exitcloud.io (EscapeCloud Light)

Welcome to the documentation for exitcloud.io - the Lightweight Cloud Exit Readiness Platform for MSPs and SMEs.

These documentation pages explain:

• what cloud exit readiness means,
• why it matters for organizations relying on cloud services, and
• how exitcloud.io helps assess and manage cloud exit risks in a structured, repeatable way.

exitcloud.io focuses on visibility, risk awareness, and informed decision-making, without requiring intrusive access to cloud environments.

If you are looking for documentation about the open-source CLI tool, see the cloudexit documentation instead.

What is Cloud Exit Readiness?

Cloud Exit Readiness describes an organization’s ability to understand, plan, and execute an exit from a cloud service provider if required.

It focuses on answering practical questions such as:

• Which cloud services are currently in use?
• Where do portability constraints and dependencies exist?
• What risks and blockers would impact an exit scenario?
• Which alternative technologies are realistically available?

Cloud Exit Readiness is not about performing a migration. It is about being prepared to make informed decisions if circumstances change.

Why Cloud Exit Readiness Matters?

Organizations increasingly rely on cloud services for critical workloads. Over time, this often leads to deep technical, operational, and commercial dependencies.

Cloud Exit Readiness matters because:

• regulatory requirements may change
• vendor pricing and commercial terms may evolve
• geopolitical or data residency constraints may arise
• long-term vendor lock-in can limit strategic flexibility

Without visibility into exit risks, organizations are forced to react under pressure.

Cloud Exit Readiness enables proactive risk management instead of reactive crisis handling.

What is exitcloud.io?

exitcloud.io is a Lightweight Cloud Exit Readiness Platform designed for individuals, SMEs and service providers.

It helps users:

• assess cloud exit risks using a structured workflow
• understand dependencies and lock-in drivers
• generate clear, shareable reports
• quantify exit readiness using scoring where applicable

exitcloud.io performs cloud exit readiness assessments on a defined scope, analyzing the services in use, associated risks, and available alternative technologies, and generates a point-in-time assessment report.

The platform is designed to be vendor-neutral, cloud-provider agnostic, and outcome-focused.

How it works?

exitcloud.io provides a structured, end-to-end workflow for assessing cloud exit readiness without requiring intrusive access to your cloud environments.

The platform is designed to make cloud exit risks visible, measurable, and repeatable.

High-level workflow

At a high level, exitcloud.io works as follows:

1. You create an assessment on the platform
2. You define scope, exit strategy, and assessment type
3. You provide read-only cloud credentials
4. The assessment engine performs the analysis
5. Results are stored, visualized, and reported in the platform

The same workflow applies to both one-time and continuous assessments.

Assessment creation

Assessments are created directly in the exitcloud.io platform.

When creating an assessment, you define:

• assessment name and optional description
• target cloud provider
• exit strategy
• assessment type (Basic or Standard)
• execution mode (one-time or continuous)

This ensures that each assessment is clearly scoped and repeatable.

Secure credential handling

To perform an assessment, exitcloud.io requires read-only access to the selected cloud provider.

Credentials:

• are used only during assessment execution
• are not stored in the platform database
• are handled via an isolated secrets manager
• are protected with strict access controls and auditing

exitcloud.io never modifies cloud resources and never performs write operations.

Assessment execution

Once an assessment is submitted:

• the assessment engine takes over execution automatically
• data is collected based on the selected scope and exit strategy
• progress and status are visible in the platform

For continuous assessments, execution is repeated automatically based on the selected schedule (daily, weekly, or monthly).

Reports and insights

After execution, results become available in the platform.

Depending on the assessment type, exitcloud.io generates:

• resource inventory and dependency insights
• cost overviews and trends
• identified exit risks and constraints
• alternative technology mappings
• exit readiness and vendor lock-in scores (Standard assessments)

Results can be viewed online and, where applicable, downloaded as PDF reports.

Designed for ongoing visibility

exitcloud.io is designed not only for one-time analysis, but also for ongoing exit readiness tracking.

Continuous assessments allow you to:

• monitor changes over time
• track risk evolution
• measure improvement or regression in readiness
• maintain an up-to-date view of exit feasibility

This turns cloud exit readiness from a one-off exercise into a managed capability.

Exit Strategy

An exit strategy defines the target scenario that an organization is planning for when assessing cloud exit readiness.

exitcloud.io uses the selected exit strategy to frame analysis, risks, and recommendations based on a realistic exit path.
It does not initiate or perform a migration — it evaluates readiness for a chosen strategy.

