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1. The Hidden Price Tag of Traditional IT Labs
For decades, universities and enterprises have treated physical computer labs like mandatory infrastructure build them once, sweat the assets for five years, hope nothing breaks. Yet the true cost is never just the servers you see in the rack. It is the compound expense of hardware refresh, real-estate, WAN, power, and security all front-loaded into your capital-expenditure (CAPEX) budget.
Below we break down those cost buckets and show why an OPEX, pay-per-use model such as Zenaws™ Cloud Labs can save 50‑70 percent, free up cashflow, and still deliver world‑class resilience.
2. Cost Bucket #1 – Hardware & Licences
Typical on‑premise build (100 learner seats, 5‑year depreciation):
| Item | Qty | Unit Cost (₹) | 5‑Year CAPEX (₹) |
| Tower/Blade servers (CPU, GPU mix) | 8 | 4 00 000 | 32,00,000/- |
| SAN / NAS | 1 | 6 50 000 | 6,50,000/- |
| Network switches & firewalls | 5 | 1 20 000 | 6,00,000/- |
| OS & hypervisor licences | — | — | 3,00,000/- |
| Total | 47,50,000/- (~ US $57 K) |
With Zenaws™, labs spin up on‑demand in AWS (Mumbai or Hyderabad AZs). You pay ~₹68/hour for a 4 vCPU/16 GB VM and nothing when idle. A 100‑seat class averaging 4 hours/day, 20 days/month costs:
100 VMs × ₹68 × 4 h × 20 d ≈ ₹5,44,000 per month.
…but Zenaws™’ behavioural auto‑shutdown cuts idle time by 35‑40 %. Net monthly spend ≈ ₹3.5 L and scales down to zero between semesters no upfront ₹47 L cheque.
3. Cost Bucket #2 – Real‑Estate
Server rooms need raised flooring, precision cooling, fire suppression, and 25–35 sq ft per rack. At an average Indian metro lease of ₹120/sq ft/month, one small lab rack (150 sq ft incl. clearance) costs ₹1.8 L/year. Add interior CAPEX (~₹7 L) and annual AMC.
Zenaws™ need? Zero square feet. Everything lives in AWS data‑centres that already meet Tier III+ specs.
4. Cost Bucket #3 – WAN & Remote Access
- 1 Gbps dedicated Internet line: ₹85 000/month
• VPN, firewall clusters: ₹4 L CAPEX + ₹80 000/yr support
Zenaws™ tunnels traffic through existing campus Internet; no inbound VPN required. Authentication rides over HTTPS+SSO. Savings: ₹12 L/year for a single link.
5. Cost Bucket #4 – Power & Cooling
Rule of thumb: 1 kW per rack × ₹10/unit × 24×365 ≈ ₹87 K/year plus 40 % overhead for CRAC cooling. Over five years, power & cooling alone eat ₹6 L often missed in ROI worksheets.
Zenaws™ shifts this to AWS where power is baked into the hourly rate. Your on‑prem meter no longer spins.
6. Cost Bucket #5 – Physical & Cyber Security
- Biometric doors, CCTV, guards: ₹2 L/year
• Patch management, SIEM, anti‑virus licences: ₹1.5 L/year
Zenaws™ inherits AWS ISO 27001, SOC‑2, PCI‑DSS controls; you focus only on IAM policies inside the portal. Your security OPEX shrinks by 60‑70 %.
7. Three Quick Numeric Scenarios
| Scenario | Traditional 5‑Year TCO | Zenaws™ Pay‑per‑Use | % Savings |
| Mid‑size college (100 seats) | ₹1.05 Cr (CAPEX+O&M) | ₹42 L (average utilisation 45 %) | 60 % |
| Corporate bootcamp (50 seats, 12 wks/yr) | ₹35 L | ₹8 L | 77 % |
| GPU research (8×A10 GPUs) | ₹48 L hardware | ₹7.5 L/yr billed | 68 % |
Assumptions: rupee figures rounded, AWS Mumbai pricing at May 2025 spot rates, 35 % idle‑time optimisation by Zenaws™ scheduler.
8. Beyond Rupees Agility, Reliability, Peace of Mind
- Scale instantly to 10 to 1000 labs for a hackathon, then scale back to 10.
- Zero downtime upgrades new images roll out behind the scenes.
- Browser‑only access lets learners switch devices mid‑lab; no VPN grief.
- Four‑layer governance + audit logs keep deans and CISOs happy.
9. Ready to Ditch the Steel and Cables?
Zenaws™ delivers enterprise‑grade labs at a fraction of the CAPEX. Stop budgeting for floor space and diesel gensets start paying only for the minutes your learners are actually learning.