Cloud Computing has transmogrified virtually every industry in terms of business operations and expansion strategies. There was a time when you had to maintain a server and host it yourself to keep your website online. If the application failed in the load and stress test, new hardware had to be introduced and the server had to be upgraded. The same happened with the businesses as well. But, eccentric cloud computing has completely transformed the way companies perform their businesses.
Cloud computing has shook the way traditional It business model had been working and suggested its own novice way when it comes to their IT infrastructure, giving them the liberty to do what they did best. Moreover, along with the enterprises and small businesses, the complete ecommerce, video streaming, and online gaming industries today virtually are hinged on the cloud services.
Transferring your business operations like your email and document storage to the cloud can diminish costs, organize your workflow and eliminate the needs and requirements for in-house IT personnel and hardware. The cloud hosting services can make things a lot easier for the remote employees to report for their duty, accessing key information and collaboration online. But perhaps the biggest advantage for small companies is the capability to focus on the business first and let the cloud-based service manage some worrisome IT concerns like security, backup, maintenance and support.
So with proliferation of companies offering efficacious menu of cloud computing solutions, choosing one can be a daunting ask. Here in this webcast, we have listed down 10 essential questions to keep in mind as you screen potential cloud hosting service providers so s to choose the perfect one for your needs and requirements:
- What Cloud Services do you provide?
Identifying your cloud computing needs will help you dictate the type of service or services you choose. There are software-based cloud offerings for online documents, photos and video storage. Moreover you can also find cloud services related to the online accounting and for online customer relationship management. So if you require more than just basic data storage, there are many vendors who offer an extensive range of general-purpose cloud computing services, comprising of IT networking infrastructure along with the on-demand access to virtual servers, applications and software.
- What is the Cost Structure?
Remember, you should only pay for what you actually use. Moreover, be cautious of the large upfront costs, which actually are not the standard for renowned cloud vendors. The costing scheme should be pay-as-you go from the beginning, with the flexibility of adding services as required. Fees can be usually charged hourly, monthly, semi-annually or annually, depending completely on the vendor. Costing for the cloud computing services can differ significantly depending on the needs of the company.
- How Reliable and Secure is your Cloud?
Security should be very significant when it comes to storing your company’s sensitive data in the cloud. Therefore, a cloud hosting provider must have certain standard security measures at the first place and should constantly update them. When choosing a cloud provider, you have got to be sure that you are completely comfortable with your cloud provider’s approach towards the security. What are the security measures that you should look for? Well, you must look for firewalls, anti-virus detection, multifactor user authentication and data encryption, and the routine security audits. It is also very important to ask that who at the cloud company will have access to your data in the cloud and whether the cloud provider carries out employee background checks to discover the potential cyber threats.
- Where is the Data Center and how secure it is?
The locations and security of the data centers are as significant as the online security. Make sure that you are not doing the business with a party having a couple of servers in a spare room which is somehow easily accessed and compromised. I order to make sure that this is not the case, ask how potential cloud vendors protect its data center from the natural calamities, like floods, earthquakes and storms. Moreover, also find how the facilities are shielded from the thieves who could easily walk away with your sensitive data.
- What is your Downtime History?
Downtime is basically when a cloud provider is not accessible to the users via the internet for a considerable period of time. Just because the cloud outages can prove to be disruptive and costly for your business, it is best to choose a provider with as few as possible. However, some of the vendors post their downtime history logs online, but if not, do ask for a cloud provider’s past track records.
- How to get the Set-Up?
Once you choose and go green with a cloud service provider, the next step is to log in to your user dashboard and start to configure your account and start adding the employees as the users. There are some cloud vendors who will let you know through how to install and set up their services. However there are some vendors who simply provide just the introductory guides.
- How to access my Company’s Cloud?
You should be able to access your business information in the cloud irrespective of the time and place via the internet just by signing in to your provider’s client login page. Moreover, you can use any device to log in, like your laptop, smartphone or the tablet.
Today the Indian IT companies are increasingly partnering with the cloud platform providers to put together the products an enterprise has selected from the wide array of cloud offerings, and assign those products into the parts of the corporation’s IT infrastructure that have not moved to the cloud. The challenges would arise when the expectations of the client for the technological innovation will tend to increase with the passage of time.
The elasticity of the cloud is one of its key advantages, but you have to make sure that your prospective cloud provider can accommodate the volume of growth you anticipate, as well as the unexpected upswing in demand for service, with the optimum level of performance your users demand.
