The Cost Benefit Myth of the Public Cloud
There is a myth that public cloud usage is automatically cheaper than private cloud usage, writes Andi Mann. He points out:
"Public cloud certainly has a low startup cost, but also a long ongoing cost. For all practical purposes, the ongoing cost is never-ending too. As long as you need it, you keep paying as much as you did on day one, without adding an asset to your books or depreciating your facilities investments."
And then goes on to say that economies of scale and staff reduction costs are not necessarily beneficial either. In fact, he himself links to a study that suggests, in a typical environment, "a $513,295 cumulative cost savings over three years for the private cloud purchase versus the public cloud option".
Now of course, things are never as simple as these sound-bytes suggest, and there are many factors that need to be considered and questions answered before one could undergo their own cost benefit analysis but it does, I believe, highlight a very important truism: public clouds are not cheaper than private clouds by default.
Of course, my believe is that wherever possible and practicable an organisation should utilize their own hardware for their cloud requirements: why pay a third party to rent space when you already have that storage sitting on your own employees computers doing absolutely nothing? Of course, since broolz enables just that, I would say this. But that fact doesn't make the sentiment wrong, does it?
Image credit: Rawich
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