How to Choose a Cloud Computing Vendor for your Start-up

Grazed from Silicon India.  Author: Editorial Staff.

A ray of hope for those enterprises who wants to store a huge data and needs to increase information technology capacity or capabilities quickly without investing in buying new infrastructure, licensing software and training staff, cloud computing is constantly showing an increased template. But, when it comes to selecting a cloud computing vendor, there are thousands of options. Now, the question arises, how to find the best one that suits your business needs?…

Selecting the right cloud is just as hard as predicting the weather correctly. Small and medium sized businesses need to finish their part of homework before plunging into an agreement with any cloud-computing firm. Here are few points that can guide you in selecting the right vendor.

When it comes for selecting the right cloud-computing vendor for your organization, look into the product if it is easy to use and if it provides your business what it needs. Will it serve the purpose for which you want to address? Before zeroing on some of the best providers, check if the company has a lot of other satisfied customers in terms of services. Also, find if the company is well funded or is on the verge of acquisition.
Find out the transition period of their service if it can be accomplished during your timetable. Try to understand the process involved and the interruptions that may occur during the transition. This will help you better understand the dissolving power of the service provider with the service seeker.

Availability
It is important to understand if the service is provided on an underlying infrastructure that is backed up with a meaningful services level agreement. The level of availability that is required by you depends on the criticality of the service to your business. For you primary need of storing valuable information about accounts and others, it is necessary to have an intelligent service provider. But, if the need is for secondary data, the need of investing in such highly intelligent providers.

Security
With the Amazon cloud crash, where many customers lost their data forever, the concern about the security has become an important concern. This includes the physical security of the cloud environment – where is the data center that houses the vendor’s servers and what is their plan if there is some issue? It also should refer to the security of the information your business maintains.

Customer Service
There are few questions to be answered before finalizing a vendor. How quickly does a vendor response to your calls? How transparent are they in discussing what kind of technology they use and regarding their providers? You can even cross check the vendors by asking them referrals and check up on as many as you can.