TCO Analysis (Total Cost of Ownership) and Data center Exit, Modernization Services
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Cost of Ownership (TCO) Analysis: Is Cloud Cheaper than On-prem IT?
‘Don’t judge a book by its cover. And, IT costs from hardware purchase bills’
Justifying the value derived from a car just by looking at the selling price is a big fallacy. Over time, fuel expenses, repair and maintenance bills, and depreciation continually add to the asset’s total lifecycle costs. Over a couple of years, the ongoing operational expenses (OpEx) gradually dwarf the initial capital investment (CapEx) made on the car. Quite similarly, opting for traditional, on-prem IT infra and data center facilities owing to steep cloud migration costs overlooks the latter’s immense benefits in minimizing operating costs in the long run: cloud-native cost optimization and billing solutions, real-estate savings, energy efficiency, zero maintenance costs, and the ‘fabled’ pay-as-you-use pricing model. By definition, Cloud TCO or Total Cost of Ownership estimates the total investments in acquiring, utilizing, managing, and withdrawing/replacing all cloud assets over a period (CapEx + OpEx.
Though most cloud services are delivered at a zero CapEx model and the entire expense is on as operated or utilized). In addition to asset migration bills (workloads, servers, databases, networks, computing infra), the analysis duly maps expenses of potentially usable cloud applications, operation and energy consumption bill or power cost, cooling expenses, software architecture licensing/re-licensing costs, compliance and data integrity management expenses, upskilling/training overheads, potential solution replacement/on-prem accessory upgrades and maintenance cost, and more.
Such exhaustive TCO analysis and mapping arms organizations with accurate visibility to Cloud ROI, performance needs, and revenue objectives in the forthcoming years. Better still, this allows cloud managed service providers and Cloud TCO or Total Cost of Ownership experts like CloudEngin to implement advanced cost optimization policies, workload rightsizing, asset modernization strategies, process automation solutions, and data-intuitive governance checks to maximize clients’ cloud benefits at least total costs.
Benefits of the Cloud Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Model
Accurate analytical financial models to negotiate with suppliers and cloud providers in choosing the most optimized cloud migration model
Strategic decision making aid forupskilling, outsourcing, on-boarding IT teams, developers, cloud architects, experts, etc
Intuitive, analytical prediction and overview for long-term IT investments, business finances, growth, etc
Assistance in the mapping of innovation, automation solutions integration to improve operational efficiency and hence TCO or Total Cost of Ownership savings
Catalyzing universal visibility through automated governance audits, compliance checks over all cloud assets and processes to enable a dynamic, near real-time Total Cost of Ownership analysis
Tracking cloud wastages including operating energy inefficiencies. Leveraging adequate guidance tools to maximize cloud usage as needed
Accurate Return on Investment (ROI) evaluation basis time and the evolving operational expenses over time
Assistance in the understanding of redundant cloud applications, business processes that could be eliminated to lower IT costs, traffic overheads
Identification of security loopholes and infra health risks leading to informed DR decision-making
Implementation of advanced cost optimization strategies and models that include workloads rightsizing, asset modernization, upgrades, and replacements to ensure positive returns in the long run
Costs to Consider: Into the Overarching TCO Analysis MAP
Cost Categories
Technology Infra Expenses
Cloud Infrastructure Costs
Rented server costs and operational expenses
Server upgrades and maintenance costs – Generally once every 3-5 years (Usually applicable for private or hybrid cloud models)
Server accessories load balancers, server racks, replacement parts, etc (Physical for private or hybrid cloud models, virtual mode for public cloud models)
Cloud Platform Costs
Rented server costs and platforms operational/periodic usage costs (pay-as-you-go model)
Extra costs due to increased workflows, traffic, access requests
Virtualized backend assets expenses powering seamless running of the cloud platforms (Usually hidden costs with the pay-as-you-go model)
