When everybody's doing something, it can be hard to ask tough questions. Questions like "Why?" and "How?" and "What, right now?"

The virtues of cloud adoption are now so widely and loudly trumpeted that you could be forgiven for not wanting to ask, well, why?

The way people talk, you'd think that the case for cloud migration was self-evident. On-premise data centres have gone the way of the mangle and the question is not "Why should we make the move?" but "When?"

The obvious question to ask is what its ROI will be. If you're going to sink all this time and energy into a wholesale shift to the cloud, can you be sure it's going to pay dividends?

In this article, we take a look at some of the ways you can maximise ROI when migrating to the cloud. But first, how do you measure it at all?

How do you measure ROI on cloud investment?

Migrating to the cloud isn't a straightforward investment like printing business cards or getting a website. In those cases, you can draw a straight line between your investment and your returns.

With cloud migration, there are different payments involved. There's the time spent by your IT team – or the services provided by a cloud consultant. There are subscription fees for cloud services. And there's software licensing.

All of these need to be taken into account when comparing your investment to the TCO of your existing infrastructure.

Usually, the business case for cloud migration is clear. But there are still a number of best practices to follow to ensure you maximise your ROI.

1. Shop around

Choosing a cloud provider is like shopping for a desk chair. You're going to use it a lot – so you need to know it's the right fit for you.

Avoid buyer's remorse by doing your homework and finding the cloud provider – and the subscription model – that meets your business needs most fully. This is your first step on the way to maximising ROI.

2. Know who's boss

Who's in charge of migration? Is it the CTO, the CIO or IT? If you can't answer this question, you may come a cropper somewhere down the line.

After all, allocating roles is key to business growth in general, so why would digital transformation be an exception?

Once you've nominated a project leader, you're better placed to ensure that the process won't be waylaid by, well, all the other things that need to be done.

3. Check your resources

Migrating to the cloud promises glittering ROI – but if you don't have the resources for it in the first place, you might find yourself playing budgetary catch-up.

Once the plan has been made, it's critical to carry out an audit and confirm that your resources and your vision match up.

Going into the process with your eyes open means you're far less likely to get bogged down in overspending – a surefire way to limit that longed-for ROI.

4. Optimise your usage

Not sure how much capacity you need? One of the beauties of public clouds is that they're easily scalable. Like any kind of storage unit, you want to pay for what you need – not what you might need in the far-off future.

Because of this, you may as well start small and grow outwards. That way you're not paying for unused space.

Once your workflows are stowed away in the cloud, you need to give them a good spring clean. That means monitoring usage and right-sizing your resources. This is something that a cloud consultant can help you with.

5. Stay safe

The security of your workflows is paramount. The reason is twofold. First, you don't want to fall prey to a cyber attack. And second, a data breach can lead to a financial penalty under GDPR.

A watertight security strategy is indispensable. Malware, ransomware and other cyber attacks disrupt your business, cost you money and turn your company into a carnival of hair-tearing.

You wouldn't buy a Bugatti and then leave it unlocked. Cloud migration without a solid security plan is catnip for cybercriminals. It's just not worth it!

6. Invest where it matters most

Shifting the majority of your operations to the cloud is an option – if the business case is strong, why not? But you may find that a piecemeal migration gives you a better ROI.

You want to prioritise those operations that bring home the most bacon – sales, for instance, and customer support.

The scalable nature of the cloud means that bit-by-bit migration is a viable option. By focusing on high-revenue operations, you stand a better chance of maximising your ROI.

7. Automate

Automation is one of the buzziest buzzwords of the day – but how can it help you get a return on your cloud investment?

It all goes back to usage optimisation. Right-sizing resources and discarding idle ones is a time-sink. There's almost certainly something else for IT to be getting on with. That's why automating these processes can feed into your ROI.

8. Manage expectations as well as migration

A survey by Cyara revealed that 90% of business owners saw their digital transformation as "very successful" – but only 35% of managers shared their enthusiasm.

Now, this is just one pool of respondents and we don't know exactly what went down. But we strongly suspect that it's related to the question of expectations.

Does everyone involved in the process know what it's there to achieve? If the answer is "no", you may find yourself dealing with some disappointed colleagues.

That's why it's so important to set short-term and long-term goals for digital transformation – and one of these, naturally, is ROI.

The bottom line

Any investment is a gamble. But once you've got your business case and budget in line, there are steps you can take to get the best ROI possible.

At Ascend Cloud Solutions, we're VMware cloud migration experts. Interested? Please get in touch for a no-obligation consultation.