Cloud economics
Successfully build your cloud business case with key financial and technical guidance from Azure
Get the most value from your Azure investment
Discover technical and financial flexibility, efficiencies, and capabilities on the cloud that aren’t possible with on-premises IT infrastructure. Choose the right short- and long-term cloud solutions for your needs and get greater return on your cloud business investment with key financial and technical guidance from Azure and best practices from top organizations.
Why are companies moving to the cloud?
Reduced datacenter footprint
Streamline operations and focus on what matters most for your business—like expediting app development—by reducing your datacenter footprint.
OPEX pricing models
Enable future growth with flexible, pay-per-use, on-demand cloud benefits and take advantage of an operational expenditure model rather than a traditional capital expenditure model.
Staff productivity
Reduce downtime and free up your IT staff from maintenance and patching tasks to spend more time optimizing and innovating.
Sustainability
Build a clean-energy future and make progress toward your sustainability and business goals with sustainable technologies from Azure.
Scalability
Scale elastically by delivering the right amount of IT resources—for example, more or less computing power, storage, bandwidth—right when they’re needed, and from the right geographic location.
Security and compliance
Build resilience and meet compliance requirements proactively— with security that’s built from the ground up, backed by a team of experts, and trusted by enterprises, governments, and startups.
Availability
Ensure business continuity for mission-critical systems that cannot tolerate interruption in service with high-availability cloud infrastructure from Azure.
Optimization
Boost workload, operational, and cost efficiencies with free, enterprise-grade management tools, cost-saving offers, and innovative managed services from Azure.
Business Value of Microsoft Azure Customer Enablement Tools, Resources, and Programs
Based on interviews with study participants seeking to maximize the value of their Microsoft Azure services, IDC calculated that they'll achieve strong relative value with Azure Customer Enablement Resources at an annual average of $291800 per 100 Azure virtual machines (VMs).
Explore key tips from Azure experts
Getting started
Build a successful business case and maximize the full benefit of your cloud investment. Get started with key guidelines for common technical and financial considerations—demystified by Azure experts.
Technical considerations
Understand the basic differences between on-premises and cloud infrastructure and learn which factors are technically most critical to consider for optimizing both your technical solutions and your cost structure.
- Watch the video: Technical considerations for cloud migration
- Learn how to prepare your cloud strategy with technical considerations
- Watch the video: Model virtual machine costs with the Azure cost estimator Power BI template
- Read the blog: Rightsize to maximize your cloud investment with Microsoft Azure
- Read the blog: Unlock cloud savings on the fly with autoscale on Azure
Financial considerations
Learn how to use the cloud to make your IT cost structure more flexible to help you weather unexpected market changes and take advantage of new business opportunities quickly.
- Read the e-book: Financial and Economic Considerations for Cloud Migration
- Watch the video: Financial considerations for cloud migration
- Learn how to evaluate financial considerations during your cloud adoption journey
- Read the blog: Save big by using your on-premises licenses on Azure
- Read the blog: Optimize your cloud investment with Azure Reservations
- Read the blog: Reduce compute costs with an easy, flexible Azure savings plan for compute
Tools and templates
Estimate your cloud cost savings—compared to pay-as-you-go pricing—by using Azure benefits and incentives for VMs like the Azure Hybrid Benefit, the Azure savings plan for compute, and reserved instances. Learn how with the Azure Virtual Machine cost estimator, an Excel-backed Power BI template:
Estimate the costs for your Azure projects using the Azure pricing calculator and the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator.
Monitor and analyze your bill with Microsoft Cost Management. Set budgets and allocate spending to your teams and projects.
Mitigate cloud spending risks by implementing cost management governance best practices with the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure.
Cost optimization and cloud financial management
Learn how to understand and forecast your bill, optimize workload costs, and control your spending with Azure tools, offers, and guidance.
See how Azure customers are optimizing their cloud investment
Thomson Reuters moved its e-billing solution to cloud to create a highly extensible and scalable system for its customers using Azure platform as a service (PaaS) features.
DNV GL invests in the future of maritime data to ensure ongoing safety at sea. Using the scalability and customer service of Azure enables DNV GL to shorten response times and deliver on its promises to customers.
Adobe runs its vast open-source application portfolio in Azure, using the enterprise-grade availability and performance to deliver outstanding customer experiences with its software.
Dentsu Aegis Network gains new business agility by migrating its entire infrastructure to the cloud with Azure, enabling the company to now provision and scale services quickly and cost-effectively.
Explore more cloud economics resources
Analyst reports
View cloud economics research studies and analyst reports.
Best practices
Get proven guidance to accelerate your cloud adoption journey with:
Related content
Simplify your cloud journey
Get the right mix of help setting up your cloud environment by joining the Azure Migration and Modernization Program.
Partner with an expert
Get expert help managing your costs by working with a migration and modernization partner.