{"id":1581,"date":"2017-02-14T11:52:36","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T16:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/cloud-platforms\/?p=1581"},"modified":"2017-02-14T11:52:36","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T16:52:36","slug":"calculating-the-cost-of-moving-to-the-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/cloud-platforms\/calculating-the-cost-of-moving-to-the-cloud\/","title":{"rendered":"Calculating the Cost of Moving to the Cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GartnerIf you\u2019re thinking of making a move to the cloud, but are having trouble figuring out if it fits in your budget, we\u2019ve got your back. We know there is a lot that goes into this type of transition, so here’s a list of steps we wanted to share to help you get started.<\/p>\n

What are you spending now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first thing to do is figure out exactly what you are spending. It\u2019s important to take a look at what your current budget looks like and an infrastructure audit is the best way to do that. It will let you know what you\u2019re paying and offer up a baseline to figure out what your costs will be after implementing a new cloud environment.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget to look at the total cost of using your on-premise IT investment over time, not just infrastructure, and that total should include direct and indirect costs. According to Network World<\/a>, direct costs are fairly easy to calculate. You should also know how much you\u2019re paying for physical servers, software licenses and other materials. Ask your accounting team to pull together the total costs for things like supplies, spare parts, warranties and anything else that was purchased.<\/p>\n

While you\u2019re gathering all of that data, it\u2019s also important to think about your network\u2019s bandwidth and storage, the database capacity and details of your infrastructure. You\u2019ll also need to know all about your operational costs and any other costs associated with the care of your IT department.<\/p>\n

Administrative costs are something else to take into account. These costs keep your IT department up and running and can include other departments that contribute to the IT team in some way. Network World<\/a> suggests interviewing key members of your staff in order to learn how many hours were dedicated to IT.<\/p>\n

And indirect costs are also key. The largest indirect cost is often due to a loss in productivity if your infrastructure is down. Reviewing log files can be the easiest way to calculate that number. Revenue lost during downtime is another helpful number\u00a0 to have.<\/p>\n

Calculate estimated cloud infrastructure costs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once you know what you\u2019re spending on your current infrastructure, you can determine what your potential cloud infrastructure budget should look like. Cloud infrastructure providers now have easier pricing models for possible customers and there are various cloud calculators available to help you make an educated prediction.<\/p>\n

Here are just a few:<\/p>\n