There is a saying that we’ve all heard…you know, the one about the “800 Pound Gorilla”, or the “Unsinkable” Titanic. Or from somewhat recent times, “Too big to fail.” All of these things reference what we looked at as these huge things that had no way of ever being bested. But guess what…nothing is ever too strong. Every ship can be sunk, and any business can fail, regardless of the size. But what we do know, is there is a perceived safety in these big things that they are a “safe bet.” In my life in IT I have heard the comment “Nobody every got fired for buying IBM” more times than I can count. But is the decision to move forward based on the perceived “safety” of a product or service the best option?
Simply put, the IT landscape has been forward shaped by disrupters. In every area you always have the “big guys” who have been doing the same thing for years, or even decades, and they build a loyal following because it is safe. They won’t get anyone fired. In reality though that is not the best way to look at doing business because part or being successful in business is having that agility needed to stay ahead. That could be from a technology perspective, a financial perspective, or both.
Looking at the financial aspects of Cloud, I don’t think I have seen a single instance when someone said to me that working in the Cloud was cheaper. It’s a well known fact that when it comes to storage at least, nobody ever gets rid of their data. It just gets more expensive as you go. And when you want to access the data, be prepared to open an artery, because the price only goes up, and that is especially true when you consider the tier of S3 storage that you have your buckets in.
When you look at this it makes you wonder how you can actually plan an IT budget when the costs are really a moving target. In Part Two of this article I’ll show you how you can accurately predict your budget, and at the same time, save a ton of money.
/sunbakedtech 