Cloud & Infrastructure

TCO Analysis

3- and 5-year total cost of ownership models across providers — including compute, storage, egress, support, and hidden costs sales reps leave out.

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Overview

Cloud pricing pages lie. The listed price for an EC2 instance or a VM is maybe 60% of what you'll actually pay. The other 40% is egress, snapshots, NAT gateways, load balancers, support tier upgrades, reserved capacity you forgot to renew, and the 'small' database that grew 10x. Most teams are shocked when they see their real cloud bill — and shocked again when they try to model it themselves.

CB4UHost builds TCO models that capture the real costs. We model compute, storage, network, egress, support, migration, and exit costs over 1, 3, and 5 years — across 2-5 providers so you can compare apples-to-apples. We include the costs sales reps leave out: snapshot storage, cross-AZ traffic, NAT gateway hours, data transfer out, and the support tier you'll actually need.

We also model the 'exit cost' — what it would cost to leave a provider if they raise prices or you're unhappy. Lock-in has a real dollar value, and we put it in the model.

Every TCO engagement ends with a spreadsheet you can audit, a written recommendation, and a 60-minute walkthrough. No black boxes — you see every assumption and can adjust them.

What's included

Workload cost model

Detailed cost model for your workload(s) across 2-5 providers, with every line item broken out.

1/3/5-year projections

Cost projections over 1, 3, and 5 years including expected price changes and growth assumptions.

Hidden costs exposed

Egress, snapshots, NAT, load balancers, support tier upgrades, reserved capacity — all the costs reps leave out.

Exit cost modeling

What it would cost to leave each provider — data transfer, re-architecture, re-training.

Sensitivity analysis

How the comparison changes if traffic grows 2x, if egress prices drop, if you commit to 3-year RIs.

Recommendation + audit

Written recommendation plus the full spreadsheet so you can audit every assumption.

How we work

1

Workload profiling

We document your compute, storage, network, and support requirements in detail.

2

Provider pricing gathering

We pull current pricing from 2-5 providers, including reserved capacity and committed-use discounts.

3

Cost model build

We build a detailed spreadsheet with every line item — including the hidden costs.

4

Sensitivity + exit analysis

We run sensitivity scenarios and model exit costs for each provider.

5

Recommendation + handover

We deliver the spreadsheet, a written recommendation, and a 60-minute walkthrough.

FAQ

Why are your TCO numbers different from the cloud provider's calculator?

Cloud provider calculators are marketing tools — they undercount egress, ignore support tier upgrades, and don't model snapshot growth. We include the real costs. Our numbers are typically 30-50% higher than the provider's calculator — and much closer to what you'll actually pay.

Do you model reserved instances and savings plans?

Yes. We model on-demand, 1-year RI, 3-year RI, convertible RI, and Savings Plan scenarios. We also model the commitment risk — what happens if your workload changes and you're stuck with unused reservations.

Can you model multi-cloud or hybrid scenarios?

Yes. Many of our TCO models compare single-cloud vs. multi-cloud vs. hybrid (dedicated + cloud) scenarios. Multi-cloud has operational overhead but reduces lock-in; we quantify both.

How accurate are the projections?

Typically within 10-15% of actual costs at 12 months. Accuracy decreases over 3-5 years due to price changes and workload growth. We include sensitivity analysis so you can see the range.

Ready to talk?

Tell us about your project. We'll come back with a scoped proposal and a fixed-fee quote.

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