Cost - The only real yardstick!

Cost....The answer is cost. This really is the only metric that the business needs to know to be able to take a view on the business value of those IT services.

My view strangely enough is one consistent with what Romonet does...cost is the great equaliser here. I can answer the question, 'how much does my email service cost?' or 'how much does my ERP cost per user?'

I can then compare the cost of doing something one way or another, in-source vs outsource, technology A vs technology B. Now I enable my business to make real 'value' decisions. Evaluate projects based on a cost saving - rather than a reduction/increase in 'n' units of 'productivity'.

Having just organised and run a very hot debate (with my DCSG hat on) around the choice of Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) vs Climate Change Agreement (CCA) where ninety people took an evening out to listen to and then join in the debate around what is best for the data centre and IT industry as far as carbon legislation is concerned.

It wasn't long before we moved into the circular topic of metrics. You see a CCA requires you to specify a measurement metric, define the 'productivity' or 'useful work' done within the data centre. I put those words in quotes as they are buzz words right now. Used and abused around the industry.

A great number of people are looking at creating a (rather arbitrary) metric that tries to define/speak to how much work was done by the data centre. Those in IT will know that this isn't as easy as it might first sound. Data centres do lots of things and many do many different things all at the same time. How do you sum that all up by one number, how do you compare different data centres that do different things? The Green Grid have been working on the issue for 18mths and still don't have an answer yet....I'd pose once again, the answer is cost...it's time to make it transparent.