Cloud Application Costs
Rented application servers costs and applications operational/periodic usage expenses basis traffic requirements (the pay-as-you-go model)
Extra expenses due to high traffic surge, multiple application access requests from the backend
Usually, no extra backend costs involved unless and until there are multiple applications availed from multiple providers that need an extra application layer for synchronization purposes
Virtualization and Software Expenses
IaaS provider and partner support services expenses
Infra replacement, integration, augmentation expenses
Virtual Infra security costs including real-time threats management, health issues, etc
Virtual Infrastructure downtime costs: Disaster Recovery, Operation Disruptions, Business Continuity Planning. Asset depreciation costs may be applicable for private-hybrid cloud models
Asset virtualization, modernization, rightsizing, customizing costs to enable high cloud performance
PaaS provider and partner support services expenses
Platforms replacement, renovation, and new architecture implementation expenses including data exports, archived systems management
Platforms Cybersecurity Management costs such as Vulnerability Assessment, Malware attack filtering, etc
Platform downtime and security costs: Disaster Recovery, Operation Disruptions, Data backup and recovery, and Business Continuity Planning
Costs for additional cloud-native libraries, languages, interfaces to run, develop, deploy, and test codes
SaaS provider and partner support services expenses
Applications renovation, replacement, or forced upgrades including data consolidation, data integration, data transfer, storage, and archiving management
Applications Security costs such as DDoS, Phishing, Dark Web Leaks Management expenses, etc
Application downtime and security costs: Disaster Recovery, Operation Disruptions, Data backup and recovery, and Business Continuity Planning. Application value depreciation costs may be applicable for private-hybrid models
Expenses for additional cloud-native solutions and tools running on top of the enterprise applications to improve key application modalities along with analytical visibility
Facility Management Expenses
Real-estate space for datacenters and other on-prem infrastructure including networks, computing infra, data storage devices (Physical for private or hybrid cloud models, virtual mode for public cloud models)
Cooling unit and other supporting accessory operating bills
Electric bills for infrastructure or cloud access devices running for the organization
Platforms lifting-shifting, re-architecting, re-structuring, replacing, and customization costs
Enhancements and interfacing, integration costs with existing systems and applications
Energy and electric bills for platforms running on accessed computing devices
Applications customizing, re-architecting, remodeling, modernization costs to ensure best cloud performance
Application add-on modules, functionalities costs along with extra interfacing layers
Energy and electric bills for the applications accessed via on-prem devices
Administrative and Governance Expenses
Asset compliance and governance audits and management costs for all assets held by the organization
Infra licensing costs if any
Resource training, skilling, and augmentation expenses
Helpdesk, user, and admin support expenses
Platforms, architectures maintenance, and compliance costs in the forms of fixed contracts (Usually businesses opting for the cloud don’t need to pay for traditional upgrades and maintenance)
Platforms and architectures licensing, renewals costs expenses. Inactive licenses management
Platforms and architectures licensing, renewals costs expenses. Inactive licenses management
Helpdesk, user, and admin support expenses
Application compliance audits in terms of data localization, data compliance, international standards, etc
Application Subscription Costs from cloud Providers (SaaS Models)
Application Subscription Costs from cloud Providers (SaaS Models)
Helpdesk, user, and application admin support expenses
Understand and optimise your DC Costs with CloudEngin
CloudEngin end-to-end Data center Modernization Offerings
Firms are increasingly looking to simultaneously reduce costs, take advantage of newer forms of big data, and enjoy greater flexibility in analyzing information with powerful AI algorithms. All these are possible through data modernization i.e. moving data from legacy databases to modern cloud-based ‘virtual bases’.
