A CTO is building a business case to migrate from on-premises to AWS and needs to compare the full cost of running the same infrastructure on-premises versus in the cloud. Which concept does this comparison represent?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B
Total Cost of Ownership analysis compares every cost of each option over time — hardware, power, cooling, floor space, and staff on one side versus the corresponding cloud service charges on the other — which is precisely the end-to-end comparison a migration business case needs.
ROI expresses profit relative to invested money, and CapEx and OpEx each describe only one spending category rather than the full ownership picture, even though cloud adoption typically shifts spending from CapEx toward OpEx.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. ROI measures the gain generated relative to an investment; it does not itself compare the full costs of two infrastructure options.
- C. CapEx names only the upfront spending on physical assets, one ingredient inside a TCO comparison.
- D. OpEx names ongoing operating spend only, also a single ingredient rather than the complete two-sided comparison.