Cloud 101: How Much Will Going to the Cloud Cost? May 3, 2024 – Posted in: Cloud Computing, IT Support – Tags: Beyond the Cloud, cloud 101, ITSupport, ManagedServices, SmallBusiness, software-as-a-service, what is cloud
How much a migration to the cloud will cost will vary depending on your specific needs and software requirements, but it will be a significant investment. For an example a rough estimate for a company with fairly simple setup for 10 users, with a £6,000 server would compare as:
| Monthly Costs | Setup Costs | Annual cost over 5 years | |
| New on-premises only solution | £261.53 | £12,810 | £5,700.40 |
| On-premises server, emails in the cloud | £319.53 | £11,005 | £6,035.40 |
| Serverless solution | £181.00 | £4,230 | £3,018.00 |
This calculation factors in things like the cost of the AC to your server cabinet, the cost of site visits from your IT Company for the server, the cost of buying and maintaining an uninterruptable power supply and the cost of maintaining upgrades.
A breakdown of the estimates
| Up-front costs: | All on Prem | Server + Cloud Email | Serverless |
| Hardware costs – server & backup disks, Uninterruptable Power Supply | £7000 | £7000 | – |
| Building the server – initial setup and build of Host & 2 VMS | £720 | £720 | – |
| Migrating/setting up authentication, files, DHCP and networking | £1080 | £1260 | £1,260 |
| Building of exchange and Migration of emails | £2160 | £450 | £450 |
| Setup of Backup and Antivirus/Microsoft Defender, Printing & Scanning | £900 | £900 | £1,835 |
| Licensing – Exchange Cals | £500 | – | – |
| Joining PCs to the new domain solution, installing O365 etc. | £450 | £675 | £675 |
| Ongoing monthly costs: note – all annual costs have been divided by 12 | |||
| AC Costs based on annual average for running a standalone AC unit | £92 | £92 | – |
| Microsoft Licensing | – | £103 | £181 |
| Site visits based on 4/year | £90 | £90 | – |
| Exchange updates based on 6/year | £45 | – | – |
| Antivirus Licenses | £31.2 | £31.2 | – |
| New UPS batteries at 1 in 5 years estimated | £3.33 | £3.33 | – |
If you require an app server in the cloud the costs could be significantly more. Costs of initial setup and software install will be comparable between a cloud server and a new box. The initial cost of the server will disappear, but the monthly costs of a cloud server comparable to a £5,000 small business server would be around £400/month.
The differences between the solutions can be summarised
| Setup | Emails | Files | Auth. | Backup | Antivirus | Email Security | Office Suite | Printing | Scanning |
| New On-premises only solution | On-prem Exchange | Server Share | On-prem Active Directory | Windows Server Backup to Disk | 3rd Party Solution | Exchange Basic | One off Licenses | Shared from Server | Scan to Server Shared Folder |
| On-premises server, Emails in the cloud | MS 365 | Server Share | On-prem Active Directory | Windows Server Backup to Disk | 3rd Party Solution | Exchange Basic | Office 365 | Shared from Server | Scan to Server Shared Folder |
| Serverless solution | MS 365 | Share Point & OneDrive | Microsoft Entra | Full Cloud Backup | Microsoft Defender | Microsoft Defender | Office 365 | On each device | Scan to Email |
If you’d like help reviewing the options available or finding out how much a migration will cost give us a call on 01245 265 100 or email ">.