However, this cannot justify just any disparity in prices. Data science FTW ! Capex => Opex has a name. It's called "a loan". So let's model cloud usage as a l

However, this cannot justify just any disparity in prices. Data science FTW ! Capex => Opex has a name. It's called "a loan". So let's model cloud usage as a loan. Let's assume you want, for an employee, a machine learning rig and you set depreciation on 2 years. Let's also assume that the article is correct about the ballpark figures, somewhere around $1400/month for renting, and $3000 for the machine. And let's ignore the difference in power usage, extra space, bandwidth, ... (which is going to be 2 digit dollars at the very most anyway, since you need all that for the employee in the first place) So how much interest does cloud charge for this Capex => Opex change ? Well 33600/30000.5 or 613.5% per year. Pretty much every bank on the planet will offer very low credit score companies 30% loans, even 10% is very realistic. There are no words ... Just give the man his bloody machine. Hell, give him 5, 4 just in case 3 fail, and 1 for Crysis just to be a "nice" guy (you're not really being so nice: you're saving money) and you still come out ahead of the cloud. We both know why this doesn't happen, the real reason: you don't trust your employees. Letting this employee have that machine would immediately cause a jealousy fight within the company, and cause a major problem. That's of course why the GP comment is right: leave this bloody nightmare of a company, today.