Cloud migration return.

Cloud migration ROI depends on infrastructure savings (cloud vs on-prem annual cost), one-off migration costs, and productivity gains from easier scaling and faster deployments. Typical migrations show 15-30% infrastructure savings in year 1 rising to 30-50% after optimization, plus 20-40% productivity gains from DevOps acceleration.

200k current on-prem annual cost, 130k cloud annual cost after migration = 70k annual savings. Plus 30k productivity gains = 100k total annual benefit. 150k one-off migration cost. Over 3 years: 300k total savings, net 150k, ROI 100%. Payback in 1.5 years. Strong case.

Migration failures usually come from underestimating costs. Cloud costs without optimization can actually exceed on-prem costs for predictable workloads. Only 30-40% of migrations achieve projected savings in year 1 - the rest take 2-3 years after reserved instance purchases, right-sizing, and serverless refactoring to hit promised numbers. Budget with caution.

Quick example

With current infra cost annual of 200,000 and cloud cost annual of 130,000 (plus migration one-off cost of 150,000 and productivity gains annual of 30,000), the result is 100.00%. Change any figure and watch the output shift — it's often more useful to see the pattern than to memorise the formula.

Which inputs matter most

You enter Current Infra Cost Annual, Cloud Cost Annual, Migration One-off Cost, Productivity Gains Annual, and Analysis Period (years). Not every input has equal weight. Flip one at a time toward extreme values to feel which ones move the needle most for your situation.

What's happening under the hood

Annual savings = infra cost - cloud cost + gains. Total savings = annual × years. Net = total - migration. ROI = net ÷ migration × 100. The formula is listed in full below. If the number looks off, you can retrace the calculation by hand — that's the point of showing the working.

What the score tells you

Headline financial numbers — income, savings, debt — each tell part of the story. This calculation stitches several together into a single read you can track over time. The value is in the direction, not the absolute number.

What this doesn't capture

The score is a composite of the inputs you provide. Life context — job security, family obligations, health, housing — doesn't appear in the math but shapes the real picture. Use the number as a prompt, not a verdict.