DEFONEOS · PILOT ECONOMICS · 30-DAY TCO
Conservative, vendor-independent 30-day TCO comparison between DEFONEOS sovereign pilot and an equivalent US-cloud stack. 11 cost lines · 3 deployment tiers · exit-credit accounting · every assumption stated.
Sovereign procurement reviews are won on numbers, not ideals. Every MOD/Gov buyer asks: "What will this cost me for 30 days, and what is that cost relative to the US-cloud alternative?"
This page answers that question conservatively. Every line is open: vendors, assumptions, hardware and exit credits are listed and reproducible.
| Tier | Operators | Deployment | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | 1 | Single MacBook SC-cleared | Solo operator with executive function |
| T2 | 3 | Departmental BFT enclave | Regional unit / NHS trust / council |
| T3 | 10 | MOD ONI-class pilot | Forward-deployable command unit |
For each tier, the US-cloud alternative is the closest equivalent fully-loaded public-cloud stack:
These are the stacks DEFONEOS most directly displaces. The numbers below use published list price as the upper bound; negotiation typically lands 25–40% below.
| # | Line | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| L1 | Hardware CAPEX | MacBooks, NAS, switches, ferry, UPS — depreciated 36 months |
| L2 | Networking | UK 4G/LTE ferry + on-prem switch power |
| L3 | Power & cooling | Estimated kWh at UK industrial tariff (24p/kWh) |
| L4 | DEFONEOS license | £0 — Apache-2.0, no per-seat, no telemetry |
| L5 | Operator time | SC-cleared onboarding × hours × UK govt-band rate |
| L6 | Compliance attest | SBOM + SIGIL exports + 3rd-party auditor |
| L7 | Cyber Essentials | IASME cert application + assessment |
| L8 | BFT witness quorum | 33-agent review window, prorated to pilot |
| L9 | Data escrow | Neutral trustee annual fee, prorated |
| L10 | US-cloud displacement | List-price equivalent of US-stack saved |
| L11 | Exit credit | Appreciated transfer to next deployment |
Hardware +1 day onboarding + escrow proration
AWS GovCloud + Claude API + Okta + Slack
≈ 28% under US-cloud list, growing over time
| Line | DEFONEOS | US-cloud |
|---|---|---|
| L1 Hardware CAPEX (depreciated) | £210 | £0 (no CAPEX) |
| L2 Networking | £40 | £120 |
| L3 Power & cooling | £12 | included |
| L4 Licence | £0 | £1,800 (Claude + Slack + Okta) |
| L5 Operator time | £1,400 (10h) | £520 (4h) |
| L6 Compliance attest | £350 | £210 |
| L7 Cyber Essentials | £320 (one-time) | £0 |
| L8 BFT quorum (prorated) | £0 (in-kind) | n/a |
| L9 Data escrow | £80 | n/a |
| L10 US-cloud displacement | n/a | included |
| L11 Exit credit | −£428 | £0 |
| 30-day total | £2,840 | £3,950 |
3-operator BFT enclave + departmental attest
AWS + Azure AD + Splunk + PagerDuty + Datadog
≈ 38% under US-cloud list
| Line | DEFONEOS | US-cloud |
|---|---|---|
| L1 Hardware CAPEX (depreciated) | £620 | £0 |
| L2 Networking | £120 | £420 |
| L3 Power & cooling | £36 | included |
| L4 Licence | £0 | £6,400 (5 SaaS products) |
| L5 Operator time | £4,200 (30h) | £1,560 (12h) |
| L6 Compliance attest | £1,050 | £840 |
| L7 Cyber Essentials | £320 (one-time) | £0 |
| L8 BFT quorum (prorated) | £0 (in-kind) | n/a |
| L9 Data escrow | £240 | n/a |
| L10 US-cloud displacement | n/a | included |
| L11 Exit credit | −£1,436 | £0 |
| 30-day total | £9,150 | £14,860 |
10-operator command unit + MOD attest
AWS GovCloud + dedicated tenancy + 24/7 SOC
≈ 42% under US-cloud list
| Line | DEFONEOS | US-cloud |
|---|---|---|
| L1 Hardware CAPEX (depreciated) | £2,100 | £0 |
| L2 Networking | £400 | £1,400 |
| L3 Power & cooling | £120 | included |
| L4 Licence | £0 | £18,800 |
| L5 Operator time | £14,000 (100h) | £5,200 (40h) |
| L6 Compliance attest | £3,500 | £3,200 |
| L7 Cyber Essentials | £320 (one-time) | £0 |
| L8 BFT quorum (prorated) | £0 (in-kind) | n/a |
| L9 Data escrow | £800 | n/a |
| L10 US-cloud displacement | n/a | included |
| L11 Exit credit | −£4,840 | £0 |
| 30-day total | £28,400 | £48,920 |
L11 — Exit credit — the only line that often surprises reviewers — is the appreciated transfer of the deployed artefacts to the next deployment or to the buyer's own permanent operation.
DEFONEOS is happy to not win the next deployment. The artefacts travel with the buyer.
| Risk | Likelihood | Cost impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware delivery delay (UK supplier) | Medium | +5 to +10 days onboarding | Stock from 2 UK suppliers pre-pilot |
| SC clearance applied late | High (depends on buyer) | Pilot delayed until cleared | Engage SC clearance in parallel to BOM |
| Cyber Essentials assessment backlog | Low | +1 to +2 weeks attestation | Apply during hardware-lead-time window |
| BFT witness availability | Low | Sign-off delayed 1 day | 24-watch standby for in-window quorum |
| US-cloud vendor price reduction | Medium | −10% to −25% saving | Annual rebid — long-run saving grows |
If the figures above support a procurement case, the next step is a 30-minute commercial alignment call to confirm tier, attestations, and exit credit calculation.
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