There is a lack of cost transparency in the cloud market
According to Steve Janata, senior advisor and cloud computing specialist at the Experton Group, it must ultimately also be possible to measure the cloud on the basis of tangible cost advantages: "Flexibility in accessing IT resources is not an end in itself. Businesses will only risk changing their infrastructure if it can be shown that they will save money as a result." Yet Janata sees the lack of cost transparency in cloud offerings as still being a major reason for business caution today: "We developed the calculator in order to make it easier for businesses, particularly SMEs, to carry out a cost comparison between operating in-house IT and accessing cloud IT."
Individual calculation of cost advantages and disadvantages with cloud computing
A simple online form asks the user for the basic parameters of the planned server capacities, for example the number of development, test and production servers used as well as the capacity of the storage area network. The calculator also takes account of operational life, capacity utilisation and the anticipated growth of the infrastructure in subsequent years. At the end, the user receives a cost statement for both operating models. Key figures and market prices based on extensive studies and company surveys carried out by the Experton analysts are also used in the calculation, says Janata.
Interested parties can use the cloud calculator free of charge at Business-Cloud.de:
http://www.business-cloud.de/...