How to Choose a Cloud Service Provider?

Ever since the covid pandemic in 2020, cloud hosting has become quite a popular approach. It has dominated the IT sector and will continue to do so in the coming years. There are speculations that by 2025, 95% of digital backgrounds will be adopting cloud hosting to innovate their performances.

With such rapid growth in the cloud computing sector, there has also been a hike in the number of service providers that are available in the market currently. Hence it gives the users multiple options to choose from which in return becomes confusing for them.

Owning and working in a data centre expects you to have both high costs and maintenance which generally asks for different types of investments. The cost included in setting up a cloud service is so high that it not only stresses you about infrastructure but also its maintenance. However, it also gives you certain benefits like massive data storage, security, resources, etc.

This is why business owners prefer to have cloud service facilities as it brings in an efficient working space at a minimal price. However, it becomes extremely difficult to make a choice between the provider for your business.

In this article, we will cover all the factors you should consider before choosing your cloud service provider. It is very important to make a wise choice so make sure to do your own research too.

What do you mean by Cloud Service Provider?

A cloud provider is a third-party company that provides cloud computing services, such as servers and storage space, to customers online. For companies or individuals who require a lot of processing power or storage but don’t want to have to purchase and maintain their own physical servers, this can be incredibly helpful.

On another hand, you can easily opt for a monthly or yearly subscription. Your cloud provider will be responsible to handle the rest. it’s a convenient and adaptable approach to get access to the computational power and storage you require where you don’t have to care about the technological facilities.

Why is your choice for a cloud service provider important?

What all factors should considered before making your decision about your cloud service provider?

A cloud infrastructure provider’s main responsibility is to use their own data centers and resources and manage things on a regular basis. Primarily a cloud provider is responsible to take care of your infrastructure so that you can focus on the main objectives.

With the help of their pay as you go method, they help you to prevent resource wastage. This way you can save your money and only invest in purchasing only the required number of resources. For your organization’s long term growth it is extremely important to opt for the right cloud provider as it will keep your data accessible from any malfunction and threat.

Choosing a wrong and non-efficient service provider will hamper the growth of your business and cost you a heavy downfall. Moreover, it might also become a severe threat to your confidential data.

Factors to consider before choosing your cloud service provider:

As of now, the cloud computing market is on the peak of exploding. It filled with various cloud service providers. They all have a set reputation in the market so it ranges from small companies to highly reputed companies.

With multiple options in the market, it only confuses users as to who they should trust for the best cloud providers service. It is also important to learn all the pros and cons beforehand so that it creates a little vision of your requirements in comparison to the benefits.

When choosing a cloud service provider, all of these points should taken into consideration:

Cost Involved

Money is an extremely sensitive and important part of every investment so make sure you are getting benefits for the cost that you are involving in your business:

• Workable billing and plans
• No lock in periods
• Long term discounts
• Pay as you go billing method
• Easily scalable & immediate exemption of services

Company’s Reputation

The next main factor is to know what your business requires and ensure that the benefits offered by the cloud service aligns with your business strategy. Remember these important points while shortlisting cloud service providers:

• The service should align with your company’s ideas.
• The service model should be designed according to you.
• Check their experience in the market.
• Research the reviews that their customers are providing.
• Check their efficiency in solving the clients complaints.

However, these might not be the only keys to remember, there are more factors to take care of.

Licenses and Certifications

The licenses and certifications under the service provider play a vital role in its reputation. It creates a strong impression of the providing company in the market. DMTF, RDS CAL, or PCI DSS certifications are typically held by cloud service companies.

The cloud provider should have own all the reliable stars from the law itself. The essential accreditations and requirements for cloud service providers are listed in the following graphic.

Technology Advancements

It is important for you to see if the cloud provider is offering you a good mix of services and benefits that align with your business strategy.

Your organization’s requirements are an uncompromisable part so the cloud provider needs to be in favor of you and your business.

Data Security & Governance Services

Your data is your vulnerable source which can be used against you. This is why it is very important that your cloud service provides you a strong security system and keeps your data protected from unauthorized access. The security system should be customizable with firewall protection that you can trust in any situation.

Cloud data is always vulnerable to dangerous security threats, this is why you should protect it from unwanted attacks from third party sources. Check if the provider is offering you a cloud-based Intrusion Prevention System (IPS). With IPS, the protection of your data will be unmatched.

Research about the cloud service provider in detail and ensure if they are trusted, established and reliable in the business.

Partnerships and Integration

The second step is to make sure the cloud service provider is involved in numerous vendor agreements or integrations that are advantageous to your business. A cloud provider with partnerships with different vendors will be able to easily meet your company’s needs by providing a lot of more cutting-edge technologies.

Contracts & SLAs

One of the key factors to check is the contract you’re about to sign. The service delivery and legal protection should considered thoroughly before agreeing to the terms of contracts.

So before signing make sure the contract has undergone by a law professional and explained to you in detail. This way you’d be aware of the circumstances and your eligibility for a refund.

• Vendor Lock-In: Because of their complicated policies and technology, you should avoid choosing a cloud provider that forbids you from switching to a different provider in the future.
• Migration service: Find a cloud service provider that can help you with the migration. The majority of cloud service providers provide assessment tools to assist their clients with application migration. Request a list of all the services the company provides for migration help.

Reliability & Service provided

Our last point has to be the service provider’s reliability and performance among its competitors in the market. Compare its performance in the past 6 months and 12 months.

Ensure that the provider company has themselves provided with all the essential reliable sources of their service provided in the past like customer reviews or testimonies. All of this should documented on their website itself.

That is all for this article. Make sure to consider all these factors before choosing your cloud service provider. This will help you in clearing your confusion and will also help you in choosing a reliable cloud service provider.