Database Migration Services:
- Database Assessment and Plan
- CloudEngin Migration Factories – Faster Migration
- Database of your choice
- Data security during migration
- Migration Strategy, Approach, and Timelines
- Security Tools Mapping
- GAP Mitigation Plan
- Cloud Information Estimates
- Migration Estimates
- Landing Zone Readiness and Migration of Workloads
- Complex and Large Scale Migrations
Database Migration Services:
- High Availability and Backup
- Personalized and Customized Approach
- Database Tuning, Database Healthchecks, Disaster Recovery
- Maintenance and Monitoring
- Proactive Threat Detection and Prevention powered by AI and ML
- Near-Zero Management
- Automated and Optimized – First time and Every time
Managed Advanced Data Analytics and BI:
- Data preparation – Single source of truth, Data lakes, Data Marts
- Data visualization
Aligned to Data center Modernization best practices, the Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) from CloudEngin prepares a customized and detailed infrastructure, application, and data migration assessment report. CloudEngin Migration factory assists enterprises with complex and mission-critical workloads to select and execute the right migration strategy at surprisingly low costs including infra re-host, refactor, re-architect, re-build, replace options. CloudEngin Migration factories use the highly efficient assembly line approach to make the migration and transformation safe, secure, and fail-proof.
- Infrastructure as-Is analysis report including adopted systems and products
- Data center modernization and consolidation plan with TCO Comparison
- Building Blocks and Estimates
- Migration Approach and Plan
- Security and Compliance gap analysis and re-mapping for to be the state
- Business continuity and Business Process gap analysis and mitigation plan (IT Infra related only)
- Proof of concepts (POC)
- Infrastructure and security services – Deployment Plan
- Zero Friction Managed Service SOW and SOP document (including commercials)
- Project Management and Governance
- IT Staff Training
- Assessment Report
- Migration Strategy, Approach & Timelines
- Security Tools Mapping
- Gap Mitigation Plan
- Cloud Estimates
- Migration Estimates
- Cloud Landing Zone Readiness & Migration of Workload (Lift and Shift)
CloudEngin Application Modernization offerings help enterprises in maintaining, extending, deploying, and managing their applications end-to-end on the cloud. Various approaches and techniques for Application Modernization that CloudEngin supports are as follows:
- Rehost – Also known as “Lift & Shift,” is a common approach to migrating applications to the Cloud. We simply would move the application to the cloud with minimal adjustments to the infrastructure as a whole. This Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) enables enterprises to immediately reduce operational costs, free up space in their data center, and considerably accelerate any follow-up to their migration process.
- Refactor – This often includes modifying the application itself and part of the code to make more use of Cloud-native functions and the flexibility that they offer (essentially a PaaS model). With Refactoring, developers can re-use languages, containers, and the framework in which they’ve invested.
- Rearchitect – Some obsolete applications aren’t compatible with the Cloud due to architectural decisions made while building the app. In this case, it would be wise to consider “Rearchitecting.” This allows us to divide the application into several functional components or microservices, functions that can be individually adapted and further developed.
- Rebuild – A Rebuild migration strategy means that we completely redevelop the application products on a PaaS infrastructure – unlike with Rearchitect, where we only modify parts of the application. It involves removing existing code and redesigning the application in the Cloud.
- Replace – A Replace migration strategy completely replaces an existing application with SaaS including mainframe modernization. When an existing SaaS application can provide all the necessary functionalities, Replace is an excellent option to save costs related to IT development.
The SIEM tools and platform in collaboration with the SIEM team performs 24/7 monitoring over the IT environment end-to-end: data, applications, networks, enterprise systems, critical systems and devices, VMs, cloud architectures, and more. Usage of cutting-edge behavioural analytics from multiple data sources, event correlation and event data, threat investigation, and intelligent security analytics tools ensure instant detection of the unknown, difficult-to-find threats from any source. Prioritize outsider and insider threats basis impact capabilities to implement a proper, agile action framework and state-of-the-art event management solutions.