Why exit strategy matters

The selected exit strategy influences:

• which risks are highlighted
• how dependencies are evaluated
• which alternative technologies are considered relevant
• how exit readiness and scores are interpreted

Selecting the right exit strategy ensures that assessment results align with realistic planning assumptions.

Repatriation to On-Premises

This strategy assumes workloads would be moved back to on-premises infrastructure.

It focuses on:

• identifying services that are difficult to run outside the cloud
• highlighting dependencies on managed cloud services
• assessing operational and architectural constraints of self-hosting

This strategy is commonly used by:

• regulated organizations
• environments with strict data residency requirements
• organizations reducing dependency on public cloud providers

Hybrid Cloud Adoption

This strategy assumes a mixed target state, where some workloads remain in the cloud while others are repatriated or relocated.

It focuses on:

• identifying which services can be decoupled from cloud-native dependencies
• assessing portability across environments
• highlighting operational complexity introduced by hybrid models

Hybrid Cloud Adoption is useful when:

• full repatriation is unrealistic
• only specific workloads must be moved
• gradual exit strategies are being considered

Migration to Alternate Cloud

This strategy assumes workloads would be migrated to a different cloud provider.

It focuses on:

• identifying vendor-specific services that limit portability
• evaluating availability and maturity of alternative technologies
• assessing effort required to replace cloud-native services

This strategy is commonly used when:

• organizations want to reduce vendor lock-in
• multi-cloud strategies are being evaluated
• commercial or geopolitical risks drive diversification

Assessment Types

exitcloud.io offers multiple assessment types to support different levels of depth, insight, and reporting needs.

Each assessment type builds on the same core exit readiness methodology but differs in scope, outputs, and analysis depth.

Basic

The Basic assessment provides a lightweight, point-in-time view of cloud exit readiness.

It includes:

• Resource Inventory
  Visibility into the cloud services currently in use.
• Cost Inventory
  High-level cost overview based on available billing data.
• Risk Assessment
  Identification of key exit risks and constraints.
• Executive Summary
  A concise report suitable for initial reviews and discussions.

The Basic assessment is ideal for:

• exploratory analysis
• early-stage risk awareness
• quick assessments without advanced scoring

Price: 10 credits

Standard

The Standard assessment extends the Basic assessment with deeper analysis and scoring.

It includes everything from the Basic assessment, plus:

• Exit Readiness Score
  A quantified view of how prepared the environment is for a cloud exit scenario.
• Exit Readiness Report
  An expanded report with deeper insights and supporting analysis.

The Standard assessment is ideal for:

• structured decision-making
• stakeholder and management reporting
• comparing environments or tracking progress over time

Price: 20 credits

Premium (soon)

The Premium assessment will provide advanced financial and landscape analysis.

Planned capabilities include:

• Estimated Egress Fees
  Analysis of potential data egress costs in an exit scenario.
• Estimated Data Landscape
  Deeper insight into data volumes, distribution, and movement considerations.

Premium assessments are designed for:

• complex environments
• regulated or large-scale workloads
• advanced planning and due diligence

Price: 50 credits

Data Region

exitcloud.io supports regional data residency to help meet performance and regulatory requirements.

You select a data region before signing in or creating an account.
All assessment data, reports, and metadata are stored and processed exclusively within the selected region.

How it works

• The data region is selected on the login page
• The selected region determines where your account is created
• All future assessments and reports remain in that region

Once selected, the data region cannot be changed for that account.

🇪🇺 European Union (EU)

Recommended if:

• your organization or customers are based in Europe
• you have GDPR or EU data residency requirements

Details:

• Data residency: European Union
• Hosting location: Helsinki, Finland (Hetzner)
• Optimized for European users

🇺🇸 United States (US)

Recommended if:

• your organization or customers are based in the United States
• you require US-based data residency

Details:

• Data residency: United States
• Hosting location: Ashburn, Virginia, USA (Hetzner)
• Optimized for US-based users

Notes

• Regions are fully isolated
  EU and US environments are separate platforms with no shared data.

• Region selection is permanent
  Accounts and assessments cannot be migrated between regions.

• Choose based on data residency, not convenience
  For regulated environments, always select the region that matches your legal or contractual requirements.

If you are unsure which region to choose, select the region where your assessment data is legally required to reside.

Create an Account

To get started with exitcloud.io, you create an account by signing in through a supported identity provider.

Account creation and login are handled through secure social authentication.

Step 1: Select Data Region

Before signing in, select the data region where your account and assessment data will be hosted:

• 🇪🇺 European Union
• 🇺🇸 United States

The selected region determines:

• where your account is created
• where all assessment data and reports are stored

Note: The data region is selected before login and cannot be changed later.

