| Course | BU 455 Big Data Management |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 7 |
| Paper type | Cost and capability analysis |
| Length | About 830 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | BS in Business Analytics |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for BU 455 Unit 7
People Cost More Than Machines in Every Option: A Three-Year Cost and Capability Analysis of Three Data Architectures for a Composite Bike-Share Operator
Student Name
Business, Herzing University
BU 455: Big Data Management
Instructor Name
April 8, 2026
People Cost More Than Machines in Every Option: A Three-Year Cost and Capability Analysis of Three Data Architectures for a Composite Bike-Share Operator
The Options and the Period
Earlier units for Pedalworks Mobility, whose shared bikes run through the course's fictional Pacific Northwest city, tested the existing database, chose storage formats, designed a small streaming path and ran a distributed job. Three architectures remain as serious options, and this analysis prices each over three years, 2026 through 2028, including the people needed to build and run it, and counts the skills each demands against the skills the company already has. It ends by naming the figure the comparison is most sensitive to. All prices are composite estimates based on typical list prices for the company's cloud provider in early 2026, and each is stated as an assumption that the finance lead can replace with a quote.
Option A extends the conventional setup: the managed PostgreSQL database with a read replica, columnar files in object storage queried from a single machine, and a managed message queue with a small alert service. Option B moves analysis to a managed cloud data warehouse that charges for storage and for the computing each query uses, with a subscription tool for loading data and the same queue. Option C builds a data platform on a distributed processing cluster with a streaming engine, run by the company itself on rented machines.
What Each Option Costs
The data engineer's time is valued at $150,000 a year including benefits, about $2,900 a week. Build time is the engineer's estimate; ongoing time is the share of a full-time role needed to keep the option running.
| Cost line | A: Extended conventional | B: Managed warehouse | C: Distributed platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build time | 6 weeks, $17,400 | 8 weeks, $23,200 | 16 weeks, $46,400 |
| Infrastructure and subscriptions per year | $21,300 | $38,400 (warehouse queries estimated at $24,000) | $40,400 |
| Infrastructure over 3 years | $63,900 | $115,200 | $121,200 |
| Ongoing staff time | 0.25 of the engineer | 0.3 of the engineer | 0.2 of the engineer plus a new platform engineer |
| Staff over 3 years | $112,500 | $135,000 | $90,000 plus $405,000 for a new hire at $135,000 a year |
| Three-year total | About $193,800 | About $273,400 | About $662,600 |
In all three options, staff costs exceed infrastructure costs, and in Option C they are three times larger. Boehm (1981) showed decades ago that people, not machines, dominate the cost of information systems, and cloud pricing has made that truer: machines can be rented by the minute, while skills must be hired by the year. Armbrust et al. (2010) describe the appeal of cloud computing as turning fixed capital costs into variable operating costs, which explains why the infrastructure lines here differ less than the staffing lines.
Skills Needed Against Skills Held
Pedalworks has one data engineer, experienced with PostgreSQL and Python, and three analysts who write SQL well but have never managed infrastructure. The table counts what each option demands.
| Skill | Held now | Option A | Option B | Option C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SQL and relational databases | Yes, whole team | Needed | Needed | Needed |
| Python for data jobs | Engineer only | Needed | Needed | Needed |
| Columnar files and a single-machine query engine | No, about two weeks to learn | Needed | Not needed | Needed |
| Warehouse cost management | No | Not needed | Needed; unmanaged queries raise the bill | Not needed |
| Distributed processing and tuning | No | Not needed | Not needed | Needed |
| Running a cluster and streaming engine: upgrades, failures, security | No | Not needed | Not needed | Needed; requires a hire |
Option A needs one new skill that the team can learn in about two weeks. Option B needs one new discipline, watching query costs, which the analysts can learn but which carries a financial risk if neglected. Option C needs two skills nobody at the company has and cannot reasonably learn while running the service, which is why its cost includes a new hire. Counting a missing skill honestly means pricing either the hire or the training and the months of lower productivity while it is learned; Option C's line uses the hire, since the engineer cannot run a cluster and the existing systems alone.
Risks the Totals Do Not Show
Three risks sit outside the dollar totals and are recorded beside them. Option A depends heavily on one data engineer; if that person leaves, the replica, the file exports and the alert service must be understood by a successor. The mitigation is documentation and a second person, one analyst, trained on the nightly jobs, which the plan budgets as two weeks of the analyst's time. Option B carries a lock-in risk: queries written for one warehouse's particular features are costly to move, and prices are set by the vendor. Option C carries a hiring risk: platform engineers are scarce in the region, and the role could stay empty for months while the cluster needs care. Kleppmann (2017) notes that operational simplicity is itself a design goal, because every component added to a system is one more thing that can fail and one more thing someone must understand at two in the morning. By that measure too, the options rank in the same order as their totals.
