The Scenario
A 40-person SA logistics company has an aging on-premise server room running file shares, an ERP, and Exchange. The directors want to know whether moving to Microsoft 365 plus Azure is cheaper or more expensive over three years before signing a refresh quote.
The Brief
Produce a three-year total cost of ownership comparison covering on-premise refresh versus cloud migration. Make defensible assumptions about user counts, storage, and licensing, and document them.
Deliverables
- A TCO summary table showing on-premise total, cloud total, and the delta over years 1, 2, and 3
- A detailed breakdown for each option covering: hardware, software licensing, support contracts, electricity and cooling, internet connectivity, IT labour, and contingency
- An assumptions log listing every assumption made (user count, storage growth, average labour rate) so the directors can challenge specific numbers
- A recommendation paragraph stating which option you favour and the three biggest factors a director should weigh in deciding
Submission Guidance
Cloud is not always cheaper. Honest TCO comparisons surface the cost of bandwidth, the labour of migration, and the opex-versus-capex implications. Avoid the cloud-vendor sales-deck trap of comparing only year 1.
Submit Your Work
Your submission is graded against the rubric on the right. If you pass, you get a public Badge URL you can share on LinkedIn. There is no draft save, so work offline first and paste your finished response here.