A Comparative Cost Analysis of on Premises IT Infrastructure and Cloud-Based Email Services in an Indian Business School

Abstract

Cloud computing as a disruptive technology has given a chance to explore computing as a utility. The pay as you go model provides a flexible model to optimize cost. For different needs, cloud computing offers different models and services to balance the cost, time and resources. Faster communication is the need of each academic institute today to facilitate a good learning environment in a shorter and effective time frame. Email as a medium of communication gives a pace and substance to academic needs, especially in business schools. This paper aims to present a comparative analysis of the costs (on premises vs. cloud) for email implementation. Google apps for education have been considered for cloud based email service. Results show that the net present value (NPV) of cost for on premises infrastructure is more than NPV of cost for cloud based email service. This suggests cloud based email service is a cost effective solution for Indian B-schools to adopt.