Questions You Should Be Asking About the Costs of Cloud Computing – [Blog]

With the rise and rise in cloud computing over the past years, there’s one myth that still prevails: public cloud always saves you money…

And while cost is not the only factor, or even the primary factor, when considering a public cloud migration strategy, research shows that cost is always a concern.

As cloud computing has evolved and matured, there are even more options and strategies for companies to consider when making decisions that will underpin their ability to innovate and stay competitive in the future. With all these options on the table, it is important to ask the right questions about the cost of the cloud.

There are two ways of looking at cost. First you could ask: “What is my unit cost?” This is appropriate as long as you’re making a like-for-like comparison. However, if you’re comparing an as-a-service offering with on-premises alternatives, it doesn’t work.

A better question is, “What is my total cost of ownership (TCO)?” In other words, what do I pay for my cloud usage? This gives a true apples-with-apples comparison because it considers all the costs you might incur, including hardware, software, management and facilities to match public cloud services, and the cost of over-provisioning.

Let’s dig into this in a bit more detail

To achieve an accurate cost comparison between an Everything-as-a-service (EaaS) offering such as HPE GreenLake and public cloud services from the hyperscalers, it is important to include all the factors that are needed to deliver the same level of service. This includes defined hardware and software configurations, the management services that enable a public cloud experience in a hybrid environment, and colocation facilities.

HPE took 451 Research’s Cloud Price Index, the only evaluation of cost trends in the public cloud, and used HPE GreenLake Quick Quote to compare hardware and software costs + management costs + data centre costs, assuming 80% use over a four-year term. Doing this, it was possible to achieve a like-for-like comparison and accurate insight into the actual cost of public cloud.

We looked at the following three benchmarks:

  1. The cost to deliver virtual machines
  2. The cost to deliver compute
  3. The cost to deliver storage services

It is clear that HPE GreenLake’s EaaS hybrid IT model offers costs at least on par with, and often cheaper than, public cloud computing equivalents. This is contrary to the myth that public cloud is always cheaper than alternatives.

In conclusion, it is always worth revisiting conventional wisdom, especially in a space as fast-moving as cloud computing. At Daisy, we design, build and manage robust and reliable hybrid environments that help you bridge the gap between private, shared and public cloud. Our ability to combine all platforms into one single solution allows you to control your costs and achieve the right levels of security and risk. With the recent addition of HPE GreenLake, which powers our EaaS offering from CloudBridge, we round out our hybrid cloud portfolio with the ability to bring cloud-like consumption and abilities to your data and apps, wherever they are, including on-site. Get in touch for more information and to make sure you are comparing cloud apples with apples.

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