Cloud Lift and Shift Calculator

Model servers, storage, transfer, labor, and licensing precisely. Compare baseline hosting against target run-state costs. Estimate migration costs, savings, risks, and payback with confidence.

Calculator Inputs

Total virtual or physical machines being migrated.
Used for workload pressure context and risk scoring.
Typical memory profile for right-sized hosted instances.
Total active storage footprint expected after migration.
Time horizon for comparing total ownership cost.
Extra hosted capacity to protect service levels.

Current On-Prem Monthly Costs

Monthly server hardware and platform equivalent.
SAN, NAS, replication, and maintenance costs.
Connectivity, firewall, and switching allocation.
Backup software, media, and recovery service costs.
OS, security, virtualization, and database licensing.
Operations, patching, incident handling, and support.

Target Hosted Monthly Costs

Expected hosted compute cost per migrated server.
Monthly storage rate for the hosted platform.
Core connectivity, load balancing, and security services.
Snapshots, retention, and recovery coverage spend.
Marketplace, subscription, and commercial software fees.
Hosted operations engineering and platform oversight.

Migration Project Inputs

Expected recurring ingress, egress, or replication movement.
Applied to monthly transfer usage assumptions.
Cutover interruption used in one-time cost modeling.
Business impact from service or transaction loss.
Discovery, architecture, wave planning, and governance.
Migration tools, replication utilities, and automation.
Validation, performance checks, and cutover rehearsals.
Upskilling teams on hosted operations and controls.
Premium for external operational management services.
Long-term commitment discount applied to hosted spend.
Expected savings from right-sizing and cleanup.
Added to one-time project costs for risk coverage.
Reset

Example Data Table

Scenario Servers Storage TB Transfer TB On-Prem Monthly Cloud Monthly Migration Cost 24-Month Savings
Branch Systems 12 8 5 $8,250.00 $6,940.00 $9,800.00 $21,640.00
ERP Estate 24 18 12 $15,190.00 $12,318.00 $15,624.00 $53,304.00
Analytics Cluster 36 40 18 $26,600.00 $24,780.00 $24,500.00 $19,180.00

Use the table as a benchmarking guide when estimating mixed workload migration waves.

Formula Used

1. On-Prem Monthly Cost
On-Prem Monthly Cost = (Servers × On-Prem Compute per Server) + Storage + Network + Backup + Licensing + Admin Labor
2. Hosted Compute with Buffer
Hosted Compute = Servers × Instance per Server × (1 + Performance Buffer %)
3. Hosted Monthly Raw Cost
Hosted Monthly Raw = Compute + (Storage TB × Storage per TB) + Network + Backup + Licensing + Admin Labor + (Transfer TB × Transfer Cost per TB)
4. Hosted Monthly Final Cost
Hosted Monthly Final = Hosted Monthly Raw × (1 + Managed Services Uplift %) × (1 - Reserved Discount %) × (1 - Optimization Savings %)
5. One-Time Migration Cost
Migration Cost = Planning + Tooling + Testing + Training + Downtime Cost + Contingency
6. Downtime Cost
Downtime Cost = Downtime Hours × Downtime Cost per Hour
7. Total Cost of Ownership
On-Prem TCO = On-Prem Monthly × Analysis Months
Hosted TCO = One-Time Migration Cost + (Hosted Monthly Final × Analysis Months)
8. Savings, ROI, and Payback
Net Savings = On-Prem TCO - Hosted TCO
ROI % = (Net Savings ÷ One-Time Migration Cost) × 100
Payback Months = One-Time Migration Cost ÷ (On-Prem Monthly - Hosted Monthly Final)

How to Use This Calculator

  1. Enter the number of servers and the average workload profile.
  2. Fill in present monthly operating costs for the current environment.
  3. Enter expected target hosted run-state costs and storage rates.
  4. Add migration project costs including tooling, testing, and downtime exposure.
  5. Adjust uplift, discounts, optimization savings, and contingency percentages.
  6. Choose an analysis period, then press Calculate Lift and Shift.
  7. Review the result summary, payback period, and cumulative cost graph.
  8. Use the CSV or PDF buttons to export the calculated output.

FAQs

1. What does lift and shift mean?

Lift and shift moves workloads with minimal redesign. Servers, operating systems, and applications remain mostly unchanged while infrastructure moves to hosted resources. It is usually faster than deeper modernization, but it may not deliver every architecture efficiency gain.

2. Why should I include a performance buffer?

A performance buffer covers burst demand, monitoring overhead, and sizing uncertainty. It reduces the chance of under-provisioning during early migration waves, especially when legacy servers were capacity constrained or poorly documented.

3. Does this calculator include one-time project costs?

Yes. Planning, tooling, testing, training, downtime, and contingency are added to the hosted total cost of ownership. That makes payback and ROI more realistic than comparing monthly costs alone.

4. What is managed services uplift?

Managed services uplift represents extra recurring spend for monitoring, patching, backup operations, platform engineering, or support purchased from a provider or migration partner.

5. Why might payback show as unavailable?

If hosted monthly run costs exceed the current baseline, the project may never recover its one-time spend within the selected horizon. The calculator shows this directly instead of forcing a misleading payback month.

6. Can I use this for replatform or refactor projects?

Only partially. This model is best for near like-for-like moves. Larger architecture changes usually need different assumptions for databases, scaling behavior, licensing, and engineering effort.

7. What analysis period works best?

Twelve months shows near-term budget effects. Twenty-four to thirty-six months usually captures commitment discounts, operational shifts, and migration recovery timing more clearly.

8. Why are savings and ROI different measures?

Savings compare total ownership costs across the horizon. ROI measures return against the one-time migration investment, so similar savings can still produce different capital efficiency outcomes.

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Important Note: All the Calculators listed in this site are for educational purpose only and we do not guarentee the accuracy of results. Please do consult with other sources as well.