Cloud Migration Business Case
This is a practical guide to building a business case for a cloud migration project — the justification that weighs the costs, benefits and risks of doing the project, adapted to the realities of moving systems and data from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud.
What a Business Case is
A business case is the justification that weighs the costs, benefits and risks of doing the project. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Business Case. On a cloud migration project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for a Cloud Migration project
Cloud Migration projects live or die on moving systems and data from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud. A well-built business case gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how cloud migration projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Problem or opportunity
- Options considered
- Costs and benefits
- Financial appraisal (ROI/NPV/IRR)
- Recommendation
Cloud Migration-specific considerations
Tailor the business case to the risks that most often derail cloud migration projects:
- Underestimated dependencies
- Downtime and data-loss risk
- Runaway cloud costs post-migration
Example
On a real cloud migration project, the business case would be shaped by moving systems and data from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — underestimated dependencies, downtime and data-loss risk, runaway cloud costs post-migration — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.