Cloud Digital Leader Why Cloud Technology Can Transform Business Practice Question
A company is evaluating total cost of ownership (TCO) for migrating a legacy application to Google Cloud. Which cost should they include in the cloud TCO calculation that is often overlooked?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Data egress fees
Egress charges for data leaving Google Cloud are an often-overlooked cost that can significantly impact TCO.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Software licensing for operating systems
Why it's wrong here
Software licensing for operating systems — In GCP, OS licensing is typically bundled into the hourly cost of VM images, so Windows Server or Linux (open-source) usage is already priced into the compute fee. Premium Linux distributions like RHEL or SUSE appear as higher per-hour rates rather than a separate metered charge. As a result, it is a transparent, predictable component of the TCO, not an underappreciated cost.
- ✓
Data egress fees
Why this is correct
Data egress fees — Data egress is charged whenever bits leave GCP to the internet, another cloud, or in some cases between zones; pricing is usage-based per GB (e.g., roughly $0.12/GB for standard-tier traffic in the first 1TB). For data-heavy workloads like streaming analytics, backups, or inter-cloud replication, egress can exceed compute cost. Because ingress is free and transfer volume is easy to underestimate, this is a major hidden TCO line.
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Cost of physical security for data centers
Why it's wrong here
Cost of physical security for data centers — GCP's data centers employ biometrics, man traps, armed personnel, and continuous monitoring, but these costs are folded into Google's overall infrastructure spend, not billed as a line item. When comparing TCO, customers using public cloud do not pay physical security directly; it is shared across all tenants as part of the pay-as-you-go price. It would appear in an on-premises data center TCO, not a GCP migration TCO.
- ✗
Cost of electricity for servers
Why it's wrong here
Cost of electricity for servers — In an on-premises environment, power and cooling are major operational expenses, but cloud providers like GCP include them in the fixed infrastructure costs that underpin virtual machine and storage pricing. Customers are billed only for metered usage (vCPU-hours, GB-months, network traffic), so electricity does not appear as a separate charge or utility bill. It is an embedded cost, making it an irrelevant line in a GCP TCO analysis.
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Cloud Digital Transformation
Key term
Google Cloud
Google Cloud is a suite of cloud computing services offered by Google that provides infrastructure, platform, and software solutions over the internet.
Key term
TCO
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is the complete cost of owning and operating an IT asset over its entire lifecycle, including purchase, maintenance, support, energy, and disposal costs, not just the initial price tag.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This GCDL practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the GCDL exam.