Contributed by Michael Ray, Solutions Architect at VAZATA.
Cloud computing or managed IaaS is typically provided on a Monthly Recurring Costs (MRC) basis. These MRCs are built, maintained and grown based on the actual usage or need of the application it is supporting. The cost of infrastructure vs. application or business growth can now be closer to linear instead of requiring large capital outlays up front in anticipation of customer/business/application growth.
In addition a business can now take a unit of delivery (product or customer unit) and
Cloud computing can help control infrastructure costs.
assign to it an underlying infrastructure unit. For example, a CIO can now know that to add one customer or unit of service will correspond with a quantity of recurring cost of the infrastructure unit associated with it. This can be directly blended into the P&L and be somewhat predictable.
I might also add that delivery of the associated service becomes more stream- lined as cloud computing allows for “just in time” delivery of needed services with very little advanced notice, and in some cases fully burstable resource levels for seasonal or temporary spikes in demand.
