How Australian organisations deploy inFM on their own infrastructure — eliminating cloud dependency, achieving full data sovereignty, and breaking free from per-user SaaS pricing.
The dominant model in enterprise software is cloud SaaS — subscription-based, per-user pricing, data hosted in a vendor's data centre. For many organisations, this is convenient and appropriate. But for a significant segment of Australian industry, cloud hosting creates problems that simply cannot be accepted.
Australian Privacy Principles require that personal information about Australian individuals be stored and processed in ways that meet Australian privacy law. For industries like healthcare, government, defence, and corrections, the data residency requirements are explicit: operational data must remain on Australian soil, within organisational networks, and under organisational control.
Cloud CMMS platforms frequently host data in US or European data centres. Even where vendors claim to offer Australian data residency, the contractual arrangements, sub-processors, and disaster recovery configurations may not satisfy stringent organisational data governance requirements. An on-premises deployment removes all ambiguity: the data is on your server, in your building, on your network, under your complete control.
Various Australian regulatory frameworks impose constraints on information systems used by regulated organisations. Healthcare organisations must comply with the Privacy Act, health records legislation, and data handling requirements aligned with clinical governance frameworks. Government agencies operate under the Protective Security Policy Framework. Defence organisations must comply with ASD ISM controls. In each case, a self-hosted CMMS that operates entirely within the organisation's existing compliant infrastructure is the lowest-risk choice.
A significant proportion of Australian industrial operations occur in locations where reliable internet connectivity cannot be assumed: remote mining and resources operations on satellite links, offshore facilities, rural agricultural operations, and areas affected by natural disasters. A cloud-based CMMS that requires continuous internet connectivity is simply not viable in these environments. A local server provides reliable, low-latency access for all users on the site's internal network — regardless of whether the satellite link is up.
SaaS CMMS pricing typically scales with user counts. For large organisations with hundreds of tradespeople, FM staff, and contractors who need system access, per-user SaaS fees can become very significant annually. A self-hosted deployment involves an upfront licensing cost and ongoing server infrastructure costs, but eliminates the variable cost component that scales with headcount. For many Australian organisations, this represents a substantially lower total cost of ownership over a 3–5 year horizon.
inFM supports multiple deployment methods to suit your existing infrastructure and IT team capabilities.
The quickest and most portable deployment method. Install Docker on any Linux or Windows Server host, run the inFM deployment script, and the application is running within minutes. Docker containers bundle the Node.js API, React frontend build, and manage the MySQL database connection. Easy to update, backup, and migrate. Recommended for new deployments and organisations with existing Docker infrastructure.
For organisations with established Windows Server infrastructure, inFM can be deployed via IIS (Internet Information Services). The Node.js API runs as a Windows Service, the built React frontend is served as static files, and MySQL 8.0 runs as a Windows database service. This deployment model integrates with existing Windows Server management, monitoring, and backup processes — and fits naturally into organisations with Windows-centric IT environments.
For Linux-based server environments, inFM deploys on CentOS (or compatible distributions) with Nginx as the reverse proxy. The Node.js API runs as a systemd service, Nginx handles SSL termination and static file serving, and MySQL 8.0 provides the database backend. This configuration provides a hardened, production-grade deployment suitable for organisations with Linux expertise and existing CentOS infrastructure.
A self-hosted inFM deployment provides all features of the platform — with no limitations based on deployment model.
Talk to the inFM team about your self-hosted deployment requirements. We can provide deployment packages, documentation, and setup support.