By Rich Bourdeau
If you are like most companies your primary motivation for deploying on-demand cloud 
services is to better align IT with business demand by accelerating the delivery of infrastructure, applications and other IT services. While the improvements in service delivery times are quantifiable and easily measured, the benefits in terms of improved productivity of the users consuming these resources and the new business opportunities made possible by more agile IT processes are subjective and hard to quantify for most companies.
If the benefits from the primary motivation are hard to quantify, how do you justify an investment in cloud automation? The answer: Cost reduction. Although lowering IT costs is not the primary motivation for most companies, the savings made possible by improving operational efficiency, eliminating over provisioning and reclaiming inactive resources more than justify their cloud automation investment for most companies.
Calculate Your Savings
Over the course of the last four years I have worked with many companies to help them build the business case for cloud automation. We have taken that experience combined with feedback from these companies and incorporated it into a tool that you can use to develop your business justification.
This model balances simplicity yet is backed by comprehensive cost savings model. By inputting a few parameters that describe your virtual and physical infrastructure combined with some savings assumptions, this model provides you with a good approximation of the annual cost savings possible with a VMware Cloud Automation solution.
Click this link to access the new VMware Cloud Automation savings calculator. A sample of the model input is shown below.
Results that Matter
After you’ve completed describing your environment and adjusting the savings assumptions, you will see your cost efficiencies in real time and be able to make further adjustments if necessary. When finished, you’ll have the option of saving the results as a short PDF assessment that is formatted to make it easy to present your findings to executive management (i.e. clear, concise and to the point). This report contains a summary of your environment, savings assumptions as well as comparisons with savings and improvements that have been seen by other companies.
Learn more about VMware’s Cloud Automation solution and take IT efficiency to new heights while at the same becoming more responsive to the business needs.
- Watch the VMware IT Private Cloud – Exceeding Expectations video (2:28 min)
- Learn using the VCloud Automation 6.x Video Library
- Try using the vCloud Automation Center Test Drive
Need help deploying your private cloud infrastructure or developing your business justification? Contact us and our experts can help your team build the business case and the solution that will maximize your IT productivity.
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