The ROI of Transitioning Your Company to the Cloud

Transitioning your business to the cloud can be a challenging task comprised of many moving parts, each with unique rewards and risks. Calculating ROI for this type of move can be difficult, and it means that you must measure both the costs and benefits, as well as how they’ll evolve over time when comparing on-premise solutions and cloud options.

Determining ROI is a critical step towards making an informed decision about how your IT delivers value and how you should invest in the cloud.

Here are some key factors to consider when determining your cloud ROI.

1. Start by Actually Measuring ROI – Many business owners are convinced that migrating to the cloud will automatically reveal a positive ROI – but that is not always the case! Take the time to determine where the cloud makes business sense and the benefits and trade-offs. This is the only way to make an informed decision.

2. ROI Varies Depending on Delivery Model – For example, if you migrate to a “Software as a Service” (SaaS) model, it may take significantly longer to realize ROI than transitioning to a more infrastructure-focused cloud service model.

3. It’s Not Just About Saving Money… Ultimately, much of your return is realized through significant service improvements, faster provisioning times, increased efficiencies, and the opportunity to unlock new revenue streams.

4. ROI for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Will Vary Widely – If you’re running high-performance applications only two days per month, if you find yourself needing to double capacity, payback could be significant. If, however, your company is running applications at a steady daily rate, your returns may be modest… or even non-existent.

Your return will dynamically change over time. Many companies notice an increase in organizational efficiencies and reduced costs upon reaching a “tipping point.” Freeing yourself from the work involved with purchasing, installing, maintaining, and upgrading both hardware and software, can pay off over months and years.

Migrating your infrastructure to the cloud can, in fact, create significant cost-saving opportunities and increase efficiency. However, your ROI will ultimately depend on the workload, the amount of time you’re willing to commit, and the cloud model you deploy. Analyzing ROI based on these and other factors will enable you to make the best choice in terms of the right cloud model to meet your company’s needs.

Not sure if migrating to the cloud is right for your business? We can help! Give us a call and let’s discuss the benefits the right cloud model can bring to your business.