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Cloudamize Storage Calculation Standards

Overview

Cloudamize calculates cloud storage costs dynamically based on performance telemetry, target cloud vendor pricing models, and regional service rates. Storage calculations vary depending on the cloud provider and the specific compute or database service being assessed.

This article details the pricing models, formulas, and key metrics the Cloudamize assessment engine uses to compute projected storage Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

Key Metrics Used in Storage Calculations

Cloudamize utilizes the following core telemetry and configuration inputs to determine target storage sizing and pricing:

  • Observed Disk Capacity (GB): The total raw storage capacity currently provisioned/allocated in the source environment.

  • Observed Disk Occupancy (GB): The actual amount of disk space in use during the assessment monitoring period.

  • Throughput (MBps): The observed or required I/O bandwidth, used for performance tier sizing and cost estimation.

  • Deduplication / Compression %: Data reduction ratios applied to calculate Effective Storage Capacity, reducing projected cloud storage footprints where supported.

Note on Right-Sizing:
Cloudamize provides options to calculate storage costs based on Provisioned Capacity (like-for-like) or Observed Disk Occupancy (right-sized based on actual usage). Ensure your assessment design selection matches your intended migration strategy.

Storage Calculations

1. Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS storage costs are calculated by fetching hourly rates directly from the AWS Cloud Pricing API based on Region, Product Family, Volume Type, and Usage Type.

AWS Storage Service

Calculation Logic & Formula Components

Amazon EC2 (EBS)

Fetches the hourly rate per GB for the targeted EBS volume type (e.g., gp3, io2). Total annual cost is aggregated based on provisioned or right-sized volume capacity for the assessment period.

Amazon FSx for Windows (FSxW)

Total Instance Cost = EC2 Compute Cost + EBS Storage Cost (including C:\ system drive and data drives).


Annual Savings = Total Instance Cost - FSxW Cost.

Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP (FSxN)

Projected Savings = Total EBS Cost - Total FSxN Cost.


Note: Total FSxN cost includes storage capacity, throughput, backup retention, and associated service fees.

Amazon RDS (Database Storage)

Calculated using Region, Engine, Deployment Option (e.g., Single-AZ vs. Multi-AZ), and Volume Type to determine hourly storage rates.

AWS Calculation Example

  • Scenario: An EC2 instance with a 500 GB source disk running in US East (N. Virginia).

  • Target Recommendation: 500 GB General Purpose SSD (gp3).

  • Pricing Components: Storage rate = $0.08/GB-month (baseline 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s

    throughput included for free).

    Monthly Cost: 500 GB × $0.08 = $40.00/month

    Annual Cost: $40.00 × 12 = $480.00/year

2. Microsoft Azure

Azure storage calculations account for provisioned capacity, disk tiers, and operational IOPS requirements across managed disk options.

  • Cost of Storage: Represents the estimated USD cost for storage allocated in the recommended configuration, including storage type (e.g., Standard HDD, Standard SSD, Premium SSD), capacity, and performance tier.

  • Cost of IOPS: An estimated monthly expense based on the input/output operations per second (IOPS) required by an asset's workload.

  • Managed Disks Calculation: Evaluates total disk count, size per disk, and observed vs. peak available IOPS to select the optimal managed disk tier.

Azure Calculation Example

  • Scenario: A database host with an observed peak requirement of 2,200 IOPS requiring 256 GB of storage.

  • Target Recommendation: Premium SSD Managed Disk ( P15 Tier - 256 GiB capacity, up to 1,100 IOPS baseline) vs. P20 Tier (512 GiB capacity to meet IOPS needs).

    Pricing Components: Cloudamize selects a 512 GiB P20 Managed Disk ($0.12/GB-month

    base pricing tier).

    Monthly Cost: 512 GiB × $0.12 = $61.44/month

    Annual Cost: $61.44 x 12 = $737.28/year

3. Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

GCP storage cost calculations are based on a combination of observed infrastructure metrics and regional pricing for specific Google Cloud storage tiers.

Calculation Logic & Tools

  • Automated Price Collection: A background process scrapes current GCP storage prices and populates the pricing database (csp_details.gcp_storage_pricing), referencing cost_per_gb_month across storage types and regions.

  • Re-computation Engine: Supports live storage cost re-computation when users modify Storage Capacity Scaling or IOPS Scale in the Designer Web UI.

  • Analytics Procedures: Uses stored procedures (such as update_google_storage_costs) to process and update calculations across the assessment inventory.

Cloudamize evaluates and maps persistent disks to balance workload performance and cost:

  • Standard Persistent Disks: Applied for cost-effective, capacity-centric storage requirements.

  • Solid-state Persistent Disks (SSD): Recommended for workloads requiring high-speed IOPS and throughput performance.

  • Local SSD: Selected for ultra-low latency and maximum throughput demands.

GCP Calculation Example

  • Scenario: An inventory assessment of 19 disks with a total cloud capacity of 4,777 GB.

  • Target Breakdown:

    Standard Persistent Disks (2 disks, 750 GB): $3,978 / year

    Solid-State Persistent Disks (SSD) (17 disks, 4,027 GB): $16,430 / year

    Total Annual Storage Cost: $3, 978 + $16,430 = $20, 408/year

IMPORTANT REGIONAL COST VARIATION:

Storage rates vary by cloud region, vendor data center location, and deployment architecture (e.g., Multi-AZ, regional vs. zonal persistent disks). Ensure the correct Target Region is selected in your assessment design settings prior to generating final financial reports.


If you have any queries, please get in touch with the helpdesk via our Helpdesk Portal or by email at helpdesk@cloudamize.com.