The actual costs of infrastructure management

Why do businesses get nervous about using cloud services?

Cloud infrastructure has transformed business operations—offering scalability, flexibility, and access to modern technologies. With guidance from DasMeta’s full cloud engineering team, businesses can unlock these advantages while avoiding the hidden traps of poor implementation.

A common perception among businesses is that cloud infrastructure has higher costs. This belief develops from concerns over complex pricing models, underutilized resources, and operational expenses' unpredictability.

This article will discuss how cloud infrastructure can be more cost-effective in the long run compared to maintaining on-premise infrastructure when strategically managed through cloud-agnostic or multi-cloud approaches.

After studying dozens of infrastructures and working with dozens of teams over many years, we came up with this conditional scheme:

50% of the budget is spent on Staff, 20% on Hosting, 30% is for Firefighting

In the conventional setup, companies rely heavily on internal DevOps hires to keep systems running. By contrast, partnering with a full-service cloud engineering team like DasMeta's can reduce overhead while improving system stability and scalability.

In the long run, much money goes into keeping the IT systems up and running instead of focusing on more strategic growth initiatives.

60% of the budget is spent on Staff, 30% on Hosting, 10% on Firefighting

In the case of an on-premise setup with cloud components, we see that companies heavily rely on specialized employees to manage the infrastructures. Hosting costs increase by 10%, and as cloud technologies offer features like self-repair or workload distribution, only 10% of the budget is spent on unplanned and unexpected issues.

From Firefighting to Opportunity

Shifting to cloud models—especially when implemented by an experienced cloud engineering team—moves businesses from reactive firefighting to proactive strategic growth. At DasMeta, we architect for scale, not just quick fixes.

30% Staff, 40% Hosting, 30% Opportunity

A limited cloud model, which involves a partial transition to cloud services while maintaining some on-premise elements, presents a different cost dynamic. Some responsibilities are being shifted to cloud providers; here, only 30% of the budget is spent on Staff. 40% of the budget is spent on Hosting, which includes the combined costs of maintaining in-house infrastructure and paying for cloud services. The other 30% is dedicated to the opportunities clouds provide for growth and innovation, such as access to advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), or Big Data Analytics.

20% Staff, 40% Hosting, 40% Opportunity

In the full cloud model, where a company entirely shifts its operations to cloud services, the budget allocation dramatically changes; only 20% of the budget is dedicated to Staff, and hosting costs remain at 40% of the budget. The full cloud model enables companies to fully embrace the cloud’s scalability and flexibility. DasMeta’s engineers design and manage these environments end-to-end—so your internal teams can focus on innovation, not infrastructure maintenance.

Concerns About Full Cloud Setup

Fear of data breaches and unauthorized access in the cloud.

Concerns about becoming too dependent on a single cloud provider.

Worries about potential escalating costs due to variable pricing models.

Challenges in meeting industry-specific regulations and standards in the cloud.

Difficulties in migrating existing systems and applications to the cloud.

If you want to build an infra that is easy to migrate from one environment to another and avoid vendor lock-in, the best approach is to make a cloud-agnostic tech stack, use libraries inside applications capable of multiple solutions, or choose multi-cloud setups.

Check out our upcoming articles and guides to learn more about Cloud Agnostic Tech Stack and Hybrid Cloud Solutions.

If you want a trusted team to ensure your smooth cloud migration, let's talk!