# The Impact of Cloud Versus Local Infrastructure on Automatic IoT-Driven Hydroponic Systems
## 3 Results
### Metrics Results for Performance Comparison Between AFCI and LSI
The Azure SQL Database service uses serverless resources, a setting with minimal costs. Therefore, this service generates an auxiliary monthly cost of 1.27 USD. The Azure Stream Analytics service is the most expensive, as it captures the real-time data stream. This service generates a monthly cost of 81.30 USD. Finally, the total estimated cost is 82.57 USD per month. A fundamental note is that although APCI involves recurring costs, these also cover advanced data security. This is a significant advantage; however, hydroponic farming should not generate considerable data security issues. On the other hand, while LSI appears more economical, it may incur hidden costs through unexpected technical interventions. In the case of adding a new type of crop or a new monitoring area, the following OC observations can be made:  
* APCI requires configuring a new device in the Azure platform and setting up the unique identification code in the firmware loaded on the device, with no other modifications needed;
* LSI requires similar changes, such as associating a unique device code that must be transmitted as an additional parameter through the URL. In this case, the changes are similar to those required for APCI. The fluctuations in Azure service costs and the long-term projections are based on extensive monitoring of cloud resource consumption. In this regard, the following fluctuations have been identified:  
* The estimated minimum cost is approximately 75 USD/month for low resource usage;
* The estimated maximum cost is approximately 120 USD/month in the case of intensive use, including the increase in the volume of data stored and processed. For a long-term projection, the scenarios are as follows:  
* Cost for 1 year (average scenario, 82.57 USD/month) results in approximately 990 USD/year; \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Service Category** & **Service Type** & **Description** & **Estimated Monthly Cost (USD)** \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{Internet of Things} & \multirow{2}{*}{Azure IoT Hub} & Standard Tier, Free: 500 devices, & \multirow{2}{*}{0} \\  & & 8000 mgsgs/day, 0.00 USD/mo, 0 IoT & & \\  & & Hub Units; & & \\  & & Single Database, vCore, General & \multirow{4}{*}{1.27} \\  & & Purpose, Serverless, Standard-series & \multirow{4}{*}{1.27} \\  & & (Gen 5), Locally Redundant, 1 Billed & \multirow{4}{*}{1.27} \\ Databases & Azure SQL Database & vCores, RA-GRS Backup Storage & \multirow{4}{*}{1.27} \\  & & Redundancy, 0 GB Point-In-Time & \multirow{4}{*}{1.27} \\  & & Restore, 0 \(\times\) 5 GB Long Term & \multirow{4}{*}{1.27} \\  & & Retention & \\  & & Standard Type, & \\ Analytics & Azure Stream Analytics & \multirow{4}{*}{1 Streaming Unit(s) \(\times\) 730 h; Stream Analytics on 1 Device(s) with IoT Edge} & \multirow{4}{*}{81.30} \\  & & & Edge \\ Total & - & - & 82.57 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Cost analysis of Azure Services for the hydroponic system in production. The cost over three years (without volume discounts) is approximately 2970 USD. Expanding infrastructure for more hydroponic systems will result in a proportional increase in the costs of Azure services. Regarding the hidden costs of local infrastructure (LSI), the initial operational costs are zero. In the category of hidden fees, the following situations can be considered:  
* Hardware maintenance is associated with the costs of replacing and maintaining local servers;
* Energy consumption of the local server that runs continuously. It can consume an average of 30-50 kWh per month, equivalent to approximately 3.65-6.07 USD/month. The authors note that these costs vary depending on the specific kWh price in each country and that the previous report is comparable to Romania. The OC results contradict the initial hypotheses, OC-H1 and OC-H2, where the authors expected LSI to require more modifications. In reality, the changes were the same at the infrastructure level.