tco

Avoiding the cost of entanglement

Modern IT is very focused on economics. We talk endlessly about cost. We debate capital costs vs. operational costs--CAPEX vs. OPEX, in the lingo. We look at Total Cost of Operations (TCO) and we try to calculate our projects' Return On Investment (ROI). But even with all of these economic metrics, we miss an enormous source of costs: Our long-term entanglement with the products, technologies, and approaches we choose.

Long ago, we had a bright idea. "We could represent the year portion of dates with just two digits--that would save space!" We happily did that for a few … Read more

Firm finds gain after open-source shift pain

It's nice to read what open-source vendors think of open source: it's easy, cheap, and quite possibly the cure for cancer. (That last one is my personal hope.)

However, it's much more useful to get real customer feedback on open source. That's what makes Mercian Labels' shift to open source--with all the benefits and negatives that come with such a move--so intriguing. It's especially useful data, since the company meticulously tracked the highs and lows of its shift to open source on its blog, as its managing director, Adrian Steele, told me over e-mail.… Read more

Microsoft's mixed-up open-source TCO messaging makes perfect sense

Old Microsoft, meet new Microsoft. Best sit down, talk, and work out your story(ies) on open source and its TCO.

Mary Jo Foley points out that Microsoft has resurrected an old TCO study (December 2007), put some varnish on it, and is trotting it out like it's news. Why? Well, you can guess, as Mary Jo does:

So why is Microsoft touting it today? Perhaps due to the recession and desire by companies to find ways to cut costs by using more free software? Or maybe to counteract the press around a former Microsoft developer's new book … Read more

Microsoft study overlooks Windows biggest cost

Microsoft has been a little quiet on the "independent TCO (total cost of ownership) study" front for at least a week now, so it is perhaps not surprising to see the company promoting a new TCO study comparing the cost of deploying Linux and Windows in emerging markets. Vital Wave Consulting, that paragon of research (no, I've never heard of it, either), published the study.

But who wrote it is somewhat immaterial here. The problem is that the research fails to acknowledge the biggest cost of working with Microsoft: the cost of exit.

First, to the research. … Read more