Cloud Efficiency Score Calculator

score = utilisation ÷ target × 30% + commitment coverage × 25% + (100 − waste% × 4) × 25% + (100 − unit cost movement × 2) × 20%. Efficiency is not the same as spending less: an estate whose bill grows while its cost per transaction falls is getting more efficient. The score therefore blends the unit economics trend with the three operational inputs that drive it — how hard the fleet works, how much of it is discounted, and how much of the bill is waste.

Total spend rises with a growing business, so leadership needs a metric that separates growth from inefficiency, and cost per unit of business output is that metric. The weights here are a reasonable default rather than a standard, so adjust them to match what your organisation actually optimises for.

This calculator takes 7 inputs: Total monthly cloud spend, Business transactions served, Previous cost per million transactions, Average CPU utilisation, Target utilisation, Commitment coverage, Spend classified as waste. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.

Whatever the business already reports: orders, active users, API calls, streams or gigabytes processed. The value of the metric comes from tracking one consistent unit over time, not from picking the theoretically perfect one, so pick a unit finance already recognises.