Last updated on July 13th, 2022 Show
Cloud adoption rate has been rapidly increasing especially since the 2020 pandemic outbreak and is expected to dominate the IT sector in the coming years. By 2025, Gartner estimates that over 95% of new digital workloads will be deployed on cloud-native platforms, up from 30% in 2021. With such tremendous growth in the cloud computing sector, the number of service providers available has also increased to a great extent, thus giving a multitude of options to users to choose from. Owning a data centre involves both high maintenance and high cost, in contrast to investing the same (or probably lesser) amount in opting for a cloud service provider which not only takes away your worry of maintaining the infrastructure, but also offers various other benefits like data storage, resources, security and hardware capabilities. With cloud service providers proliferating and each offering the best services at a minimal pricing model, it becomes quite difficult to choose the right provider for your business. Let’s look at how the right cloud provider plays an important role in contributing to your business’s success and which aspects you should consider while deciding which provider is the best fit for your business. What is a cloud service provider and why is it important to choose the right one?A cloud service provider enables businesses to outsource their platform, infrastructure, application, or storage requirements to a third-party organization so as to remain focussed on their core business objectives. They use their own data centers and computing resources and manage them on a regular basis. They basically take care of your infrastructure so that you can focus on your core business objective. By offering their services on a pay-as-you-go basis model, they help you prevent resource wastage so that you invest money in purchasing only the required number of resources. Switching to a cloud service provider saves you the extra cost which you would have incurred in buying and maintaining that infrastructure on your own. Opting for the right cloud provider is critical to your organization’s long term success as it helps in keeping your data easily accessible from any device safely and securely. Choosing the wrong service provider may cost heavily to the organization and might lead to huge monetary losses and pose a severe security threat to confidential data. Unravelling the complexities of opting for the right cloud service providerThe cloud computing market is flooded with various cloud service providers ranging from smaller enterprises to highly reputed and accomplished cloud giants. When there are multiple options available, it complicates the decision of opting for the right cloud provider as the business needs to weigh the pros and cons of every provider as it is not advisable to switch cloud providers hastily. Let us look at some important aspects that you should consider while selecting a cloud service provider for your business. 1. Cost BenefitsWhenever you are looking for the right cloud service provider for your business, make sure that you are getting the following cost benefits:
2. Company ProfileSecondly, it is important to understand and assess your business requirements and ensure that the cloud service provider aligns with your business strategy. Keep a tab on the below pointers to shortlist the cloud service provider easily:
These are not the only aspects to look into before choosing a cloud service provider — there are many more factors that you should consider depending on your business and as per its unique requirements. 3. Licences, Certifications and StandardsThirdly, and most importantly, you need to emphasise on licences and certifications your cloud service providers have as those provide an idea that they are compliant with the best industry practices and the necessary standards in the cloud industry. Generally, cloud service providers are DMTF, RDS CAL or PCI DSS certified. Cloud providers must comply with all industry certifications, especially ISO 27001 and other regulations mandated by various governments. The following image lists the important certifications and standards meant for cloud providers. Important standards and certifications for cloud providers (Image credits: Cloud Industry Forum) 4. Technology AdvancementsNext, you need to analyze whether the cloud provider in question is offering a good mix of services and promises to show continued growth and innovation over time. Check whether the cloud provider’s offered technologies are matching your organization’s requirement. Get insights into overall services provided including commitment to certain technologies and evaluate the overall portfolio. Fig 1. Cloud provider selection criteria 5. Data Security and GovernanceYou should go for that cloud service provider which offers you customized data security for your critical data and that comes with certified firewalls that you can trust under any circumstances. With cloud data being prone to dangerous security threats, you would want to protect your network from any unwanted attack by making sure your cloud provider offers a cloud-based Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) that offers you unmatched protection for your data. Research extensively on the cloud service provider’s website that they offer sufficient data protection and have legal data management policies in place so that they could handle and manage your data efficiently without any loss. Ensure they are trusted, well-established, and authorized cloud providers, who will secure your data with a weekly or monthly backup and ensure confidentiality. Also, take care that your cloud service provider is HIPAA and GDPR (for Europe) compliant as these are vital safety standards. 6. Partnerships and IntegrationsThe next step is to check that the cloud service provider is engaged in multiple vendor integrations or partnerships which will be favorable for your organization. A cloud provider with multiple-vendor relationships will be able to smoothly cater to your business needs by offering many more of the latest technologies. 7. Contracts & SLAsFollowing that, you need to check for service delivery and legal protection thoroughly before agreeing to the terms of the cloud service provider. Cloud service level agreements (SLAs) can be complicated to understand and may have certain misleading terminologies. So, before agreeing to these terms, ensure that the terms are checked by a law firm so that you are aware of the circumstances wherein you are eligible to get a refund and of the uptime you can expect for the cloud services. Review the terms and conditions to know how soon their customer support acknowledges and responds to resolve a customer complaint.
8. Reliability & PerformanceLast, but surely not the least, focus on the reliability and performance of the cloud service provider and review its past 6-12 months against their SLAs thoroughly and plan your next steps. Ensure that the provider has incorporated a monitoring and reporting mechanism and ask the provider for this information if there isn’t any available documentation on their website. Check the cloud service provider’s past performance by meticulously researching about the provider on the internet. Also check how they handle server downtime and how their support team resolves customer issues. Reasons why you should go for Ace Cloud SolutionsAce Cloud Hosting is an authorized application hosting provider and renowned public cloud service provider to small businesses, SMBs, accountants, CPAs, and enterprises. Ace can be an advantageous choice as a cloud provider keeping in mind it fulfils all of the above parameters with its leading edge technical and operational capabilities along with the following salient features:
Ace enables enterprises to operate remotely from anywhere, without worrying about security and empowers them to work more efficiently. We offer our customers the following benefits:
Get in touch with us today to get personalized public cloud solutions. Post Views: 238 Chat With A Solutions Consultant What are the 5 considerations when choosing a cloud service model?5 Key Considerations Before Choosing Your Cloud Service Provider. Security infrastructure and procedures followed by the vendor.. Identity management and authorizations.. Physical security controls including the process for natural disasters.. Policies for data back-up and disaster recovery.. What are the factors to be considered before selecting a cloud platforms?When Selecting A Cloud Service, What Are The Main Things To Consider?. Security. The cloud has been a massive boon for all industries worldwide. ... . Price. ... . Data Storage Location. ... . Service Level Agreement. ... . Tech Support. ... . Architecture. ... . Manageability. ... . Scalability.. What do you have to consider when deciding on a cloud service provider?You should verify that the cloud service provider's security processes include sophisticated features like Intrusion Detection, multi-factor authentication, enterprise-grade firewalls, Prevention Systems (IDS & IPS access control system, and data encryption. Almost all service providers provide data backup services.
What are the 5 most essential things that must be followed before going for cloud computing platform?Following are the essential things that must be followed before going for the cloud computing platform:. Uptime.. Loss of data.. Data storage.. Compliance.. Business continuity.. Data integrity in cloud computing.. |