Cloud Computing : Beware of Hidden Costs

Cloud Computing Service Providers can hide the real cost by showing only the cost of computing power usage in advertisements hiding the cost of bandwidth. Through various articles we have written that, Cloud Computing is not a Technology itself, it is a generalized promotive terminology for a kind of virtualized distributed computing. The advantages of Cloud Computing IaaS or Cloud Server can definitely be useful where data security is not a big concern, but there are falsification of the overall cost shown by various cloud computing service providers.

Cost of Cloud Computing : Introduction

We published the guide before how to calculate the cost of cloud computing platform. The key figures are clear and leave no doubt at first glance : At a cost of $ 99 per SaaS application (Software as a Service) versus eight U.S. cents for one hour usage of a virtual server is at a competitive cost of rental solution without a little doubt. Based on scale of economies and favorable purchase conditions associated with it and an improved larger resource pools, the public cloud installation is will appear superior to the traditional operating model. In addition, there are the benefits in terms of workload adaptation in times of high and low capacity utilization. Thus, a sustained higher utilization is guaranteed.

But unfortunately the calculation is not that easy.

Cloud Computing : Beware of Hidden Costs

$99 per SaaS solution appear sattractive, with five users, the invoiced amount is also limited. But for 500 or 1000 users’ access to some rented CRM application, you will get a hefty bill. Additional costs arise when the CRM solution as additional modules for support staff for logistics or the Product Management function is added.

8 cents per hour for a virtual server is low, as long as the service is only counted. Continuous operation and that is the rule of all application fields – is expensive to use. Surcharges are added also add here for more about virtual servers for load balancing, storage, security, monitoring, bandwidth etc. Often, services such as spam filtering, middleware and databases installations are required. Throughout the year they runs as incurred enormous cost. When does 8 cents per server hour is charged ? When the users do not use the hour permanently, but only use occasionally.

When the advertised $16/month server will become $30 at the end of the month – the customer might get astonished. The answer from the provider is clear – “who will calculate the bandwidth ? We wrote there its the operational cost of server only, everyone knows !”