This document outlines a method for estimating the IT costs of research data management systems over 10 years. It describes costing two types of systems: an externally hosted cloud-based system (Amazon Web Services) and an internally hosted open source system. Key factors that are costed include storage, hardware, software, staffing, and annual inflation. The document also notes some limitations, such as development costs being excluded and cloud pricing changing over time. An accompanying Excel spreadsheet model allows entering storage and other variables to calculate total costs for each system.

1. Document title: IT Costs for Research Data Management
Last updated: January 2013
Project Information
Project Acronym KAPTUR
Project Title KAPTUR
Start Date 3rd October 2011 End Date 29th March 2013
Lead Institution University for the Creative Arts
Project Director Leigh Garrett, VADS Director
Project Manager & Marie-Therese Gramstadt, VADS Projects Officer
contact details mtg@vads.ac.uk
Partner Institutions The Glasgow School of Art; Goldsmiths, University of London;
University of the Arts London
Project Web URL http://www.vads.ac.uk/KAPTUR/
Programme Name JISC Managing Research Data 2011-13
Programme Manager Simon Hodson
Document Name
Document Title IT Costs for Research Data Management
Author(s) & project role
 Carlos Silva, KAPTUR Technical Manager
 Marie-Therese Gramstadt, KAPTUR Project Manager
Date 15/01/2013 Filename KAPTUR-IT-Costs-public.pdf
URL http://www.slideshare.net/kaptur_mrd/KAPTUR-IT-Costs-public
Access  Project and JISC internal  General dissemination
Document History
Version Date Comments
1 9th August 2012 First draft of report completed by CS and MTG
1.1 17th August 2012 IT Costs model [Excel spreadsheet] produced by CS
th
1.2 15 January 2013 Following testing of the IT Costs model [Excel spreadsheet] by the
four project partners, in conjunction with their IT departments, and
following discussion at the KAPTUR Steering Group meeting on 8th
January 2013, a public version of both the report and model [Excel
spreadsheet] has been produced.

2. Document title: IT Costs for Research Data Management
Last updated: January 2013
Contents
A. Costing principles ............................................................................................................. 2
1. Aim................................................................................................................................ 2
a. Purpose ..................................................................................................................... 2
b. Risk ........................................................................................................................... 2
2. Service to be costed ...................................................................................................... 3
a. Identify characteristics ............................................................................................... 3
b. Identify inter-dependencies and decide how these will be dealt with in the costing
model ............................................................................................................................ 3
B. Establishing the costs ....................................................................................................... 4
1. Costs to be excluded ..................................................................................................... 4
2. Analysis......................................................................................................................... 4
C. The IT Costs Model (Excel spreadsheet) .......................................................................... 5
A. Costing principles
1. Aim
a. Purpose
To present a method and findings which can be used as part of the decision-making process
to establish technical infrastructure for visual arts research data at each partner institution.
This document follows the principles laid out in the JISC Toolkit for Costing IT Services 1.
This method (point 33 as part of the KAPTUR project workpackages2) has been tested with
institutional hosting, based on the example of the University for the Creative Arts, and with
the cloud-based Amazon Web Services3 platform, which is also used by Figshare. The
original model included four worksheets, one for each of the KAPTUR partner institutions.
Each institution was invited to use or adapt the method and findings to establish an
indication of costs and inform their Business and Sustainability plans (point 34 KAPTUR
workpackages). The public version of this worksheet includes the original formulae
calculated by the KAPTUR Technical Manager but no sensitive information from the
KAPTUR project partners.
b. Risk
As KAPTUR is a pilot project there is always the risk inherent with testing new and
innovative approaches and methods, however this is negated by the collaborative
opportunity to learn and inform the project work across the expertise of four institutional
partners.
1
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/flexibleservicedelivery/toolkit_for_costing_ITservices.pdf
2
http://www.vads.ac.uk/KAPTUR/outputs/KAPTUR_workpackages.pdf
3
http://aws.amazon.com/

