there is no cost savings, just like there isn't with most (all?) cloud services, and that isn't the intent of those services, or this one. the intent is to low

there is no cost savings, just like there isn't with most (all?) cloud services, and that isn't the intent of those services, or this one. the intent is to lower one-time, up-front costs as much as possible, and spread that cost of entry out over multiple fiscal years as a smaller repeating subscription fee, even if the overall cost increases. service vendors, like AWS and Microsoft, LOVE more constant, predictable, and even income, and businesses love lowering one-time expenses, even if it costs more overall in the long run to do it. yes, thin clients (at a minimum) are needed, but those are cheap, easily deployed, and last for years.