Cloud / Hosting
Direct cost of cloud infrastructure, hosting, storage, and compute used to deliver the product (AWS, GCP, Azure, CDN). A cost-of-revenue line because it scales with serving customers. For infrastructure-heavy and AI products this is often the largest COGS component. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).
I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier)
No public third-party standard anchors this KPI yet, so I'mBoard authors and maintains the definition — transparently labeled as editorial tier. See the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system and the back-attribution workstream.
Rogue ID: finance.cloud_hosting
Type: Currency
Domain: Finance
Definition
Direct cost of cloud infrastructure, hosting, storage, and compute used to deliver the product (AWS, GCP, Azure, CDN). A cost-of-revenue line because it scales with serving customers. For infrastructure-heavy and AI products this is often the largest COGS component.
Formula
Direct cloud / hosting / compute cost of delivering the product for the period.Why it matters
A primary driver of gross margin, especially for infrastructure- and AI-heavy products.
How to interpret
Track as a percentage of total revenue; a rising ratio signals margin pressure or unoptimized infrastructure.
Related KPIs
finance.total_cogsfinance.gross_margin_pct
Source
I'mBoard editorial — authored and maintained by I'mBoard, first published 2026-04-01. No third-party standard is cited for this KPI; when one emerges, the definition is back-attributed and promoted to the published tier (a minor version bump). Read the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system, attribution rules, and dispute process.
Stage relevance
| Company stage | Priority |
|---|---|
| Series A | Recommended |
| Series B | Recommended |
| Series C+ | Recommended |
| Public | Recommended |
Suggested for stages: Series A, Series B, Series C+, Public.
Default owning functions
- Finance
Machine-readable
- This KPI as JSON:
/api/ontology/finance/cloud_hosting.json - All Finance KPIs:
/api/ontology/finance.json - Full catalog:
/api/ontology/index.json
Burn Rate Scenarios
Forecast burn-rate matrix across three scenarios — conservative (defensive cost plan, slow revenue), mostLikely (current best-estimate), bestCase (aggressive investment with strong revenue) — with gross + net burn for each. Bound to the ScenarioBurnRateMatrix widget alongside the historical `finance.burn_rate_actual` anchor. The board reads this to understand what range of cash trajectories the company is planning for and which one management has chosen as the base case. Common pitfall: the three scenarios cluster tightly (all within ±10% of each other) — that's not three scenarios, it's one scenario with rounding error. Real scenarios should reflect meaningfully different operating decisions and produce visibly different runways. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).
Contractors / Outsourcing
Cost of freelancers, dev shops, outsourced QA, and temporary engineering help for the period. Often used to flex capacity without permanent headcount. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).