COMPARE YOUR OPTIONS
Hiring for cloud operations? Compare the real cost first.
There are three common ways to get your cloud run well: hire a DevOps engineer, bring in a contractor, or hand the platform to a team that runs it every day. Each suits a different situation. Here is how they compare.
SIDE BY SIDE
The three options, line by line.
| What you compare | Full-time DevOps hire | Contractor build + maintenance | InMotion Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $11,000/mo* fully loaded | $125/hr*, then a maintenance contract | From $1,349/mo, infrastructure included |
| Time to start | 3 to 6 months to recruit | Weeks to scope and contract | Days. Migration is included |
| 24/7 coverage | One person cannot cover 24/7 | Rarely included | 24/7 for critical issues, follow-the-sun |
| Holidays and sick days | Coverage stops | Depends on the contractor | A team covers it |
| Depth | One person | One person or a small firm | A team, with a senior cloud architect behind your engineer |
| Knowledge continuity | Leaves when they leave | Ends with the contract | Documented, with a named account engineer |
| Infrastructure included | No. The cloud bill is separate | No. The cloud bill is separate | Yes. One flat monthly fee |
| When something breaks | Your hire, if they are available | Whatever the contract says | Our on-call engineer, in your Slack, within target |
*Industry-standard estimates for a fully loaded DevOps engineer salary and a contractor hourly rate in the US. Actual costs vary.
AN HONEST LOOK
The 3-month contractor plan, honestly.
WHEN IT WORKS
- You need a one-off build with a clear end point.
- You already have ops staff who will take over when the contract ends.
- The system will not change much after it is built.
WHERE IT BREAKS
- Patching and incidents never stop, but the build contract does.
- The maintenance contract rarely covers 2 a.m.
- The knowledge of how it all fits together walks out at contract end.
Use both.
Keep your developer or contractor on application work. We run the platform underneath: monitoring, patching, backups and incident response, in a shared Slack channel your team already uses. Your team stays in charge, and whoever brought us in stays the decision-maker.
FAQ
Common questions about the choice.
Good. Keep them on the work that moves your product forward. We take the platform underneath: monitoring, patching, backups and incident response, so they are not the only one on call.
Yes. Contractors and in-house developers work with us in the same shared Slack channel. We document who owns each change.
Plans are month to month, and if you leave we help export your data. Your environment runs on OpenStack and Ceph, so there is no proprietary layer to unwind.
Compare it against your real numbers.
Order by Oct 30, 2026 and your first month on InMotion Cloud is half off with code SAVE50.
WHAT HAPPENS ON THE CALL
- 30 minutes with a senior engineer, not a sales rep.
- We ask what you run today, where it hurts and what is coming next.
- You get a written plan and cost comparison within 3 business days.
- If we are not the right fit, we will say so.