Cisco ROI Tool Doesn’t Really Help the IaaS Shopper in the Cloud

So Cisco just released it new flashy ROI calculator for cloud service providers looking to buy kit and get into the game. Check it out here:  http://www.cisco.com/assets/sol/sp/iaas/flash/roi_calculator/index.html

While the movement to create easy to use tools to help simplify purchasing decisions should be applauded, Cisco’s online tool doesn’t really help the customer out. Here’s why:

• Comparing Cisco with other vendors just multiplied the volume of evaluation work necessary to actually make a decision – this of course goes against the assumption by Cisco that anyone would even entertain another vendor!
• There is no way to bench mark ROI performance per compute resource and drill down into bloated cost centers.
• There is no way to address customers that use IaaS in anomalistic usage patterns. What happens to my ROI if I have a handful of I/O hogs that drown out others?
• The tool makes the assumption that IaaS must be delivered the way Cisco sees it, which removes most of the wiggle room to create customized services

The Cisco tool highlights the problem when big iron vendors operate in a vacuum, which only underscores why raw material supply in the cloud business must be abstracted entirely from service delivery. I don’t doubt that Cisco has a great infrastructure product set – but what would truly be useful is a system that allows the buyer to really compare apples to apples and make a purchase decision on true ROI analysis.