Google unveils 'cost of spam' calculator for firms

Google has unveiled a "cost of spam" calculator for businesses.

"This simple calculator lets you see how much spam can impact expenses and productivity, particularly if your current anti-spam solution is waning in effectiveness," said Google.

The calculator is also designed to try and persuade firms that Google's own anti-spam products are worth investing in.

Google says, "Once you quantify how much spam is costing your company, it makes sense to re-evaluate the IT options for managing spam. The first, and perhaps biggest, decision is whether to keep spam filtering in-house or use a hosted service.

"It can be difficult to add up the true expenses of each solution. On the surface, the cost of an appliance may seem reasonable, but the up-front costs are just the beginning in a complete cost-of-ownership calculation."

Google sells a hosted anti-spam service based on the technology from Postini, a company it acquired around a year ago.

The ROI (return on investment) Calculator compares the cost of using an internally managed anti-spam system and a hosted one. It takes into account the number of employees at a firm and works out how many hours of productivity are lost per year per employee as a result of spam.