure
  • Full control over configuration, scaling, and security
  • You manage PostgreSQL database and IAM (e.g., Keycloak)
  • Docker images available from NOUMENA Images
  • Requires NPL Runtime On-Premise license

Components you will deploy:

  • NPL Engine - Core execution engine
  • NPL Read Model - Query interface (optional)
  • NPL History - Audit and historical data (optional)
  • PostgreSQL database
  • Identity provider (e.g., Keycloak)

Get started: Contact us at cloud-support@noumenadigital.com for licensing and deployment guidance.

Decision Guide

Use this guide to help choose the right deployment option:

Choose Local Development if:

  • You are learning or evaluating NPL
  • You need a development or testing environment
  • You do not need production availability

Choose NOUMENA Cloud if:

  • You want the fastest path to production
  • You prefer managed infrastructure
  • You do not have strict data residency requirements
  • You want access to Inspector, managed History and many connectors
  • You value operational simplicity over infrastructure control
  • You need shared development or staging environments for your team
  • You want separate environments for feature branch development

Choose On-Premise / Client Cloud if:

  • You have data sovereignty or compliance requirements
  • You need to run in a specific geographic region or data center
  • You require integration with existing enterprise infrastructure
  • You have specific security or network isolation needs
  • You want full control over updates, scaling, and configuration

Comparison Table

Feature Local Dev NOUMENA Cloud On-Premise
Production use No Yes Yes
Infrastructure management You NOUMENA You
Database management Docker Compose Managed You
IAM management Embedded Managed You
Data residency control N/A Limited Full
Inspector No Yes No
History component No Yes Optional
SLA available No Yes Custom
Licensing cost Free Subscription License fee

Next Steps

Further Reading