AWS Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 Practice Question

When performing a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis to compare an on-premises data center with the AWS Cloud, a company must account for both Capital Expenditures (CapEx) and Operational Expenditures (OpEx). The correct answer includes major on-premises costs: hardware purchases (CapEx), facilities costs like real estate and electricity (OpEx/CapEx), and long-term software licenses (CapEx). These are costs that are significantly reduced or replaced by the pay-as-you-go model of the cloud. 'Monthly subscription fees for cloud services' is a cost associated with the cloud environment, not the on-premises data center being evaluated. 'Application update costs' are generally tied to the software development lifecycle and often remain similar regardless of where the application is hosted. While 'the cost of managing on-premises security appliances' is a valid on-premises expense, the correct option provides a more comprehensive list of the foundational infrastructure costs that are replaced when migrating to the cloud.