3. Document title: IT Costs for Research Data Management
Last updated: January 2013
2. Service to be costed
a. Identify characteristics
Based on the findings of the Technical Analysis report4, two systems have been costed:
Type 1 - an externally hosted cloud-based system (Amazon Web Services); and Type 2 - an
internally hosted Open Source system (an institutionally hosted service).
Characteristic Type 1 - externally hosted cloud- Type 2 - internally hosted Open
based system Source system
Provider Amazon Web Services (AWS) is an IT Department
amazon.com company
Users research staff and PhD students; research staff and PhD students;
some external collaborators may some external collaborators may
have access rights have access rights
Discretionary mandated to all externally funded mandated to all externally funded
nature researchers and institutional researchers and institutional
research projects; optional for self- research projects; optional for self-
funded research funded research
Storage the analysis is over a ten year period the analysis is over a ten year
requirements in order to compare with an internally period; a figure can be entered for
hosted Open Source system estimated storage requirements in
year 1 and year 105
Nature of service support and training to be provided support and training to be provided
through IT department or through through IT department or through
dedicated research data dedicated research data
professional; AWS to be in charge of professional; IT to be in charge of
hardware repair or replacement to hardware repair or replacement to
server including storage costs server including storage costs
Status of service (established) proposed (emerging) proposed
Location Amazon Web Services server in the server space to be allocated and
European Union managed by IT
Hardware Managed by AWS externally to the standard physical server set-up:
institutions. modular array; hard disk drives;
RAM memory; vendor care pack;
storage library; connectors; library
tapes (for backup purposes).
Software This is incorporated into the hosting This has been added under the
charges. heading 'licensing' such as the cost
for Window Server licences. This is a
figure to be added by each institution
according to their set-up.
Staff Managed by AWS externally to the This report will consider staff costs
institutions. associated with supporting the
system, but not with areas of work
such as development or advocacy.
b. Identify inter-dependencies and decide how these will be dealt with in the
costing model
Both systems are dependent on connections with a publication system (EPrints). This will be
investigated and developed as part of the KAPTUR Technical workpackages; however this
means that there may be some queries that are currently unknown which arise later in the
4
http://www.vads.ac.uk/KAPTUR/outputs/KAPTUR_technical_analysis.pdf
5
The spreadsheet provides a blank field highlighted in blue for the amount of storage required, this enables
analysis based on a range of figures depending what value is entered in the cell, for example 0.5 Terabytes =
512 Gigabytes; 0.001 Tb = 1.024 Gb.

4. Document title: IT Costs for Research Data Management
Last updated: January 2013
project. For the purposes of testing the model in September 2012 it was assumed that both
Figshare (AWS) and DataStage could be connected with EPrints for the purpose of
publishing research data. It was also noted that cost levels may change if new demands are
placed on an existing service such as EPrints, and benefits may arise from integrating the
research data management work within existing systems and staff roles; these are decisions
to be made by each institution and are outside the scope of this study.
B. Establishing the costs
1. Costs to be excluded
Administration/management costs and estates costs have been considered as part of staff
and non-staff costs which are specifically incurred in order to provide and support the
technical system, but not to promote it or use it; for example work undertaken by Research
Data Managers has not been included. Development costs have also not been included;
operational costs only are relevant for this study. The KAPTUR Technical Manager tested
the IT costs model with the example of University for the Creative Arts using information
collected during September 2012, this has been removed from the public version of the
model.
2. Analysis
For the cloud-based system, prices and price-plans may vary so it is necessary to use
current pricing with Net present values in order to compare the current cost with the value of
the same amount of money in the future.
For the institutionally hosted system it is necessary to consider historical cost depreciation
and/or replacement cost depreciation of equipment, future inflation, warranty renewal, and
reduced performance over time. Figures have been calculated from Komorowski's Hard
Drive Cost Per Gigabyte6 and his formula has been used to extend this up to 2022; it is
acknowledged that this is an estimate only.
Specific staff and non-staff costs have been identified through discussion with the IT
Department of the relevant institutions. Annual inflation has been estimated using the Bank
of England's figures.
By calculating the annual cost over a period of ten years it is possible to have a clearer idea
of which solution will fit best and whether it is worth transferring from one system to the
other. This assessment needs to be reviewed on a regular basis as cloud offerings and
prices change continuously; this is a risk associated with cloud-based hosting.
The following point was raised at the KAPTUR Steering Group meeting on 8 th January 2013:
it should be noted that even if cloud-based hosting, or external hosting, is chosen there can
still be additional staffing costs to the institution - this needs to be taken into consideration as
otherwise there can appear to be a large discrepancy between the costs for external and
internal hosting - with the external hosting model appearing to be much more financially
viable.
6
http://www.mkomo.com/cost-per-gigabyte

5. Document title: IT Costs for Research Data Management
Last updated: January 2013
C. The IT Costs Model (Excel spreadsheet)
This is available for download from:
http://www.vads.ac.uk/kaptur/outputs/KAPTUR_IT_Costs_Template_public.xlsx