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CHAPTER 3 Supporting Workloads Anytime, Anywhere 29 These materials are © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Decreasing Application Time-to-Value Business and IT decision makers use a number of methods to measure the success or failure of an IT department. The unfor- tunate truth is that these metrics are sometimes mutually exclu- sive, meaning that IT needs to get ultra-creative in forging a path ahead. One key metric is obviously cost. How much is IT costing the organization? In many places, IT is still considered just a cost center laden with expenses and, sometimes, a "necessary evil" that must be paid for. In these organizations, IT is often discussed in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO), which has a direct focus on the expense side of the business equation. More modern organizations view IT as an opportunity center. The organizations are still concerned with how much IT costs, but they also understand that it's an investment. In fact, in such organizations, the return on investment (ROI) metric is a key driver for IT initiatives. TCO is an estimate of the direct and indirect costs of an invest- ment over the life of the investment, with no attempt to quantify the benefits of the investment. ROI calculates both the cost and the expected benefits of an investment over a specified period, typically three to five years. Regardless of which path your organization has taken, a third metric is increasingly important: time-to-value. This is a measure- ment for how long it takes for new applications and new initia- tives to begin bearing fruit. Organizations that use this metric generally seek to drive technology-led innovation throughout the enterprise. They're willing to pay for it to get ahead of the com- petition and get to market faster. That's not to say that there's a blank check sitting on the CIO's desk. Although such organizations want to get new services deployed quickly, they also realize the need for a return on that investment. For some aspects, the total cost of ownership must be considered.