📰 Improving cloud ROI—and why CIOs are just the ones to do it

Whatever the technology, chief information officers (CIOs) and other IT leaders have always been focused on delivering value. Yet it’s rare for any business leader not to say they wish they had a better ROI from their cloud spend. So why the disconnect? Here are some contributing factors:

• The impact of “Shadow IT,” a trend that grew steadily during the last decade as business groups implemented SaaS solutions with little IT involvement. This often took both budget and control away from CIOs.
• The recent explosion of generative AI (GenAI) is beginning to expose many of the weaknesses of shadow IT. It is putting the growing complexity of IT infrastructures into the spotlight.

As new technologies and delivery models evolve, it’s more important than ever for companies to rely on the expertise of the CIO.  IT leaders can focus on several key areas to help their organizations deliver greater business value from the cloud:

1. Address the data explosion
2. To manage the sheer speed and volume of data growth, CIOs must look at modernizing and governing their data strategies to avoid data silos and harness data’s power to provide meaningful insights.
3. Build trust in data to improve data usability, consistency, accuracy, and integrity.

• Modernize cloud business models
• New models require IT organizations to approach how they build and operate applications differently to control costs, but some IT organizations fail to take this into consideration. Design cloud approaches automatically scale up and down based on demand.
• Through cloud modernization and cloud-native development, CIOs can ensure they are using automation to improve efficiency.

• Implement FinOps processes and technologies
• Without clear visibility and proper governance controls, it’s easy to overspend on cloud. Teams may operate in reactive mode, and recurring defects and productivity losses can hamper efficiency and effectiveness.
• Using modern delivery practices, CIOs can optimize cloud operations with greater visibility into risk controls and vulnerabilities to encourage proactivity in addressing risks and defects, with a focus on value instead of capabilities.

• Recognize and correct bad decisions
• Some businesses may have chosen the wrong applications to move to the cloud—or the wrong providers to work with. With more experience under their belts, these teams are embarking on what they call “cloud 2.0” because they see where they can adjust their strategies.
• Create new methods that support both the technology and financial perspectives.

• Keep security and reliability top of mind
• Keeping the lights on is mission number one, which includes cyber resilience and disaster recovery strategies and capabilities. But these may not be fully appreciated by the business as a true source of value—until a breach or failure occurs.
• CIOs should lead efforts to identify critical business functions and determine maximum allowable downtime based on the regulatory, operational, financial, and reputational impact of an outage. Regularly evaluate resiliency architectures and disaster recovery plans.

Learn how we can help you energize your cloud ROI efforts with leading practices at KPMG Cloud.