Step 2: Sign in

exitcloud.io currently supports the following sign-in methods:

• Google
• GitHub
• Microsoft

Click the provider you want to use and complete the authentication flow.

No separate username or password is required.

Sample Assessments

exitcloud.io provides sample assessments and reports to help you understand what a cloud exit readiness assessment looks like and what outcomes to expect from different assessment types.

These sample reports are automatically available once your account is created.

Purpose

Sample reports are designed to:

• demonstrate the structure and depth of exitcloud.io reports
• explain the difference between Basic and Standard assessment packages
• showcase how exit strategies affect findings and recommendations
• help you understand what a real cloud exit readiness assessment delivers

All sample data is synthetic and does not represent a real environment.

Basic

• Cloud provider: Amazon Web Services
• Assessment type: Basic
• Exit strategy: Repatriation to On-Premises
• Execution mode: One-time

This sample demonstrates a Basic assessment, including:

• Resource Inventory
• Cost Overview
• Risk Inventory
• Alternative Technologies analysis

It represents a lightweight, point-in-time assessment without scoring or advanced reporting.

Standard

• Cloud provider: Microsoft Azure
• Assessment type: Standard
• Exit strategy: Migration to Alternate Cloud
• Execution mode: One-time

This sample demonstrates a Standard assessment, including:

• Resource Inventory
• Cost Overview
• Risk Inventory
• Alternative Technologies analysis
• Exit Readiness Score
• Vendor Lock-In Score

It shows how scoring, benchmarking, and deeper analysis are applied in a connected assessment.

Pricing & Credits

exitcloud.io uses a credit-based model for running cloud exit readiness assessments.

Credits are consumed when an assessment is executed. The number of credits required depends on the selected assessment type (Basic or Standard).

How it works

• Every account starts with 20 free credits to explore the platform
• Credits are deducted per assessment run
• Continuous assessments consume credits on each execution (daily, weekly, monthly)
• Credits are scoped to your account and selected data region
• Unused credits remain available until consumed

Credit packages

You can purchase additional credits at any time. exitcloud.io offers the following packages:

Starter

Ideal for exploratory or one-off assessments

• 50 credits
• Cost per credit: €0.98
• EU/US data residency
• Custom appearance
• 99% SLA & email support

Pro

Ideal for small teams running periodic assessments

• 120 credits
• Cost per credit: €0.83
• EU/US data residency
• Custom appearance
• 99% SLA & email support

Elite

Ideal for MSPs and consulting firms performing assessments regularly

• 300 credits
• Cost per credit: €0.66
• EU/US data residency
• Custom appearance
• 99% SLA & email support

First Assessment

This guide walks you through creating and running your first cloud exit readiness assessment on exitcloud.io.

Assessments are created through a guided, multi-step workflow in the platform.

Step 1: Add assessment details

Start by creating a new assessment and defining its basic parameters:

• Assessment name
  A human-readable name to identify the assessment.

• Exit strategy
  Select the exit scenario you want to evaluate, for example:

  • Repatriation to On-Premises
  • Hybrid Cloud Adoption
  • Migration to Alternate Cloud

• Sync frequency

  • Single (one-time assessment)
    Runs the assessment once and generates a point-in-time report.
  • Continuous assessment
    Runs the assessment automatically on a defined schedule.

• Sync interval (only for continuous assessments)

  • Daily
  • Weekly
  • Monthly

• Description (optional)
  Add context or internal notes about the assessment.

Step 2: Configure cloud provider

Next, select the cloud service provider you want to assess:

• Microsoft Azure
• AWS
• GCP (coming soon)
• Alibaba Cloud (coming soon)

You will then provide read-only credentials for the selected provider.

Credential handling

• Credentials are used only to collect cloud metadata
• Read-only permissions are required
• Credentials are not stored in the platform database
• They are securely handled via an isolated secrets manager with auditing

The platform validates credentials and permissions before allowing you to proceed.

Step 3: Select package

Choose the assessment package that defines the scope and outputs:

Basic

• Resource Inventory
• Cost Inventory
• Risk Assessment
• Summary Report

Standard

• Everything in Basic
• Exit Readiness Score
• Detailed Report

Package selection determines credit usage and available reports.

Step 4: Run assessment

Once submitted:

• The assessment engine schedules the run automatically
• Progress is tracked in the platform
• Status updates are shown during execution
• An email notification is sent when the assessment completes

For continuous assessments, the engine will re-run automatically based on the selected schedule.

