Migrating systems, workloads, and data to the cloud is a considerable undertaking, but it provides many benefits when ...
Migrating systems, workloads, and data to the cloud is a considerable undertaking, but it provides many benefits when done properly. As with any project that incurs a significant expense, organizations considering cloud migration need to project their return on investment.
How can you assess your cloud migration ROI? There are various factors to consider.
When evaluating your ROI, you must consider more than cost savings. You also need to think about how much benefits you receive from a successful migration, such as optimized business processes and agility, are worth.
If you’re thinking about migrating to cloud-powered solutions, now is a great time to make other updates to improve your organizational efficiency. You may decide to change software applications to meet your needs better or revise workflows, for example.
Your first step is to gather sufficient data about how you spend money now to perform various IT-related functions and exactly what you are getting. Traditional data storage and processes require purchasing a new server when space is running low in your existing structure. You will pay for storage space before you actually need and use it. With cloud-based computing solutions, you only pay for the cloud storage that you use.
Your current data storage costs likely include paying for:
You can use historical data to calculate these costs to use in your cloud migration ROI evaluation assessment.
Evaluate your current systems, data storage, and applications:
Now, calculate your projected costs for the same line items using cloud solutions. There are some one-time expenditures to facilitate the migration process, such as paying your cloud migration service provider, training your employees and IT teams, and testing and validating your transfer.
After migration, you will have some ongoing costs, but they will likely be much lower than your current levels. It is important to note that your cloud migration ROI value may take time to realize, so it is a good idea to involve stakeholders at the early stages of your assessment and planning.
You will pay your cloud provider for the services you use. Explore different pricing models, such as per-user or fixed costs, to determine which works best for your needs. These costs essentially replace many of your data center expenses.
Software licensing is an expense that will carry over. However, cloud-based options often offer savings because of reduced redundancies.
Your company will still need IT staff to oversee your operations. However, they won’t have to maintain on-premise servers, so you should see labor-related cost savings.
Cloud solutions provide many measurable benefits, and you should include their values in your cloud migration ROI calculations. Some of these benefits vary depending on your industry and type of organization, but cloud migration offers:
Adopting cloud-powered analytics, applications, and marketing tools can give your organization real-time advantages. In addition, cloud solutions better support hybrid and remote workers while still ensuring security.
Organizations can see significant returns on investment in their operational savings, added values, and a decrease in revenue losses. Further, working with an experienced migration provider can reduce or eliminate project risk.
Cloud-powered solutions may include technologies that your current architecture isn’t capable of handling. You may need to invest in new equipment to take advantage of advanced data structure options, improved software applications, and other features.
Although an upgraded architecture requires an initial investment, the benefits it provides typically outweigh the costs.
Accurately projecting your ROI is somewhat challenging because it is sometimes difficult to quantify some of the benefits you gain. This formula considers your total cloud value, which includes both cost savings and the value of your other gains:
((Total cloud value – investment value) / cloud migration investment cost) x 100% = ROI
As you can see, the initial ROI is negative. However, your investment typically takes about two to five years to pay for itself. Although your migration incurs one-time expenses, you should see significant cumulative savings over time.
Many public cloud service providers provide ROI calculators. When you partner with Cloudficient, we can help you assess your current environment and project your ROI. We also provide a free, no-risk proof of concept to prove that our technology can handle your migration successfully.
Did you know that as many as 1/3 of cloud migrations fail and that only 25% of companies complete their migrations in their expected time frames? A successful cloud migration is a major endeavor that requires extensive research and analysis, planning, testing, and validation.
Emerging situations often require adjusted procedures and expectations. You need a flexible yet detailed approach for your cloud migration process, and the people who facilitate your migration need to have specialized knowledge.
Regardless of your project scope, give priority to security, risk management, and governance.
Unexpected expenses can arise if you approach this project haphazardly, and these costs will affect your cloud migration ROI. There are a few ways you can mitigate these hazards.
For a successful outcome, you cannot plan as you go. Cloudficient can help you with planning and implementing your cloud migration. Vital steps include:
Skipping any of these steps or not being thorough can contribute to failed or faulty migrations, potentially adding significantly to your expenses.
Off-the-shelf migration methods are unlikely to work. For maximum effectiveness, you must tailor your plan to accommodate your needs and infrastructure.
Even the most skilled members of your IT department may not have the expertise and tools needed to implement your migration. Selecting the right service provider can increase your cloud migration ROI because we:
The effectiveness of your migration services provider directly affects your costs. And don’t be fooled by offers of “free” migration services.
Managing cloud spending differs from traditional IT cost management. Your team needs to understand exactly how your cloud solutions work to avoid potential issues with load distribution, redundant data storage, and duplicate licenses.
You need to choose which type of cloud service provider is right for your organization:
And you need to decide which services to use:
Compare the terms, pricing, and benefits of each to determine what choices make the most sense for your organization and your cloud migration ROI.
Cloudficient puts a lot of time and effort into the migration process to make your cloud migration as seamless and easy as possible:
Our purely cloud-based cloud migration platform uses Kubernetes containers to ensure scalable, secure, stable, and transparent transfers.
At Cloudficient, we focus on providing thorough, competent services to meet your needs. Our team has extensive experience, so we can handle all your requirements. Cloudficient is a Microsoft Gold partner, meaning we are in the top 1% of global Microsoft partners. We offer flexible payment options and affordable pricing.
With unmatched next generation migration technology, Cloudficient is revolutionizing the way businesses retire legacy systems and transform their organization into the cloud. Our business constantly remains focused on client needs and creating product offerings that match them. We provide affordable services that are scalable, fast and seamless.
If you would like to learn more about how to bring Cloudficiency to your migration project, visit our website, or contact us.
Are you considering an EMC SourceOne migration to the cloud this year? Cloudficient explains how it can help you improve company operations and...
There are 10 critical cloud migration steps to follow for successful transfers. Digital migrations are complex, and it's best to do them right the...
There are several cloud migration requirements that impact how successfully and safely you transfer data from a legacy system to a cloud-hosted...
