3 Hidden Costs of Having On-Premise Software
The hidden costs of on-premise software vary from hardware maintenance and licensing to the time spent installing updates and repairing faulty infrastructure during evenings and weekends. Despite widespread acceptance of cloud computing and the benefits it delivers, many IT departments continue to struggle to quantify and explain the time and money lost due to the numerous problems associated with on-premise software. As a result, managed IT service providers continue to be underfunded, under-resourced, and well behind the technology adoption without the best IT service management software curve for far longer than they should. The highest hidden costs are in small details. There are, however, specific general themes we’ve noticed across our 10,000+ customer base.
1. Hardware and Maintenance
The first and most significant expense (and the easiest to quantify) is installing and maintaining hardware. We’re talking about investing between $5,000 and $10,000 on a new server, placing it in a cooled room, maintaining electricity, and building a UPS system to protect it from power outages and surges. Everyone in information technology is aware that this aspect of the work is costly. However, it does not end there. When you begin delving further into the hidden expenditures, you’ll discover that the obvious and upfront charges are only the tip of the iceberg.
You’ll very certainly have backups on other gear as well, and when organizations change software, they frequently upgrade the hardware on which the program runs. Additionally, the best IT service management software databases and implementation complexity are commonly maintained on different servers, which means that you must include the time and money spent on repairing and maintaining this equipment. However, more on it later!
2. Software and Licensing
Another significant expense is software and software licensing, but not just the software itself. When you configure a server to host a particular instance of software (physical or virtual), it will also include a slew of other licensed applications. Costs associated with unlicensed software such as databases, monitoring tools, network tools, and anti-virus software may run into the millions of dollars per year for large enterprises to leverage managed security services.
Non-compliant licensing can also result in significant fines from software publishers, not to mind the additional expenses associated with engaging specialized software licensing experts to assist firms in mitigating such risks. Licensing is an expensive minefield! Since most IT workers responsible for setting up and managing on-premise technology and applications lack visibility into license availability and costs (which are frequently controlled by other business sections), costly mistakes are made rapidly and often if you do not opt for the best IT service management software.
3. People, Time, and Resources
It’s easy to become tangled up in day-to-day work, wasting time on chores that may easily be outsourced to a cloud hosting provider or SaaS provider. Additionally, much effort goes unmeasured or unaccounted for since it is either automatic or ingrained in routine. For instance, how frequently do you create a ticket in your IT service management (ITSM) application for anti-virus upgrades on servers? Do you make a ticket for the thirty minutes you spent verifying that last night’s backups were successful? That never happens, correct?
Your time will be divided between a variety of significant and minor, scheduled, and unexpected actions that all contribute to the continued operation of your on-premises software. The little details include software upgrades, security patches, configuration, permissions changes, and daily backup programs with cybersecurity managed services. The major work includes completely catastrophic hardware failures that require you to work till midnight to get it back up and running; or the data leaks that bring the entire tea to a screeching halt while you figure out ‘how, why, where, and when.
There is no reality to the assertion that software and hardware will not break. Unexpected and unauthorized adjustments will be made, regardless of planning. Conversely, time spent fixing, rolling back, and rebuilding the same version of on-premises software is rarely a component of the total time required to lead a life where on-premise software is used. Also, when you’re not dedicating time to creating new services with the best IT service management software, implementing significant enhancements, or spending quality time with that crucial client, you should include this time in your accounting and view it as a direct benefit of putting your program in the cloud.
Taking to the cloud
Businesses spend much time identifying the issues associated with on-premises ITSM software. As a result, we’ve created an impressive suite of cloud-based services and migration solutions. We want to make the process of migrating from on-premise to cloud computing as cost-effective and straightforward as feasible.
Contact our CSE team to discuss migration alternatives; contact us immediately. We’ll walk you through everything from backing up your current toolset to going live with your new cloud-based ITSM service.
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