IT engineer at a dark control desk planning infrastructure amid glowing lime-accented holographic dashboards and gauges
Free IT Planning Tools

Interactive IT Calculators

16 instant calculators for cloud, storage, networks, DR, security & power — estimate, compare options, and sanity-check assumptions before you scope a project. Build a plan as you go and send it to our architects.

Start with a scenario:
All
Cloud
Network
Storage
Security
DR/BCP
EUC/VDI
Power

Cloud vs On-Prem TCO (3-yr)

Compare a 3-year total cost of ownership for on-prem hardware vs IT Vortex cloud hosting.

Cloud
On-Prem 3-yr
Hardware capex + 36 mo run cost.
Cloud 3-yr
36 mo × per-VM cloud cost.
3-yr Difference
Positive = cloud saves.

3-year cost comparison

Downtime Cost Calculator

Estimate what an outage costs per hour, per incident, and per year — and what a 15-minute DRaaS RTO saves.

DR/BCP
0%100%
Cost / hour
Revenue + productivity loss.
Per incident
Cost/hr × outage length.
Annual exposure
Per incident × incidents/yr.

Annual exposure: today vs DRaaS (15-min RTO)

Ransomware Recovery Time

Estimate realistic recovery time: triage + restore throughput + validation.

DR / Security
0%60%
Restore time
Data ÷ effective throughput.
Total recovery (RTO)
Triage + restore + validation.
Effective throughput
Streams × rate × (1 − overhead).

Recovery timeline

Backup Retention (GFS) Sizing

Size a Grandfather-Father-Son backup repository across daily, weekly, monthly and yearly restore points.

Storage
1%20%
Daily tier
Incrementals × daily points.
Long-term (GFS)
Synthetic fulls W/M/Y.
Repository (after dedup)
Total ÷ dedup ratio.

Repository composition (pre-dedup)

Cloud / VM Capacity Planner

How many hosts your workload needs by CPU and by RAM, with N+1 high-availability reserve.

Cloud
Hosts (CPU-bound)
Total vCPU ÷ oversub ÷ cores.
Hosts (RAM-bound)
Total RAM ÷ RAM per host.
Recommended (N+1)
max(CPU,RAM) + 1 for HA.

Hosts required (the larger dimension drives the cluster)

Uptime / SLA "Nines"

Translate an availability target into an allowed-downtime budget, and check what your actual outages achieved.

DR / Ops
Allowed / year
At target SLA.
Allowed / month
At target SLA.
Your achieved
From actual downtime.

Allowed downtime per year by SLA tier

Subnet / CIDR Calculator

Compute network, broadcast, usable range, and host count for IPv4 CIDR blocks.

Network
Network
Mask: —
Usable Host Range
Broadcast: —
Usable Hosts
/31 and /32 handled as special cases.
Use this when scoping VLANs, VPN pools, or segmentation plans.

Bandwidth Converter (Mbps ⇄ MB/s)

Convert between bits and bytes to align ISP links, replication, and backup windows.

Network
50% 85% effective throughput 98%
Effective Mbps
After applying efficiency.
Effective MB/s
Useful for file transfer & repo ingest.
Effective GB/hour
Rough “how much can move per hour”.
A practical default for WAN planning is 80–90% effective throughput.

File / Dataset Transfer Time

Estimate duration to move TB/PB over a given link (with overhead and concurrency).

Network
Estimated Time
Effective rate: —
Per-Stream Target
Helps set expectations for concurrency/limits.
Days (24x7)
For migrations or initial seeding estimates.
Use this for backup seeding, cloud migration windows, or DR initial replication.

RAID Usable Capacity

Estimate usable storage for RAID 0/1/5/6/10 (simplified, planning-grade).

Storage
Raw Capacity
Drive count × drive size.
Usable (RAID)
Usable After Reserve
Planning for snapshots, metadata, growth.
This is a sizing shortcut; vendor implementations vary (hot spares, parity layout, etc.).

Backup Repository Sizing (Planning)

Estimate backup storage needed using data size, change rate, retention, and compression/dedupe.

Storage
Estimated Logical Backup (TB)
Fulls + incrementals (GFS model).
Estimated Physical Repo (TB)
After reduction factor.
Recommended Provisioned (TB)
Includes headroom for growth and variability.
Best for quick repository planning; for production, validate job types (synthetic fulls, immutability, copy jobs).
Explore BaaS

DR Bandwidth Planner (RPO Feasibility)

Estimate bandwidth needed to meet an RPO given data size and change rate.

DR/BCP
Data to Replicate per RPO
Estimated changed data per RPO window.
Required Mbps (effective)
After efficiency factor.
Rule-of-Thumb Link
Rounded to a practical circuit size.
If required Mbps exceeds your circuit, adjust RPO, reduce change rate, or add WAN optimization.
Explore DRaaS

Password Entropy & Crack-Time (Estimate)

Estimate entropy bits and rough offline crack time based on charset and length.

Security
Entropy (bits)
Higher bits = exponentially harder.
Search Space
Total combinations.
Avg Crack Time (offline)
Assumes brute force; real attacks vary.
Promote passphrases + MFA; entropy rises faster with length than complexity.
Explore SECaaS

UPS Runtime Estimator

Estimate runtime from load and UPS watt capacity (planning-grade).

Power
Load % of UPS
Keep typical loads < ~80% for headroom.
Estimated Runtime
Based on usable battery Wh.
Usable Battery Energy
Battery Wh × derating factor.
For precise runtime, use the UPS vendor runtime chart for your exact model/battery pack.

Power → Cooling (BTU/hr) + Cost

Convert IT load (watts) into BTU/hr and estimate monthly energy cost.

Power
Cooling Load
BTU/hr ≈ Watts × 3.412
Total Facility kWh (PUE)
Includes overhead beyond IT watts.
Estimated Monthly Cost
Directional estimate; utility tariffs vary.
Useful for rack planning, colocation comparisons, and “build vs buy” conversations.

VDI / DaaS Sizing (CPU/RAM/IOPS Planning)

Quick estimate for desktop pools. Good for early-stage feasibility and high-level capacity planning.

EUC/VDI
Concurrent Desktops
Users × concurrency.
Total vCPU Required
Concurrent × vCPU/desktop, incl. reserve.
Total RAM Required (GB)
Concurrent × RAM/desktop, incl. reserve.
Total IOPS Required
Concurrent × IOPS/desktop, incl. reserve.
Estimated Physical CPU Cores
Total vCPU ÷ oversubscription (planning-grade).
Reserve Applied
HA/headroom factor applied to totals.
Effective vCPU per Desktop
After profile minimum enforcement (if enabled).
Effective RAM per Desktop (GB)
After profile minimum enforcement (if enabled).
Effective IOPS per Desktop
After profile minimum enforcement (if enabled).
Estimate physical resources required in a VDI environment for proper performance and redundancy
Explore DaaS
Turn Estimates Into a Plan

Let's pressure-test your numbers with an architect.

These tools get you a planning-grade estimate in minutes. A 30-minute working session with an IT Vortex cloud architect turns it into a real design — no obligation.

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