# Data Conversion Strategies for Effective Aviation Technical Support as a Service
## 3 Results  
### Life Cycle Cost Analysis of Centralized and Decentralized Architectures in ATSaaS  
When implementing ATSaaS, organizations must carefully consider the life cycle costs (LCC) of two competing system architectures: centralized and decentralized. Each approach involves different cost structures over the system's life cycle, starting from initial development and extending to long-term operation and maintenance. The Figure 4 illustrates these differences, where \(C_{1}(U_{1},t)\) represents the life cycle cost of a centralized architecture and \(C_{2}(U_{2},t)\) represents the cost for a decentralized system over time \(t\). The key turning point, labeled \(T_{1}\), signifies when one architecture becomes more cost-effective than the other. Figure 4 illustrates the theoretical life cycle cost dynamics of centralized and decentralized ATSaaS architectures. The curves represent the expected cost evolution over time for each architecture, considering initial investment, operational expenses, and scalability-driven cost changes. While the figure provides a conceptual visualization, the specific parameters defining the curves are derived from the model equations presented in the following section. This ensures that the cost trends align with the theoretical framework used to compare architectural approaches in ATSaaS. A centralized architecture typically involves substantial initial investment. This includes the cost of developing a single, unified system that can manage and integrate data from all involved organizations. The design, infrastructure, and scalability requirements for such a system are significant, resulting in higher upfront costs. Once implemented, the centralized system benefits from economies of scale. Maintenance and operational costs grow at a relatively low rate because the system is centrally managed, and efficiency improvements can be implemented across the entire network without significant additional expense. These lower incremental costs over time are represented by the relatively flat slope of \(C_{1}(U_{1},t)\) in the Figure 4.  
In contrast, a decentralized architecture typically involves lower initial costs. Each participating organization develops and manages its own system, which can lead to reduced development costs compared to a large-scale centralized system. The decentralized system is more modular, making it cheaper to implement at the outset. However, the decentralized approach results in higher operational costs as time progresses. Because each organization must maintain and update its own system independently, the cumulative costs rise more steeply over time. This is shown in the figure by the steeper slope of \(C_{2}(U_{2},t)\), indicating more intensive growth in maintenance, upgrade, and synchronization costs as time increases. The difference in the growth patterns of operational costs between centralized and decentralized systems stems from their fundamental architectural characteristics, especially in how they handle scaling, resource utilization, and management. Figure 4: The life cycle cost function for centralized and decentralized architectures. In a centralized system, operational costs grow linearly due to economies of scale and centralized management. A centralized system pools resources, such as computing power and storage, into a single platform. Scaling up requires proportionally adding resources, resulting in predictable cost increases. For example, adding more users or processing additional data may only involve upgrading servers or storage infrastructure, which grows in cost linearly. Centralized management further reduces costs by enabling uniform updates, maintenance, and security measures across the entire system. The cost of managing additional users or data are predictable and grows linearly with time or workload. In contrast, a decentralized system experiences exponential or non-linear growth in operational costs due to its inherently distributed nature.