Millions of companies around the world have adopted the cloud for the world of opportunities it hosts. However, not all can take complete advantage of it. Resellers and partners can play an important role here, offering direction and technological insight that could help customers not only adopt and use cloud technology, but make maximum use out it, and possibly, the highest return on investment too. While several factors could improve cloud ROI, but there are certain metrics and common best practices used by companies to deliver successful results.
With more and more companies expanding on their cloud migration strategy, it can become quite difficult to ensure reliable management to attain better cloud investment returns. On the other hand, it is absolutely foolish to ignore the ROI as it is perhaps the most commonly used measure of financial success for a business. If you are making investments towards the cloud, it is important to ensure you are attaining better returns on the investments too. So how do you do that? What metrics and models can be used to improve cloud ROI? What features of cloud computing have the maximum impact on the ROI?
Get Maximum ROI From Cloud Investment
We are all aware of the amazing benefits the cloud can offer. And that's one of the major reasons why companies are jumping onto the bandwagon without much information. In reality, many organizations assuming that shifting their workload from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud is a simpler and more efficient process, end up paying more price than they could ever benefit from. The misconceptions and assumptions can harm the overall cloud migrating strategy in the long run. The key best way to avoid the common mistakes is to be completely aware of what the system is all about and the best practices and metrics that can help earn a bigger ROI against cloud investment.
Here are the tips that are surely going to come in handy:
Plan and Organize
This one goes without saying but ignorance is the first step that could keep the business from making cloud migration success in the first few steps. Before making a move, an organization must spend adequate time and effort from thorough and intentional planning. Organizations sometimes jump to the cloud computing solutions in a fragmented manner to keep up with the growing pressure from the competitors. Moving to the cloud requires a proper understanding of the environment and infrastructure of the platform and how it works. The cloud platform may not be the perfect environment for certain applications, and that could leave a negative impact on the overall business.
Some companies make rapid move and dive-in with full force. A hasty decision, in this case, could cause an unpleasant and massive strain on budget and resources. For a favorable ROI and a successful cloud journey, it is important to establish solid planning and strategies that could help minimize risk, increase production, manage costs, achieve business objectives, and provide agility. Additionally, you must also be able to fully understand your internal capabilities and the capacity requirement for constant support.
Here's a planning checklist:
- Identify the data assets and applications that can efficiently and safely be moved into the cloud.
- Plan using proper documentation and track down every concern as you choose the solutions and partners to align accordingly.
- Highlight issues that could have a negative impact on your organization's cloud migrating process.
In short, it is crucial to have thoughtful and comprehensive planning to receive the desirable return on your cloud investment.
Train Your Staff
Cloud migration is only the first step while managing it is the second and most crucial one. You may have the best IT staff to manage and control your physical infrastructure, but it may not be enough to carry out the same responsibility after migrating to the cloud. This is where Azure training and certification such as Azure fundamentals and Azure solutions comes in. Training is a great way to prepare your team for handling the same data and applications in a different environment. With Azure certification, your team will be able to handle and control the new technology more efficiently.
With the new set of skills and knowledge, the trained staff can also make important decisions related to cloud migration and management, which can further improve the ROI. The trained IT team will constantly be focusing on ways to improve efficiency and increase the value of cloud investment. Their role is to:
- Set up governance on cost and resources
- Drive the organization to another level of maturity
- Implement innovative, efficient services, and ensure that your team is delivering the performance as per your expectations.
- Manage issues and problems that could arise on the cloud as well as on-premises.
Measure
After you have set up the right tech and team for running and managing the cloud, it is time to measure if your cloud services are offering you the anticipated results. What was the driving factor that encourages you to migrate to the cloud? Was it security? Scalability? Agility? Speed? Convenience? Automation? All of the above? These factors work as your metric as you assess and measure your cloud computing tech. On the Azure platform, it becomes easier with the amazing services and features of the cloud provider that could help with resource utilization and cost-performance ratios.
Automation
Last but not least, another great way to optimize your cloud investment value is to automate efficiently. The automation features of the service provider are to help you make everything simple, fast, and error-free. This leads to better utilization of your cloud tools and teams, as well as cost reduction. The team of trained IT staff is well-equipped to make decisions based on what aspects need to be automated and what not. The key is to alleviate the complexity of the cloud computing system.
All of these factors and other relevant factors make cloud ROI maximizing strategy that could yield desirable results and bigger profits. As simple as it may seem, cloud technology is more than just lift-and-shift. Adopting what's trending does not put you in a better place. You need to put a deliberate effort to improve efficiencies and realize cost-saving methods. Thus, it's crucial to plan and follow all the steps through.