Design highly available, scalable, secure, and cost-optimized designs for data center workloads (infra, application, data, and workplace) with our cloud architects and security experts. Our CloudOps offering helps enterprises design a tailored data center exit and migration strategy based on the industry-best Cloud Adoption Framework along with implementing the cloud infra promising scalability, sustainability, security, reproducibility, and ROI sensitivity as the primary focus points. Modernize data centers and gain maximum performance at optimized Datacenter TCO.
Modernized IT infrastructure, whether deployed in the data center or powered by cloud environments, should require lesser manual intervention and routine administration than its legacy equivalents.
CloudEngin with the help of CloudEngin proprietary frameworks, 40+ security control objectives, and 26 security tools, automatically collects and alerts on security data from critical services. The process centralizes and simplifies cloud security monitoring. The service also encompasses cybersecurity management including Active Directory, firewall, endpoint protection, virtual network, and antivirus solutions that eliminate blind spots and ensures continuous threat coverage.
CAF-based Security and Industry Standard Compliance Assessment:
- Native Tool Mapping
- Recommended Security Tools configuration
- Security and Governance Policy
- Landing zone recommendation
- Security Solutions Demo
CAF Based Governance Assessment
- Platform Break-fix
- Governance MVP (Minimal Viable product) to act as a Governance foundation for current and future workloads
- Policies & Blueprint recommendation (Standard and Custom)
CloudEngin Cloud Cost Optimization Model: Leverage Maximum Cloud Benefits at Least Costs
There are two sides to cloud reality. While the most celebrated one is the cloud’s unprecedented promise to deliver tech transformations and innovations at scale, enterprises are seldom aware of the grim alternate: 35% percent of the global cloud spend is a waste that borders 20 billion dollars.
An ocean of features, tools paired with numerous billing models could well be the complicated reasons driving firms to increasingly yet erroneously opt for cloud models far exceeding their business requirements. No doubt, 60% of companies have complained of rising cloud spends in 2020 – an irony when TCO savings act as the biggest strategic contributor to firms opting for cloud transformation. More than the cloud platform itself, it’s the stunted cloud IT expertise of businesses that have contributed to this ironic scenario. The traditional slashing of cloud bills is certainly not the solution, the adverse avatar of blindfolded migration to the cloud.
What enterprises require instead is a thorough assessment of the IT landscape, cloud architecture followed by a stringent ‘cloud cost optimization’ or cost analysis blueprint that allows continual spending checks without compromising overall performance. With CloudEngin industry-leading cloud cost optimization and cost analysis framework, achieve high cloud TCO savings via advancement architecture assessment and transformation. Modernize core assets, automate business workflows, filter out process redundancies, and eliminate cyber threats. Unlock an intelligent cloud future at best ROI.
Cost Reduction vs Cost Optimization: Comparative Analysis
Cost Reduction
The traditional slashing of cloud spends, budgets, and resource allocations
Costs rise again with increasing usage: No metrics or methodologies to check future uncertainties
Cost Optimization
- Run a complete cost assessment over the entire cloud environment.
- Unlock continuous value with end-to-end IT visibility
- Data-powered administration
- Removal of process redundancies
- Limiting resource overprovisioning
- Intelligent automation integration
- Pay-as-you-use benefits
- Guarantee future relevance and continual high cloud ROI
- Dedicated infra architecture, application, and cybersecurity modernization strategies
- Seamless cloud-native solutions integration
- Advanced governance checks
- Align cloud-ops with industry-best practices to unlock next-gen innovation capabilities
CloudEngin Cost Optimization Framework: Any Cloud, Any Platform, Any Complexity
Phase 1: Landscape Assessment
- Assess ground realities to deliver a cost-optimized framework that guarantees ever-lasting value
- Evaluation of a fail-safe transformation framework analyzing workload complexities and business needs
- Identify industry best practices and tools to unlock next-gen capabilities on the cloud
Phase 2: Roadmap and Blueprinting
- Assess all operational, integration, and transformation risks
- Identify security, regulatory, compliance, and policy implications
- Analyze benefits, risks of different cloud optimization models
- Calculate macro ROI and IT financials
Phase 3: Cloud Optimization Deployment
- Custom workload transformation and integration at zero disruption
- Deploy cost-effective, industrialized packaged cloud models
- Streamline homogeneous, heterogeneous, complex, and large scale migrations for different databases and platforms
- Deploy advanced cybersecurity and compliance governance solutions, models
- Integrate end-to-end hyperautomation, RPA solutions to truncate manual dependencies and improve workflow productivity at least spends
- Integrate universal visibility and administration models: real-time monitoring and analysis over assets and resources
Why Partner with CloudEngin?
