> For the cloud, I say "it's expensive" (10x more than a bardebone server).

As do I, although there seems to be some kind of mass delusion in effect that causes disbelief of this.

I'm careful not to quote a single multiplier, though I do point out that it's a multiplier, not just merely a percentage (below 100%) premium. I've found that it can vary between 2x-10x, depending on ones specific performance needs and how much one is paying for colo "space" (power).

Part of what I've been realizing is feeding the misconception (if not mass delusion) is that the knowledge on how to price/negotiate commodity servers without getting, shall we say, fleeced, is quite rare. Getting a good deal on the base server and CPU doesn't matter if the bulk of the order is RAM and storage and you're grossly over-paying on those.