You’ve heard the buzz about the cloud. You know it’s an option to consider for replacing your on-premises servers, running your applications with better performance, storing data offsite, and that it is more efficient for your business. Have you started looking for a provider yet?
Deciding to purchase your current hardware took you a lot of thought and effort. You worked hard trying to figure out your business needs and how they will evolve over time, in order to buy the adequate hardware for storing and processing your data. The choices you made in the past have had a direct impact on your budget and time. You’ve had to spend hours in datacenters doing setups and maintenance.
Now that you are considering changing for cloud servers, selecting the perfect provider for your business requires you to follow the same process you went through to buy hardware. You’ll want to make sure your new provider can measure up and answer your needs! So, we’ve decided to help you find a killer provider you’ll be happy with. We’ve put together this short list of things to look for.
3 important things to look for when choosing a Cloud server provider
1- Build trust in transparency
You might have heard that transparency and honesty are the starting point of a good relationship. It’s true in your personal life, and it’s recommended to identify providers where this applies too.
Transparency means that the provider is not shy to discuss openly what constitutes his cloud solutions, like the architecture and the quality of the hardware used, the installed software, the Service Level Agreement and the pricing. You know that a provider values quality when he chooses to use good parts instead of cutting the corners on hardware costs. You also know your provider is confident about his services when he is ready to answer your questions and share any information necessary to establish trust. More than just proving the provider is trustful, it shows that he knows what he’s talking about!
You wouldn’t want your home builder to start building your house without a plan or using cardboard boxes instead of the right equipment, would you? You want to make sure that the construction team uses good materials and good blue prints, as your family’s safety depends on a sturdy house. Think of your server as a house for all your data.
2- Out of sight is NOT out of mind
Because you are used to having your hardware just a few steps away, you might feel like moving to the cloud is a big risk. Proximity made you feel safe and… turned you into a server hugger. In IT, out of sight doesn’t mean out of mind! Moving to the cloud doesn’t mean you lose control. It only means you don’t need to pay the air conditioning and power bill or worry about floods. Cloud solutions are also way more flexible than purchased hardware, because they’re highly adaptable. You can scale up or down resources in your virtual machines quickly and efficiently. Make sure your provider gives you all needed access so you are able to manage your services and VMs easily and take full advantage of what the cloud has to offer. Managing VMs with a few clicks is way easier than a trip to a datacenter!
3- Performance is key
Performance is and has always been one of your first concerns. You want to make sure that your provider can deliver on his promises. Take in consideration the amount of virtual resources needed to accomplish your workload and their prices. Some providers talk about a low price, but you might ending up renting twice the resources to build virtual machines that can sustain your business. Most providers allow you to test their servers for free for a limited time. Take advantage of that! Also try to find benchmarks and battle cards to see how the cloud solution you choose stack up in the market. Server performance is the fuel that will propel your data forward! You need to make sure your new server won’t slow you down!
Making the right decision means more than validating these three points. To get a wider scope of things to validate, you can download our free white paper below. In it, you’ll find the top 10 tips to find a killer cloud provider for your business!
