Cloud computing costing for IT strategy choices

It is important for companies to have a basic understanding of the economic aspects of cloud computing operations, otherwise it is difficult for companies to account for the cost of cloud computing providers and to choose among the solutions offered by many it vendors.

Just beginning to think about the economic implications of cloud computing, it may seem that there is no clear logical relationship between cloud computing and the economy. Cloud http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/15552.html "The IT equipment used by > Service providers is no different from other large IT systems, nothing more than the same servers, storage devices and network devices, But cloud service providers also require customers to pay extra for their company's normal operation, and Internet access costs are not free for customers.

In fact, if all the enterprise's IT equipment is stable enough and has stable usage, then there is really no need to choose the cloud computing solution. But for most businesses, these prerequisites are almost impossible. In fact, most enterprise computing tasks are abrupt: they use a larger number of IT resources over a short period of time, while the rest of the time is left idle for IT resources, including hardware and software. These IT resources are purchased and configured in accordance with the enterprise's predictable maximum peak usage requirements.

Cloud computing, especially the infrastructure that is driven by Amazon,vmware, is the service (IaaS) model, which is charged according to the peak time of the enterprise. Statistically speaking, the cloud service provider's hardware and software resources can always meet a customer's peak demand, and on average, its resources can be fully utilized. In other words, the vendor balances the usage of it architectures, and the customer buys the corresponding computing power according to their own needs.

Resource Usage

To understand whether cloud computing can have an economic meaning for an operational task or business application needs, it is important to understand the relationship between how many resources are being exploited and how many resources are idle or how often resources are used. In general, this data is based on weekday conditions, from morning work to lunch, is a resource utilization peak, after lunch to work at night, is another peak. Uttered the peak of resource usage is only 8 hours a day, so use: the ratio of idle enterprise IT resources is 1:2, or the utilization of IT resources is 33%.

Cloud service providers compute cloud service costs based on the total computing time of the enterprise plus the permanent storage space required for the enterprise to ensure that the service is functioning properly. This cost is multiplied by the total cost of the duration of the contract, and it is easy to compare the cost of purchasing hardware and software and maintaining it at the same time. Because different enterprise's it maintenance costs are different, basically, the total cost of cloud services will not catch up with the company's own software hardware and maintenance costs after 3-5 years.

In choosing a cloud service device, it is important to ensure that the cloud service device meets the hardware configuration requirements of the enterprise, especially CPU and memory, as this directly affects the way the enterprise uses the cloud services. For non-interactive tasks, such as tasks that require a large number of computations but do not require a person to operate directly, high-performance hardware devices can significantly change the work cycle and potential economic factors.

Of course, in the current situation, the enterprise itself component of a large memory (more than 64GB) and multiprocessor servers than the enterprise to choose a cloud service provider simpler. And for some tasks, assigning tasks to a few smaller memory pools can have a significant performance boost.

Cost factors

The more complex part of the cost factor for cloud service providers comes from other costs, such as human costs, power, hardware and equipment costs. And if the company does not adopt cloud services, these costs will also be added to the enterprise itself. Many companies do not see this, and if these costs can be quantified and understood, it will be of great help to make informed decisions about the business.

Once you understand the impact of these factors on the cost, the enterprise can be relatively easy to analyze the data to determine which part of the migration to the cloud services will bring the greatest economic benefits, and which parts can be retained within the enterprise processing. Changing the computing cycle, the anticipated depreciation of hardware costs, upfront hardware investment, and various other factors will encourage companies to actively investigate the relationship between cloud computing and economic benefits.

Figuring out the impact of cost factors on the cost of cloud services can also add additional benefits to a clearer understanding and bargaining power about the price of hardware, software, and services offered by service providers when negotiating with a cloud service provider. Especially in the current environment, the company's first cloud computing program changes may have a long-term impact on the enterprise, and the suppliers are very astute, detailed discussion of cost issues can prevent contracts too inclined to supplier benefits.

While there are already many it strategies available for enterprise selection, companies still need to master the basic cost data before they are ready to use one of these strategies or scenarios.

(Responsible editor: Duqing first)