The face of modern business is changing as more organizations incorporate the latest technologies, such as Hybrid Cloud, Cloud Computing, Edge computing, etc., in their operations. These offer reliable solutions for managing, storing, and providing security to your IT infrastructure.
When we talk about cloud solutions, the role of
cloud service providers becomes very important as they provide you with third-party resources to help your business operations. They offer services such as data storage, backup and recovery, application tracking, etc.
Most businesses or professionals often make mistakes while selecting a reliable cloud provider. Here we list some of the common mistakes that you need to avoid while researching third-party cloud providers.
1. Avoiding Compliance and Security Criteria
This mistake is pretty common among businesses, especially small organizations. While looking for reliable cloud providers, ensure that they meet the criteria of regulatory authorities and their compliance. Not all the entities match the security regulations of reputed organizations such as GDPR (General Data Protection and Regulation).
Ensure that these providers offer several data encryption options to provide the highest level of security for your business. It is an important protocol all CSP providers must follow.
Hire agencies that come with several identification protocols such as Multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, role-based controls, and so on. These provide ample security to your data with better retrieval options.
Do check for recognized certifications similar to your business such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, etc.
Ignoring these factors and utilizing the services of uncertified providers can lead to data loss and threats from internal and external cyber-attacks.
2. Ignoring Migration Challenges
Migration of your data over a new cloud server is always more complex and time-consuming. To save costs, most organizations ignore these challenges and end up taking services from incompatible providers. The main reason is different providers offer various tools that may find compatibility issues with your existing systems.
For example, Amazon Web services offer advanced migration tools such as AWS Migration Hub or Azure Migration services. Check the credibility of cloud service providers by comparing them with these industry giants.
Also, make sure that they provide full compatibility with existing databases, files, documents, operating systems, etc.
Check for the industrial data transfer rates of many companies especially if you have large chunks of data to move. Compare the costs of different agencies before making a final decision.
3. Neglecting Performance and Scalability Options
Business scalability is the top-most priority of hybrid and cloud computing, but still, many CSPs cannot handle it properly and end up leaving your business nowhere. Always prefers providers that come with ample scalability options with previous success records. Ensure that they can handle excessive amounts of load as the business increases.
Prefer automatic scaling options that can divide workload properly among all the departments. It will provide elasticity to your business especially when there is a sudden increase or decrease in market demand.
If you are operating your data centers globally, look for companies that offer premium tools for reducing latency and increasing bandwidth frequencies. Transferring data over international networks can impose certain restrictions.
Don’t forget to check the Service legal agreements that guarantee the performance of these providers. Microsoft Azure or AWS services offer above 90% performance guarantee.
4. Giving Priority to Total Cost Of Ownership
Business costs play a very vital role in selecting the right cloud providers, many people make mistakes as they consider only upfront costs. Therefore, you should always consider the total cost of ownership including all the short and long-term expenses. These generally include costs associated with data transfer, storage servers, customer support, etc.
Utilize cost management tools and combine all the costs including the service provider costs. It will help you get a clear understanding of costs and your budget.
For example, Amazon Web Services uses AWS Cost Explorer.
It's very important to compare the prices of various providers. It's better to go with companies that offer a pay-as-you-go model. This approach allows you to only pay for the services you use without any additional costs.
5. Not Determining Vendor Lock-in Issues
Vendor lock-in means when businesses find it difficult to move from one service provider to another mostly because of the additional costs. Enterprises rely too much on the services that they cannot even switch to a new cloud service provider. It happens mostly with small-scale businesses with cost constraints.
Choose companies that follow open standards which means support from other APIs and Kubernetes. Fcailatet systems that promote multi-cloud and Hybrid Cloud strategies.
Make a list of all the business expenses and money required to switch from one provider to another. It is important as existing vendors might ask for extra charges associated with company servers.
Select providers with multi-cloud support that divides your data among various servers for better compatibility. Companies like AWS and Microsoft Azure use this kind of strategy.
6. Ignoring Future Aspects and Roadmap
Cloud is a rapidly emerging technology with more businesses putting their bet on these solutions. Therefore, it is important to know whether your providers support your future growth or not. For instance, you may change some policies for the next 2 years, your provider must complement your future innovations and roadmap.
Reviewing their past service record, feedback from B2B professionals, and the latest technologies they employ in their work
If you are introducing AI technologies in your operations, your providers must complement that by offering the utmost support in various areas
Concluding Statements
Choosing a cloud service provider means you are utilizing services from a third party with shared business resources. Therefore, before you make a bet, consider various elements such as regulatory compliance, scalability, security, and so on. Be clear about your goals that must align with the service compatibility criteria
Avoid these common mistakes and put your trust in a reliable service provider that helps your organization succeed in the long run.
Read More: Top 8 Reasons to Choose Cloud-Native Solutions
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