Forrester Total Economic Impact Study

Introduction

DigitalOcean commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) businesses may realize by deploying to DigitalOcean.The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of DigitalOcean on their organizations.

To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed four decision-makers with experience using DigitalOcean. For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results into a single composite organization.

Prior to using DigitalOcean, these interviewees noted that when using public cloud hyperscalers – a group of massive companies that provide cloud, networking, and internet services at scale – they suffered large and unpredictable cloud provider costs and were locked into long-term contracts. It was more cumbersome and time-consuming for developers to learn and use the prior hyperscaler cloud services solutions. Inefficient spin-up of new infrastructure and difficulty transferring workloads between clouds strained startups and tech-focused SMBs as they tried to stay agile and grow.

After the investment in DigitalOcean, the interviewees found a cloud provider that was a partner for growth, reflected in transparent and predictable billing, economical pricing, simple and intuitive products, helpful customer support, and service offerings created with developer-focused startups and tech-focused SMBs rather than large enterprises in mind. Key results from the investment include increased productivity and the ability to refocus on developing products, as well as lower and more predictable costs.

“There’s quite simply no way to beat DigitalOcean on price versus performance.” — CTO and founder, cybersecurity

Key Findings

• Cost savings hosting on DigitalOcean totaling $1.4 million. Public cloud hyperscalers charge high fees that do not include key features including bandwidth and customer support usage. DigitalOcean’s costs are 50% less than those of hyperscalers, with free customer service and a generous bandwidth allowance typically included at no charge.

• Increased productivity valued at $300,000. The simplicity and ease of the DigitalOcean experience enables time savings, greater efficiency, and increased productivity valued at $300,000.

• Cost avoidance for dedicated IT/DevOps team valued at $545,000. DigitalOcean frees developers at startups and tech-focused SMBs from spending time on IT and DevOps tasks and allows them to keep their growing team lean by avoiding the hiring of a dedicated IT/DevOps team. All these factors translate to a value of $545,000 for the composite organization over the course of the three-year analysis.

• ROI of 186%. The decision-maker interviews and financial analysis found that a composite organization experiences benefits of $2.37 million over three years versus costs of $829,000, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $1.55 million and an ROI of 186%.

• Security and reliability for global operations. Interviewees expressed that DigitalOcean is secure, reliable, and ready to meet the needs of tech-focused SMBs and startups as they grow. Data centers around the world make it possible for DigitalOcean customers to serve a global customer base.

• Community. DigitalOcean provides highly personalized customer service at every stage — from tiny, bootstrapped startups to fast-growing tech-focused SMBs and beyond — at no cost. DigitalOcean is well known by the developer community for its support of events, popular online community, and educational resources.

• Lack of lock-in. Agility and flexibility are built into DigitalOcean. Predictable, month-to-month billing and the ability to quickly scale up or down or shift workloads between clouds gives growing startups and tech-focused SMBs the tools they need to advance.

For a detailed analysis of the benefits associated with using DigitalOcean, as well as insight into the methodology and data, download the full study.