Why cloud computing ROI tools are worthless

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

With the rise of cloud computing comes a rise in tools and models that estimate the cost benefit of the technology. Most are created and promoted by cloud providers that sell their services, and a few come from analysts and consulting organizations. Whatever their source, their ROI calculations are based on the same assumption: Cloud computing avoids hardware and software investments, and because you pay only for the resources you use, the cost of those resources should align directly with the amount you require.

Those assumptions sound great, but the resulting ROI calculations are drastic oversimplifications of the problems the cloud is there to solve. In fact, these ROI calculators confuse businesses about the real value of the cloud and mislead both IT and business units…

The ability to determine the ROI of cloud computing is not a simple modeling exercise, as most people seem to think. To truly understand and calculate the business values of using cloud computing — public, private, or hybrid — requires a complex and dynamic analysis that is unique to the problem domain you’re trying to address…

Read more from the source @ http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/why-cloud-computing-roi-tools-are-worthless-210536