Looking at a three-year commitment for Carbon Black, and the standard quote is useless for forecasting. It's just a flat annual fee. In the real world, our workload, headcount, and cloud usage change.
I need to model the true TCO over the term, not just accept the list price. The sales rep is pushing for a signature but can't (or won't) provide the granular cost drivers.
From a FinOps perspective, here's what I'm after. Has anyone successfully gotten VMware to provide this level of detail pre-signature?
* **Usage-based component breakdown:** What exactly is metered? Is it endpoints, workloads, cloud accounts, data ingested? I need the unit cost for each.
* **Historical growth clause transparency:** The contract will have a provision for overage. What's the exact pricing model for exceeding the committed tier? Is it a punitive list price or a discounted rate?
* **Discount structure clarity:** Is the discount on the list price, or is it a committed use discount (like cloud RIs)? If we don't hit our commit, do we get billed for true-up or just lose the discount?
* **Support & professional services cost projections:** Are future price increases on support (e.g., 3% annual uplift) baked in? What are the day rates for post-sales consulting if we need help deploying?
Without these variables, any "forecast" is just guesswork. I'm not interested in a three-year surprise.
What specific data points or clauses did you insist on getting added to the quote or contract appendix? Did they push back, and if so, what was the leverage to get it?
Your cloud bill is 30% too high