Hybrid Cloud Solutions

Migrating to the Cloud – How to Guarantee CFO Buy-In

August 28, 2023 | By Greg Dougherty

If you’re keeping up with industry trends, you know the cloud is the future (and the now) of business data. 90% of companies are already on the cloud, and navigating away from an on-premise infrastructure has become a top initiative for companies worldwide to keep up with security efforts, advancements in technology, and customer demand.

There are so many reasons someone working directly with company data or IT, in general, would see the value of migrating to the cloud, including agility, scalability, and compliance. But your CFO has priorities that need their focus. To make your case for the cloud, showcase these organizational benefits that your CFO will love.

Cloud Benefits for Chief Financial Officers:

Increased Profitability

Plain and simple. Migrating to the cloud will almost certainly save your company money over time. When you free yourself from the on-premise model of the traditional data center, you open up to possibilities for scalability and resources to support new business. With the cloud, you have room to expand operations to meet your changing customer needs and adjust to new markets. Through growth, the ability to quickly respond to increased demand without significant overhauls of processes and data is absolutely crucial.

Follow this #cheatsheet from @opti9 to convince your #CFO a #cloudmigration is best for your bottom line. Click To Tweet

Increased profitability will also come to fruition from a shift in focus. With your data backed up to the cloud, your in-house IT and development teams suddenly have time to focus on initiatives that directly impact business and your bottom line rather than being preoccupied with data management. Your dev team could focus on innovation of new products, increased sales support, or optimizing your e-commerce site rather than focusing on data maintenance.

Financial Visibility

Most on-premise software uses batch processing to keep up with transactions. In cloud-based applications, transactions propagate in the system as soon as they are entered. For your CFO, this means better visibility and reporting — giving them increased ability to improve processes and spot problems in workflows.

Do Away with Costly Upgrades & Infrastructure

Most organizations need to upgrade their applications every few years to stay current with their vendors’ latest releases. This means new costs in software, downtime, and team training.

For some companies, upgrading on-premise servers is a repeat headache that the entire company dreads as it can slow business or halt it completely. With the cloud, your cloud provider takes over these updates and rolls them out without issue. You and your team no longer have to waste time maintaining them yourself and tempering your team’s frustrations. This leaves IT departments to focus on innovation that can bring in new cash flows.

Security & Disaster Recovery

As tech improves, companies need to stay on their toes regarding data security as disaster recovery can be costly. With system failures, network outages, cyber attacks, and natural disasters — your company needs to maintain a robust disaster recovery strategy. Almost half of businesses (49%) don’t have their cloud databases encrypted, leaving their info vulnerable. While keeping data on-premise can give IT departments the illusion of control and security, it’s actually ripe for vulnerabilities.

Recent research shows that 44% of organizations suffered a recent major outage that “tangibly impacted” the business. The cloud can make recovery more affordable and, in some cases, more streamlined with established strategies and timelines.

CASE STUDY: See how the cloud helped The Maids manage disaster recovery.

Cost-Effective Migration is Possible

Even as most companies find their way to the cloud, some are reluctant due to cost. While it’s clear that data migration is cost-effective from a macro perspective, CFOs may worry about the upfront costs. But migration doesn’t have to be costly. One surefire way to make your data migration smooth and without extraneous spending is leaning on an advanced consulting partner.

What does a shift from on-premise data to the cloud mean for your budget? See the benefits your CFO will love in this article from @opti9. Click To Tweet

You can increase efficiency while decreasing what you spend. opti9’ Cost Optimizer solution uses the latest tools and technologies to improve performance and reduce your spending. How?

  • Leverages the Latest Technologies
  • Analyzes All Available Resources
  • Manages Reserved Instances (RI’s) to Conserve Spend
  • Provides Strategic Cost-Reduction With No Loss in Efficiency

AWS Partners also have access to a variety of AWS funding vehicles to offset the upfront costs associated with Migration.

Streamline Migration With an Advanced Consulting Partner

When convincing your CFO that cloud migration is right for your organization, it’s best to present a risk-free path. A lengthy, mistake-ridden process won’t appeal to anyone in the C-suite, especially someone focused on the bottom line. With an advanced consulting partner like opti9, you can leverage years of cloud migration experience in many industries. We lean on our own best practices that guarantee successful and cost-effective migration.

We create a migration strategy by evaluating and planning with an in-depth assessment of your current systems and help you plan for your migration. We then identify the best systems for your on-premise situation, build the proper foundation, migrate your data, and subsequently optimize and manage without disruption — all with your budget in mind.

Ready for the cloud? Show your CFO how it can be done, and start saving with your cloud migration today.