Selecting your cloud solutions partner is a critical yet challenging task for any business, big or small. For businesses taking their initial steps into implementing cloud, there are a few criteria they need to consider and test their potential cloud partners on, to achieve successful and profitable cloud solution that works perfectly for their business.
We have compiled a list of questions; you should consider asking your potential cloud partners to take and informed decision and reduce the chances of failures in your cloud implementation services journey.
“Do you have past success stories related to similar deployment?”
The starting point of discussion with your prospective cloud partner could be asking them for similar deployment cases they have managed in the past. This will help add a dimension of pragmatism to their ‘on-paper’ plan which might otherwise encounter technical glitches which could be resolved easily owing to their experience with the same.
“What are your terms related to contractual flexibility and price protection?”
Before hiring your cloud partners, you should be aware of their take on contractual flexibility and price protection offered in a longer term. By this, we mean that it will make perfect sense to ask them whether they offer standard annual termination, usage level alignment to accommodate the seasonal peaks in your business and long term price protection.
“Does your service level performance exactly comply with your Service-Level Agreements?”
Service level agreements serve to set the level of expectations between the client and the service provider and therefore, enable smooth execution of the services. While these documents add an element of assurance to your association, it, again, makes sense to ask the provider as to, to what extent their service performance matches the on-paper Service Level Agreement.
How transparent are you with your operations?
While the cloud offerings your partner provides you with have a mix of a product element and a services element to them, at times your partner’s focus can be more on its product side while the services part not getting the attention it deserves. However, when you are facing an issue with regards to a business-critical software of your organization, the service part of their offerings becomes more important than ever. So, to avoid this situation, you must ask them right at the outset as to how transparent they are with their services.
“Do your services comply with the critical Security and Compliance requirements?”
It is important for your cloud partner’s services to be compliant with the critical security needs and in fact, this should be one of the most important criteria of selection for you to choose your cloud services implantation partner. Each organization needs to be accountable to the regulatory authorities and all its stakeholders including business associates, clients and the staff. And therefore, your business needs to find a cloud partner that has an elaborate strategy when it comes to security.
“What plan do you have in place for Disaster Recovery?”
Apart from asking them whether they have a concrete plan in place for disaster recovery, you should also ask whether their disaster recovery plan is regularly tested and whether it works or not. Always choose the provider that regularly tests and fine-tunes its disaster recovery plan to ensure a smooth recovery in case your business encounters a disaster.
Do you employ multitenancy?
If your provider employs multitenancy, this means that the provider can leverage the hardware installed to its maximum capacity by running multiple customers in a shared infrastructure environment. In such a case, you must know what approach your provider follows in terms of offering homogeneity in the infrastructure, achieving cost advantages etc. and what leverage your business can derive from this.
Can I manage to configure your solutions easily to suit my needs?
Last but not the least, it is important for you to be able to configure the solution to mold the usage according to your specific business need, from time to time. So, do make sure to ask your provider whether you would be able to manage configuring it on your own if need be.
With this list of critical questions handy with you, you can set out to hire one of the best cloud solutions implementation partner for your business and achieve successful cloud adoption.
