Cloud Computing and SOA Convergence in Your Enterprise: A Step ...

62 Chapter 4 Making the Business Case for Clouds
really a plan to create a plan, or the ability to objectively determine what the
real benefits are of all this change and thus to sell this change to those who
drive the business.
It is one thing to say that cloud computing makes life better because
everybody says it does; it is another to say that cloud computing will make
this company more than $50 million over the next 5 years. The ability to
make money will always outsell something cool and popular. Keep that in
mind as you create the business case and sell cloud computing to your executive
team.
Defining the Holistic Value
While most in IT think cloud computing is really about the ability to save
operational costs, that may or may not be the case, depending on your enterprise
or problem domain. There are many dimensions to consider here,
including
Ongoing operational cost reduction.
The value of preserving capital.
The value of upsizing on demand.
The value of downsizing on demand.
The value of shifting the risk.
The value of agility.
The value of reuse.
The value of coolness.
Let’s explore each.
Operational Cost Reduction
We all know that cloud computing is cheap . . . okay, cheaper . . . okay, it can
be cheap. Thus, it is a good idea to figure out the actual cost reductions that
cloud computing can bring to your enterprise IT. The trick is to figure out
not only how much money can be saved but how much it will cost to save
that money. Follow me here.
Let’s say you decided that cloud computing is the way to go for a major
enterprise application and that the costs of an on-premise instance versus a
cloud computing instance are as follows: