TCO

[Steve_Needham]

We’re trying to get an estimate of the cost of storage for each of our users, but don’t have the precise figures for our hard/software. We’re a cross-phase school of 1000 students and around 100 staff. Our file server performs only that job, nothing else. Here’s the sheet with our estimated figures in - http://bit.ly/loiqTY

If you think any of them are wildly out, would be great to hear from you.

Thanks

[saundersmatt]

Server 2008 license for an education establishment is less than £200...

 

Matt

[Dave_O]

Steve

 

A few questions:-

 

1. Who is this information for?

2. How will it be used?

3. How will it move the school forward in maintaining IT services?

4. What is the growth rate of the data per annum?

5. How long is the solution expected to last?

6. Where do you (as stated above) do you get your MS licensing from,they want shooting

 

To be honest you'd be better working out the total cost of the whole solution per year. This will be of more value to you and SLT.

 

Dave O

[Steve_Needham]

In answer to Os questions:

 

1. Who is this information for?

2. How will it be used?

3. How will it move the school forward in maintaining IT services?

4. What is the growth rate of the data per annum?

5. How long is the solution expected to last?

6. Where do you (as stated above) do you get your MS licensing from,they want shooting

 

It is for our ICT Development Group in the first instance, but for all staff more generally. They find it difficult to understand why data storage is so expensive when they can pick up a 4Gb USB stick for a few quid. It’s an awareness raising exercise to help all staff become more aware of the costs of storage, as a precursor to asking them to accept ‘capped’ storage limits and manage their user areas a little more efficiently.

Our data has grown at 18% on average during the preceding four years, but is increasing incrementally year on year. We’re intending placing caps on the size of user areas which should help us to plan a little better for future demands. The current solution is expected to last 5 years, but will be reviewed annually. You’re dead right about budgeting over a time period ... if we need to assign figures for elec. costs and personnel costs, then they only become meaningful when taken over a time period.

The licensing (and other figures) are only my boss’s guestimate – our parent organisation provide all these resources and we never get to find out individual costing. So if you’ve any idea what the likely cost of an MS server license is likely to be for our school, given those figures (and with around 450 clients), that would be really helpful.

[Graham001]

Cost of Windows Server Standard 2008 R2, purchased through a typical Academic Select agreement would be around £56.00

Academic CALs are also not that expensive, although it would really boil down to how the school choose to purchase - per device, or per user. Generally, for schools I would tend to recommend purchasing on a per device basis as this is something that is likely to stay relatively static, although this just a general statement provided without really looking at the school's individual circumstances, as in some cases, a per user solution can be the more cost effective option.

 

The important thing to get across to anybody who throws the "4GB stick only costs a few quid" argument at you is that a USB stick is very easily lost, along with the data that is stored on it. Secure USB sticks, such as the Kingston Datatraveller DTVP, Iron Key etc are significantly more expensive, but do provide an extra layer of security to your data by way of encryption. However, surely the best place to store data safely, is centrally within a dedicated SAN, where it will be secure & regularly backed up. Also remind them that if data is lost along with a USB stick, they have nobody to blame but themselves for being stupid enough to put it there in the first place.