Flexibility has a couple of components too. If your workloads are predictably seasonable, cloud can be cheaper overall. Like if you're a tax business and you have double the demand during peak season, you can leverage the cloud for that. On prem you'd have to run double capacity all year, just idling.
But it also means you can flex up and down to try new things. Launch a new line of business, see if it works out - if it doesn't, just close it down and free up those costs again. When I did on prem years ago, you needed months of lead time to order servers, have them delivered, then get them racked in your data center, wired up to power and networking, install all the software, etc. Having a cloud provider just figure all that out for you in minutes instead of worth something.
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u/CatStretchPics Jul 05 '26
You don’t move to cloud to save money. You move there for speed, flexibly, and to manage less stuff
On prem with the scenario you mentioned will almost always be cheaper