3 Infrastructure Costs
Infrastructure costs refer to the expenses associated with acquiring, deploying, and maintaining the physical and virtual resources required to support an organization’s IT operations. These costs can include hardware, software, cloud services, storage, compute, network resources, and other infrastructure components.
Costs should not be viewed in isolation, but rather in the context of the value they provide to the organization. Understanding infrastructure costs is essential for budgeting, resource allocation, cost optimization, and decision-making related to infrastructure investments and upgrades.
In the context of the Common Fund Data Ecosystem (CFDE), monitoring infrastructure costs can help assess the financial sustainability of the ecosystem, identify opportunities for cost savings, and optimize resource utilization to support data sharing, analysis, and collaboration activities.
3.1 Possible Metrics
3.1.1 Hardware Costs
Description: The total cost of purchasing and maintaining physical hardware components, such as servers, storage devices, networking equipment, and peripherals.
Hardware costs are a significant part of the infrastructure budget and include expenses related to acquiring, installing, and maintaining hardware assets. These costs can vary based on the type and quantity of hardware required to support the infrastructure’s operations. Monitoring hardware costs helps teams track spending, optimize resource allocation, and plan for future hardware upgrades or expansions.
3.1.2 Software Costs
Description: The total cost of software licenses, subscriptions, and maintenance fees for operating systems, databases, applications, and other software components.
Software costs encompass expenses related to acquiring, renewing, and updating software licenses and subscriptions. These costs can include one-time purchases, annual subscriptions, and ongoing maintenance fees. Monitoring software costs helps teams manage software expenditures, ensure compliance with licensing agreements, and evaluate the return on investment for software tools and services.
3.1.3 Cloud Costs
Description: The total cost of cloud services, including storage, compute, network resources, and data transfer fees.
Cloud costs are a significant part of the infrastructure budget and include expenses related to using cloud-based services and resources. These costs can vary based on the type and amount of cloud services consumed, as well as the pricing models and billing structures of cloud providers. Monitoring cloud costs helps teams optimize resource usage, control spending, and identify opportunities for cost savings or efficiency improvements.
3.1.4 Storage Costs
Description: The cost of storing data in cloud-based or on-premises storage systems, including object storage, block storage, and file storage.
Storage costs are a key component of the infrastructure budget and can vary based on the amount of data stored, the storage tier or class used, and the data retention policies in place. Monitoring storage costs helps teams manage data growth, optimize storage utilization, and implement cost-effective storage solutions.
Note that storage costs can be further broken down into costs associated with different storage classes or tiers, such as standard storage, infrequent access storage, and archival storage.
3.1.5 Compute Costs
Description: The cost of using compute resources, such as virtual machines, containers, and serverless functions, to process data and run applications.
Compute costs are a significant part of the infrastructure budget and can vary based on the type, size, and duration of compute resources used. Monitoring compute costs helps teams optimize resource allocation, scale computing capacity based on demand, and control costs associated with running applications and workloads.
3.1.6 Network Costs
Description: The cost of network resources, such as bandwidth, data transfer, and network egress fees, required to transmit data between components of the infrastructure.
Network costs are an essential part of the infrastructure budget and can vary based on the volume and frequency of data transfers, as well as the network performance requirements of the system. Monitoring network costs helps teams optimize data transfer efficiency, reduce latency, and manage expenses associated with network usage.
Note that network costs can be further broken down into costs associated with different resources, datasets, or services.