World’s largest application-focused Cloud Managed Services provider and one of the most trusted Cloud Services Providers in APAC and MEA for 12+ years
Dedicated end-to-end data center modernization, cost optimization expertise for thousands of global clients with AIOps-driven cloud managed operations
24/7 Support backed by 1600+ cloud experts, 23 dedicated Centres of Excellence
Certified people resources on ITIL, COBIT, CDCP, CISA, CISSP, CISM, Six Sigma, PMP CCIE, MCP, CEH, and more
Zero Friction and Zero loss Cloud Migration via Factory-based approach, 25000+ Apps, and Databases migrated
2500+ enterprise customers including 50+ Global Fortune 1000 Companies
10,000+ TB Managed Databases, 3000+ Database Instances handled, 10 out of 25 Top Global banks’ Databases managed
Presence in 29 nations worldwide including successful deployment of Public, Private, Hybrid, Multi, and Community Cloud platforms
High availability 99.95%, hyper-scalability, Single SLA
Proven SAP on cloud migration services expertise managing 10,000+ SAP instances and 2300+ TB of HANA Database
Dedicated DR on Cloud Services offerings for heterogeneous, complex environments with automated recovery-backup, failback-failover mechanisms, 200+ Annual DR Drills
Smart Managed Security Services Expertise, 40+ Security Controls, dedicated SOCs
CloudEngin proprietary automation solutions including Self-healing Operations, Automation Delivery platforms, and RPA solutions
Cost-effective Pay-per-use model under single SLA
Strict compliance to regulatory and in-country data residency standards such as HIPAA, GDPR, SAMA, RBI, PCI-DSS, IRAP, OJK, MEITI, NESA, GxP, ISO Standards, etc
200+ Compliance and Regulatory Audits Annually
TCO - FAQs
What is TCO in the data center?
TCO stands for Total Cost of Ownership.
This includes the purchase expenses of the entire infrastructure, operational, maintenance-upgrades, and connected costs of managing an entire datacenter landscape.
TCO is the best metric to calculate Datacenter and IT ROI for any organization.
Does TCO include Capex?
TCO includes both CapEx or Capital Expenditure and OpEx or Operational Expenses.
The CapEx costs for a datacenter is generally associated with the infra purchase bills, additional accessory costs, space/physical footprint expenses, and related.
What are the challenges of determining TCO?
TCO is usually CapEx + OpEx + Connected/Future costs.
While the CapEx calculation is easy and straightforward basis the purchase bills of the infrastructure and connected assets (servers, rack space, physical footprint, cables, electronics, wiring, set-up materials, etc), determining TCO for daily operations and the connected/future maintenance costs are difficult.
OpEx also requires visibility into utility bills, energy costs, workload-based expenses, and more. Maintenance costs are far uncertain as barring regular updates, one needs to continually analyze DC health and risks to create a DC upgrade blueprint
What are the benefits of TCO Analysis?
Total Cost of Ownership or TCO Analysis is beneficial to accurately measure datacenter and IT ROI for businesses.
This determines resources wastage, performance redundancies, and ensures the development of a cost-optimized IT ops blueprint.
For the long term, TCO analysis assists in having proper assets’ health overview along with planning futuristic maintenance, upgrades for fail-proof operations.
Drive your enterprise towards advanced automated Data Centers with CloudEngin
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