Results

After a successful run, you can:

• View results directly in the platform
• Download generated reports (depending on package)
• Track changes over time for continuous assessments

Your first assessment provides a structured baseline for understanding cloud exit readiness and identifying key risks and dependencies.

View Reports

After an assessment completes, results become available on the Assessment Details page in the platform.

This page provides a detailed, interactive view of your cloud exit readiness based on the selected scope, exit strategy, and assessment type.

Overview

At the top of the page, you can see a high-level summary of the assessment, including:

• exit strategy
• assessment type (Basic or Standard)
• execution status
• last sync time
• sync mode (one-time or continuous)

This summary helps you quickly understand the context and freshness of the results.

Blocks

The Assessment Details page typically includes the following sections:

Risk Overview

• total number of identified risks
• severity distribution (High / Medium / Low)
• a detailed list of risks with impacted resources

This section highlights potential exit blockers and areas that require attention.

Cost Overview

• aggregated cloud costs over recent months
• visual trends to identify cost concentration and patterns

Cost data helps put exit readiness into financial context.

Resource Inventory

• detected cloud services
• resource counts per service
• visibility into service-level dependencies

This section shows where platform-specific services are in use.

Alternative Technologies

• available alternative technologies for detected cloud services
• filtering and search to explore replacement options

This helps assess how realistic an exit scenario is for specific workloads.

Scoring (from Standard package)

If you selected the Standard assessment package, additional scoring is shown:

• Exit Readiness Score
  An overall indicator of how prepared the environment is for the selected exit strategy.

• Vendor Lock-In Score
  A multidimensional view of alternative maturity across:

  • Human
  • Technology
  • Operational dimensions

Download Reports

From the Assessment Details page, you can download assessment results as PDF reports using the Download button.

The available reports depend on the selected assessment package:

• Basic

  • Executive Summary (PDF)

• Standard

  • Executive Summary (PDF)
  • Exit Readiness Report (PDF)

PDF reports are suitable for:

• sharing with internal or external stakeholders
• executive briefings
• offline review and archiving

Reports Overview

exitcloud.io generates structured reports that help you understand your cloud exit readiness from multiple angles.

Reports are produced after a successful assessment run and are available directly in the platform. Depending on the selected assessment package, reports may also be downloadable as PDF files.

Reports focus on:

• understanding your current cloud footprint
• identifying exit risks and constraints
• evaluating available alternative technologies
• summarizing readiness at an executive level

Available report types

exitcloud.io provides the following report sections:

• Resource Inventory
• Cost Overview
• Risk Inventory
• Alternative Technologies
• Scorings (from Standard package)

All reports are generated from the same assessment data and are designed to be read independently or as a complete set.

Resource Inventory

The Resource Inventory provides a structured overview of the cloud services and resources detected during the assessment.

It answers the question:

What cloud services are currently in use?

What you will see

The Resource Inventory is presented as:

• a list of used cloud services
• aggregated resource counts per service
• used locations

Resources are grouped by service rather than listed individually. This keeps the focus on architecture and dependency patterns, not raw infrastructure details.

Why it matters

Understanding your resource landscape is the foundation of any cloud exit strategy.

The Resource Inventory helps you:

• identify services with high dependency or usage
• understand platform-specific service adoption
• estimate the complexity of a potential exit

This section is especially important when comparing different exit strategies or tracking changes over time.

Cost Overview

The Cost Overview summarizes cloud spending based on aggregated billing data.

It answers the question:

How much does the current cloud footprint cost, and how is spending distributed over time?

What you will see

The Cost Overview typically includes:

• total cloud cost over the last 6 months
• monthly cost breakdown
• cost trends over time

Costs are shown as aggregated values, not individual billing line items.

Why it matters

Cost is a critical factor in cloud exit planning.

The Cost Overview helps you:

• understand financial exposure to the current provider
• identify cost trends that may impact exit timing
• support business cases for repatriation, hybrid, or migration strategies

Cost data is used as an input for risk evaluation and scoring (where applicable).

Risk Inventory

The Risk Inventory highlights risks that may impact a cloud exit and categorizes them by severity.

It answers the question:

Where are the main blockers, dependencies, and constraints — and how severe are they?

What you will see

Risks are typically presented as:

• a severity breakdown (High / Medium / Low)
• a list of identified risks with descriptions
• impacted services or resource groups (when available)

Each risk represents a potential obstacle to executing the selected exit strategy.

Why it matters

The Risk Inventory helps you:

• identify exit blockers early
• prioritize remediation and mitigation efforts
• align technical and business stakeholders on key constraints

This section is central to readiness scoring and strategic decision-making.

Alternative Technologies

The Alternative Technologies section explores replacement options for cloud-native services used in your landscape.

