Datacenter Investment Support System (DAISY)

While the cloud computing paradigm provides the technological foundation for previously unmatched efficiency in information systems, its economic implications are complex and significant. Bringing the benefits of this state-of-the-art technology to corporate datacenters requires a systematic cost analysis of current best-practice in conjunction with the new possibilities. We address this challenge and present a novel resource management model based on marginal cost of computing. DAISY (Datacenter Investment Support System) aids in deriving the optimal investment strategy for large enterprise computing infrastructures taking into account all buy and rental options. Our model-based framework is evaluated through the analysis of different time discrete and continuous scenarios. Our main contribution is the thorough economic analysis of the dependencies between static and adaptive modes of operation for modern computing infrastructure. Our results clearly show the ambivalent economic character of computing as a commodity and that further research is necessary to guarantee sustainable economic decisions.