# Cloud Resource Group Modeling

**Purpose:** The cloud what-if screen, and the one place in the product where a proposed cloud workload is costed against an equivalent on-premises cluster on the same chart. Define a workload, set a budget, name an on-prem cost source, and compare.

![Cloud Resource Group Modeling with project setup, budget, on premises cost source selector, custom workload inputs and a cost chart comparing total cost, on premises cost and budget](https://visualoneintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/voi-docs-cloud-rg-modeling.png)

## When to use it

- Price a workload before it is provisioned
- Compare running something in cloud against running it on existing on-prem hardware
- Test whether a proposed addition breaks a resource group's budget
- Build a repatriation or migration case with both sides costed on one basis

## Key areas and metrics

The left column holds the scenario inputs, stacked in three panels.

| Panel | Inputs |
| --- | --- |
| Project setup | Resource Group, Month to Adjust, Project Name, Notes, with delete, reset, and save controls |
| Budget | Budget amount, a Forecast Budget toggle, and **On Prem Cost Source (Virtual Cluster)** |
| Custom Resource (workload) | Number of VMs, Cost, vCPU, Memory (GiB), Disk (GiB), with an add control for further workload rows |

The right side carries a metric tab group across `Cost`, `vCPU`, `Disk`, `Memory`, and `VMs`, so the same scenario can be read as a spend question or a capacity question. The chart plots three series, total cost, on-premises cost, and budget, with the usual zoom presets, date pickers, save, range brush, and export. A grid beneath holds the modelled entries.

## The on-premises comparison is the point

**On Prem Cost Source (Virtual Cluster)** attaches a real, collected virtual cluster to the scenario, and its cost is plotted as its own series. That means the comparison is not cloud pricing against a hand-built spreadsheet estimate; it is cloud pricing against what your own hardware actually costs, derived from the same cost model the rest of the platform uses.

This is the screen for a migration or repatriation decision. Most tools can price the cloud side. Pricing both sides on a consistent basis is what makes the answer defensible when finance asks how the on-prem figure was arrived at.

## Common actions

- **Model more than one scenario.** The value is comparative, and a single model only tells you what one option does.
- **Set Month to Adjust to when the workload actually lands.** Timing changes the annual figure materially, and a scenario dated wrong will be argued with.
- **Select an on-prem cost source even when the plan is cloud.** Knowing the alternative cost is useful context whether or not you choose it.
- **Write assumptions into Notes.** Someone will ask in six months why the model said what it said, and reproducing an undocumented scenario is harder than rebuilding it.
- **Work the Cost tab last.** Establish the capacity shape first, then price it.

## Tips

> Modelled entries persist until deleted, and the panel carries its own delete control for that reason. Clear abandoned scenarios, and name projects clearly enough that nobody mistakes a hypothetical for a committed plan.

## Related screens

[Cloud Resource Group Forecast](https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/cloud-resource-group-forecast/) covers the same resource group without a scenario applied. [Cluster Modeling](https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/virtual-cluster-modeling/) is the on-prem equivalent, modelling hardware additions rather than cloud workloads. [Tag Cost Modeling](https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/finops-tag-cost-modeling/) models by business unit instead of by resource group.

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Source: https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/cloud-resource-group-modeling/