It answers the question:

If we exit this cloud provider, what viable alternatives exist?

What you will see

Alternative technologies are presented as:

• mapped alternatives per cloud service
• categorized by function (compute, storage, networking, DevOps, etc.)
• vendor-neutral options where possible

The focus is on availability and feasibility, not vendor promotion.

Why it matters

Cloud exit is rarely about infrastructure alone — tooling and platforms matter.

This section helps you:

• understand where alternatives exist or are limited
• identify services with strong vendor lock-in
• support technology selection during exit planning

Alternative availability directly influences risk levels and exit readiness scores.

Scores

Scorings provide a quantitative view of cloud exit readiness.

They are available only from Standard package.

What is scored

Scoring evaluates readiness across multiple dimensions, such as:

• overall exit readiness
• vendor lock-in exposure
• technical, operational, and human factors (where applicable)

Scores are presented visually to support comparison and trend analysis.

How to use scores

Scores help you:

• benchmark readiness across assessments
• track improvement over time (for continuous assessments)
• support data-driven decision-making

Scoring is not a pass/fail metric — it is a decision-support tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

This section answers common questions about exitcloud.io, cloud exit readiness assessments, and how the platform works.

What is cloud exit readiness?

Cloud exit readiness describes how prepared an organization is to reduce, change, or fully exit a cloud service provider.

It covers:

• technical dependencies
• service lock-in risks
• cost and operational considerations
• availability of alternative technologies

exitcloud.io helps assess and quantify this readiness in a structured way.

Who is exitcloud.io for?

exitcloud.io is designed for:

• small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
• managed service providers (MSPs)
• consultants supporting cloud strategy and risk assessments
• technical leaders who need visibility into exit risks

Which cloud providers are supported?

Currently supported:

• AWS
• Microsoft Azure

Planned / coming soon:

• Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Alibaba Cloud

Support for additional providers will be added over time.

Does exitcloud.io require admin access to my cloud account?

No.

exitcloud.io requires read-only permissions only.
These permissions are used exclusively to collect metadata such as:

• resource types
• counts
• cost summaries

No changes are made to your cloud environment.

How are credentials handled?

• Credentials are used only during assessment execution
• They are not stored in the platform database
• They are securely handled via an isolated secrets manager
• Full auditing and strict access controls are applied

exitcloud.io never stores long-term credentials in plaintext.

What is the difference between Basic and Standard assessments?

Basic includes:

• Resource Inventory
• Cost Overview
• Risk Inventory
• Executive Summary

Standard includes everything in Basic, plus:

• Exit Readiness Scoring
• Detailed Exit Readiness Report
• Benchmarking and trend analysis (for continuous assessments)

What is a continuous assessment?

A continuous assessment automatically re-runs on a schedule:

• daily
• weekly
• monthly

This allows you to:

• track changes over time
• monitor risk evolution
• measure improvement or regression in readiness

Can I export or download reports?

Yes.

Depending on the assessment package, you can download:

• Executive Summary (Basic & Standard)
• Exit Readiness Report (Standard only)

Reports are available as PDF files via the Download button on the Assessment Details page.

Can I change my data region later?

No.

EU and US regions are fully isolated, and accounts or assessments cannot be migrated between regions.

Choose your data region carefully based on legal, regulatory, and contractual requirements.

Is exitcloud.io vendor-neutral?

Yes.

exitcloud.io is:

• cloud-provider agnostic
• vendor-neutral
• focused on outcomes, not tooling promotion

Alternative technologies are presented for analysis, not endorsement.

Getting Help

If you need assistance while using exitcloud.io, several support options are available depending on your needs.

Documentation

Start with the documentation:

• step-by-step guides
• explanations of reports and scores
• platform concepts and workflows

Most common questions can be answered directly from the docs.

In-platform guidance

The platform includes:

• contextual help texts
• inline explanations
• validation messages during assessment setup

These are designed to guide you through the assessment workflow safely and correctly.

Email support

For technical issues, questions, or feedback, you can contact the support team via email.

Typical topics include:

• assessment execution issues
• credential or permission questions
• billing and credits
• report availability

Contact & Feedback

We value feedback and are continuously improving exitcloud.io.

Contacting us

For support, questions, or commercial inquiries, please contact:

📧 support(@)exitcloud(.)io

When contacting support, include:

• your account email
• assessment name (if applicable)
• cloud provider and assessment type
• a short description of the issue

Feedback and feature requests

We welcome:

• feature suggestions
• usability feedback
• reporting improvements
• provider or technology requests

Feedback helps shape the roadmap and future platform capabilities.