Cloud & Infrastructure · Infrastructure Strategy · Hard · 35-45 min

Logistics Firm Spending $20M/yr on Data Centers

Logistics Firm Spending $20M/yr on Data Centers is a hard Cloud & Infrastructure infrastructure strategy case interview that runs 35-45 min. A logistics company spends $20M a year running on-prem data centers that host its warehouse, routing, and tracking systems — latency-sensitive workloads tied to physical operations. A strong answer works through 5 phases: Clarify the forcing function; Classify workloads by latency and criticality; Compare the three paths (refresh, full cloud, hybrid) on cost, risk, and operational continuity over 5 years; Design the migration so 24/7 operations never stop; Recommend a path with a sequencing plan and explicit kill/checkpoint criteria.

Last updated 2026-09-05

The brief

A logistics company spends $20M a year running on-prem data centers that host its warehouse, routing, and tracking systems — latency-sensitive workloads tied to physical operations. A hardware refresh worth $35M is due in 18 months. The CEO wants to know whether to refresh, exit to cloud, or go hybrid, and how to sequence a move without disrupting 24/7 operations.

How to approach it

  1. Clarify the forcing function — the $35M refresh deadline — and what 'do nothing' actually costs
  2. Classify workloads by latency and criticality — which can tolerate cloud, which must stay near the edge / on-prem
  3. Compare the three paths (refresh, full cloud, hybrid) on cost, risk, and operational continuity over 5 years
  4. Design the migration so 24/7 operations never stop — parallel running, cutover windows, rollback plans
  5. Recommend a path with a sequencing plan and explicit kill/checkpoint criteria

What a strong answer does

  • Ties workload placement to latency and operational criticality rather than a blanket cloud-vs-on-prem verdict
  • Treats the $35M refresh as a real option with a cost, not a sunk inevitability
  • Surfaces edge computing / hybrid as the likely answer for latency-bound physical operations
  • Plans the cutover around continuity risk — parallel run, rollback — not just the end-state architecture
  • Quantifies the 5-year cost of each path before recommending

Red flags interviewers score down

  • Recommends full cloud exit without checking latency tolerance of operational workloads
  • Ignores the operational risk of migrating live 24/7 systems
  • Treats the refresh spend as unavoidable rather than a comparison baseline
  • No sequencing or rollback plan — just an end-state diagram

Cases are written in each firm's style, written and reviewed by working consultants; they are not the firms' own published cases.

More Cloud & Infrastructure cases