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estimating costs based on varying units

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  • 13-12-2016 11:59am
    #1
    RebelButtMunch
    Registered Users Posts: 2,378 ✭✭✭


    Hi
    I want to estimate how much my computer hardware will cost per month. My problem is that the number of machines I'm paying for will increase during the high traffic and decrease during low traffic.
    Let's say at midnight I'm using 2 machines, but during the day it peaks at 10 machines and drops again to 2 at midnight.

    How do I figure out what my average is there? Is it some kind of of SIN calculation?
    Thanks!


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    #2
    Yakuza
    Registered Users Posts: 5,141 ✭✭✭Yakuza


    Using a simple linear model, if your usage were to increase from 2 to 10 (at midday, say) and back down to 2 over a 24-hour period, then your average use is 6 machines per day.
    Basically a constant 2 machines plus the average *extra* (rising from 0 to 8 and back down to 0 in a day - average of 4) is a total of 6.
    Think of your usage as a triangle of base 24 (hours) and height 8. /\ Your usage is the area under the triangle which is half the base times the height. This is thus 0.5 * 24 * 8, or 96 machine-hours. Divide by 24 to get machine-days and then add on your constant 2.

    (If your usage isn't as linear, then the above won't work (but you could adapt the above example by considering a series of smaller time periods (rectangles) to measure the area of, add up all these bits and divide by 24 to turn into days).


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