The Figure the Comparison Depends On
The ranking is most sensitive to ongoing staff time. If Option C could be run with half a platform engineer rather than a full one, its total would fall by about $200,000, still well above the other two. Between A and B the sensitive figure is warehouse query spending: at $12,000 a year rather than $24,000, Option B's total falls to about $237,400, still about $43,600 more than A. Growth in telemetry changes less than expected. If the five-second firmware multiplies telemetry sixfold, Option A needs a larger replica, adding about $9,600 a year, and Option B's storage and queries rise by perhaps a third; A remains the cheapest. The comparison would reverse only if the company's data grew far beyond what one machine can scan, the point the distributed exercise put at about ten times today's telemetry. Pedalworks and all of its prices and skills are invented for the course.
References
Armbrust, M., Fox, A., Griffith, R., Joseph, A. D., Katz, R., Konwinski, A., Lee, G., Patterson, D., Rabkin, A., Stoica, I., & Zaharia, M. (2010). A view of cloud computing. Communications of the ACM, 53(4), 50-58. https://doi.org/10.1145/1721654.1721672
Boehm, B. W. (1981). Software engineering economics. Prentice Hall.
Kleppmann, M. (2017). Designing data-intensive applications: The big ideas behind reliable, scalable, and maintainable systems. O'Reilly Media.
What the BU 455 Unit 7 instructions ask for
In the seventh unit, BU 455 asks students to compare the costs and capability demands of architecture options. Common requirements include pricing each option over a stated period, including build and ongoing staff time, comparing required skills with existing skills, identifying the assumption the comparison is most sensitive to and noting risks the numbers miss. Many instructors ask where prices come from if the case supplies none; labeled estimates from published list prices are acceptable. Counting a missing skill means pricing training or a hire. Using what an employer actually pays is discouraged. Cost and skills tables with an APA 7 discussion of sensitivity are typical deliverables.
How the BU 455 Unit 7 example is put together
The paper defines three options and the three-year period, stating that prices are composite estimates. A cost table sets build time, infrastructure, staff time and three-year totals side by side, followed by a paragraph explaining why staff costs dominate, citing classic and cloud-era sources. A skills table compares six skills with what the team holds and what each option needs, and a paragraph explains how the missing skills were priced. A section tests the ranking's sensitivity to staff time, warehouse spending and telemetry growth. A section records risks outside the totals: key-person dependence, lock-in and hiring difficulty. The paper ends with the scale at which the ranking would reverse.
BU 455 Unit 7 rubric: what full points look like
Cost and capability rubrics usually reward complete costing, inclusion of staff time, an honest skills comparison, sensitivity analysis and recognition of unpriced risks, plus writing and sources. Complete costing earns full credit when build, infrastructure and ongoing costs appear for every option over the same period. Staff time scores highest when valued explicitly. The skills comparison rewards listing what the team holds against what each option needs. Sensitivity is judged on whether the student names the figure that most changes the ranking and tests it. Unpriced risks earn points when recorded beside the totals. Instructors often credit analyses that reveal a cheap-looking option is expensive once people are counted.
Common BU 455 Unit 7 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Cost analyses often lose points by comparing only infrastructure prices, making complex options look cheap. Another common problem is assuming the current team can run any system without training or hiring. Students frequently mix periods, pricing one option monthly and another annually. Some present a single scenario without testing which assumption matters most. Others ignore risks such as dependence on one engineer or a vendor's pricing power. Many never state where prices came from. A total with no source invites the reader to doubt every row, while a labeled list price or a stated salary assumption lets a marker follow the arithmetic and agree with it. Finally, citing what your employer pays for its platform can breach confidentiality agreements; labeled estimates from public price lists show the same analysis.
Get a BU 455 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
Point us at the Unit 7 instructions in your BU 455 classroom, the rubric, the case, and whatever figures or period the assignment fixes. The custom example prices over a stated horizon, counts roles and training as rows, sources every number it uses, and closes on the input that would reverse the ranking. First custom sample free, back in 24 to 48 hours.
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BU 455 Unit 7 questions, answered
Where do the prices come from if the case supplies none?
From published rates you cite with the date you checked them, or from assumptions you state and show the arithmetic behind. Both are acceptable, and mixing them is fine provided each row says which it is. What costs credit is a total nobody can rebuild, because a reader who disagrees with one input then has no way to see what that disagreement would change.
How do I count a skill the organization does not have?
As a cost with a duration attached rather than a footnote. An approach nobody on the team has run means hiring, training or outside help, and each of those takes time before the option is genuinely usable. Say which route the case supports and how long it runs. Treating an unfamiliar approach as free to adopt is what tips these comparisons toward the wrong option.
Can I use what my employer actually pays for its platform?
No. Contracted rates are negotiated terms, commonly covered by a confidentiality clause inside the agreement itself, and total infrastructure spend is a figure finance treats as sensitive. Price the case from published rate cards you cite or from assumptions you show in full. Your sense of which lines always get underestimated will sharpen the analysis, and that instinct is not confidential.
Where can I find a free BU 455 Unit 7 sample paper?
This page carries the whole BU 455 Unit 7 cost and capability analysis free, including the cost table, the skills comparison and margin notes. Comparing other options? Share your instructions and a version priced for them is drafted without charge, generally within two days.
How do I count a skill the organization lacks in BU 455 Unit 7?
Price the hire or the training and the lost productivity while it is learned. The sample prices a new platform engineer for the distributed option because the existing engineer cannot run a cluster alongside current systems.