Selecting the Right Cloud Service Provider for Your Business

As more and more businesses are moving to the cloud, it has become essential to pick the right cloud provider for companies that are yet to migrate to the cloud. 

However, the number of service providers is vast with each providing different services. You can pick from industry giants like Amazon, Google, or Microsoft Azure, or go with smaller cloud providers.

But how do you know the cloud service provider is the right for you? The answer is pretty simple, you must determine what are your needs to appropriately pick the right cloud partner. We have collected a few key factors and made it into a checklist that you can use to determine which is the best cloud service for you.

Check for Certifications and Standards

  • Cloud providers have to comply with certain standards and qualities to show their clients that they adhere to the industry’s best practices and standards. While these standards may not be enough to help you pick the right cloud company, they can be very helpful in helping you shortlist a company.

For example, if security is a major concern for you, then look for cloud services that have certifications such as the cyber essentials scheme or the ISO 27001 certification.

What Services and Technologies are Offered?

  • You need to make sure that the cloud company you are choosing to go with has all the preferred technologies that align with your current IT infrastructure or at least support your future cloud goals. 

For instance, does the cloud service provider has services that suit your management and workload preferences? How much re-coding or customization is required to make your workload suitable for a certain platform?

  • Many of the service providers have comprehensive mitigation services that offer free assistance in assessment and planning.

As far as the service roadmap goes, you need to find out if the cloud provider continuously innovate its technologies and changes as required by time. Does their service road map help you fill your own gaps in the long term?

  • For instance, if you are looking for a SaaS provider, it should have a service and integration roadmap.

Security and Data Governance

  • As a business, you should already have a data classification scheme ready that helps you define your data sensitivity or policies. You should at least be very aware of regulatory data and privacy rules before going with a cloud provider.

As it turns out, Microsoft Azure is currently the only cloud service provider that offers top-notch security on existing applications. It means that when you decide to migrate to Azure, there is a good chance that your existing applications will be supported and no further customization will be required on your part.

  • However, this isn’t always the case. If you are not sure which service provider to choose, Microsoft Azure is the best choice to go for. But migrating to cloud on your own is not recommended because it is a process that can bring down businesses to its knees. 

And this is the reason why Microsoft has partners like Henson Group to help small and medium businesses migrate to Azure in the smoothest possible way. If you wan Azure migration services, then get in touch with Henson Group today.