A realistic breakdown of building and running a data infrastructure: people, cloud, licences and maintenance. And how to make it a predictable cost.
"How much would it cost to build our own data infrastructure?" is one of the hardest questions to answer honestly, because most of the cost never appears on the cloud invoice. We break down the real line items so leadership can budget without surprises.
Many assume cloud is the big cost. In practice, people represent 60–70% of total cost of ownership. Optimising only the cloud bill while ignoring team cost is looking at the small part of the problem.
Looking only at the upfront cost overvalues options with low entry price but high operating cost. Added over three years — including people and maintenance — "do it yourself" projects frequently exceed half a million euros.
A managed service with consumption pricing converts much of that fixed cost into variable and shifts maintenance to the provider. Cost then follows business activity instead of running ahead of it.
Do not just ask what the cloud costs. Ask what the team, the time and the maintenance cost over three years.
A data infrastructure’s cost is dominated by people (60–70%), not cloud, plus licences and never-ending maintenance. Compared over three years, building in-house often exceeds €500,000. A managed service turns that high fixed cost into a predictable, variable one and shifts the operational burden.
Cloud alone can look cheap, but it requires a team to configure, integrate and maintain it. Once you add that, a managed service with consumption pricing is usually more cost-effective and predictable.
With correct sizing, shutting down idle environments and optimising processes. In a managed model, the provider does this continuously.
At least three years (total cost of ownership), including people and maintenance, not just the upfront investment.
Operating a platform needs several specialised, scarce profiles whose recurring cost usually exceeds the cloud bill — around 60–70% of TCO.
Maintenance: pipelines break, sources change format and the platform needs updates. Without it, the initial investment degrades fast.
It converts a large fixed cost in team and infrastructure into a variable, consumption-based one, and shifts maintenance to the provider.
Tell us what you want to achieve. Data Layer connects, processes and delivers the result up and running, with no infrastructure for you to manage.
