Migration to the Cloud-Estimate Cost savings with TCO Calculator
Tags: totalcostofownershipcalculator, tco, costsavings, migrationtocloud
Published: 2023-06-27 11:54:08

In my earlier blog post, [Manage the Cost of your Cloud Resources](https://dev.to/yemmyoye/manage-the-cost-of-your-cloud-resources-3c9h), I have discussed about Migration to the Cloud and its benefits. 

Here, we will look at how organisations can make informed decisions by estimating the cost that will be saved when they chose to migrate their business operations from on premise to the cloud environment. A very useful tool in this instance is **Total Cost of Ownership Calculator (TCO)**.This calculator compares the cost of using the Infrastructure for your business workloads on premise with the cost of infrastructure needed to run the same workload in the cloud.

Let's explore this with the following steps
**Step 1**
Type 'Total Cost of Ownership Calculator' in your browser

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ywd3ubxxd6jtday2zdce.png)

Click on 'Total Cost of Ownership(TCO) Calculator|Microsoft Azure'

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/geqpx3g0xa5gml0dru8o.png)


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/52kndhdk2on4lg6fjfcd.png)

**Step 2**
The first step on the Calculator is to define your workload. Here you will enter the details of your on premise workloads
(a) For Servers, Click on **Add Server Workload**

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/9jjeabf5k5hmw8f1yuqo.png)

Under Workload 1, I wiil select Windows operating system and leave other parameters at default

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0nf9cnu17879ycr85ekg.png)

Under Workload 2, I will select Web app under workload type and for operating system I will choose Linux.Other parameters will be left at default


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/bhav6v9fgcjpsnue46ke.png)




(b) For Databases, Click on **Add Database**


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/4pjfrh5fvl947j5bt5vv.png)



Under Database 1 Source, I will select Microsoft SQL Server, and OS will be Windows. Others will be at default


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/tr1lwav99blrejex8kpf.png)

Under Database 2 Source, I will select MySQL Server, and OS will be Linux. Others will be at default


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ejif8zq0lh8m1g3q0kg7.png)

(c)For Storage, **Click on Add Storage** and leave the parameters at default

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/mtfdulce8nvkw0var3k3.png)


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/1fyi0mc65qfgoth2xzx6.png)

(d) For Networking, I will select the Destination Region as North Europe

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/09cqpcajqvp543zlqfjc.png)
 **Step 3**
Click Next


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/nuvp3ih1jyb94v4yd53f.png)

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/8qge82altebmpzptljk5.png)


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/649ptp5mao1imowi5d8s.png)

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/icvfyhoj8zxxpe17woo2.png)

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ipz66crysdb8ovvlsj5k.png)







**Step 4**
I will leave the Assumptions at default and click on Next to view the Report which is the Comparison of on premise cost of infrastructure with Azure cost of infrastructure for the same workload

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/2xnkkmsa352438pyv14t.png)

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/4uqwo5wqpei9cyoqv15v.png)


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/9wxbawiy3mg4iwgjq2he.png)





The Blue graph line indicate the On premise cost while the Green graph line shows the Azure cost for the same workload for a period of five years. There is a wide difference in the two costs. This difference is the cost saved by moving the organisation's workload to the cloud. It is indicated on the graph and this amount to **$98,257** as shown on the top of the graph.

The two pie charts below shows the total on premise cost and total azure cost for the period amounting to **$117,590** and **$19,333** respectively

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/vi1hjmx9ry9c73w6vnv5.png)

The graph also indicate the percentages of cost of each of the services used by the company while on premise and when migrated to the cloud on Azure


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5h8jxms0s6ze8srmpo8q.png)
It is really worthwhile to migrate to the cloud. For instance, some costs that are incurred on premise are not incurred at all in the cloud i.e. Cost of building, equipping & maintaining Datacenter and Networking which are cared for by the Cloud Service Provider while other cost such as Compute services is reduced from 80% on premise to 69% in the cloud.

TCO is a very simple and easy to use tool.

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