The Computer Weekly guide to Cloud Computing

Cost of of ownership in the cloud

As this graph shows, if you go out and buy your own hardware and software after eight quarters it is quite possible that the cumulative spending on an on-demand subscription could outstrip that of an on-premise deployment. But this only looks at hardware and software costs. The point is that by using an on-demand supplier you are also buying access to highly secure enterprise data centre facilities, skilled staffed specifically trained to support given applications and infrastructure, regularly scheduled backups, built in redundancy, easily shareable applications for supporting cross organizational business processes – to mention just some of the benefits. Add all this in and for many the cost is easily outweighed by the reduced risk and added value of on-demand services. And don’t forget, at some point all that on-premise hardware and software will need replacing; with on-demand providers that is part of the service, or at least it should be. For many smaller companies, the business continuity optio