Cost Management-total cost of ownership and ROI

Today, the IT department must perform more business functions, which makes the concept of "black box" technology gradually fade down. That is to say, it is used not only because it is the best in the market or the trend of development,, the current enterprise or organization uses it to meet specific business needs and obtain special business value. It also runs through a series of processes, such: reduce operation costs, develop new products, and expand business opportunities.

Currently, enterprises use two metrics to determine whether the technology is effective for their specific businesses: total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI ). TCO measurement costs associated with the company's specific software solutions and corresponding business processing processes. By measuring TCO, enterprises can control their IT budget both now and in the future. On the other hand, ROI measures the productivity growth promoted by specific solutions. In the current business environment, it is expected to help increase revenue, not just by reducing costs.

The prospect of database management is changing, because the business has changed their thinking from "Technology is unfortunate" to "Technology is the source of business value ". Another factor contributing to this change is the rapid growth of products, just as many vendors can provide good low-cost or free solutions from underlying hardware to databases. At the same time, a new trend is taking shape: the combination of multiple platforms, while requiring existing staff to be able to manage specific businesses across multiple database platforms. This allows database administrators to execute management tools for cross-platform databases.

Commercialization also has potential benefits for consumers because it has almost always had a positive impact on TCO. However, it is difficult to prove the ROI. Business and IT departments are increasingly emphasizing the functions provided by business technologies. Therefore, in order to truly deliver business value, technology must make business operations more effective, both reducing costs and generating revenue. Although the idea that commercialization helps minimize TCO is acceptable, the ability of commercialization tools to produce significant ROI remains the subject of debate.

To succeed in such an environment, database and application development management personnel must acknowledge that there are four basic contradictions:

1. The best solution and integration solution.
2. In-depth and platform-specific knowledge and in-depth cross-platform and task-specific knowledge.
3. Defense and Cooperation (Problem Solving ).
4. To maximize the value of senior personnel, it is necessary to maintain normal availability time and meet SLA requirements.