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Measuring the value of moving to the cloud—and innovative ways to get there

There is no time to waste in moving to the cloud—the financial services industry faces unprecedented urgency centered on reliable data management, governance, and security. If financial services organizations act decisively in cloud adoption, they will quickly discover new paths to innovation.

Cloud adoption can transform businesses and create opportunities in the following ways:

  • Reduction in operational costs
  • Increased organizational agility
  • Faster speed to market
  • Data-driven business models
  • Broad digital capabilities

While the benefits of cloud adoption are clear, this level of change can nonetheless evoke sharp reactions, especially when it comes to the perceived potential for increased risk or unanticipated costs. How do you constrain or reduce costs and mitigate risk while at the same time remaining agile and producing the intended business outcomes?

Deciding which path is best

To help financial services decision-makers discern their best cloud adoption path, Microsoft experts collaborated with Deutsche Börse—an international exchange organization and leading market infrastructure provider—to develop a new perspective on cloud adoption that we believe will benefit other organizations in the industry who are contemplating the potential risks and rewards of their own cloud journeys. At the heart of this approach is a data-driven model of measurement across nine systems or categories that can inform almost any organizational imperative—be it infrastructure scenarios, modern architecture scenarios, data scenarios, or innovation scenarios.

Deutsche Börse Group’s risk-based cloud adoption model

While any of these possible paths are valid depending on the needs and priorities of a given organization, in Deutsche Börse’s case, the key area of focus was data—specifically, data in the context of assessing risk across their application portfolio and then using those insights to determine the aptitude and priority for cloud migration. Out of this emerged a risk-based cloud adoption strategy that they present in this paper. It offers their insights for the financial services industry on how to think about and use risk as a lens for sequencing application migration to the cloud.

Move to the cloud—in a measured journey

We invite you to download the “Measuring the value of cloud adoption” white paper today and use it as inspiration to inform your own cloud adoption strategy, whichever path makes the most business sense for your organization. Remember—regardless of the path you choose—it begins with measurement, for “you cannot manage what you cannot measure.”


Cloud adoption sets you up for long-term success with advanced capabilities that can enable new business models while also providing better security, privacy, and compliance. Find out more about how Microsoft is building essential capabilities for financial institutions in the cloud with Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services, which can help your organization accelerate innovation for sustainable growth.