In my conversations with customers, partners, and peers, one topic seems to bubble to the surface more than any other: How do I financially justify the move to the cloud?
Initially, the notion of a business case for cloud computing seemed almost redundant. It seemed to me that the cost savings associated with cloud computing were self-evident and therefore no further explanation was needed. Based on my conversations with people in the industry—consumers, providers, and manufacturers of IT goods and services—cloud adoption appeared to be a foregone conclusion. Based on the data, cloud implementation was either already well under way or was on the near-term priority list of most IT leaders worldwide.
Yet the reality is otherwise. For many people, the actual journey to the cloud is still fraught with uncertainty and confusion. Spending money on IT services provided externally —especially when companies invest millions of dollars a year to implement and operate hardware and software internally as part of a long-standing, integrated IT supply chain—crosses a major psychological boundary.
This psychological hurdle, coupled with all the various political implications of “build versus buy” decisions, makes the financial justification of cloud adoption all the more imperative.
