Thursday, December 13, 2018

Eight Parameters to Consider while Selecting a Cloud Service Provider

After learning about the benefits of the cloud, there are many companies who have decided to include it in their IT strategies. Deploying a cloud infrastructure might sound easy at first, but building an infrastructure that supports the same is a complicated procedure. Service providers offer a range of services from understanding the business requirements, selecting an apt cloud module to creating a robust infrastructure.


There are many cloud service providers in Sydney who hold the expertise of understanding niche requirements of a business and tailoring a solution on the same. Since there are many options, it becomes difficult to select a service provider. There are few parameters on the basis of which businesses can select a good service provider. Some of these are listed below:
  • Security: With increasing cyberattacks, data security is raising concerns for every business. Cloud service providers are taking rigorous measures to ensure security of the data. But, it is always advisable to enquire for the steps taken to maintain confidentiality of the data.
The businesses should question service providers for the security measures for cyber or physical attacks. They should confirm if the service providers have separate data centres for both and how do they manage geographically dispersed data centres. The businesses can also ask which encryption methods are used for ensuring the security of customer’s data.
  • Service Level Agreement(SLA): Apart from checking the security and data confidentiality measures, businesses should verify the terms mentioned in the service level agreement. These terms describe the manner in which customer’s data will be managed.
Therefore, businesses need to ensure that their provider is abiding by all the legal terms and conditions and is ready to upgrade in order to comply with the changing government policies.
  • Integration: Businesses certainly have multiple processes and they use numerous technologies or software that streamlines dispersed workflows.
Therefore, another parameter on the basis of which businesses can judge the service provider is their ability to integrate cloud applications with third-party systems. The service provider should be able to suggest the right technology mix that will help businesses simplify complex processes and seamlessly fit in the IT framework.
  • Architecture: Businesses can check the agility of the service provider by asking them about the architecture and their plans to incorporate specific workflows in the cloud infrastructure. The businesses might find multiple vendors offering same architecture options but businesses must evaluate the archival storage.
There are two types of archival storage namely hot and cool. These archival storages differ on the basis of frequency data can be retrieved from cloud storage. Generally, cool storage is less expensive but has some restrictions.
  • Support: Looking at the present working patterns, businesses are regularly updating their applications and IT frameworks and are uploading and analysing huge chunk of data from the cloud. And, hence they can’t afford extended downtimes with the cloud environment.
Therefore, it is mandatory to evaluate the service providers on the basis of response time to situations and their troubleshooting capabilities.
Ability to offer multicloud: There are many businesses who start off with a single cloud but with increase in their requirements and frequent changes in the applications and software used, the need to invest in multiple cloud arises. Many businesses continue with the same service provider because of the familiarity but it might happen that every provider is not well versed with management of different kind of workloads.
Therefore, businesses need to look for cloud service providers in Sydney who possess the ability of tailoring a solution that suffices their evolving demands.
  • Cost: Cost should not be considered as the only factor to evaluate the cloud service provider but often is a decisive factor while picking one. The cloud is affordable when compared with on-premises setup. Cloud environment is deployed as pay per use model and therefore the businesses are charged according to amount of data they store. SLAs are generally standard documents and these too come at a certain cost.
However, many businesses do change these terms to fit in their requirements. The customisation in SLA terms adds up the cost. The frequency at which the data is extracted also determines the cost of the cloud.
  • Backup Services: Many businesses use cloud as a backup solution for their on-premises deployment. Businesses often miss taking backup of their cloud solution for preventing the mishap of active SaaS applications. To avoid this situation, businesses should look for those cloud service providers who offer the flexibility of copying the cloud data to another location or other service provider’s cloud.
There are many other factors such as reliability, industry knowledge and reputation of the service provider that should be taken into account before taking any decision.

To get quick access and hire a trustworthy cloud service provider in Sydney, businesses can drop a mail to sales@exigotech.com.au or call at +61 29098 6006. Exigo Tech is one of the well-known companies for offering infrastructure, cloud computing, digital transformation and many other services. To explore more about their services, visit www.exigotech.com.au.