Total Cost Of Ownership

TotalCostOfOwnership (TCO) is a technique used to table life-cycle costs of an IT-related investment popularized by GartnerInc. It is said to be suitable for discovering hidden costs that often escape the scrutiny of IT budgetary processes.

An earlier explanation of the method can be seen at http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/hardware/story/0,10801,42717,00.html

Resources

Gartner overview at https://k12tco.gartner.com/home/homepagepromo/files/TCO_Overview.pdf
- link from http://classroomtco.cosn.org/gartner_faq.html. Case studies for some of the schools are available from that site.
WindowsVsLinux (MicrosoftWindows vs LinuxOs) TOC debate at http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/print.php/3297361