The growth in the cloud computing sector has been phenomenal in the recent past, and there are no reasons why the trend won’t continue in the future as well. After all, cloud computing offers several benefits to businesses when they move their operations to the cloud. But if you want to get the most out of the cloud computing revolution, you need to make sure that you move your business operations to the cloud the right way. There are some common mistakes that businesses tend to make while moving their business operations to the cloud.
When you plan to move your business operations to the cloud, one of the most important things to consider is the process of selecting the cloud service provider for your business.
If you want to avoid these common mistakes, then you are in the right place. Let us take you through some common mistakes that you need to avoid when you select the cloud service provider for your business.
But before getting there, let us try to understand what is cloud computing and the benefits it offers?
What is cloud computing and why is it beneficial to businesses?
According to TechTarget, “Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. These services are broadly divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that’s often used to represent the Internet in flowcharts and diagrams.”
Moving your business operations to the cloud has several benefits. Some of the cloud computing benefits are:
- Cloud computing is cost-efficient
- It offers adequate data security
- Cloud computing is scalable and flexible
- Cloud computing allows mobile access to corporate data
- It offers data security
- Cloud computing allows complete visibility and control over your data.
- It gives you a competitive edge
6 top mistakes to avoid when selecting the cloud service provider
According to Gartner, worldwide public cloud revenue is expected to grow by 17.3% in 2019 to total $206.2 billion, up from $175.8 billion in 2018. There is no doubt that cloud computing offers several benefits, but you need to make sure that you avoid these mistakes when selecting the cloud service provider:
- Don’t think that all clouds are created equal – When moving your business to the cloud, you need to understand that all cloud providers and cloud platforms are not created equal. When you plan to migrate your operations to the cloud, you shift a lot of responsibility and trust in your service provider. Hence, it is imperative for businesses to do their homework properly.
Different service providers offer different features, pricing plans, network uptime, customer support options, and high-level application integration. That is the reason why you need to do your homework properly. You need to satisfy yourself on all the fronts before finalizing your service provider, and you should do it carefully.
- Not reading and understanding the SLAs correctly – Whether you are a start-up or you have been in business for a while, you know it pretty well that getting into a contract is the starting point of doing business between two entities. Getting into a contract is important because it is a legal document which both the parties have to adhere to and fulfill.
Likewise, the Cloud Standards Customer Council has an SLA or Cloud Service Level Agreement for network-based platforms. It is important for you to carefully go through the points that are mentioned in the SLAs so that you know what is in store for you. You get to know what exactly your service provider will offer you, and what that means for your business.
For example, it is important for you to know the service provider’s disaster recovery plan in case of a data breach
- Don’t relax on the security front – With security breaches on the rise, it is important for businesses to know what is on offer on the security front. It is a mistake to assume that your service provider has foolproof security in place and that nothing untoward can happen to your business. It is vital for you to learn in detail about the security measures that have been put in place by your service provider.
You should have complete knowledge about all the security features that are there, access control, and the level of privacy that your service provider is offering.
- Not knowing your bandwidth requirements – Poor accessibility and sluggish performance is always a concern for cloud computing platforms. But even more worrying is that sometimes systems work perfectly in order and at times they buckle under pressure. There are several reasons for this up and down performance, which include incompatible platforms, and increased network load, and changing or updated systems. It is therefore important for businesses to know in advance what their bandwidth requirements would be, and whether the service provider can fulfill them or not.
Another concern which you should know about is the latency issue. Latency is the delay that is typically incurred in the processing of network data. Latency could also lead to transmission delays and processing delays. It is, therefore, important for businesses to know whether the service provider they are planning to engage with has latency issues or not.
- Not factoring in your future requirements – Everything changes with time (and it should be for the better). You grow as an organization, your customers change, and your products and services also change with time. Hence, you need to make sure that the service provider you plan to engage with offers up-to-date platforms and tools so that you don’t lose the competitive edge.
Therefore, make sure that there is room for you to grow, more so if you have to use new and different applications. Your service provider should provide you the resources you would need a few years down the line for the smooth functioning of your organization. Hence, you need to factor this in at the time of getting into an agreement with the service provider.
- Not knowing about a secure backup plan – Though cloud providers have an optional backup service, in most cases, it is not included in the subscription. You need to have clarity on the backup plan before it hampers the functioning of your organization. Even if there is a backup system in place, you need to make sure whether it meets the legal and regulatory requirements. For example, hedge funds and investment companies need to store long-term and lengthy archives of their data.
Hence, it is important for you to find out whether your service provider has a secure and reliable backup plan in place or not.
If you want to move your business operations to the cloud and are looking for a reliable, trustworthy, and secure cloud hosting provider, then you should get in touch with vStacks Infotech now. You can contact us for shared hosting, VPS hosting, and/ or dedicated hosting. Our cloud servers are fast, secure, and we can offer the bandwidth that will suit your business.
