Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) versus Return on Investment (ROI)

There is no doubt that public cloud computing has many advantages over traditional data center concepts; for example, it provides a cutting-edge, secure, and robust platform to host an organization's IT infrastructure. It impacts costs by turning CapEx into OpEx. However, when making an investment in any technology or service, it is important for a business to understand two key aspects: ROI and TCO. Both of these involve careful and critical analysis. It is very important to find the lowest cost in the long run rather than just the lowest initial cost.

Deriving TCO not only involves purchase cost and maintenance cost, but it also involves hidden costs such as operating cost, setup cost, change or reconfiguration cost, upgrade cost, security cost, infrastructure support cost, insurance cost, electricity cost, depreciation, tax savings, and environmental impact.

Note

AWS provides an online TCO calculator at https://awstcocalculator...