The market of cloud computing is ever increasing due to a lot of enterprises entering into it. You must consider ten things when you shop around for a cloud service provider (CSP):
Technical proficiency
The service of cloud computing is not a product; it is not like providing a customer with a computer in the server farm. In fact, much technical proficiency is required to keep the system working properly so that the server may be able to guarantee security to the customers’ data and run their businesses without any interruption. Thus, whenever you are looking for a cloud service provider, look into the quality they provide and the technical progress they have made.
Faith
When you are transferring the sensitive data of your company to the cloud, you actually have to keep faith in the third-party server. You must have some interviews with the team and try to learn if you can easily trust on their services. You must also ask the provider for testimonies and recommendations, and search for memberships and official approval. Investigate the provider completely before trusting them with your confidential corporate information.
Uptime assurances
You also need to ask your cloud service provider for uptime assurances as you never want to have server breakdown for many hours anytime in the week. In this regard, the old users may help you about knowing the previous outages and system restoring timings. For most enterprises, any outage for more than one hour per month is not tolerable.
Tools offered
The cloud service provider must have a better tool set, so that it may help you with the security, data management and analytics which cut short the costs of information technology operations.
Ease of migration
The most difficult for the companies is to transfer your applications and data to the cloud computing. The tools offered by the cloud service provider must be good enough to support this process.
Performance assurances
Like uptime assurances, the guarantees of performance are also necessary. For better performance, check the servers, disc access speeds, network bandwidth, kinds of processors and accessibility of SSDs of the CSP.
Customer Support
Sometimes there are system crashes due to a malfunctioned application and you want to get it fixed. The CSP must be able to provide customer support which may fix such problems in no time. This technical support must be available for 24 hours at least on weekdays. If the provider does not give good customer support then you will have to manage your own IT team to handle all such problems, which may cost you much.
Are they serious about Security?
The main concern of your service provider must be the security of your private data. The provider must work hard to make sure if your data and applications are safe and secure.
Third-party compliance audits
The International Association of Managed Service Providers has made a certification standard for certifying cloud service providers. Your service provider must be accredited by this.
Cost
One of the major issues is the cost of the service. You must read the complete contract and scrutinize the demanded fees in the contract. The usual costs are a one-time fee, a monthly fee and a usage fee.
Read this cloud vendor checklist for assistance.
