[tomelders]

Is it just me, or is could computing and the associated costs really difficult to figure out?

I'm not sure wether this is something I need to know, or is it specialist knowledge that server admins need to be on top of?

Maybe I'm dumb, but keeping up with all the software stuff coming out (frameworks, libraries, best practices etc) is hard enough. Personally, I'm struggling to figure out what's going on with hardware and could computing.

It's especially difficult when it comes to services like Heroku, where it seems I'm expected to know about hundreds of these "things" with on-trend logos and ambiguous names before I can feel like I've gotten anywhere near to making an informed decision.

Or maybe I should shut up moaning and read more... but where's the time man! WHERE'S THE GOD DAMN TIME! I"VE GOT OTHER THINGS TO DO!!!

[BDangIT]

I feel your pain. I just attended a NoSQL conference this week and my head is spinning with the amount of service providers and solutions there exists. One day, I'd like to extend my calculator to include doing a full blown IaaS vs PaaS comparo.

To answer your question, getting a good handle of knowing your operation costs has happened after the fact your servers were spinning. Most of my clients assumed that going to Cloud will help you save money. That has not been the case and I had to keep calculating costs over and over again.