How to calculate DevOps platform total cost of ownership

This post introduces a detailed worksheet for calculating the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a DevOps platform. It breaks down costs into categories like platform access, CI/CD consumption, AI usage, runner infrastructure, security and compliance, additional tools, support, internal operations, and migration/change costs. It emphasizes modeling cost drivers independently (headcount, usage, complexity) and highlights the hidden costs of tool sprawl, such as integration maintenance, administration, and troubleshooting. The post also offers strategies for reducing TCO, including right-sizing licenses, optimizing CI/CD compute, and building flexibility into AI spend.