How Web-hosted Software as a Service Lowers TCO for Security Management Systems - Sponsored Whitepaper

total Cost of Ownership (tCO) is a well-studied discipline within it at large, but its results have seldom been brought to bear on the world of electronic access control. Now that the internet-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)1 model for access control management platforms is, in many cases, replacing the traditional server-based approach, integrators and end users alike need to evaluate which is the most cost- effective solution for their organizations.

Until recently, it has been common for buyers to think of system cost in terms of one- time, up-front server and software expenses. however, it has become a well-established fact that the largest part of pC or server ownership cost actually lies in ongoing operational expenses, maintenance, and support agreements. this is particularly true of computer systems providing infrastructure services such as access control, because they must be held to a higher standard of availability and performance than ordinary office equipment.

Our studies find that for most classes of applications, the SaaS model for security management platforms is the clear operational and financial winner, due primarily to the economies of scale introduced by hosted application services. it also provides significant availability and redundancy advantages over most server-based systems, which translates directly to increased business value.

Figure 1: SaaS Architecture Figure 2: Server-based Architecture

Figure 3 shows the conclusions of our study, which demonstrates that for the systems we modeled, the SaaS solution enjoys an advantage of nearly $26,000 (or 76%) over the server-based solution.