Key Concepts

The Local Platform deployment target is your local machine. Follow these steps to set the deployment target of a project to Local Platform:

1. Create a project or open an exisiting one.
2. In the Project panel, click the Deployment Target field and then click Local Platform from the drop-down menu.

After you set the deployment target to Local Platform, the following icons are blue:

Icon	Name
	Build
	Backtest
	Debug
	Optimize
	Live Trading
	Backtest Results

The Cloud Platform deployment target is a collection of servers that the QuantConnect team manages. It's the same deployment target you use if you create projects, spin up research nodes, and deploy algorithms on the QuantConnect website. For more information about QuantConnect Cloud, including our infrastructure and usage quotas, see Cloud Platform.

Follow these steps to set the deployment target Cloud Platform:

1. Create a project or open an exisiting one.
2. In the Project panel, click the Deployment Target field and then click Cloud from the drop-down menu.

After you set the deployment target to Cloud Platform, the following icons are gold:

Icon	Name
	Build
	Backtest
	Optimize
	Live Trading
	Backtest Results

The Private Cloud add-on to the Local Platform enables a cluster of centrally managed servers to run work tasks from a distributed team of users. This is much more efficient than each quant having a full copy of data or their own GPU resources. A single work server can be loaded with GPUs and a centralized copy of your company's proprietary data.

Note the following differences between the Local Platform and Cloud Platform deployment targets.

Data

The Local Platform target uses your on-premise data. The Cloud Platform target has access to the data in the Dataset Market. Both targets enable you to import custom datasets.

Compute

The Local Platform target uses your on-premise hardware. The Cloud Platform target uses the QuantConnect Cloud compute. For more information about the backtesting, research, and live trading nodes in QuantConnect Cloud, see Resources.

Management

The Local Platform target is under the management of your on-premise team. The Cloud Platform target is under the management of the QuantConnect team.

Hardware Procurement

The Local Platform target uses your on-premise hardware, so it requires you to procure and management your own hardware. The Cloud Platform target uses the hardware in QuantConnect Cloud, so you don't need to procure or manage any of the hardware.