Running Costs

   


These costs represent the day-to-day running of the operation, the tools that are required to provide services to the consumers on an ongoing basis.

Some of the costs described in this section are frequently either underestimated or overlooked completely. The system manager must take account of the estimated costs that will be incurred. In larger companies, the running costs could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Two of the major contributing factors to running an IT department are detailed in the next sections.

Support

Vendor support for hardware and software products is essential if any kind of guaranteed service is being provided. If the company is running a 24x7 operation, these become even more critical and, obviously, more expensive. The system manager must decide on the type of support that is necessary for each system, based on the availability requirements and the business priority. It is worth noting that even though there might be a 24x7 operation, it doesn't mean that every system must be covered on the same basis. Other systems might require support only during business hours, with perhaps a four- hour response. It would clearly be a waste of money to support systems around the clock when they are not being used. Chapter 8, "Strategic Management," includes a section on saving money when looking at hardware and software maintenance contracts.

Support of computer systems is only part of the requirement. A controlled environment contains air conditioning equipment, humidity control, and UPS power backup systems. All these require support arrangements as well as regular maintenance. For example, a UPS system must be checked regularly to ensure that the battery backups are in good working order; the backups also must be replaced periodically. A support agreement with the supplier should include all the items listed previously.

Consumables

Budgeting for consumables is often underestimated because it is seen as trivial. Tape cartridges for daily backups of the systems, however, are one of the most important consumables that the business must purchase as they are used to guarantee and preserve the integrity of the data. Saving money by purchasing cheaper, low-quality tapes could be a false savings because the error rates are likely to be much higher. Also, the cost of not being able to restore a file due to I/O errors could be extremely high.

Toner cartridges for printers, CD-ROMS for archiving, and disks are further examples of consumables that must be accounted for. During the course of the financial year, these can amount to significant sums of money.

To illustrate the wide range of consumables that must be purchased, the following list details items considered to be consumable:

  • Backup tapes

  • CD-R writeable CDs for local backups and archiving

  • Toner cartridges for network printers, fax machines, and photocopying equipment

  • Special paper requirements for printing, such as photographic paper and transparencies

  • Floppy disks or Zip disks for local backups and archiving

  • Disk and Zip disk storage units

  • Mouse mats

  • Screen filters

  • Computer cleaning kits

Note

Essential items such as normal printing paper, office stationery and office furniture are excluded from the list because they constitute items that are necessary to do any job, not just one related to IT.


To put things into perspective, consider a Solaris network of 10 servers using DLT tapes as the backup medium, with the cost of one tape being approximately $50. Maintaining a pool of backup tapes to cover a four-week cycle involves 280 tapes at a cost of around $14,000. One copy of the tapes in the four-week cycle is often retained permanently and possibly is stored in an off-site secure area. An additional 120 tapes are required for the year, increasing the cost to $20,000. This example also does not allow for any bad tapes or any other ad-hoc backups. The actual cost of backing up the systems for a year is likely to be in the region of $25,000 for the media alone. Also to be added in is the cost of off-site storage, which might be a standard fixed cost or one that involves a bill each time that a tape is requested for restoration. Similarly, toner cartridges for laser printers located in various offices can accumulate into a significant cost that must be accounted for.

This example shows that if consumables are not properly accounted for, the budget holder could find that funding is in danger of running out before the end of the financial year, putting the service provision to the business at risk.


   
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Solaris System Management
Solaris System Management (New Riders Professional Library)
ISBN: 073571018X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2001
Pages: 101
Authors: John Philcox

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