Guide To Help You Find The Best Cloud Service Providers

It can be difficult to understand the difference between cloud providers if you’re not already a tech expert. But hopefully this guide will help make that choice easier for you.

First let us look at the main providers of public cloud services.

Providers:

The three main cloud service providers used by businesses are:

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Microsoft Azure

Google Cloud

How to Choose Between Them

These are the main factors to consider

1. Cybersecurity

In the cloud security is a top priority, so it is important to ask comprehensive and clear questions about your particular usage cases, business, regulatory criteria, and any other problems you might foresee. Do not forget to examine this critical aspect of cloud activity.

Remember that although the security of the data in the cloud is the provider’s responsibility, access is still controlled by you. This means that you/your business has responsibility for managing access to your data and keeping access credentials secure.

2. Legal and Regulatory Compliance

First, make sure you choose a framework for cloud architecture that will help you meet the levels of conformity that apply to your business and organisation. Make sure that you understand your obligations regarding the data you hold under regulations such as the GDPR or HIPAA.

3. How Will It Integrate With Your Current Systems?

If your company has already invested heavily in the Microsoft ecosystem through technologies like Microsoft Office 365 it may make sense to choose Microsoft Azure as it will be easier to integrate into your existing network (and often some free credits) (and often some free credits) (and often some free credits).

4. How Easy Will The Transition Be?

Before making a definitive decision, you would still want to decide how much time and resources it will take for your staff to handle all facets of the cloud infrastructure and how much training time should be set aside.

5. SLA (Service Level Agreements)

A significant factor to remember when selecting a supplier is Cloud Service Level Agreements (SLAs).  This governs the minimum expected service from the provider, covering factors such as downtime and speed.

6. Technical Support

Another parameter requiring careful attention is support. The only help you’ll get in certain situations is via a chat service or call centre. To you, this may or may not be appropriate. This consideration will be different if you have in-house IT staff who are already knowledgeable about cloud service.

7. Price

There is no doubt that cost can play a major role in determining which provider(s) you want for cloud services. Looking at both the sticker price and the related costs is useful (including personnel you may need to hire to manage your cloud network).

In Conclusion

We hope this guide has helped you see the key factors to consider when choosing between different providers. If you already use a managed IT services provider, they can help to plan and implement your transition to you cloud platform of choice.