Computing Costs

Cost of IT Infrastructure Setup: Businesses need to acquire physical premises and infrastructure, including IT, to start, run or grow their business. This involves spending money upfront for hardware. For computing needs, business may need to take into account Server Costs, Storage Costs, Networks Costs, Backup and Archiving Costs, Technical Personnel Costs, etc. Businesses will need to spend money upfront for the setup which is recoverable over time as the business trades and grows. This cycles of spending repeats every time upgrades needs to be done. For a startup business these cost can becomes unaffordable leaving the business unable to conduct business effectively. Cost effective alternatives to conducting business within the local computing infrastructure or using Cloud Computing exist which businesses can implement. These alternatives are not only driven by cost but also but the needs to the business. With Cloud Computing however, many of the computing infrastructure costs can transferred to a service provider. Even in this alternative there is still no one solution fit all as various factors needs to be taken into account. Factors such as whether the business will be: Leasing software and customized features, Scaling charges based on usage/ demand instead of fixed hardware or capacity or Billing at the user or organization level. With either alternative, businesses still computer hardware.

Connectivity: Wired or not

Business relies on an interconnecting systems and infrastructure to conduct business. Wired connection should be an easy plug ’n play, but all too often this is not the case. To fix the connectivity through wired or Wi-Fi connections can be as easy as swapping cables or configuring settings in the operating system. The persistence of connection troubles can be an indication of a deeper issue, the result of network, hardware or software failure.