Businesses today depend more and more on cloud services. This is for infrastructure (storage, servers, databases, networking), and software. Cloud services also provide features that provide flexibility, performance, scalability, innovation, and cost benefits.
A cloud service provider has the power to succeed or fail your company. Therefore, it’s important to choose it carefully. Hence, you must select the right cloud provider for your business and its needs.
In this article, we will discuss how you can pick the right cloud service provider for you.
What Are Cloud Service Providers?
A third party delivering customers cloud-based platforms, structures, applications, or storage solutions is known as a cloud service provider. Several instances of cloud services include:
- Services for storing data including Dropbox and Google Drive.
- Email platforms such as Gmail and Hotmail.
- Media streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
- Messaging services such as Skype, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.
Choosing The Right Cloud Service Provider For You
Numerous cloud service providers have saturated the market for cloud computing. Although the top three cloud systems are Microsoft (Azure), Amazon (AWS), and Google (Cloud), there are occasions when a smaller and less known provider is a better fit.
When you are picking the right cloud provider for you and your business, then you need to keep in mind the following factors.
Technology And Service Roadmap
Select a cloud service provider that is compatible with the technologies your business uses and supports your business’s strategic goals. You must use third-party partners to make up for any assistance gaps that the cloud service providers don’t supply.
Here are some questions you should consider:
- Do the cloud provider’s standards, services, and architecture support your preferred methods of management and workloads?
- In the future, how would they expand and innovate?
- Does their long-term goal meet the demands of your company?
- Has the cloud service provider carried out installations similar to the ones you’re considering?
- Are they a suitable fit for you based on their portfolio, which you may review?
These inquiries help you avoid selecting a cloud provider that will ultimately prohibit you from realizing your goals.
Price
Take into account the cost of use (upfront, pay-as-you-go) as well as any minimums, volume discounts, and reservations that can be made for the service. Also, consider the billing type (e.g., per hour/month, execution, user, or gigabyte).
Pay close attention to the tiny print on price hikes over time because numerous cloud service providers will provide aggressive pricing to first-time users.
Security
Organizations must take into account elements like strong security and the provider’s resilience. Paying close attention to regional capabilities and uptime statistics.
Backup/restore procedures, security checks, and the duties and obligations of each party should all be documented.
The majority of cloud service providers will list any accessible integrations or security features, both free and paid. Examine particular areas, such as managing identities, restricting access, authentication, and the locations of data storage and processing.
Tools
All cloud service providers will include certain features as standard features and others as add-ons. Search for both specific features and service types (PaaS) related to monitoring, privacy, installation, and even user experience.
Think about which tools you need the most.
Compatibility
The organization’s business, technological, and operational goals must be met by the cloud service provider. If you cannot meet your goals with a certain provider, then you know that they aren’t a good fit.
Compliance
It’s crucial to think about how well your preferred cloud provider conforms with any applicable national, state, and sectoral regulations. This might make or break your choice, depending on your company and the data you’re storing on the cloud.
Depending on their sector and region, firms must comply with a wide range of compliance rules. Various forms of compliance include:
- HIPAA: Offers medical information protection and privacy.
- GDPR: Organizations operating in the European Union are subject to GDPR.
- ISO: Two of its certifications are ISO 27018 and ISO 27001
Final Thoughts
You must do your research into your chosen cloud service provider, as not every provider will be compatible with your company. By going through the factors we have outlined above, you will be able to discover which cloud provider is the best fit for your organization.
There are a lot of cloud providers out there for you to decide from. You don’t have to pick from the three we have spoken about, but they are the ones that offer the most advanced features.
We hope this article has helped you to choose the right cloud service provider for you.
