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Model contract

The common accounting frame for comparing metered services with owned or colocated infrastructure.
Note

Model outputs are released as dated snapshots. They remain scenarios, not live quotes.

Two cost functions

Ccloud(t)=Cusage+Cmanaged+Ccommitment+Cexit C_{\mathrm{cloud}}(t) = C_{\mathrm{usage}} + C_{\mathrm{managed}} + C_{\mathrm{commitment}} + C_{\mathrm{exit}} Cowned(t)=Ccapital/t+Cfacility+Cnetwork+Clabor+Csoftware+Crisk C_{\mathrm{owned}}(t) = C_{\mathrm{capital}}/t + C_{\mathrm{facility}} + C_{\mathrm{network}} + C_{\mathrm{labor}} + C_{\mathrm{software}} + C_{\mathrm{risk}}

The comparison period tt, currency date, tax treatment, financing cost, and residual value must be explicit. Cash cost and economic cost are shown separately rather than blended.

Like-for-like rule

Match usable capacity, required availability, durability, backup, recovery objective, operations coverage, security controls, region, and demand shape. When parity cannot be established, publish two bounded scenarios rather than one false-precision ratio.

Required outputs

  • Monthly and cumulative cost curves.
  • Break-even scale and break-even time.
  • Sensitivity to utilization, hardware life, labor, power, financing, and growth.
  • Cash, economic, and exit-cost views.
  • Applicability boundaries and omitted costs.

The claim is never “self-hosting is X times cheaper” without the workload and assumptions that make XX true.